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Re: countability (was: RE: [lojban] a construal of lo'e & le'e



In a message dated 11/1/2001 9:42:53 AM Central Standard Time, arosta@uclan.ac.uk writes:


You and pc are supportersof B. I think most other people take it for granted
that A is the case. I seem to recall Jorge being a proponent of A.


I refuse to be pinned down on this one.  I tend to use Lojban likeEnglish and so get A's all over the place, but I recognize that Lojban is not English and certainly some aspects of lojban make more sense from B.  Hating every minute the following, I have to agree with Quine that whatLojban words really mean is not something that can be spelled out except in Lojban.
May I add that I find it odd that And, a proponent of a new (relativelyin this discussion) metaphysics which is at least more obviously compatible with B, should at this point be a strong backer of A.

<As for me, I think A better matches the way users see things, and it
probably makes life less complicated.>
Yes, for thoroughly SAE enculturated folks that we all are.  RElevance to what is going on in Lojban?

<If we went with B, then in order to talk about two words without relying on glorking, we'd have to use a lujvo, valsi zei selci,  or other equivalent complex _expression_.>

This is not obvious; we just might have to recognize that others would come up with a different "count" -- some people follow Mr. Whatsis's moves better than others.

<Possibly the best would be to have analogues of measurement selbri:
  This kilos ten  = this weighs 10 kilos
  This words ten = this is ten words.>

No, we don't have verbometers we can read a number off the scale of or compute from other readings.  

<But this debate only arises under story B>
Not obvious.  I had assumed that the discussion about what was a sentence in Lojban (carried on in English) was entirely within the A framework, yet came up with a different number of sentences --and different boundaries -- within the same text.