Re: No static, democratic

Colleagues, you have given me stuff to work on, and I will in the weeks 
ahead. Since this is not a full solution yet, don't expect it to work 
yet :-) (In particular, I have been avoiding thinking of quantifiers, 
which is why And can't work with it right now.) The point of the 
posting rather is to get things restarted, and to start communicating 
what has been worked out to people outside jboske. (I'm interested to 
see what they make of it...)

But what would a day on jboske be without me yelling at Jorge?

>> As Nick as alluded, de-emphasis of this point is what has seduced so 
>> many
>> otherwise virtuous lojbanists into using mass gadri simply for 
>> plurals.
>
> You are assuming that distributive is the default reading of plurals,
> but I don't agree that this is the case. I think collective is a more
> useful default reading, i.e. I don't assume distributivity unless
> explicitly marked.

Jorge, I should hope you're not now humpty-dumptying English as well as 
Lojban! :-) The interpretation in English is contextually determined, 
primarily by the verb, so I don't see why talk of a default in English 
is even meaningful. (And what's *useful* in English? Natlangs don't 
work like that. I do know I find it difficult to credit emergent 
properties are more commonplace than non-emergent ones, though.)

In Lojban, of course, the distributivity of {(za'u) lo} is definitional 
to {lo}, and non-negotiable. Since {lo} is distributive, and the 
English plural is *frequently* distributive, the tendency to use {loi} 
as a generic plural (which is there) does indeed need to be combatted. 
The minute people say {loi X cu nelci}, say, there's a better than even 
chance they're doing something wrong...

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Upon completing His outburst, God fell silent, standing quietly at the
podium for several moments. Then, witnesses reported, God's shoulders
began to shake, and He wept.
[http://www.theonion.com/onion3734/god_clarifies_dont_kill.html]

Dr Nick Nicholas. [email protected] http://www.opoudjis.net