To: lojban-list
Subject: addendum to 8 versions of an English sentence by John Cowna
Date: 30 May 90 05:41:21 EDT (Wed)
From: wetblu!uunet!cbmvax!snark.uu.net!lojbab
Message-Id: <9005300541.AA13906@snark.uu.net>
Status: RO

after running one of the trickier samples by Nora, and checking the intended
interpretation with John C. I want to revise one thing said in my last on this
topic.
The sentence "John seeks a bicycle or a fish"
meaning John seeks either a bicycle or a fish, and will be sataisfied
with whatever he finds is translated best with the logical connective
-either between sumti (preferred) or between clauses.  As I said in the
last msg, all logical connective expressionsdiffering only in where the 
connective is are going to mean the same thing.
Thus
la djan cu sisku lo relxi'uma'e .a le finpe
and
la djan cu sisku lo relxi'uma'e gi'a sisku le finpe
mean the same thing.
  The case John was trying to represent with the latter is the one meaning:
"John seeks a bicycle or a fish - but I the observer don't know which."
has a more complex logical structure and can be represented by the following:
da relxi'uma'e gi'a finpe gi'e se sisku la djan.
(something is a bycle or a fish, and is sought by John)
Note that there are two logical connectives in this version, and that Lojban
connectives are left grouping unless marked.

hope this confuses the issue enough for everyone
--lojbab