From rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org Mon Apr 30 15:47:55 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_1_2); 30 Apr 2001 22:47:51 -0000 Received: (qmail 23655 invoked from network); 30 Apr 2001 22:47:50 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by l9.egroups.com with QMQP; 30 Apr 2001 22:47:50 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO chain.digitalkingdom.org) (64.169.75.101) by mta1 with SMTP; 30 Apr 2001 22:47:50 -0000 Received: from rlpowell by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 3.22 #1 (Debian)) id 14uMSL-00081g-00 for ; Mon, 30 Apr 2001 15:47:49 -0700 Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 15:47:49 -0700 To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [lojban] Predicate logic and childhood. Message-ID: <20010430154749.E27753@digitalkingdom.org> Mail-Followup-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com References: <4.3.2.7.2.20010430171850.00b16cd0@127.0.0.1> <20010430155318.B504@twcny.rr.com> <20010430114521.C20818@digitalkingdom.org> <20010430155318.B504@twcny.rr.com> <20010430140028.A27753@digitalkingdom.org> <4.3.2.7.2.20010430171850.00b16cd0@127.0.0.1> <20010430144802.B27753@digitalkingdom.org> <4.3.2.7.2.20010430175548.00ace2b0@127.0.0.1> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.17i In-Reply-To: <4.3.2.7.2.20010430175548.00ace2b0@127.0.0.1>; from lojbab@lojban.org on Mon, Apr 30, 2001 at 06:44:27PM -0400 From: Robin Lee Powell On Mon, Apr 30, 2001 at 06:44:27PM -0400, Bob LeChevalier (lojbab) wrote: > At 02:48 PM 04/30/2001 -0700, Robin Lee Powell wrote: > >2. What is the use of conditionals other than .e? > > Well, "a" expressing alternation (and anai for conditional) has a pretty > clear usage, and onai for exclusive-or does as well. anai does not have a clear usage, or we wouldn't be having this discussion. > But the use of logical connectives in general is based on the > assumption, probably false, that language is attempting to express > logical truth. By insisting that the language connectives follow the > rules of logic strictly, people will either start thinking in a manner > that reflects those rules or they will avoid the use of connectives > (or they will break the rules). This is a key design feature for the > original purpose of the language as a test of Sapir-Whorf, though I > personally think that the formal logical aspects of Lojban don't come > into play enough that it will matter much. Thank you for failing to answer the question. 8) No-one has yet managed to tell me what possible use, in actual communication, things like o and anai have. -Robin -- http://www.digitalkingdom.org/~rlpowell/ BTW, I'm male, honest. le datni cu djica le nu zifre .iku'i .oi le so'e datni cu to'e te pilno je xlali -- RLP http://www.lojban.org/