Re: ci cribe

[ucleaar <ucleaar@UCL.AC.UK>]

> The question was how to interpret:
>         le ci cribe cu batci ri
> It could either be "each of the three bears bites itself", or
> "each of the three bears bites each of the three bears".
> I think it should be the first. The argument would be that to
> identify what is the referent of {ri}, one should look at the
> prenex form of the sentence:
>         ro da voi cribe zo'u: da batci ri
>         For each x that I'm calling a bear: x bites x.

That makes the most sense.

> To get the second meaning, I would say:
>         le ci cribe cu batci rori

This doesn't make much sense to me. It seems to me to mean
"Each of the three bears bit each of itself" - daft.

> In this case, the prenex form would be:
>         ro da voi cribe ku'o ro de voi cribe zo'u: da batci de
>         For each x of what I'm calling bears, for each y of what
>         I'm calling bears: x bites y.

Right. And it would be nice to have a logically coherent and
not too cumbersome way to say it.

> A more common way of speaking would probably be:
>         lei ci cribe cu batci ri
>         The three bears bite themselves.

"bear bit itself", "a bear threesome bit itself".
It's not really a satisfactory way of saying "each of the bears
bit each of the bears".

----
And