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Re: [jboske] putative tense scope effects (was: RE:



On Mon, 28 Oct 2002, John Cowan wrote:

> Invent Yourself scripsit:
>
> > And, to confirm, in your opinion, these Lojban sentences are actually
> > identical in meaning?
> >
> > ca ro djedi lo nanmu cu cinba la meris
> > lo nanmu ca ro djedi cu cinba la meris
>
> No, I hold that they mean "Concurrent with each day, there exists a man/men
> who kiss(es) Mary" and "There exists a man/men who concurrent with each day
> kiss(es) Mary".  The first one is consistent with different kissers on
> different days, whereas the second one is not.




Is it a coincidence that the meaning you assign to the Lojban word orders
match that typically assigned to the English reading too? Is this an
arbitrary convention, whether or not it is mirrored by other natural
languages too? Or could the custom have been that the scope interpretation
be reversed, for instance?




-- 
Henry McCullers, an affable Plano, TX-area anti-Semite, praised the
Jewish people Monday for doing "a bang-up job" running the media.
"This has been such a great year for movies, and the new crop of fall
TV shows looks to be one of the best in years," McCullers said.
"And the cable news channels are doing a terrific job, too. Admittedly,
they're not reporting on the Jewish stranglehold on world finance,
but, hey, that's understandable."