From LOJBAN%CUVMB.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu Fri Sep 23 03:24:28 1994 Received: from uga.cc.uga.edu by nfs1.digex.net with SMTP id AA11869 (5.67b8/IDA-1.5 for ); Fri, 23 Sep 1994 03:24:26 -0400 Message-Id: <199409230724.AA11869@nfs1.digex.net> Received: from UGA.CC.UGA.EDU by uga.cc.uga.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 8406; Fri, 23 Sep 94 03:28:15 EDT Received: from UGA.CC.UGA.EDU (NJE origin LISTSERV@UGA) by UGA.CC.UGA.EDU (LMail V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 8066; Fri, 23 Sep 1994 03:28:15 -0400 Date: Thu, 22 Sep 1994 18:18:06 BST Reply-To: i.alexander.bra0125@oasis.icl.co.uk Sender: Lojban list From: i.alexander.bra0125@oasis.icl.co.uk Subject: TECH: zo lo ce'o zo le (was: any? (response to Desmond)) To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu Status: RO This is an idea I aired with Colin Fine during the early stages of last year's British Logfest, when there were just the two of us there, but haven't yet given it a wider exposure. cu'u la lojbab. > But how do you evaluate a story: > "lo nanmu cu klama co jibni lo ninmu .i le nanmu cu cpedu le ninmu lenu > kansa klama le dansu nunsalci" > "A man goes near a woman. And the man asks the woman to > accompanyingly-go to the dance-celebration." > Now what do you make of this? Is the first sentence inherently true > because at least one man has at some time gone near a woman? If so, it > makes "lo" rather useless. I think that there may indeed be a 'typing' > going on here, and the 2nd sentence "le" is an instantiation that tells > us that the first sentence WAS referring to a specific man and a > specific woman. I think the way to view this sort of situation is that the "introductory" {lo}s effectively supply long-scope existential quantification of anonymous variables, which are subsequently referred to by the {le}s. In other words, it's as if you'd said da poi nanmu ku'o de poi ninmu zo'u: tu'e da klama co jibni de .i da cpedu de lenu kansa klama le dansu nunsalci tu'u I think this similar to a view espoused some time ago by someone else - Jim Carter? Here I'm glossing over any distinction between {da poi broda} and {lo broda}. I'm still not comfortable with this, but I need to revisit the sources. Sorry I don't have more time to contribute to this debate generally at the moment, but I'm glad to see that it appears to be making progress. I may come back in later. co'o mi'e .i,n.