Subject: Re: [lojban] pa lo badna and the Goatleg Rule

From: John Cowan <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2001 23:02:17 -0500 (EST)

Rob Speer scripsit:

> If you say {mi viska pa lo badna}, are you saying that that is the
> only banana you see? The only banana you will ever see? How would you
> fix this while still only focusing on one banana?

Well, of course the tense is vague, being unspecified. But at some
time or other, during some time interval or other, you saw one banana
exactly.

After all, this isn't so alien to some kinds of English either. If
you were asked to testify in court how many robbers you saw, and
you saw four, you wouldn't get far replying "Two" on the ground
that if you saw four, you necessarily saw two.

-- 
John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan [email-masked]
Please leave your values | Check your assumptions. In fact,
at the front desk. | check your assumptions at the door.
--sign in Paris hotel | --Miles Vorkosigan