Subject: Re: [lojban] specificity of 'ma'

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 21:44:37 EDT

In a message dated 9/4/2001 8:39:35 PM Central Daylight Time, 
[email-masked] writes:

> >Maybe we need {la mas} to insist on a name.
> 
> {la mo} works. But "who" doesn't insist on a name.
> "The butler" will do as an answer, but not "a butler"
> (unless it's one of those cases where it is specific,
> "a certain butler").
> 

Will {la mo} guarantee a name? Yes, name is neither necessary nor sufficient 
and {lo} won't usually work ("a certain" is an English quantifier trick, not 
specific -- or is it definite? -- outside of certain special cases -- nothing 
seems to work like it in Lojban --- though I did try.)