Re: [jboske] Intensions: W

[John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org>]

Nick Nicholas scripsit:

> The president of the U.S. will always be a Republican.
> 
> 1. If 'the president' refers to its extension (the guy currently 
> holding the office, W), then this is merely saying that W will always 
> be a Republican. Not a startling claim.
> 
> 2. If 'the president' refers to the intension (whosoever the 
> officeholder shall be at any particular time, as a function mapping 
> time and world to any individual holding the office), that means 
> there will never be a Dem prez.

[snip]

> ... So which of the two does
> 
> lo merjatna baroroi prenrnrepubikana
> 
> mean? Both? The latter?

Well, "lo merjatna" means that this is "some president" rather than
"the president": could be equally well Shrub or Herbert Hoover.
Neglecting that, though, the regular left-to-right quantifier scope
rule means that this is "Ex Atimes x is president", i.e. close to your
interpretation 1.

Interpretation 2 requires "baroroi[ku] lo merjatna cu prenrnrepublikana",
so the claim in CLL that it's always safe to move tense+ku around the bridi
at random is false and needs to be corrected. A truthful sentence
of this type is "roroiku lo merjatna cu jbena fo lo mergu'e"
(the U.S. Constitution requires the President to be native-born).

-- 
Said Agatha Christie / To E. Philips Oppenheim John Cowan
"Who is this Hemingway? / Who is this Proust? jcowan@reutershealth.com
Who is this Vladimir / Whatchamacallum, http://www.reutershealth.com
This neopostrealist / Rabble?" she groused. http://www.ccil.org/cowan
--author unknown to me; any suggestions?