[lojban] Re: outer and inner quantifiers on "le"

[Pierre Abbat <lojban-out@lojban.org>]

On Friday 21 January 2005 10:02, Jorge "Llambías" wrote:
> --- Zefram wrote:
> > Jorge Llambías wrote:
> > >(Now, {pa fi'u re le nanmu} is another story.)
> >
> > How so?  Is {pa fi'u re} not equivalent to {pimu} here?
>
> This is not firmly established yet, but the way I
> understand it:
>
> PA1 fi'u PA2 <sumti> is PA1 out of every PA2 of the
> referents of "<sumti>". So {pa fi'u re le nanmu}
> would be "one out of every two of the men", so
> "half the men" rather than "one half man of the
> men", which is what {pimu le nanmu} gives.

I think {fi'ure} should mean the same as {pimu} here. Men aren't a good 
example, since separating half a man from the other half results in a dead 
man, but what about a shelf with jars of sauce? If each jar contains 255 g of 
sauce and I need 15 g, I'd much rather say {fi'upaze le selbotpi sanso} than 
{pira'enomubibirecimuresovopapazexavoze le selbotpi sanso} which most people 
wouldn't recognize. (I'm not even sure most people know le saclu be me'o 
1/7.) If you want to say "half the men", and mean individuals, that's {lu'a 
pimu lei nanmu}.

phma 
-- 
li fi'u vu'u fi'u fi'u du li pa