Re: Q-kau

[jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU]

la lojbab cusku di'e

> BTW, I am also interested in how a language with totally free word order
> handles the quantificational problems. Esperanto claims to have totally free
> word order -

I don't think Esperanto claims that (for example, the article always comes
before the noun), but it is relatively more free-order than English.

> how does it deal with "Everybody loves somebody" with object
> first?  Any other order-free languages provide insights?

        Cxiu amas iun.
        Everybody loves somebody.

        Iun amas cxiu.
        Everybody loves somebody.

        Iu estas amata de cxiu.
        Somebody is loved by everybody.

        De cxiu estas amata iu.
        By everybody, somebody is loved.

And you can make more combinations. To me it seems that the difference in
scope is handled by using the participle, like English does, but you can
still play with the word order.

Of course, the above is only my impresion, not any rigid rule, since
Esperanto certainly does not claim to reflect predicate logic.

Jorge