Subject: [lojban] Re: Any (was: Nick will be with you shortly)

From: Invent Yourself <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2003 23:55:31 -0500 (EST)

On Fri, 28 Feb 2003, Craig wrote:

> >> >Note, however, that the original discussion was about nitcu, with the
> >> >x3 unspecified. That makes *all* the difference to me.
> >>
> >> Therefore the scope of da is limited to the mikce that are acceptable
> >> with your ternitcu. However, you do not explain why the unspecified
> >> ternitcu makes the difference from 'any doctor' to 'the doctor I have
> >> in mind'.
>
> >Actually, I have. Several times.
>
> >What if the unspecified ternitcu is "le nu cikre le mi besna"? "Any
> >doctor" is most likely *not* a brain surgeon.
>
> The scope of your da is qualified by the (unspecified) ternitcu. But it
> doesn't have to be Dr. Besn if all you need is a brain surgeon. It could be
> any brain surgeon. As Xod (IIRC) says, it is Any that passes a
> ridiculousness filter. Just as a dead doctor fails this test, so does a
> veterinarian if you need a brain surgery performed.

Exactly. Constraining the set of applicable doctors, with various rules
and filters, is a waste of time. The sentence still reads "any doctor
within the set X". You haven't gotten rid of the any-ness until you
narrow X down to a single doctor.

But if you have all these in-mind characteristics, shouldn't you use le
mikce and stop using lo mikce? Yes, you should. Which means we aren't
dealing with reasonable, cooperative glosses for lo mikce as we discuss
all these in-mind conditions for doctors.

-- 
What would Jesus bomb?