[lojban-beginners] Re: Help! The Xorlo are attacking!

[adam@cec.wustl.edu]

On Mon, 8 Feb 2010, Stela Selckiku wrote:

> > lei:
>
> It's best to think of the -i on the end separately from the e/o/a,
> when it comes to this trio lei/loi/lai.  In all three cases you have
> the same semantics as le/lo/la, with the difference that you're
> talking about a mass acting together instead of each of the things
> described doing the action separately.
>
> lo ci nanmu cu bevri lo pipno
> The three men each carried the piano.  Each one of them carried the
> whole piano!  Perhaps they took turns.  Probably not what you meant to
> say!
>
> loi ci nanmu cu bevri lo pipno
> The mass of three men carried the piano,  Still a hard job, but
> perhaps manageable.

Under xorlo, the inner quantifier isn't necessarily distributive.  So while
what you say about {loi ci nanmu cu bevri lo pipno} is true, the distributive
(each of them carries a piano) is with

ci lo nanmu cu bevri lo pipno

The {lo ci nanmu} version could mean either.


> > lai:
>
> I have almost never seen this article seriously used.  A mass of those
> named?  So, like, the Smith family all carry a piano together, "lai
> .smit. cu bevri lo pipno"??  It doesn't seem to come up!

I think it can be used where the name applies to the group as a whole.  I've
used it in the past for sports teams and such.
--
Adam Lopresto
http://cec.wustl.edu/~adam/

Her date was pleasant enough, but she knew that if her life was a
movie this guy would be buried in the credits as something like
"Second Tall Man." (Russell Beland, Springfield)