Re: [WikiDiscuss] Re: BPFK gismu Section: Parenthetical Remarks in Brivla Definition

On 9/25/06, John E. Clifford <[email protected]> wrote:
> --- In [email protected], "Jorge Llamb=EDas" <jjllambias@...> wrote:
> >
> > Yes. For definiteness, let's consider a simple model:
> >
> > The universe of discourse is a set with three elements:
> > U=3D{John, unicorns, elephants}.
>
> I assume you mean "unicorn" and "elephant", otherwise there would be
> more than three things in the universe.

Well, English is not the ideal metalanguage for Lojban, because of its
obligatory number marking. But the sentence "There are three things
in the domain of discourse: namely unicorns, elephants and John" is
perfectly normal English, as far as I understand. The English plural form
is not infrequently used with a single referent. Maybe if we could use
Chinese (or even Lojban) as our metalanguage this issue wouldn't even
arise. Unfortunately, I don't speak any Chinese.

> You seem to be serious with this rather bad joke, so please explain
> how "unicorns" can be singular other than as a typo. I agree that if
> someone says {lo pavyseljirna} in a primary place, I take it that
> there is at least one unicorn in his universe and adjust the universe
> I am constructing accordingly (or get him to readjust his). But this
> does not say anything about the critters John wants: in your mini
> universe, John could want a hippopotamus or a centaur without changing
> anything.

John could want those things in addition to wanting unicorns, but if he doe=
sn't
want unicorns, then the model constructed in the discourse, which includes
{la djan cu djica lo pavyseljirna} as one of its true sentences, would not =
be a
very good model (even if internally self-consistent).

mu'o mi'e xorxes


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