Received: from access2.digex.net by nfs1.digex.net with SMTP id AA03330 (5.67b8/IDA-1.5 for ); Tue, 11 Oct 1994 09:20:14 -0400 Received: by access2.digex.net id AA24325 (5.67b8/IDA-1.5 for lojbab); Tue, 11 Oct 1994 09:20:04 -0400 From: Logical Language Group Message-Id: <199410111320.AA24325@access2.digex.net> Subject: Re: A couple of questions To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 09:20:02 -0400 (EDT) Cc: lojbab@access.digex.net (Logical Language Group) In-Reply-To: <199410072001.AA21315@nfs1.digex.net> from "ucleaar" at Oct 7, 94 07:32:47 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24beta] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 998 Status: RO X-From-Space-Date: Tue Oct 11 09:20:18 1994 X-From-Space-Address: lojbab la .and. pupu cusku di'e > > > We might therefore take "lo mlatu je nanmu cu blanu" to mean > > > "more than 0% of catmen are blue", again not implying existence. la xorxes. pu cusku di'e > > But {lo} has an "at least one" quantifier, not "at least some %". > > Otherwise, su'o doesn't work as the negation of ro. la .and. cusku di'e > You're right: such has been the stipulation. But what is the rationale? Actually not. The quantifier for "lo" is "su'o" iff the thing described by "lo" exists; if not, a "su'ono" quantifier is acceptable. > What is the interpretation for uncountable stuff? "At least one water"? In Lojban, "water" is countable: the definition of "djacu" is "x1 is a quantity of water". To speak of "water", non-countable, one needs "lei" (+specific) or "loi" (-specific). All the Lojban equivalents of English mass nouns work this way: "butter", "iron", "silicon", etc. -- John Cowan sharing account for now e'osai ko sarji la lojban.