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Jorge Llambias scripsit:
> Suppose you tell me "I need a box to put these books in.
> Please get me one."
mi nitcu pa le tanxe selcmi poi seltisna lei cukta
> I would say: {mi nitcu lo'e tanxe lo nu setca
> lei vi cukta ty i e'o ko cpagau mi ty}.
I don't know how to supply you with the typical box, any more than I
can capture the typical lion. That is, mi kavbu lo'e cinfo is false,
and by the same token mi cpacu lo'e tanxe is false too.
It occurs to me that some confusion may be caused by taking "lo'e cinfo"
to mean not "the typical lion" but "a typical lion", that is an actual
lion which closely resembles in relevant ways the abstract typical lion.
> If you say: {mi nitcu le tanxe lo nu setca
> lei vi cukta ty i e'o ko cpagau mi ty}, I will
> ask "which box is it that you're talking about?"
Right enough. But I specify not a tanxe, but a tanxe selcmima; a
variety of box, in fact, as the object of my desires.
--
And through this revolting graveyard of the universe the muffled, maddening
beating of drums, and thin, monotonous whine of blasphemous flutes from
inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond Time; the detestable pounding
and piping whereunto dance slowly, awkwardly, and absurdly the gigantic
tenebrous ultimate gods -- the blind, voiceless, mindless gargoyles whose soul
is Nyarlathotep. (Lovecraft) John Cowan|jcowan@hidden.email|ccil.org/~cowan