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RE: [jboske] Intensions: W



Lojbab:
> At 06:34 AM 1/6/03 -0500, John Cowan wrote:
> >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 
> 
> On the other hand, I believe we have also said that "na" and "tense" 
> interact as modifiers to selbri (and grammatically they can be 
> alternated).  na, as part of the selbri, exports differently from other 
> standard quantifiers, to the beginning of the prenex, and I should think 
> that tenses that are part of the selbri would have to work the same way 

It was established some weeks or months ago (by reference to CLL) that 
only na is subject to this eccentric rule of interpretation, hence the
general antipathy to the rule.

--And.