Re: [lojban] searching

[Ian Johnson <blindbravado@gmail.com>]

Also, note that the solution to some of the problems from the "any" discussion, namely an outer quantifier of {pa}, doesn't work here. For example, in {ko dunda pa lo plise mi}, the command is satisfied no matter which apple among {lo plise} the listener gives, so it is a satisfactory translation of "Give me any one of the apples". This works in the {ko} case because the {ko} creates a scope that the {pa} quantifier is under, which is the origin of the awkward "make it true that" translations of Lojban imperatives to English. (This is not a bad thing, and is arguably a good thing.) Without a {ko} this requires some kind of abstraction or similar.

mi'e la latro'a mu'o

On Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 10:09 AM, Ian Johnson <blindbravado@gmail.com> wrote:

Look at the "any" discussion, as it's the same idea. {lo crino} can very well have only one referent, even if there are many green things in the UD. It shouldn't have only one referent, if the distinction matters to you as the speaker; that's (part of?) what {le} is for. But it can anyway. This means you can't say "I'm looking for a green thing" and be absolutely certain that your listener knows you don't care which one (without a separate bridi).

mi'e la latro'a mu'o

On Wed, Jan 9, 2013 at 7:44 AM, v4hn <me@v4hn.de> wrote:

On Wed, Jan 09, 2013 at 02:10:28AM -0500, Ian Johnson wrote:
> Because {lo crino} can very well mean "that blade of grass over there".

What's the problem here? If you're just looking for something green
and your universe of discourse includes blades of grass, then this is
perfectly valid.

> It's not specific either way, and unlike with definiteness there isn't a
> way to add quantifiers or anything to make it so.

I don't get the rest.. If you are looking for a green shirt
and your UD includes more things than shirts, you can always say
{mi sisku lo crino creka}


v4hn

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