From pycyn@aol.com Fri Mar 01 16:49:11 2002 Return-Path: X-Sender: Pycyn@aol.com X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: unknown); 2 Mar 2002 00:49:11 -0000 Received: (qmail 84879 invoked from network); 2 Mar 2002 00:49:10 -0000 Received: from unknown (216.115.97.172) by m3.grp.snv.yahoo.com with QMQP; 2 Mar 2002 00:49:10 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO imo-d10.mx.aol.com) (205.188.157.42) by mta2.grp.snv.yahoo.com with SMTP; 2 Mar 2002 00:49:10 -0000 Received: from Pycyn@aol.com by imo-d10.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v32.5.) id r.96.228eaaec (4529) for ; Fri, 1 Mar 2002 19:48:58 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <96.228eaaec.29b17b7a@aol.com> Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 19:48:58 EST Subject: Re: [lojban] Re: [jboske] RE: Anything but tautologies To: lojban@yahoogroups.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="part1_96.228eaaec.29b17b7a_boundary" X-Mailer: AOL 7.0 for Windows US sub 118 From: pycyn@aol.com X-Yahoo-Group-Post: member; u=2455001 X-Yahoo-Profile: kaliputra X-Yahoo-Message-Num: 13465 --part1_96.228eaaec.29b17b7a_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 3/1/2002 2:27:19 PM Central Standard Time, jcowan@reutershealth.com writes: > > {li abu} is another use > > for the letter "a", this time not as a pronoun but as > > the value of a variable, although I'm not very clear > > what type of variable this is supposed to be and how > > it is different from a pronoun. > > > It is not different at the level of predicate logic. > By convention, its referent is taken to be a mathematical > object. It is also syntactically different: "ko'a le mlatu" is two > sumti, even if the current referent of "ko'a" is a number, > whereas "ny. le mlatu" is a single sumti meaning "N of > the cats I have in mind". > Does it" here refer to {li abu} or {abu}? That {li abu} refers to a numeric value of a variable makes a kind of sense. But to go from that to {abu le mlatu} (is the pause required? If so, why?) means "a of the rhings I have in mind as cats" is way to curious for Alice (or Abu, for that matter). How can we know that what we took to refer to Alice does not, in fact, stand for some transcendental number? --part1_96.228eaaec.29b17b7a_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 3/1/2002 2:27:19 PM Central Standard Time, jcowan@reutershealth.com writes:


> {li abu} is another use
> for the letter "a", this time not as a pronoun but as
> the value of a variable, although I'm not very clear
> what type of variable this is supposed to be and how
> it is different from a pronoun.


It is not different at the level of predicate logic.
By convention, its referent is taken to be a mathematical
object.  It is also syntactically different: "ko'a le mlatu" is two
sumti, even if the current referent of "ko'a" is a number,
whereas "ny. le mlatu" is a single sumti meaning "N of
the cats I have in mind".


Does it" here refer to {li abu} or {abu}?  That {li abu} refers to a numeric value of a variable makes a kind of sense.  But to go from that to {abu le mlatu} (is the pause required?  If so, why?) means "a of the rhings I have in mind as cats" is way to curious for Alice (or Abu, for that matter).  How can we know that what we took to refer to Alice does not, in fact, stand for some transcendental number?  --part1_96.228eaaec.29b17b7a_boundary--