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Date:         Mon, 5 Dec 1994 14:44:45 -0500
Reply-To:     Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>
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From:         Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>
Subject:      Re: Cowan's summary #3: any old X at all
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To:           Veijo Vilva <veion@XIRON.PC.HELSINKI.FI>
In-Reply-To:  <199411200456.UAA09508@netcom3.netcom.com> from "Gerald Koenig"
              at Nov 19, 94 08:56:06 pm
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la djer. cusku di'e

> John and others seem to agree that all the meaning  in the English "any"
> can be captured by a universal quantifier or an attitude marker.

Not at all.  Sometimes "any" is existential, not universal.

> I disagree.  Consider this meaning from my Webster's:
>
> "1: one or some indiscriminately of whatever kind:
> 1a: one or another taken at random <ask ~man you meet>."
>
> There are two anys here. One taken indiscriminately or some taken
> indiscriminately. I want to consider the case of one taken
> indiscriminately. It certainly cannot be expressed as "all". Neither is
> it an just an attitude.  We're talking about quantification here, namely
> one something.

Note, however, that the Webster example is an imperative!  You wouldn't say
in English "I asked any man I met."  You would say "I asked a man that I met"
(existential) or else "I asked every man that I met" (universal).
The need for "any"s comes up when we have some kind of opaque context,
including an imperative; invariably (I claim) this involves a subordinated
abstraction clause.

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