Re: [jboske] putative tense scope effects (was: RE:

[Invent Yourself <xod@thestonecutters.net>]

On Sat, 2 Nov 2002, John Cowan wrote:

> Invent Yourself scripsit:
>
> > Is it a coincidence that the meaning you assign to the Lojban word orders
> > match that typically assigned to the English reading too? Is this an
> > arbitrary convention, whether or not it is mirrored by other natural
> > languages too? Or could the custom have been that the scope interpretation
> > be reversed, for instance?
>
> It could have been. But it would break with not only the English convention,
> but much more importantly, the convention of formal logic, which scopes
> variables from their appearance rightwards. So "roda broda de" means
> "Ax Ey broda(x,y)".



But the logical convention was only abstracted from the English (or French
or German or whatever), yes?




-- 
Henry McCullers, an affable Plano, TX-area anti-Semite, praised the
Jewish people Monday for doing "a bang-up job" running the media.
"This has been such a great year for movies, and the new crop of fall
TV shows looks to be one of the best in years," McCullers said.
"And the cable news channels are doing a terrific job, too. Admittedly,
they're not reporting on the Jewish stranglehold on world finance,
but, hey, that's understandable."