Re: [lojban] {zo'e} as close-scope existentially quantified plural variable

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 9:58 PM, Martin Bays <mbays@sdf.org> wrote:
> * Saturday, 2011-10-15 at 20:52 -0300 - Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>:
>> On Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 8:22 PM, Martin Bays <mbays@sdf.org> wrote:
>> >
>> > Quite. If it does do anything, there's also the issue of which gets
>> > priority in {ro lo broda poi brode}.
>>
>> Does it make an actual difference? "ro lo broda poi brode" = "ro da
>> poi me lo broda zi'e poi brode".
>
> It does make a difference if {ro} is a singular quantifier.
>
> {ro ko'a poi broda cu brode} -> "for every atom x among the (plural)
> referent of {ko'a} such that broda(x), brode(x)"
>
> So (forgetting about kinds for a minute, since this is purely an issue
> of plural semantics) in {ro lo broda poi ke'a brode}, the question is
> whether the relative clause is evaluated with a potential plural
> referent of {lo broda} for {ke'a}, or whether it's evaluated once per
> atom below the plural referent of {lo broda}, with that atom for {ke'a}.
>
> I think the latter does make most sense.

I agree, although we still have a way to differentiate both
possibilities, at least for the "lo broda ku" type of sumti (not for
"ko'a"), because there are three different points where a relative
clause may be attached: "lo (1) broda (2) ku (3)". We could say that
when attahed at (2) the restriction occurs before singular
quantification over referents, and that when attached at (3) it occurs
as a restriction on the singular quantifier. One problem with that is
that (2) is the "normal" place of attachment (i.e. with elided "ku")
and (3) requires an explicit "ku". But I guess it doesn't matter too
much because in many cases both meanings will agree anyway.

mu'o mi'e xorxes

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