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Nick:
> OK, now I'm finally reading up on intensions, I am becoming very
> dangerous. :-)
>
> There is an ambigiuty in the English phrase
>
> 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
>
> You can distinguish between them with tense logic; for H = 'will
> always be the case',
>
> 1. Ax: Prez(x) => H(GOP(x))
> 2. H(Ax: Prez(x) => GOP(x))
(1) seems wrong to me. Change to one of:
1a. Ax: Now(Prez(x)) => H(GOP(x))
1b. H(GOP(x)) [presupposed: Ex Prez(x)]
1a and 1b are distinct and equally licit readings.
> You can distinguish between them with intensions; for ^x = the
> intension of x (the prez in general, as distinct from any individual
> prez; the function mapping times to individual prez's):
>
> 1. Prez(x) => GOP(x)
> 2. Prez(^x) => GOP(^x)
>
> .... So which of the two does
>
> lo merjatna baroroi prenrnrepubikana
>
> mean? Both? The latter?
To the extent that Lojban is settled enough for the question to be
answerable, the answer is that it means:
"There is a least one x such that x is merjatna and will always be
a republican"
So it means something closer to (1a) than to (1b) or (2).
To get (2), change to "baroroi ku lo merjatna cu prenrnrepublikana"
= "It will always be the case that there is a merjatna who is a
Republican".
(2) can also be said as "Mr Merjatna will always be a Republican".
> Obviously we can disambiguate sense 1 as {lo nau merjatna}. I presume
> sense 2 is: {ro da poi temci zo'u: lo merjatna be ca da}?
More like {ro da poi temci zo'u: *ro* merjatna be ca da}, for nonimporting
ro. You don't (or mightn't) want to be claiming that at every time there
is an American president.
> Is it also
> {ro jaika ce'u merjatna} (which is properly {ro jaika ce'u merjatna
> de'i ce'u}, and indeed {ro jaika ce'u merjatna ma'i ce'u})? Is it {lo
> ka'e merjatna}?
{jaika} is yucky and should be allowed to fall into oblivion.
{lo ka'e merjatnu} = "there is at least one x such that x could be
or could have been merjatnu". Not really what is wanted here.
--And.