On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 5:11 PM, Sam Bader<awesomeegghead@gmail.com> wrote:.ui .i'i coi fi'i la .semiul.
>
> [In short, how do you know whether to use an inner or an outer quantifier on
> a "lo" sumti?]
This is how I understand it: The inner number says how many referents
you are talking about, "le ci plise" = the three apples I have in
mind. The outer number shows how many of the referents do the thing
you're saying they do, "re le plise cu xunre" = two of the apples are
red. Note that if you only quantify on one side or the other, this is
generally a distinction without a difference! "le re plise" is two
apples you have in mind, and "re le plise" is out of the apples you
have in mind, two of them, so as you can see it's still just two
apples, either way. The distinction is more relevant when both are
used, as in "re le ci plise cu xunre" = two of the three apples are
red.
As I understand xorlo, there is very little difference in how the
quantifiers work with "lo" vs "le". I never understood why once upon
a time "lo ci plise" would reduce the whole universe to three apples,
and thankfully one is rarely accosted by that idea these days. The
distinction most people understand between "lo" and "le" now is more
about definiteness or particularness-- "le" certainly means that you
have in mind some particular referent, and "lo" may mean that the
referent is undetermined, inspecific, or even generic or general.
srana le do jboselsku .i certu za'a .i do pau ze'a ma cilre .i va'i ca
ma do co'a cilre .i do jinvi le du'u do cnino .i do sutcli .o'a dai
ni'i .i mi facki fi so'u po'o nu srera .i do pilno zo ki'u gi'e djisku
.ia zo ku'i .i mi lo simsa nu srera cu cafne gasnu .i simsa valsi
ni'o ko zmadu jbobau bo tavla .au fi do noi na'e slabu mi .i mu'a do
ma xabju .i mi merko gi'e xabju la .vermont. .i mi nanmu .i mi nanca
li re so .i mi ze'u jbopre .i jbobau .iu .i .ua ru'e xu mi pu te cusku
fi do fo la .irc. .i la .irc. cu frica be le mriste be'o munje pe'a .i
frica ke tavla selckaji .i ta'o nai xu do mi me la .irc. slabu je'u .i
.a'o ca'o jbopre doi jbopre
mu'o .semiul. mi'e la selckiku