Subject: Re: [lojban] ca'e

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 20:57:58 EST

In a message dated 3/3/2001 2:55:10 PM Central Standard Time, 
[email-masked] writes:

> <ca'e ro mlatu cu danlu
>    By definition, every cat is an animal.
> 

Does that speak to the definition of {mlatu}? of {danlu}?

> of both? of neither? Is it a statement about cats and animals
> or about the words "mlatu" or "danlu"? Does the statement
> (in Lojban) have any meaning?>
> 

The answers are mostly "yes" (Only "neither?" gets a "no") The next to the 
last is that the statement is about cats and animals says that all of the 
former are also among the latter. The {ca'e} merely places the source of 
your confidence in that claim in your understanding of relevant definitions, 
rather than, say, close and repeated observations or a wild guess. Note 
that, if you really based your claim on close and repeated observations but 
said {ca'e} anyhow, the claim would still be true, though you might be 
accused of being misleading or, perhaps, even of lying.