Date: Tue, 23 Dec 1997 18:18:35 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199712232318.SAA10041@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Jorge_J._Llamb=EDas?=" Sender: Lojban list From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Jorge_J._Llamb=EDas?=" Subject: Re: xor questions X-To: lojban To: John Cowan Status: OR X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 792 X-From-Space-Date: Tue Dec 23 18:18:36 1997 X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU la djan cusku di'e >The only way to avoid this problem is to move to a meta-level, asking >about words rather then objects. In that case, the question becomes >"What word from the set {"Cicero", "Caesar"} correctly names the author >of the First Oration etc." If you ask that with {ma} then "a word that begins with a 'C'" is a valid true answer. I think that {ma} cannot really be used to get a strict logical equivalent of "which"-questions. Pragmatically your interlocutor will very likely understand what you want to know, but that's not what we're discussing here. > Note that the members of the set here are >words, not objects: it would not be correct to assert that "a Roman" >was a member of the set {"Cicero", "Caesar"}. True, but "A Roman's name" will do. co'o mi'e xorxes