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To Speak Of Many Things: The Lojban sumti
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By a quirk of Lojban syntax, it is possible to omit the descriptor ``lo'', but never any other descriptor, from a description like that of Example 7.5; namely, one which has an explicit outer quantifier but no explicit inner quantifier. The following example:
8.1) ci gerku [ku] cu blabi
Three dogs are white.
is equivalent in meaning to Example 7.5.
Even though the descriptor is not present, the elidable
terminator ``ku'' may still be used. The name ``indefinite
description'' for this syntactic form is historically based: of
course, it is no more and no less indefinite than its
counterpart with an explicit ``lo''. Indefinite descriptions
were introduced into the language in order to imitate the
syntax of English and other natural languages.
Indefinite descriptions must fit this mold exactly: there is no way to make one which does not have an explicit outer quantifier (thus ``*gerku cu blabi'' is ungrammatical), or which has an explicit inner quantifier (thus ``*reboi ci gerku cu blabi'' is also ungrammatical --- ``re ci gerku cu blabi'' is fine, but means ``23 dogs are white'').
Note: Example 6.3 also contains an indefinite description, namely ``su'o ci cutci''; another version of that example using an explicit ``lo'' would be:
8.2) mi ponse su'o ci lo cutci
I possess at-least three things-which-really-are shoes
I own three (or more) shoes.
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Quantified descriptions |
To Speak Of Many Things: The Lojban sumti
The Lojban Reference Grammar |
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sumti-based descriptions |