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

At 10:19 AM 2/28/03 -0800, Robin Lee Powell wrote: 
On Fri, Feb 28, 2003 at 02:31:06PM +0100, G. Dyke wrote:
> I'm not sure what this "Any" means. How does Edoctor(x)(need(me,x))
> differ from "I need any doctor"?

That's "There exists a doctor such that I need it".  There may be other
constraints unspecified, defining what you need exactly, as I understand
it.  All that says is that, whatever your needs, a doctor exists that
fills them.

"I need any doctor" is "I need one thing selected at random from the set
of all doctors".

Hey, that's what we need: a gadri that selects from a set at random.

zasti

mi nitcu pa la'i ro mikce
I need (exactly) one from the set of all doctors

This is based on the interpretation that originally justified la'i
(Choose one from the set of coffee, tea, milk, soda, water). If la'i is interpreted as necessarily specific, then it solves nothing.)

lojbab

--
lojbab                                             lojbab@lojban.org
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
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Artificial language Loglan/Lojban:                 http://www.lojban.org