Well, you = can't be ambiguous in one sense (the one I take you to mean), because Lojba= n has default grouping to the right, so XYZ is automatically X(YZ), so If y= ou want to say something that might be either "a pretty school for girls" a= nd "a school for pretty girls", you can't, officially. You have, unofficial= ly, two outs. 1) The nature of the bond between modifier and modified= is unspecified, so it can almost as easily be that X characterizes a= ll the Y in Z as X characterizes Z (insofar as) containing Y. 2) Peop= le are sloppy, even in logic, so XYZ may be understood, despite what is sai= d, as (XY)Z, based on context or inflection or whatever. So the unmar= ked form is at least pragmatically ambiguous (standard logic game: until we= have a thoroughly developed pragmatics, we can push all our problem case off on it, cf. God).

= From: Escape Landsome <= ;escaaape@gmail.com>
To: lojban@googlegroups.com
Se= nt: Saturday, March 17, 2012 9:04 AM
Subject: [lojban] Equivocal tanru

I asked some question which was not understood, so I ask it anew :

a= tanru X Y is some Y that has X-ness. it is not "X and Y" (unlesswe play with the predicativity of X and Y), rather it is one Y, but
wit= h X semantic coloration.

If I want to speak about a X Y Z, that is, = either a Z which is
somewhat like a X Y (in the tanru sense above), or a= Y Z that is like
a X, --- but keeping myself deliberately equivocal, ho= w do I proceed ?

The way Lojban does seems to compel me to disambigu= ate, but what if I
WANT TO REMAIN AMBIGUOUS ?

How do I say "littl= e girls' school" in lojban WHEN I WANT TO REMAIN AMBIGUOUS ?

--
<= br>Please consider not this as a mere amusement of myself... If we wa= nt
to translate old books of yore in Lojban, we'll have to remain
equ= ivocal with some "X's Y's Z" phrases, BECAUSE the books in which
they ar= e written are equivocal themselves (and we ought not to
desambiguate things that are ambiguous).

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