From cowan@MAGPIE.LL.PBS.ORG  Mon Aug  2 18:56:50 1993
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Date:         Mon, 2 Aug 1993 18:53:58 -0400
Reply-To: John Cowan <cowan@MAGPIE.LL.PBS.ORG>
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From: John Cowan <cowan@MAGPIE.LL.PBS.ORG>
Subject:      Re: TECH: query re. selcmavo NU
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To: Erik Rauch <erikr@MINERVA.CIS.YALE.EDU>
In-Reply-To:  <9308022135.AA26108@nycenet.nycenet.edu> from "Mr Andrew Rosta"
              at Aug 2, 93 10:28:03 pm
Status: RO
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Message-ID: <gSU78NyL_sG.A.eWH.Py0kLB@chain.digitalkingdom.org>

la .and. cusku di'e

> If I say:
>
>     lenu mi prenu
>
> I am referring to the event of my being a person, and if I say
>
>     leka mi prenu
>
> I am referring to my personhood. So, if I say
>
>    mi prenu
>
> this is presumably ambiguous as to whether I am referring to
> the event of my being a person or to my personhood.

Actually, "mi prenu" does not >refer< to anything except you yourself.
It >asserts< or >claims< that you are a person, but in no way >refers<
to any person-event or person-quality.

> So, can I say, in order to disambiguate, something like:
>
>    mi nu prenu  "there exists the event of my being a person"

This means "I am an event of (someone's) being a person."

>    mi ka prenu  "there exists my personhood"

And this means "I am a quality of (someone's) being a person."

Presumably both these statements are false, since you are neither an event
nor a quality.

To express what you want, say:

        da nu/ka mi prenu
        There-exists-X-such-that-X is-an-event/quality-of (me being-a-person)