Subject: Re: [lojban] Re: [jboske] RE: Anything but tautologies

From: John Cowan <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 21:27:34 -0500 (EST)

[email-masked] scripsit:

> Does it" here refer to {li abu} or {abu}?

The former, likewise li abu su'i re (a+2) and so on.

> That {li abu} refers to a numeric 
> value of a variable makes a kind of sense. But to go from that to {abu le 
> mlatu} (is the pause required? If so, why?) means "a of the rhings I have in 
> mind as cats" is way to curious for Alice (or Abu, for that matter).

It was an error on my part. "abu le mlatu" is indeed two consecutive
sumti, just like "ko'a le mlatu". However, if we wrap the "abu"
in MEX parentheses, thus, "vei abu [ve'o] le mlatu", then it is
again interpreted as a variable reference and (by placement and
syntax) a quantifier. So that's how we say "n of the cats".

> How can 
> we know that what we took to refer to Alice does not, in fact, stand for some 
> transcendental number? 

The meaning of "abu" outside MEX is distinct from its meaning inside
MEX: they are bound separately and referenced separately.

-- 
John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan [email-masked]
To say that Bilbo's breath was taken away is no description at all. There
are no words left to express his staggerment, since Men changed the language
that they learned of elves in the days when all the world was wonderful.
--_The Hobbit_