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Date:         Mon, 20 Jan 1992 16:05:57 EST
Reply-To: "Mark E. Shoulson" <cbmvax!uunet!CTR.COLUMBIA.EDU!cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu!shoulson>
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From: "Mark E. Shoulson" <cbmvax!uunet!CTR.COLUMBIA.EDU!cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu!shoulson>
Subject:      la <letteral>
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To: John Cowan <cowan@SNARK.THYRSUS.COM>,
        Eric Raymond <eric@SNARK.THYRSUS.COM>,
        Eric Tiedemann <est@SNARK.THYRSUS.COM>
In-Reply-To:  David Cortesi's message of Fri, 17 Jan 1992 17:31:50 TZONE
Status: RO
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   Date:         Fri, 17 Jan 1992 17:31:50 TZONE
   Comments:     Warning -- original Sender: tag was
                 cortesi@CRICKHOLLOW.INFORMIX.COM
   From: David Cortesi <cortesi%INFORMIX.COM@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu>
   X-To:         lojban mailing list <lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu>

   Mark Shoulson corrects me: *la ty cannot be proper grammar. However...

[ grammar stuff deleted ]

   So at least: la ga'e ty moi == "that which I call T'th"

   I don't think the "li" route is clear but I don't have time to check it...


Yes, that'd work, but think about it.  It really doesn't seem to be what
you want.  Would you go around calling the number one "that which I call
the first"?  "moi" is probably the wrong word, you'd do better with "mei",
and eve that stinks.  The more I think about it, the more I consider that
the best route is simply "li ty".  See, that's the value T, just like "li
ci" is the value 3 or "li ny" is the value N.  "li" converts
letteral-strings to sumti, which is what you want here.  Just as "li pa
su'i pa du li re" (1+1=2), we have "li ty .e ty du li ty" (T and T = T) (I
may be misusing .e as logical AND).

~mark
      o o     o   o             o o   o     o        o   o     o o
              o                       o o   o      o       o     o
  o   o     o     o         o     o     o   o      o     o     o     N2KOT
Mark E. Shoulson:  shoulson@ctr.columbia.edu