Date: Mon, 19 Dec 1994 16:48:51 -0500
From: Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>
Subject: Re: cmavo hit list - lojbab responds
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 "Logical Language Group" at Dec 7, 94 02:50:41 am
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la lojbab. joi la xorxes. casnu

> >> >Since letterals are really pro-sumti and not letters, these shifts
> >> >only augment the number of available pro-sumti,
> >>
> >> alpha particles, gamma rays, "I am the alpha and the omega" - these
> >> things tend to crop up in non-mathematical language on occasion.
> >
> >And can you show how you would use shifts for these, rather than names?
>
> Not without the lerfu paper showing the word assignments for the Greek
> lerfu.
>
> But using the bu convention, how about:
>
> mi .alfas.bumoi gi'e .omegas.bumoi

This may work, although I don't think the sentence means "I am the
alpha'th and the omega'th", but then perhaps I am wrong.

> or
>
> mi medu be alfas.bu .e .omegas.bu

This I can rule out: it fails to meet Jorge's point.  This means "I pertain
to the referent of \alpha and of \omega", and the reader naturally asks:
To what sumti do \alpha and \omega refer?  (The non-TeXnical should imagine
actual Greek letters appearing here).

I think the best hope is:

        mi du la'e mo'e .alfas.bu .e la'e mo'e .omegas.bu
        I am the-referent-of the-letter \alpha and the-referent-of
                the-letter \omega

where the explicit "la'e" makes this not a pro-sumti reference but some
more general kind.

--
John Cowan              sharing account <lojbab@access.digex.net> for now
                e'osai ko sarji la lojban.