Re: 3 men touch 3 dogs

[jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU]

la djer cusku di'e

> 1. lo ci nanmu ku goi da ci lo gerku ku goi de zo'u tu'e da pencu de

At least one of the three men that there are touches exactly three dogs.

> 2. lo ci nanmu ku goi da ci lo so gerku ku goi de zo'u tu'e da pencu de

At least one of the three men that there are touches exactly three of
the nine dogs that there are.

> 3. lo ci nanmu ku goi da ci lo ci gerku ku goi de zo'u tu'e da pencu de

At least one of the three men that there are touches exactly three of
the three dogs that there are.


Actually, {goi} is supposed to be used only with assignable variables,
but taking {da} as one doesn't do harm in this case.

These examples mean the same under any of the two interpretations
because in all of them the claim is for "at least one man". The nested
and the co-equal scope both give the same meaning in this case.

Inside quantifiers aren't really an issue, and using them only
complicates matters, because you are making the additional claim
that that is the total number of men/dogs that there are in all.
Usually we don't want to make that additional claim.

Jorge

(BTW, thanks for the reference for the E! notation.)