Re: [lojban] Re: Any (was: Nick will be with you shortly)

[Invent Yourself <xod@thestonecutters.net>]

On Fri, 28 Feb 2003, Martin Bays wrote:

> On Fri, 28 Feb 2003, John Cowan wrote:
>
> > Martin Bays scripsit:
> >
> > > Oh dear. If I've understood your meaning of "any" correctly - you need a
> > > doctor, and what's more you need a doctor precisely because of its
> > > doctorishness, and don't care about specific identity or other properties
> > > - then this is precisely the kind of circumstance in which I'd use lo'e.
> > > I need "the typical" doctor - I need "the result of squinting over the set
> > > of all things which doctor".
> > >
> > > I'm guessing that's wrong. Anyone feel like explaining why?
> >
> > Because "lo'e mikce" is an abstraction bearing only the typical features of
> > doctors.  As Woldy says, the typical lion is neither male nor female, though
> > all actual lions are one or the other.  If you want lo'e mikce, you will not
> > get much doctoring from it.
> >
> >
>
> "...So the typical lion has no particular sex, but does have a color
> (golden brown), a residence (Africa), a diet (game), and so on."
>
> Then surely lo'e mikce has no particular sex - which is fine, we don't
> care about the sex - but does have an occupation (medicine), and does have
> a relevant ability (that of healing you) - which is precisely what you
> *do* care about.


lo'e might be a decent rendering of "I need a doctor", but in English,
"any" specifically means nonspecific, extending over all doctors,
including atypical ones.




-- 
What would Jesus bomb?