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On Fri, 15 Aug 2003, And Rosta wrote: > xod: > > And Rosta writes: > > > > * Nonspecific is more general than Any. (Further discussion on jboske > > if required.) > > * Given that XS handles Collective & Substance, a messy conflation in > > loi/lei is not so disastrous. Or they could be disambiguated as lViza'u > > versus lVitu'o, analogously to the XS approach and using what was > > originally your suggestion. > > > > > > > > > > Your ideas of Nonspecific and Any will only get lost in the shuffle here > > -- as they probably already have, since you've probably expressed them > > several times yet -- so it would be best if you added a definitional > > section to your XS page. Then we can use jboske to attempt to reconcile > > our conflicting but finally well-documented definitions. > > Nonspecific is a linguistics term, not part of XS. If you're using it with > a definition of your own, better to choose a different term. "Somebody" is > nonspecific in "I'm sure somebody loves me" = "I'm sure that it's not the > case that nobody loves me" = "I'm sure there is somebody that loves me". > But it's not Any. What are the differences? "Anybody loves me" sounds weird in English, but we must try not to be misled by the artifacts of that barbaric language. I am always uneasy about using English for these discussions. "I'm sure somebody loves me" = "I am sure that [at least] ANY one of those people out there love me." > > Your XS ignores Collectives, treating them as identical to pluralities. > > If you are defining a Collective as a plurality such that "lV-collective > cu broda" necessarily means that the members of the group aren't each > a broda, then XS does ignore this, but it's not what Collective normally > means and it's not something I feel it is important to be able to express. > If this isn't what you mean by Collective, then XS may well handle it. > Otherwise, it would be desirable for you to choose a different term > instead of 'Collective' and argue for the need for a way of expressing it. You're right. See my zi message to Jorge. -- The Pentagon group believed it had a visionary strategy that would transform Iraq into an ally of Israel, remove a potential threat to the Persian Gulf oil trade and encircle Iran with U.S. friends and allies...