Date: Wed, 14 Dec 1994 00:32:20 -0500
From: Logical Language Group <lojbab>
Message-Id: <199412140532.AA13281@access1.digex.net>
To: ucleaar@ucl.ac.uk
Subject: Re: plural
Cc: lojbab@access.digex.net, lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu
Status: RO

>Lojbab to Xorxe:
>> No.  I think you are attaching too much significance to default quantifiers,
>> which work like the space-time reference - they are applicable only so far
>> as context demands.
>
>If this were true (& I bet it isn't) then no default quantifiers should
>be specified. If any quantifier can be filled in if none is explicitly
>given, the choice of which to fill in should be left to users.

I'm not sure.  We have the space-time reference conventions, including "story
time" etc. as defaults for tense given most contexts, but in actual usage
I often say "mi broda" as implying the past tense.  The space time reference
convention would not generate the past tense as the default.

All Lojban defaults are to some extent probable values for an ellipsis, at
least in my opinion.  I would be willing to be overridden on this by Cowan and/or pc, since I don't think it has been discussed ewxplicitly in design
discussions.  I think it has just been my implicit (default? %^) assumption.

And I do think that the ability to use "le" arbitrarily to minimize metaphysi-
cal bias (which is what we label such things as singular/plural and mass/
distributive being mandatory distinctions) is an important precept of the language.

lojbab