From lojbab@lojban.org Thu Nov 01 09:51:55 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: lojbab@lojban.org X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_0_1); 1 Nov 2001 17:51:55 -0000 Received: (qmail 11320 invoked from network); 1 Nov 2001 17:51:55 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.142) by l8.egroups.com with QMQP; 1 Nov 2001 17:51:55 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO stmpy-3.cais.net) (205.252.14.73) by mta3 with SMTP; 1 Nov 2001 17:51:55 -0000 Received: from bob.lojban.org (209-8-89-157.dynamic.cais.com [209.8.89.157]) by stmpy-3.cais.net (8.11.1/8.11.1) with ESMTP id fA1HprC55213 for ; Thu, 1 Nov 2001 12:51:53 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <4.3.2.7.2.20011031194430.00d2cd10@pop.cais.com> X-Sender: vir1036@pop.cais.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 4.3.2 Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 19:51:34 -0500 To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [lojban] Bald men In-Reply-To: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed From: "Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" At 03:15 PM 10/31/01 -0500, John Cowan wrote: >James F. Carter scripsit: > > As pc points out, English speakers could interpret the sentence two ways: > > "each and every man doesn't have hair", or "it's not true that every man > > has hair". A logician would pick the first one, Lojban is a logical > > language, and the Lojban text is constructed accordingly. > >This is about how logicians construe English, not what "ro nanmu na se kerfa" >means. That is also how lojbab construes the English, and NO ONE would call lojbab a "logician" %^) I never saw the other interpretation of "all X's don't Y" until I got on the Internet. I would not be surprised to find that this is a dialect difference, such that people like myself and Carter who grew up in CA understand the "logical" version. (I learned that one says the other as "Not all men have hair.") But then, Nora says that she learned it the same way as me, and she grew up in Philadelphia, so perhaps it is a change in the language with the generations. I always do a double take when I read the non-universal "all X's don't Y". lojbab -- lojbab lojbab@lojban.org Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org