[lojban] Ambiguity resolution

[Greg Nisbet <gregory.nisbet@gmail.com>]

Consider if you will the English sentence "some program decides if every program halts".  It could have one of two meanings:

1) for every program A, there exists a program B that will correctly determine if program A halts
2) there exists a program A that will correctly determine for every program B if program B halts

Sentence 1 is true. For every program p, either the program 'return true' or 'return false' will correctly decide if p halts.  

Sentence 2 is false. There is no program that solves the halting problem; that is, correctly decides for ANY program whether or not it halts.

'some' is analogous to an existential quantifier in English and 'every' is analogous to a universal quantifier. When you use both in the same sentence, it matters which one you 'consider' first. My question is, how does Lojban resolve this issue and how would you state sentence 1 and sentence 2?

Thank you all,
Gregory Thomas Nisbet

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "lojban" group.
To post to this group, send email to lojban@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to lojban+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/lojban?hl=en.