To: Pierre Abbat <phma@webjockey.net>
Cc: lojban@yahoogroups.com
In-Reply-To: <200404140841.27846.phma@webjockey.net>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.58.0404141418390.1506@simba.math.ucla.edu>
References: <194.2732bc22.2dadade0@wmconnect.com> <20040414044901.GB603@ccil.org>
 <200404140841.27846.phma@webjockey.net>
From: Jim Carter <jimc@MATH.UCLA.EDU>
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Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 14:27:29 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [lojban] Re: the 17 tallest men
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On Wed, 14 Apr 2004, Pierre Abbat wrote:
> But Lojban has grammatical setness and massness, so we can say "The subset 
> which, considered as a mass, is tallest among the 17-element subsets". 

Aaaa, this again!  A mass doesn't have properties coherent with its 
members.  For example, a sports team (mass) wins even though its members 
individually don't win.  Particularly, a purely subset type of mass doesn't 
have height, no matter what properties its members have.

I would approach this problem along these lines:

<pedantic excess=maximal>
The 17 tallest men =
the members of the tail, of length 17, of the list gotten by sorting 
"the" men by height
<comment>when you sort a quantitative measure, the natural order puts
the larger values at the end.</comment>
</pedantic>

Your most efficient approach to extremal subsets is through sorting.
And you have to remember to deliver the result as members in extension, or 
as a set, or when applicable, as a list or a mass, according to how the
result will be used in the containing sentence.


James F. Carter          Voice 310 825 2897    FAX 310 206 6673
UCLA-Mathnet;  6115 MSA; 405 Hilgard Ave.; Los Angeles, CA, USA  90095-1555
Email: jimc@math.ucla.edu    http://www.math.ucla.edu/~jimc (q.v. for PGP key)


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