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xod:
Does pida'a leave open the possibility that a subset of the collective might also exhibit the emergent property? 5 men carrying a piano, eventhough 3 can manage. Does this make it substance-like? That we can add andsubtract men (beyond a certain threshold), without really altering the situation, like pouring a few drops into a glass of water?
Collectives have lots in common with substances, so that would not be surprising.
The answer must be yes, but distinguish between two possibilities: piro loi mu lo prenu cu bevri (the 5 men are all doing lifting), pisu'o loi mu lo prenu cu bevri --- in particular, ci fi'u mu loi mu lo prenu cu bevri (3 men are doing the lifting, 2 are standing around.)
We need to be able to state that {piro po'o} a *subset* of the collective carry. That must be something like piro po'o loi ci lu'a loi mu lo prenu cu bevri.
In the former case, this is still an emergent property of the 5. In the latter case, it ain't.**** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** * Dr Nick Nicholas, French & Italian, University of Melbourne, Australia *
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* "Eschewing obfuscatory verbosity of locutional rendering, the
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circumscriptional appelations are excised." --- W. Mann & S. Thompson,* _Rhetorical Structure Theory: A Theory of Text Organisation_, 1987. * **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****