[lojban] Re: zo'e =? su'o de (was Re: What the heck is this crap?)

["And Rosta" <a.rosta@lycos.co.uk>]

Jordan:
> On Tue, Nov 05, 2002 at 06:42:39PM -0500, Invent Yourself wrote:
> [...]
> > But it gets worse. According to Nick Nicholas, in a recent email to me:
> > 
> > > zo'e = su'o de
> > >
> > > ro bangu cu selfi'i zo'e = ro da poi bangu; su'o de zo'u: da selfinti de
> > > (This is read as there being a possibly distinct de for each da)
> > >
> > > zo'e finti ro bangu = su'o de; ro da poi bangu zo'u: de finti da
> > > (This is read as there being at least one de inventing all da)
> 
> This is definitely *not* book lojban (unless it's hiding somewhere),
> whether or not jboskepre agree on it 
> 
> zo'e == "implied value".  This means it can mean things which don't
> claim existence, such as "lo'e pavyseljirna" or "lo'i cridrdrakone"
> (ok; well on that last I guess it depends on whether ro is importing,
> no? -- imho it would *suck* *ass* if ro were importing though, as
> lo'i broda wouldn't be something you could say when the set is
> empty, since the inner quantifier is ro.  Also I gather that
> nonimporting universal quantifier is more standard in logic as
> well).  This isn't the same as "su'o de" ("de") because it doesn't
> involve an existential quantifier 

The book is quite clear that ro as a quantifier is importing (16.8,
as pc has just pointed out on Jboske). Like you, my preference
would have been for nonimporting ro, but I can't see any grounds
for overriding the book -- it's not inconsistent or 'broken' on
this point. 

However, the so-called "inner quantifier" functions as an indicator
of cardinality. I don't see why a set of cardinality ro has to be
a set of cardinality su'o. This is a subject of ongoing debate on
Jboske.

As for whether zo'e claims existence, "lo'e pavyseljirna" is held
to be a possible value for da, since the universe of things
can include imaginaries. The view has always been that zo'e
entails da, because any sumti bar {no da} and {zi'o} entail da.
As you say:
> The only restrictions the book places on what zo'e can represent is
> that zo'e can't stand for "noda" and it can't stand for "zi'o" 

--And.