Re: any, opaque, transparent, xe'e...

["Mark E. Shoulson" <shoulson@CS.COLUMBIA.EDU>]

>Date:         Sat, 29 Oct 1994 12:46:18 -0600
>From: Chris Bogart <cbogart%QUETZAL.COM@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU>

>A transparent reference is a linguistic reference to something; an opaque
>reference is what *appears* to be a reference, but it doesn't *in fact*
>reference any particular thing.  It's *kind of* like an uninstantiated
 variable.

>"I need that red box" is transparent, because, in context, there is some red
>box that the speaker and listener both know is being referred to specifically.

>"I need a red box" (in its usual interpretation) is opaque, because "a red
>box" doesn't refer to any particular box, really it describes the kind of
>need I have.  We've been using "any" as shorthand for this situation, but
>that's not perfectly correct: consider this spooky Hallowe'en dialog:


Hey, I think I'm starting to understand this opaque/transparent thing now!
But it sounds (as someone already said) that "I need a red box" therefore
means "I need the *existence* of red box (possibly of other qualities), and
probably that said box be accessible by me."  So isn't that something like
"mi nitcu lei nu [da] xunre tanxe"?

~mark