tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Feb 20 06:56:08 1997

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Re: KLBC: or

Mark E. Shoulson wrote:
> >From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>[re alternative questions of the `Do you want coffee or tea?' type]
> >I'd solve this by asking two questions:
> >
> >Dargh DaneH'a'?  qa'vIn DaneH'a'?
> 
> This is my personal preference as well.

It's mine too.  (Courtesy of Japanese and Turkish.)

> The "or" of the English, in a
> sense, is not a logical connective.  It is a questioning conjunction.
> We're sort of asking "which conjunction would go well here?" (using a
> broader meaning for "conjunction" than the language actually has).

That looks like a good argument for not claiming that we're asking
which conjunction would go well there.  See below.

> In Lojban, there actually *is* a "questioning conjunction", and you
> answer with a conjunction (conjunctions can mean "the first but not
> the second", "the second but not the first", "both", "neither",
> etc. in Lojban).

Yes, but the Lojban approach is an extremely artificial one.  It sort
of works, but it is not at all like what natlangs do (and Klingon may
be alien, but it is supposed to be natural).

Now I don't think that an alternative question is a question about the
conjunction.  Rather, I think that it is a close relative to another
notion we've been discussing here, `which' (groan!).  Consider:

(1) _Which weapon do you want?_
  `Identify _x_ such that (_x_ in Weapons) and (you want _x_).'

(2) _Do you want tea or coffee?_
  `Identify _x_ such that (_x_ in {tea, coffee}) and (you want _x_).'

The only difference is that in (1) the set is given a name, whereas
in (2) its elements are enumerated and separated by _or_.

--'Iwvan

-- 
"reH Sov yInej 'ej Dap yImuS,          <dOstI bA mardom-e dAnA nEkO-st,
 jagh val qaq law' jup QIp qaq puS"     do^sman-e dAnA beh az nAdAn dOst>
                 (Sheikh Muslihuddin Abu Muhammad Abdullah Saadi Shirazi)
Ivan A Derzhanski  <[email protected], [email protected]>
Dept for Math Lx,  Inst for Maths & CompSci,  Bulg Acad of Sciences
Home:  cplx Iztok  bl 91,  1113 Sofia,  Bulgaria

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