Subject: Re: [lojban] I like chocolate

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 17:08:47 EDT

In a message dated 8/19/2002 9:48:04 AM Central Daylight Time, 
[email-masked] writes:

<<
> > {mi nelci lezu'o citka loi cakla}
> >
> >Suggestions, corrections?
> 
> The article {le} indicates that you liked one particular
> occasion (or each of the particular occasions you have in
> mind) of eating chocolate. To say that you like eating
> chocolate generically, I would suggest {lo'e} instead of
> {le}. (Nobody pays much attention to this though, we often
> use {le nu} to refer to generic events rather than particular
> ones.) Also you can say {mi nelci lo'e cakla} directly.
>>
Only if you are xorxes; the rest of us have to stick to the formal rules, 
which don't allow direct references to dubious objects in places that call 
for abstract arguments. Happily, {nelci} allows both abstract and concrete 
references in this place, so the range of possibilities is open. Presumably, 
your interest is not just in a particular piece, nor in some unspecified 
piece(s), so neither {le} nor {lo} (nor, probably {loi}) fits in. {lo'e} 
won't work if it means "typical" or "average" or some such, since the point 
is that you typically eat chocolate with pleasure, not that you necessary 
always (or right now or....) eat typical chocolate with pleasure (average 
chocolate is, well, average, and so might not be so pleasurable, typical 
might be worse). On the whole, moving off into the intensional seems the 
right thing to do (and what xorxes would have {lo'e} do, usually).