Re: [lojban] No default quantifiers.

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On 6/15/05, Opi Lauma <opi_lauma@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hello.
> 
> In the Lojban-Wiki I have found the following:
> 
> There are no default quantifiers. At all. For example,
> the default outer quantifier of "lo" used to be
> "su'o", which means "at least one", but that is no
> longer the case. "lo cribe" could be one, or a
> billion, or none.

It couldn't be none, {lo cribe} has to refer to something for
a sentence about it to make sense.

> I do not understand what for the default quantifier
> {su'o} has been removed. Now if I say {lo cribe cu
> danlu} I say nothing. Because this expression is
> always true. 

"Bears are animals" is always true, but that doesn't
mean it says nothing. It says that bears are animals.

{lo cribe cu spati} is always false, because bears are 
not plants.

{lo cribe cu blabi} is sometimes true and sometimes
false, because bears are sometimes white and 
sometimes not. We need more context: are we talking
about bears in general (they are not always white),
are we talking about a certain region, where they are
white? 

>If only one bear is animal it is true, if
> none bear is animal it is also true, if there are
> arbitrary number of bears which are animals it is also
> true. So, I get no information from {lo cribe cu
> danlu}, i. e. this sentence contains no information.

It contains about the same information as "the bear is
an animal" does in English.

mu'o mi'e xorxes