From lojbab@xxxxxx.xxxx Sat Dec 11 12:15:22 1999 X-Digest-Num: 308 Message-ID: <44114.308.1690.959273825@eGroups.com> Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 15:15:22 -0500 From: "Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" > > On the other hand, it could be argued that if I wonder who came then > > > it does follow that "I want that (Ax) (I know whether x came)". > > > > I think this is an excessively robust kind of wondering. If I wonder > > who wrote the book of love (from a doo-wop song, full lyric > > available at http://www.fiftiesweb.com/lyrics/booklove.htm), it does > > not follow that I actually want to know this: my curiosity may be > > quite idle. > >OK, but wondering decomposes into some kind of trying/wanting with >respect to some kind of epistemic state. Whether or not we can find >appropriate expressions for those in English, _X wonder P_ nonetheless >means "X dweeble that X beeble that P", where "dweeble" is some kind >of trying/wanting and "beeble" is some kind of epistemic state. I understand "I wonder who came" as "mi kucli le nu makau cmima le'i klama" which I gues puts me in the set membership camp for at least this aspect of indirect questions. Note that le'i implies that set that I am curious about quite intensional; I have no curiosity about the ants, flies, or bacteria who might have come. lojbab (probably sticking his nose in where he cannot possibly understand). ---- lojbab ***NOTE NEW ADDRESS*** 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: see Lojban WWW Server: href=" http://xiron.pc.helsinki.fi/lojban/ " Order _The Complete Lojban Language_ - see our Web pages or ask me.