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Nick Nicholas scripsit:
> The president of the U.S. will always be a Republican.
>
> 1. If 'the president' refers to its extension (the guy currently
> holding the office, W), then this is merely saying that W will always
> be a Republican. Not a startling claim.
>
> 2. If 'the president' refers to the intension (whosoever the
> officeholder shall be at any particular time, as a function mapping
> time and world to any individual holding the office), that means
> there will never be a Dem prez.
[snip]
> ... So which of the two does
>
> lo merjatna baroroi prenrnrepubikana
>
> mean? Both? The latter?
Well, "lo merjatna" means that this is "some president" rather than
"the president": could be equally well Shrub or Herbert Hoover.
Neglecting that, though, the regular left-to-right quantifier scope
rule means that this is "Ex Atimes x is president", i.e. close to your
interpretation 1.
Interpretation 2 requires "baroroi[ku] lo merjatna cu prenrnrepublikana",
so the claim in CLL that it's always safe to move tense+ku around the bridi
at random is false and needs to be corrected. A truthful sentence
of this type is "roroiku lo merjatna cu jbena fo lo mergu'e"
(the U.S. Constitution requires the President to be native-born).
--
Said Agatha Christie / To E. Philips Oppenheim John Cowan
"Who is this Hemingway? / Who is this Proust? jcowan@hidden.email
Who is this Vladimir / Whatchamacallum, http://www.reutershealth.com
This neopostrealist / Rabble?" she groused. http://www.ccil.org/cowan
--author unknown to me; any suggestions?