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Subject: RE: [lojban] specificity of 'ma'
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 01:49:06 +0100
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From: "And Rosta" <a.rosta@dtn.ntl.com>

John:
> pycyn@aol.com scripsit:
> 
> > > {la mo} works. But "who" doesn't insist on a name.
> > 
> > Will {la mo} guarantee a name? 
> 
> No (for not all names are predicates). But if you want a name,
> *ask* for a name: ma cmene lo klama be le zarci
> should provoke zo djan.

Unfortunately not necessarily. An answer could be "le melbi" --
"a certain beautiful (name)".

> > 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.) 
> 
> "A certain x" is +specific -definite, or lebi'unai.

Or at least close enought to that for our purposes.

--And.