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Re: Lojban is *NOT* broken! Stop saying that! (was Re: [lojban] Re: Vote for the Future Global Language)



On 7 January 2011 16:44, John E Clifford <kali9putra@yahoo.com> wrote:
I don't recall saying that, but I remember someone did.  Was the point that it didn't matter in Lojban?  It clearly does in English.

Well the example dialogue was in English and I said that the meaning of the waiter's question depended on his/her emphasizing of the words in the sentence.

"Do you WANT cream or sugar in your coffee?" indicates that the waiter is asking whether you want any of the two added to your coffee (i.e. cream or sugar or both) so in this case the "or" acts as the logical OR. The required answer to this question is "Yes." (if you want either cream or sugar or both in your coffee) or "No." (if you want neither).

"Do you want CREAM or SUGAR in your coffee?" indicates that the waiter is asking whether you want either cream or sugar in your coffee and to answer which one. Actually, in this case the "or" is neither logical OR nor XOR, because this question doesn't ask for a binary answer indicating only whether the waiter's supposition is true or false, it asks for a descriptive answer indicating in which way the waiter's supposition is true or false. The required answer to this question is either "Cream.", "Sugar.", "Both." or "Neither.".

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