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Re: [lojban] Re: Usage of lo and le

On 5/12/06, Alex Martini <alexjm@umich.edu> wrote:


[ li'o ]
> Consider: I've been talking to a zookeeper about 20 certain bears for
> the past hour, and in fact, I'm in the middle of a sentence regarding
> them just as we get to a somewhat filthy cage/habitat, in which I see
> 2 of those 20 bears. I say "take all the bears in the cage to the
> infirmary for a checkup, right now". The zookeeper takes the two bears
> out of the cage, and begins shutting the door. I stop him, and say
> "take ALL the bears in the cage to the infirmary for a checkup". Is
> the difference in meaning, and the utility of that difference
> apparent? I hope that it is. This is the difference between position 1
> and 2, and it's essential in, to give one example, contractual
> writing. But really, it's useful anywhere that you want to explicitly
> state what you mean, without having the listener guess based on
> context (without having context get in the way of clear
> communication).
>
[ li'o ]

Now you've got me confused -- what other bears do you include in "ALL
the bears in the cage"? You clearly don't mean all 20 that you were


The 2 of 20 relevant bears, and also any other
bears-such-that-are-in-that-cage, that may be hiding in the foilage or
what have you.


talking about, those would be "all the bears in *the cages*". Yes,


Well, I may be holding one of those 20 bears in my arms (a tiny bear
cub), and some other of them may have been released into the wild a
week ago. But this is a minor detail.


the plural distinction isn't made in Lojban, but English does
distinguish so this matters here. Do you refer to {all the bears who
are in this cage, and those who were in this cage}?