Re: Less expert opinion

[John Cowan <snark!cowan@GVLS1.VFL.PARAMAX.COM>]

la kolin. cusku di'e

> 1) 'mi' is ambiguous there (and my English reflexes made
> me read it as 'me'. I suggest 'mi poi norcertu' - which is
> still strictly ambiguous, but pragmatically suggests that
> 'mi' is not singular, as the restrictive clause would be
> pointless then.
> Nick once used 'mi pe va' for a plural, but I don't think
> it works too well.
>
> I've just thought of another possibility (ki'e .and):
> 'za'u mi' = more than one of me/us.

Well, that has problems too: it means "more than one of the (perhaps many)
who are us".  However, this problem can be cured by preposing an article:

        le za'u mi
        the more-than-one-who-are us

because in the form LE+quantifier+sumti, the quantifier serves as both
inner quantifier for the descriptor and as outer quantifier for the
contained sumti; in the former role, it says how many there are.
(But "ro lo" might be better than "le" to pin it down.)

> 3) le/lo:  John has a paper in draft (to go into the textbook), but
> I'll try.

I wish.  That paper is not yet even begun, but we do have some stuff
from the textbook, the 10/88 grammar summary (mostly obsolete, but still
usable as a mine), and elsewhere.

> The fundamental distinction between 'lo' and 'le' is indeed
> veridicalness. But because of this, and their default
> quantification, there is also a difference in specificity.
>
>     lo remna
> is elliptic for
>    su'o lo ro remna
> 'at least one of all humans'
>
>    le remna
> is elliptic for
>    su'o le su'o remna
> 'at least one of the at-least-one things I am describing
> as human'

Almost.  Actually it's "ro le su'o remna", >all< of the at-least-one
things I am describing as human.  When you say "The men came into the room"
about a specific group of men, you mean all of them unless you explicitly
quantify, so "le" matches English "the" here.

>    mi klama le zarci
> means
>   I go to at least one of the at-least-one things I am
         to all of the at-least-one ...
>   describing as a shop.
> but that 'describing' means that the sumti is (almost
> certainly) specific.

--
John Cowan      cowan@snark.thyrsus.com         ...!uunet!lock60!snark!cowan
                        e'osai ko sarji la lojban.