Proposed definitions
- lo
- Generic article. It converts a selbri, selecting its first argument, into a sumti. The resulting expression refers generically to any individual or group that satisfies the predicate. An outer quantifier can be used to quantify over instances of the generic individual or group. An inner quantifier can be used to indicate the cardinality of the group.
mi nitcu lo lanme i ko pirfi'i lo lanme seva'u mi
What I need is a sheep. Draw me a sheep.
mi djica lo lanme poi ba ze'u jmive
I want a sheep that will live a long time.
ca lo nicte ty selfu ly lo nu zdani
At night he uses it as his house.
ei lo verba cu mutce fraxu lo makcu prenu
Children should always show great forbearance
toward grown-up people.
ku'i uinai mi na viska lo lanme pa'o lo tanxe
i ju'ocu'i mi milxe simsa lo makcu prenu
But I, alas, do not see sheep through the walls of
boxes. Perhaps I am a little like the grown-ups.
lo terdi be ny cu ja'aru'e zmadu lo zdani lo ka barda
The planet he came from was scarcely any larger than a house.
lo ra patfu cu jerna lo rupnu be li xo
How much money does his father make?
lo pa pixra cu se vamji lo ki'o valsi
One picture is worth a thousand words.
lo ctuca cu fendi lo selctu mu lo vo tadni
The teacher will divide the class
into five groups of four students.
- le
- Specific article. It converts a selbri, selecting its first argument, into a sumti. The resulting expression refers specifically to an individual or group that the speaker has in mind and which the speaker describes with the predicate. An outer quantifier can be used to quantify over members of the group. An inner quantifier can be used to indicate the cardinality of the group.
- la
- Name article. It converts a selbri, selecting its first argument, or a cmevla into a sumti. The resulting expression refers specifically to an individual or group that the speaker has in mind and which the speaker names with the selbri or cmevla. An outer quantifier can be used to quantify over members of the group. An inner quantifier can be used in the case of a selbri to indicate the cardinality of the group.
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- lo'i
- Generic set article. It converts a selbri, selecting its first argument, into a sumti. The resulting expression refers to the set of all individuals that satisfy the predicate. An outer quantifier can be used to indicate a subset of that cardinality (possibly as a fraction of the cardinality of the set). An inner quantifier can be used to indicate the cardinality of the set.
- le'i
- Specific set article. It converts a selbri, selecting its first argument, into a sumti. The resulting expression refers specifically to the set of all individuals that the speaker has in mind and which the speaker describes with the predicate. An outer quantifier can be used to indicate a subset of that cardinality (possibly as a fraction of the cardinality of the set). An inner quantifier can be used to indicate the cardinality of the set.
- la'i
- Name set article. It converts a selbri, selecting its first argument, or a cmevla into a sumti. The resulting expression refers specifically to the set of all individuals that the speaker has in mind and which the speaker names with the selbri or cmevla. An outer quantifier can be used to indicate a subset of that cardinality (possibly as a fraction of the cardinality of the set). An inner quantifier can be used in the case of a selbri to indicate the cardinality of the set.
- loi
- Generic mass article. It converts a selbri, selecting its first argument, into a sumti. The resulting expression refers to a group of individuals that satisfy the predicate collectively. An outer quantifier can be used to indicate a subgroup of that cardinality (possibly as a fraction of the cardinality of the group). An inner quantifier can be used to indicate the cardinality of the group.
- lei
- Specific mass article. It converts a selbri, selecting its first argument, into a sumti. The resulting expression refers specifically to a group of individuals that the speaker has in mind and which the speaker describes with the predicate. An outer quantifier can be used to indicate a subgroup of that cardinality (possibly as a fraction of the cardinality of the group). An inner quantifier can be used to indicate the cardinality of the group.
- lai
- Name mass article. It converts a selbri, selecting its first argument, or a cmevla into a sumti. The resulting expression refers specifically to a group of individuals that the speaker has in mind and which the speaker names with the selbri or cmevla. An outer quantifier can be used to indicate a subgroup of that cardinality (possibly as a fraction of the cardinality of the group). An inner quantifier can be used in the case of a selbri to indicate the cardinality of the group.
- lo'e
- Typical article. It converts a selbri, selecting its first argument, into a sumti. The resulting expression refers to the typical individual or group that satisfies the predicate. An outer quantifier can be used to quantify over instances of the typical individual or group. An inner quantifier can be used to indicate the cardinality of the group.
- le'e
- Stereotypical article. It converts a selbri, selecting its first argument, into a sumti. The resulting expression refers to the stereotypical individual or group that is described by the predicate, from the point of view of the speaker. An outer quantifier can be used to quantify over instances of the stereotypical individual or group. An inner quantifier can be used to indicate the cardinality of the group.
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Notes
- The only significant change from the traditional prescription is in the interpretation of the inner quantifier for lo. This does not introduce any negative impact on usage because an explicit inner quantifier as the cardinality of the whole set of existing broda is hardly ever usable.
- Default quantifiers are abolished from these definitions, so that the expressions without an explicit outer quantifier are constants, they are not quantified expressions. CLL says about default quantifiers:
There are rules for each of the 11 descriptors specifying what the implicit values for the inner and outer quantifiers are. They are meant to provide sensible default values when context is absent, not necessarily to prescribe hard and fast rules. The following table lists the implicit values:
The proposed definitions take the view that the most sensible default value when no explicit quantification is given is no quantification at all.
- Personally, I think lo/le/la are all the gadri we need. I have tried to make the definitions of the rest as close to traditional as I could.
Impact
- Positive impact: Some usages that make little sense with {lo} = {su'o} become validated. Examples:
zoigy. Codex gy. no'u zo kodeks. cu latmo
cmene lo selpapri ke cukta tarmi
Codex Woldemar
.iku'i sruma le du'u do na nelci lo nalselzanru gismu
tavla fi le tutra pe le terdi
bilga lenu jdice lenu roroi pilno lo mokla tirxe
(to zoigy. velar gy. toi) jonai crane (to zoigy.
alveolar gy. toi)
tavla fi le tutra pe le terdi
le cmana lo cidja ba claxu
In the mountains there is no food.
lapoi pelxu ku'o trajynobli
le dargu pe lo xamgu bangu cu kargu
The road of the good language is costly.
lapoi pelxu ku'o trajynobli
la jyryr. tolkien. cu te cukta la djine turni (to la'o
gy Lord of the Rings gy toi) .e le so'omoi be lo
xanri munje lisri ca le lampru na'acto
tenguar
- Negative impact: None that I can detect. It is conceivable that some usages become more vague than intended if the default quantifiers played an important role in some expression, but it is hard to determine. If someone finds examples where this happens please report them.