These are the rules for deciding what ko'a goi la djan. means (either can be the definiens, either can be the definiendum):
- If you know what ko'a means, then la djan. is defined to mean whatever ko'a means.
- If you know what la djan. means, then ko'a is defined to mean whatever la djan. means.
- If you don't know what either means, then they mean the same, but what they mean will have to arrive in future — until then neither one is usable.
- If you know what both mean, and they already mean the same thing, the goi-phrase is unnecessary.
- No, then it reaffirms their sameness.
- If you know what both mean, and they mean different things, bzzzzzt, semantic error.
- No, then ko'a goi la djan. is asserting that John is ko'a - maybe wrong, but semantically feasible.
This is the algorithm called "unification" in Prolog.