Subject: Re: [lojban] A or B, depending on C, and related issues

From: "Jorge Llambias" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2001 00:04:05

la pycyn cusku di'e

>In
>the case of "know," what seems to be involved is a correct answer to the
>question, in the case of "wonder" a range of possible answers,

Couldn't "wonder" be thought of as "interested/curious to know",
or something like that, so that it gets reduced to the "know" case?

>in "What's for
>dinner depends on what's in the fridge" there seem to be answers to two
>questions and the correlations between them,

This one is trickier because it involves two of them, but I think
often we are also unnecessarily complicating matters by dealing with
the uncertainty of the future. Maybe a more simple case is: "In those days, 
(in each of those days, let's say) what we had for dinner
depended on what was in the fridge". For each day there is one
answer to each question, and the claim is that the one situation
referred to in the first answer was a result of the one situation
referred to in the second.

>in "The magic formula changed
>how tall I am" what is involved is just my height, not the answer to any
>question but the topic of it.

In Lojban terms, this is a property. For properties, the answer can
be different for each holder of the property. In this case, me and
my former self.

><What I wear depends on (results from) where I go.>
>Surely this includes (in some not very clear sense) "If I go to a formal
>party, I will wear a tux" and "If I go camping, I will wear rough clothing"
>and "If I go to a nudist beach, I will wear damn-all" Each first part is 
>an
>"answer" to the "question" "Where go I?" and each second to the question
>"What wear I?" and the "if then"s show appropriate dependencies -- with
>probably lots more cases to consider. as you have pointed out, the 
>"indirect
>question" parts just cover the case without giving the details, as does "my
>apparel varies with my destination." I would say exactly the same way, in
>fact, which leaves the question of what all this has to do with questions.

So how do you say "my apparel varies with my destination" in Lojban?
I don't see an easy way without {kau}.

mu'o mi'e xorxes

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