From owner-conlang@diku.dk Mon Sep 30 23:51:46 1996 Received: from punt-4.mail.demon.net by stryx.demon.co.uk with SMTP id AA15619 ; Mon, 30 Sep 96 23:51:44 BST Received: from punt-4.mail.demon.net by mailstore for ia@stryx.demon.co.uk id 844064664:11911:0; Mon, 30 Sep 96 07:24:24 BST Received: from vidar.diku.dk ([130.225.96.249]) by punt-4.mail.demon.net id aa11793; 30 Sep 96 7:24 BST Received: (from daemon@localhost) by vidar.diku.dk (8.6.12/8.6.12) id IAA12080 for conlang-outgoing; Mon, 30 Sep 1996 08:04:57 +0200 Received: from access1.digex.net (ql/6O0AY1b.Cw@access1.digex.net [205.197.245.192]) by vidar.diku.dk (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id IAA12072 for ; Mon, 30 Sep 1996 08:04:52 +0200 Received: (from lojbab@localhost) by access1.digex.net (8.6.12/8.6.12) id CAA00357 ; for conlang@diku.dk; Mon, 30 Sep 1996 02:04:50 -0400 Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1996 02:04:50 -0400 From: Logical Language Group Message-Id: <199609300604.CAA00357@access1.digex.net> To: conlang@diku.dk Subject: CONLANG: Lojban and XOR and set selection Sender: owner-conlang@diku.dk Precedence: bulk Priority: non-urgent Reply-To: Logical Language Group Status: R >I think the conjunction meaning "exactly one" (ie. "one and only one is >true", ie. "one is true and the others are false"). I like it to have >variable number of arguments. This conjunction (even n-ary for a given n>2) >is impossible to express by a binary conjunction (like XOR is). Does Lojban >grammar allow something like this to be implemented in it? > > Martin. IN addition to its set of logical connectives, Lojban has other connectives including a set-making connective. It has also got a construct allowing set selection, so you can say in effect "exactly one (or some other number) from the set {a, b, c ...}. The number selected can be an exact number, a range, or a vague number. You can concatenate these set selections to get "1 from column A and 2 from column B". We established that there was no simple way using the basic logical connectives to get all possible truth tables for 3 or more terms without repeating some terms, which is both clumsy and non-intuitive. The set selection method allows for any arbitrary truth-table equivalent, when used along with the simple 2-term connectives. (Or so we believe - no one has really tested this one to its "logical" extreme. lojbab ---- lojbab lojbab@access.digex.net Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: ftp.access.digex.net /pub/access/lojbab or see Lojban WWW Server: href="http://xiron.pc.helsinki.fi/lojban/"