From lojbab Mon Jul 25 03:20:20 1994
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 1994 03:20:11 -0400
From: Logical Language Group <lojbab>
Message-Id: <199407250720.AA02744@access1.digex.net>
To: jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU
Subject: Re:  To be or not to be? Coffee or tea?
Cc: lojbab@access.digex.net, lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu
Status: RO

If you want the dcihotomy tobe/not to be, how about

zasti .aipei jonai na'e zasti .aipei .i. terdji .ei

JL> Now, suppose I want to respond "either". If I say {.a}, I'm only
JL> saying that I want at least one of them, but I'm not saying which.
JL> How do I say that I want either? I would say {du'ibo}, but that's
JL> not grammatical yet.

Well my phraseology begs the question, since I don;t think it is a logical
or a true/false question, but an emotive one.  But, given a ji
question

.a says either (or both!) will do
.onai says either, not both  (in my version the claim is simply that one or the
 othe must be true, but not both.  My Hamlet knowedge is so rusty, that I am
 merely intuiting that he doesn't consider both to be possible.
.enai says the first and not the second
na.e says the second and not the first

JL>         mi djica le nu do pinxe loi ckafi gi'a pinxe loi tcati
JL> Does it further expand to
JL> 
JL>     mi djica le nu do pinxe loi ckafi kei .a le nu do pinxe loi tcati
JL> 
JL> ?

JL> The first one means that I want that you drink at least one of them,
JL> but I don't have to want that you drink one in particular. In the second
JL> one, I have to want that you drink one in particular.

I don't see why.  If I drink both of them, I think that the desire is still
satisfied.

But in the abstract, your question is valid.  Each of those "lenu" clauses
has its own prenex, and if there were any quantifiable variables in or implied
in either lenu clause, then it is not automatically valid that you can
export an arbitrary logical connective past the prenex to the higher level
of your second example.  I just don't see any hidden quantifiable variables
in your example.

lojbab