From cowan@ccil.org Sun Nov 04 20:02:06 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: cowan@mercury.ccil.org X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_0_1); 5 Nov 2001 04:02:06 -0000 Received: (qmail 1385 invoked from network); 5 Nov 2001 04:02:05 -0000 Received: from unknown (216.115.97.171) by m6.grp.snv.yahoo.com with QMQP; 5 Nov 2001 04:02:05 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mercury.ccil.org) (192.190.237.100) by mta3.grp.snv.yahoo.com with SMTP; 5 Nov 2001 04:02:04 -0000 Received: from cowan by mercury.ccil.org with local (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 160axl-0005JU-00 for ; Sun, 04 Nov 2001 23:02:17 -0500 Subject: Re: [lojban] pa lo badna and the Goatleg Rule In-Reply-To: <20011104154631.B1206@twcny.rr.com> from Rob Speer at "Nov 4, 2001 03:46:31 pm" To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2001 23:02:17 -0500 (EST) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL66 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: X-eGroups-From: John Cowan From: John Cowan X-Yahoo-Profile: johnwcowan X-Yahoo-Message-Num: 11939 Rob Speer scripsit: > If you say {mi viska pa lo badna}, are you saying that that is the > only banana you see? The only banana you will ever see? How would you > fix this while still only focusing on one banana? Well, of course the tense is vague, being unspecified. But at some time or other, during some time interval or other, you saw one banana exactly. After all, this isn't so alien to some kinds of English either. If you were asked to testify in court how many robbers you saw, and you saw four, you wouldn't get far replying "Two" on the ground that if you saw four, you necessarily saw two. -- John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan cowan@ccil.org Please leave your values | Check your assumptions. In fact, at the front desk. | check your assumptions at the door. --sign in Paris hotel | --Miles Vorkosigan