Re: [lojban] CMENE=BRIVLA (was Re: Opinions on "mi viska le sa .i mi cusku zo .djan.")

["And Rosta" <a.rosta@v21.me.uk>]

Jordan:
> On Thu, Apr 08, 2004 at 12:43:50PM +0100, And Rosta wrote:
> > > Probably the most explicit way to say "every john that I know",
> > > without the ambiguity in xorxes' suggested {ro la djan.}:
> > >
> > >    ro cmima be la'i djan. ku poi mi sanji ke'a cu xabju le merko
> > 
> > You need "ro se cmene be zo djan", not "la'i djan", if anybody
> > called 'John' counts as a candidate referent.
>
> It says {cmima}.  I think you misread it...

No, I read it right. English "every John" means "everyone
called 'John'", at least in the example under discussion.
But "(ro) la djan" (and mutatis mutandis "ro cmima be la'i djan")
means "every instance of [whatever it is I am referring to by
"djan"]". Of course, the speaker could intend la'i djan to
be the set of everybody called djan, but that's a rather
unlikely and genuinely malglico reading.

--And.