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Re: [engelang] xorban summary



On Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 8:29 PM, And Rosta <and.rosta@hidden.email> wrote:
>
> The example is analogous to "Napoleon was married to
> Josephine and wasn't married to Josephine". There's one reading in which
> that is a contradiction and therefore false, the reading in which "Napoleon
> wasn't married to Josephine" means "It isn't the case that Napoleon was
> married to Josephine". There's another reading in which it's true, where
> "Napoleon wasn't married to Josephine" means something like "Napoleon was in
> a state of not being married to J", which is not equivalent to "It's not the
> case that Napoleon was in a state of being married to J". Xorban na has been
> defined as the former sort, the one where "la bcda na fgha" is equivalent to
> "na la bcda fgha".

I think the two readings are not related to where the "na" is respect
to Napoleon, but rather where you put the tense:

"It is not the case that [at some point in time] Napoleon was married
to Josephine."

vs.

"[At some point in time] it was not the case that Napoleon was married
to Josephine."

which is equivalent to:

"It is not the case that [at every point in time] Napoleon was married
to Josephine."

 You can move Napoleon in and out of the negation or the quantifiers,
it doesn't matter.

co ma'a xrxe