History: BPFK Section: gadri

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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. When an outer quantifier is used without an inner quantifier, lo can be omitted.

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.

ca lo nicte lo cinfo cu kalte lo cidja
At night lions hunt for food.

lo pa pixra cu se vamji lo ki'o valsi
One picture is worth a thousand words.

de'i li 1960 lo pare sovda cu fepni li 42
In 1960 a dozen eggs cost 42 cents.

lo ctuca cu fendi lo selctu mu lo vo tadni
The teacher will divide the class
into five groups of four students.

lo bidjylinsi pe lo ze seldri cu se pagbu
ze lo ze bidju e ji'a ci lo pa bidju e lo kucysni
The Rosary of the Seven Sorrows consists of seven groups
of seven beads, with three additional beads and a Crucifix.

o'i mu (lo) xagji sofybakni cu zvati le purdi
Caution! There are five hungry Soviet cows in the garden.

lo sanli darxi bo dakli cu culno lo djacu onai lo canre to lo djacu
cu pukmau ki'u lo nu slilu tolcando toi gi'e bunda li ji'i 270
Standing punching bags are filled with water or sand - water
being preferable because of the wave-motion created - and
weigh about 270lbs.

lo pavyseljirna cu ranmi danlu gi'e catlu lo ka ge ce'u xirma
gi lo jirna cu cpana lo sedycra be ce'u
Unicorns are mythical creatures that look like a horse
with a horn coming out of their foreheads.

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.

le palta ba'o porpi i ma gasnu i xu le gerku cu go'i
The dish is broken. Who did it? Was it the dog?

ko punji le sicni lo porsi be lo vamrai bi'o lo vamtolrai
Put the coins in order from greatest to least value.

ci le bi ctuca cu ninmu
Three of the eight teachers are women.

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.

ma'i la midju terdi la sadam na sai me la sauron
In Middle Earth-terms, Saddam is by no means a 'Sauron'.


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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.

ma cnano lo ka makau junta ce'u kei lo'i cifnu poi ca jbena
What is the normal weight of a baby at childbirth?

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.

ro le verba pu cuxna pa karda le'i cnita selcra
Each child chose a card from the FACE-DOWN collection.

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.

doi turni do so'i da na fadni la'i kenedis ma'i lo jecra'a
Governor, in many respects, you're not a typical Kennedy politically.

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 selbri and which satisfy the predicate for which the sumti is an argument 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.

loi litru ti jmaji lo ro pagbu be le terdi
Tourists gather here from all over the world.

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.

lei brazo cu jinga fi lei dotco la kabri
The Brazilians beat the Germans for the Cup.

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.

ta melbi pixra lai simpson
That's a nice photograph of the Simpsons.

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 does not have a clear meaning with this gadri. An inner quantifier can be used to indicate the cardinality of the group. It has been proposed that lo'e se with the word for a kind of organism refers to the taxon containing all members of the kind and no others, if that exists. So lo'e se guzme means the family Cucurbitaceae, while lo se guzme can be Cucumis, Sicyos, Luffa, or any of several others. lo'e se jesymabru, however, has no clear meaning, as jesymabru can refer to both spiny anteaters and hedgehogs.



lo'e glipre cu xabju le fi'ortu'a na.e le gligugde
The typical English person dwells not in Africa but in England.

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 does not have a clear meaning with this gadri. An inner quantifier can be used to indicate the cardinality of the group.

le'e xelso merko cu gusta ponse
Lots of Greek-Americans own restaurants.

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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.

  • To refer to substances, lo/le/la without any quantifier are appropriate. The number {tu'o} can be used as inner quantifier to emphasize that no cardinality applies.

le nanmu cu se snuti ija'ebo lo tu'o gerku cu kuspe le klaji
The guy had an accident and there was dog all over the road.

  • The examples for lo'e and le'e were taken from CLL.

Impact

  • Positive impact: Some usages that make little sense with {lo} = {su'o} become validated. Examples:


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.

BPFK Poll: gadri

BPFK Poll: gadri
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History

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