Re: [lojban] the 17 tallest men

[John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org>]

MorphemeAddict@wmconnect.com scripsit:

> why is it so hard to say "the 17 tallest men" in lojban?  i would have
> thought that this had a standard form in logic long ago, and it would
> be a simple transfer to lojban.  what's the deal?

The standard first-order logic expression is unreasonably hairy.
It's something like "The set of A and B and ... and P and Q, such that A
is not B and A is not C and ... and B is not C and ... and P is not Q, and
A is not shorter than B and B is not shorter than C and ... and P is not
shorter than Q and A is a man and B is a man and ... and Q is a man and
there does not exist Z such that Z is a man and Z is not shorter than Q."

This can probably be improved on, but it obviously doesn't scale.

-- 
"While staying with the Asonu, I met a man from     John Cowan
the Candensian plane, which is very much like       jcowan@reutershealth.com
ours, only more of it consists of Toronto."         http://:www.ccil.org/~cowan