--A subject that comes up from time to time is ambiguity with implicit BY prosumti, especially when they interact with abstractors. Now, according to CLL 7.5.8:The main difference between letter pro-sumti and ko'a-series pro-sumti is that, in the absence of an explicit assignment, letters are taken to refer to the most recent name or description sumti beginning with the same letterAnd similarly in 17.9.2:If no assignment can be found for a lerfu string (especially a single lerfu word), it can be assumed to refer to the most recent sumti whose name or description begins in Lojban with that lerfuThat's all very well and good, but questions come up from time to time about what letter to use for an abstraction sumti. Some suggest counting the NU that marks the start of the structure, others suggest using the first letter of the internal bridi. This poses two problems. First, consider the following:la normyn prami lo nu limna i la dorys nelci nyDoes Doris like Norman, or does she like swimming? It depends on which one of the above approaches the author uses (the first approach also has the unenviable problem of having a multiplicity of "ny" and "ky" used for events and properties, and their concomitant unavailability for plain vanilla sumti (at least for implicit assignment).)The second problem is what do you do with an example like this:la normyn nelci lo nu la rovr noi gerku cu limna ?The first camp would have no problem talking about the abstraction sumti with an implicit BY "It's ny," they declare. But what would the second camp call it? They can't use ny, that's Norman to them. They can't use "ry", that's Rover himself. "ly"? Maybe, but it seems a stretch. They would pretty much be forced to use explicit goi assignment, ri/ra/ru, se go'i/go'e/go'a, or the like/Proposed solution:New symbols, nubu, kabu (and the rest of the NUbu family) that refer, and can refer ONLY to the abstraction. "But if they are a letter/symbol, what do they look like?" you ask. That's the beauty of lojban. It doesn't matter, Because we are talking here only about using them as evaluatable symbols, to refer to sumti, which any lerfu can do.This breaks absolutely none of the current grammar, but I think would make discourse clearer and cleaner.What do people think?--gejyspa
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