Message-Id: <199411052353.AA06362@nfs1.digex.net>
From: DLS9@aol.com
Date: Sat Nov  5 18:53:23 1994
Subject:      Re: veridicality trivial?
Status: RO
X-From-Space-Date: Sat Nov  5 18:53:23 1994
X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN%CUVMB.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu

bob@gnu.ai.mit.edu cuska di'e

>jorge@phyast.pitt.edu cuska di'e

>    > In Lojban, an imperative is true iff the command is carried out.

>    Is that true? I thought imperatives didn't have truth values.

>This is a fundamental misunderstanding of Loglan.  *Every* predication
>is considered true or false.  This is fundamental to the language.

>In a context where `the' is the appropriate translation for {lo}:

>    ko ciska lo plipe

>Means "make it be true that `you eat the apple'"

>So the question is, is the following utterance true?

>    do ciska lo plipe

>If you do not eat the apple, it is false.  It can only be true if you
>do eat the apple.  Hence, the imperative is true if and only if the
>command is carried out.

Why doesn't this seem right? Perhaps it might be better to think of an
imperative as expressing the truth that the speaker wants the statement to
become true. He who says {ko ciska lo plipe} wants {do ciska lo plipe} to be
true. Similarly, interrogatives could be thought of as expressing the truth
that the speaker wants some particular piece of information, for which he
prompts the listener(s). In effect, an interrogative is an imperative to
provide information.

ko ciska lo plipe

It is true that I want you to eat the apple.