Re: [engelang] reformulating the core grammar - engelang messages

This is a good summary that I will compare against my "terminology" page. I'll intersperse a couple comments.

On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 12:16 PM, John E Clifford <kali9putra@hidden.email> wrote:

Just an attempt to see if I am up to date -- using English a a compromise among the several formal systems and ignoring phonological details that tend to divert the discussion and confuse the reader.

Word classes, each phonologically distinct, though their forms are not decided.
predicates (each of fixed adicity, though this important feature is not, apparently, to be marked)

It's marked by the number of variables that appear, no?

names (any phonemic string enclosed in audible quotes. these are ranked with predicates and are either monadic -- in which case no naming operator is needed -- or medadic -- in which case, they enter formula only as complements to the naming operator)

The "mV {formula}" naming convention provides a place for a required variable immediately after the m. Therefore I think that we have to call it a monad.

The "q{name}qa[ke]" naming convention produces a simple formula with one or two places: x1(a) is the entity called or known by the name, and (elidable) x2(e) is the people who know x1 by that name. That way we can say things like

li fransi qbriqaki = "x1 is known to the French as 'Brie' (i.e. the cheese)"

and

li tlknfntki qbriqaki = "x1 is known to Tolkien fans as 'Bree' (i.e. the fictional town)"

and

la qdjeymzqa le pnde qdjimiqake = "James is 'Jimmy' to friends."

    variables
    unary propositional operators (negation, affirmation, tenses, modes, ...)
    predicate makers (agentive, event, specificity, naming, proposition, ...)
    binary propositional operators (AND, IOR, simultaneity, ....)
    quantifiers (ALL, SOME, CERTAIN, ...)
    speech act indicators
    interjections
A formula is: an n-adic predicate followed by n variables (separated by an audible separator)
                     a unary propositional function followed by a formula (variables remain bond or free as before)

I like "propositional function".

                     a predicate maker followed by a variable followed by a formula (in the case of naming, followed by a name) (variable remains bound or free as before)
                     a binary propositional connective followed by two formulas (binding and freedom remain unchanged)
                     a quantifier followed by a variable followed by two formulas (free occurrences of the indicated variable in the complements are now bound by this quantifier, as is the indicated variable, otherwise bondage and freedom are unchanged. Well, the situation of bound occurrences of the indicated variable in the complements is up for discussion)

IMHO: A quantifier does not affect already bound variables under its scope. In other words, inner bindings take precedence over outer ones.

a speech act indicator followed by a formula (binding and freedom unchanged) this is also called a sentence.
any of the above with interjections before, between or after mentioned components (not between predicate makers or quantifiers and their variables).

I haven't touched on termsets because a) I am not through absorbing the going model and comparing it with my sketches and 2) I think any static description is bound to be inadequate and/or misleading, while only logic to language transformations will cover the possibilities (the lack of these in Lojban is yet another reason why the Lojban to logic translations are so non-trivial, if not non-existent).