Re: [lojban] xorlo and masses

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On Sat, Aug 13, 2011 at 7:05 PM, John E. Clifford <kali9putra@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Thanks for the clarification.  But I think some of the points you leave up in the are, in fact decided by usage and could only be changed with considerable disruption.
>
> That the elements of lo broda may broda collectively and not distributively seems to me to be settled by something (in fact by) lo sruri be lo dinju.  The answer is affirmative.

I agree, but I'm not sure that's officially established anywhere.

> To put another up in the air case up even further, saying that some brodas brode collectively doesn't exclude that the collections are less than the whole, I.e. that of abcd. ab do it collectively and likewise cd, or any other combination other than each doing it singly (and maybe even that)

I don't know about that. If "collectively" covers every combination
from "all together" down to "one by one", then I'm not sure what it is
supposed to be a distinction from.

> "constituents" is a dicey word.  I suppose you mean "atomic parts for the present purpose", because, if it means something else, we will have all sorts of problems with just what a quantifier on a gunma quantifies over (given the indeterminate nature of any components other than the atoms).

In my view, "ro lo gunma be lo broda" quantifies over groups of broda,
and "ro lo se gunma be lo broda" quantifies over constituents of
broda, which obviously has to be something with constituents for it to
make sense. What counts as a constituent is of course defined by
context, no different from "ro lo pagbu be lo broda", "ro lo spisa be
lo broda", "ro lo panlo be lo broda", and so on.

As for "ro loi broda", I have no idea. There are two competing
interpretations: "ro lo gunma be lo broda" and "ro lo broda". I prefer
not using "loi" at all.

mu'o mi'e xorxes

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