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la pycyn cusku di'e
<< But I would like to be told what the problem is with non-importing quantification, rather than just being told that it is useless and screwed up. >> Useless and screwed up seem enough for me.
If I was forced to accept your saying so, definitely. But I can't see them as useless and screwed up just based on your word that they are useless and screwed up.
But, to the point, once you have them, it is virtually impossible to get importing expressions, which presumably -- since they cover 99+% of the cases, you do want.
Non-importing expressions cover 100% of the cases, so I don't
need the importing one. Also, it is just as easy to get importing
from non-importing as the other way:
From importing {ro broda cu brode}
-> non importing {ganai da broda gi ro broda cu brode}
From non-importing {ro broda cu brode}
-> importing {ge da broda gi ro broda cu brode}
On the other hand, once you have importing quantifiers, getting non-importing ones for those occasions when they are needed (or, rather, the effect of them) is cheap way out of Zipfean proportions.
In 99% of the cases, both importing and non-importing work just as well. You seem to be implying that I would somehow have to convert to importing in those cases. Why should I?
In most cases it makes no difference -- except that inferences that go through directly with impoarting quantifiers require an extra step with non-importing ones (not a big problem, but an inelegance surely).
The inelegance of importing for me comes from not being able to
infer {ro broda cu brode} = {no broda naku brode} =
{naku su'o broda naku brode} = {naku me'iro broda cu brode}.
And, of course, when it makes a difference, the non-importing one is what you want, precisely because it does make a difference. If you don't want thenon-importing one, then it doesn't make a difference to be considered. And,should that occasion arise -- I'll trust you that it does -- you know where to get what you want within the importing quantifier framework.
I can say the same to you the other way. I just don't see that
the inferrence {ro broda cu brode} -> {su'o broda cu brode} is
more elegant than the four relationships that hold among the
different quantifiers. To me that inferrence seems forced. If that
is the "screw up" of the non-importing ro you were referring to,
then I can live with it, as I don't see it as a screw up.
mu'o mi'e xorxes
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