RE: "which?" (was: RE: [lojban] centripetality: subset vs component

[John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org>]

On Mon, 10 Jul 2000, Jorge Llambias wrote:

> >A: A certain cat leaves.
> >B: A certain cat of what kind leaves?
> >A: A certain cat of white colour leaves.
> >
> >-- what's wrong with that?
> 
> Nothing, but they are not {le} statements.

Actually, I think they are.  "A certain" in English is a way of
making +specific -definite sumti: I know what cat is meant (+specific), but
you don't (-definite).  In Lojban "le bi'unai mlatu".

-- 
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
C'est la` pourtant que se livre le sens du dire, de ce que, s'y conjuguant
le nyania qui bruit des sexes en compagnie, il supplee a ce qu'entre eux,
de rapport nyait pas.               -- Jacques Lacan, "L'Etourdit"