Re: Thoughts on "any"

[Jorge Llambias <jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU>]

Chris Bogart:
> There's something special about the arguments of djica, nitcu, claxu, sisku,
> and certain commands (ko cpacu lo tanxe), that is akin to a negative.  There
> seems to be a negation associated with most of these concepts (mi nitcu lo
> tanxe at least suggests that mi na ponse lo tanxe; ko cpacu lo tanxe is the
> same way)

Be careful with negation in Lojban, it is not always what it seems.

         mi na ponse da poi tanxe

         da poi tanxe na se ponse mi

Both mean the same thing:

It is false that: there exists a box such that I have it.

To get:
>                 There exists a box such that (I don't have it)
>                 There is a box I don't have

You can say:

        da poi tanxe naku se ponse mi

which means the same as

        roda poi tanxe na se ponse mi
        It is false that I have every box.

> In other words, the two possible interpretations caused by the combination
> of the claim of existence ("da poi tanxe") and the negation ("na") in "mi na
> ponse da poi lo tanxe", are disambiguated by word order, either in the main
> sentence or out in the prenex.

Partly true, but {na} always negates the whole claim, unless you use {naku},
for which order becomes important.

Jorge