From LOJBAN%CUVMB.BITNET@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU Wed Jan 10 14:25:42 1996 Received: from wnt.dc.lsoft.com (wnt.dc.lsoft.com [205.186.43.7]) by locke.ccil.org (8.6.9/8.6.10) with ESMTP id OAA11910 for ; Wed, 10 Jan 1996 14:25:40 -0500 Message-Id: <199601101925.OAA11910@locke.ccil.org> Received: from PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (205.186.43.4) by wnt.dc.lsoft.com (LSMTP for Windows NT v1.0a) with SMTP id 81F392D0 ; Wed, 10 Jan 1996 13:56:58 -0500 Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 10:42:31 -0800 Reply-To: "John E. Clifford" Sender: Lojban list From: "John E. Clifford" Subject: tech:logic matters X-To: lojban list To: John Cowan Status: OR X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 Content-Length: 1671 &: I have thought that {ro da poi kea broda cu brode} and {ro broda cu brode} both give "Ax: broda(x) -> brode(x)" - with neither entailing "Ex broda(x)". I assumed that it is in emulation of nat lang syntax rather than predicate logic that these forms are used in preference to a form with logical connectives (ganai...gi). pc: Well, _ro broda cu brode_ is both natural language and traditional logic (and more advanced modern logic) form for a quantifier which regularly in both those areas has existential import (implies there are brodas) but is generally agreed not to be existentially importing in Lojban. _ro da poi broda cu brode_ was devised to give a form with exstential import and fits nicely into the pattern of restricting the possibilities of what the sumti modified by _poi_ can be used for. However, its official status is now in some doubt and at least xorxes regularly asserted that it had no existential import. In any case, Ex:Fx => Gx does not imply ExFx (nor ExGx). &: It would be helpful if you would indicate what logical form corresponds to {ro da poi kea broda} and {ro broda}. pc: Like so much of logical form representation, that for restricted (or binary) quantifiers is not standardized. The basic idea is apparent in (Ax: x broda)x, a quantifier on x, restricted for values to brodas, and what I take _ro da poi broda_ to represent. In lambda terms it is (roughly) \F(0=/= {y:y broda}c {z:Fz}), a quantifier = 2nd order predicate. I do not know what is the current state of _ro broda_ (nor, for sure, that of _ro da poi broda_), but suspect it is \F(Ax:x broda => Fx), the modern universal. pc>|83