Proposed definitions
- lo (LE)
- Generic article. It converts a selbri, selecting its first argument, into a sumti. The resulting expression refers generically to any or some individual or individuals that fit as the first argument of the selbri. An inner quantifier can be used to indicate the number of individuals. An outer quantifier can be used to quantify distributively over such individuals. When an outer quantifier is used without an inner quantifier, lo can be omitted.
lo rozgu cu xunre
Roses are red.
xu ro lo rozgu cu xunre i na go'i i mu'a su'o lo rozgu cu pelxu
Is every rose red? No, some roses are yellow, for example.
lo tadni cu sruri le dinju gi'e krixa
Students are surrounding the building and yelling.
ko'a pu lebna lo xanlai pe lo cmananba gi'e dunda ciboi cy mi
He grabbed a handful of biscuits and gave me three.
ca ro nu mi rere'u catlu lo skina kei mi cpacu ro lo se cusku poi mi na cpacu ca lo pamoi
Every time I see a movie for the second time I get all this dialogue that I missed the first time.
ei lo verba cu mutce fraxu lo makcu prenu
Children should show great forbearance toward grown-up people.
ku'i uinai mi na viska lo lanme pa'o lo bitmu be fo 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.
cimai lo ctuca cu fendi lo selctu lo mu gunma be lo vo tadni
Step 3: The teacher will divide the class into five groups of four students.
lo bidjylinsi pe lo ze seldri cu se pagbu ze gunma be lo ze bidju be'o e ji'a ci 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 simlu lo ka ge ce'u xirma gi lo pa jirna cu cpana lo mebri be ce'u
Unicorns are mythical creatures that look like a horse with a horn coming out of their foreheads.
- le (LE)
- Specific article. It converts a selbri, selecting its first argument, into a sumti. The resulting expression refers specifically to an individual or individuals that the speaker has in mind and which the speaker describes as fitting the first argument of the selbri. An inner quantifier can be used to indicate the number of individuals. An outer quantifier can be used to quantify distributively over those individuals.
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 ja'e 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.
le va ninmu cu mutce melbi iku'i ca'a nanmu gi'e nelci lo nu ninmu dasni
That woman is very beautiful, but she's actually a man who likes to dress as a woman.
- la (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 individuals that the speaker has in mind and which the speaker names with the selbri or cmevla. An inner quantifier can be used (in the case of a selbri) as part of the name. An outer quantifier can be used to quantify distributively over those individuals.
ma'i la midju terdi la sadam na sai me la sauron
In Middle Earth-terms, Saddam is by no means a 'Sauron'.
la ci bakni ku poi gusta bu'u la kaiapois cu banli ge lo ka vanbi gi lo ka cidja
The Three Cows Restaurant in Kaiapoi is a wonderful place, both atmosphere and food-wise.
--------
- loi (LE)
- Generic mass article. It converts a selbri, selecting its first argument, into a sumti. The resulting expression refers generically to a group of individuals that fit the first argument of the selbri and which collectively satisfy the predicate for which the sumti is an argument. An inner quantifier can be used to indicate the cardinality of the group. An outer quantifier can be used to select a subgroup and indicate its cardinality.
loi litru ti jmaji lo ro pagbu be le terdi
Tourists gather here from all over the world.
- lei (LE)
- 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 describes as fitting the first argument of the selbri and which collectively satisfy the predicate for which the sumti is an argument. An inner quantifier can be used to indicate the cardinality of the group. An outer quantifier can be used to select a subgroup and indicate its cardinality, possibly as a fraction of the cardinality of the group.
lei brazo cu jinga fi lei dotco la kabri
The Brazilians beat the Germans for the Cup.
- lai (LA)
- 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 names with the selbri or cmevla and which collectively satisfy the predicate for which the sumti is an argument. An inner quantifier can be used (in the case of a selbri) as part of the name. An outer quantifier can be used to select a subgroup and indicate its cardinality, possibly as a fraction of the cardinality of the group.
ta melbi pixra lai simpson
That's a nice photograph of the Simpsons.
- lo'i (LE)
- Generic set article. It converts a selbri, selecting its first argument, into a sumti. The resulting expression refers to a generic set of individuals that fit the first argument of the selbri. An inner quantifier can be used to indicate the cardinality of the set. An outer quantifier can be used to select a subset and indicate its cardinality, possibly as a fraction of the cardinality of the set..
ma cnano lo junta lo'i cifnu poi cazi jbena
What is the normal weight of a baby at childbirth?
- le'i (LE)
- Specific set article. It converts a selbri, selecting its first argument, into a sumti. The resulting expression refers specifically to the set of individuals that the speaker has in mind and describes as fitting the first argument of the selbri. An inner quantifier can be used to indicate the cardinality of the set. An outer quantifier can be used to select a subset and indicate its cardinality, possibly as a fraction of 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 (LA)
- 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 individuals that the speaker has in mind and names with the selbri or cmevla. An inner quantifier can be used (in the case of a selbri) as part of the name. An outer quantifier can be used to select a subset and indicate its cardinality, possibly as a fraction of 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.
- lo'e (LE)
- Typical article. It converts a selbri, selecting its first argument, into a sumti. The resulting expression indicates that the individuals or groups that satisfy the selbri typically also satisfy the predicate for which the sumti is an argument. An inner quantifier can be used to indicate the cardinality of the group. An outer quantifier does not have a clear meaning with this gadri.
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 (LE)
- Stereotypical article. It converts a selbri, selecting its first argument, into a sumti. The resulting expression indicates that the individuals or groups that the speaker describes with the selbri typically satisfy, from the point of view of the speaker, the predicate for which the sumti is an argument. An inner quantifier can be used to indicate the cardinality of the group. An outer quantifier does not have a clear meaning with this gadri.
le'e xelso merko cu gusta ponse
Lots of Greek-Americans own restaurants.
|
LE
|
|
lo [PA] broda | zo'e noi ke'a broda [gi'e klani li PA lo broda]
|
le [PA] broda | zo'e noi mi ke'a do skicu lo ka ce'u broda [gi'e klani li PA lo broda]
|
|
loi [PA] broda cu brode | lo [PA] broda cu kansi'u lo ka ce'u brode
|
lei [PA] broda cu brode | le [PA] broda cu kansi'u lo ka ce'u brode
|
|
lo'i [PA] broda | lo selcmi be ro lo [PA] broda e no lo na me lo [PA] broda
|
le'i [PA] broda | lo selcmi be ro le [PA] broda e no lo na me le [PA] broda
|
|
lo'e broda cu brode | lo ka ce'u brode cu zilfadni lo'i ro broda
|
le'e broda cu brode | lo ka ce'u brode cu zilfadni le'i broda ma'i mi
|
|
LE PA sumti | LE PA me sumti
|
|
LA
|
|
la [PA] broda | zo'e noi lu [PA] broda li'u cmene ke'a mi
|
lai [PA] broda | loi ro me la [PA] broda
|
la'i [PA] broda | lo'i ro me la [PA] broda
|
|
la PA sumti | zo'e noi lu PA sumti li'u cmene ke'a mi
|
lai PA sumti | loi ro me la PA sumti
|
la'i PA sumti | lo'i ro me la PA sumti
|
|
Quantified terms
|
|
PA sumti | PA da poi ke'a me sumti
|
PA broda | PA lo broda
|
|
pi PA1 lVi [PA2] broda | loi PA1 me lV [PA2] broda
|
pi PA1 lV'i [PA2] broda | lo'i PA1 me lV [PA2] broda
|
Summary
Cmavo | Article | Key phrase | Outer quantifier | Inner quantifier | Default quantifier
|
|
lo | Generic | fits | distributive over individuals | number of individuals not necessarily all that exist | none
|
le | Specific | described as | distributive over individuals | number of individuals | none
|
la | Name | named with | distributive over individuals | part of the name | none
|
|
loi | Generic mass | fit and collectively satisfy | selects subgroup | number of individuals not necessarily all that exist | none
|
lei | Specific mass | described as and collectively satisfy | selects subgroup | number of individuals | none
|
lai | Name mass | named with and collectively satisfy | selects subgroup | part of the name | none
|
|
lo'i | Generic set | has only members that fit | selects subset | cardinality of set not necessarily all that exist | none
|
le'i | Specific set | has only members described as | selects subset | cardinality of set | none
|
la'i | Name set | has only members named with | selects subset | part of the name | none
|
|
lo'e | Typical | those that fit typically satisfy | unclear | unclear | none
|
le'e | Stereotypical | those described as are said to typically satisfy | unclear | unclear | none
|
|
changes from CLL are shown in red
Notes
- Any term without an explicit outer quantifier is a constant, i.e. not a quantified term. This means that it refers to one or more individuals, and changing the order in which the constant term appears with respect to a negation or with respect to a quantified term will not change the meaning of the sentence. A constant is something that always keeps the same referent or referents. For example {lo broda} always refers to brodas. In {mu da poi broda zo'u da brode}, "da" is a quantified variable, bound by the quantifier mu, and it takes its values from the set of all things that broda. (Within the scope of the quantifier, it acts as a constant term, but it cannot escape as a constant out of that scope.) Any term with a quantifier in front takes values from the set of things over which the quantifier runs. When an unquantified term is quantified, the quantifier runs over the referents of the unquantified term.
- 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 and that the unquantified terms are constants.
- To refer to substances, lo/le/la without any quantifier are appropriate. The number {tu'o} could 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.
- A substance can also be seen as made up of component parts, and this can even be true in a physical sense: the water in a puddle of rain got there drop by drop. If you look from far enough away, you can't tell whether the "sailor all over the deck" is literally goo, or just an aggregation of sailors standing still. So a substance may be treated as a group made up of individuals without worrying about which individuals they are.
- The examples for lo'e and le'e were taken from CLL.
- lo'e se with the word for a kind of organism can refer 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.
- The contextual definitions of lo'e and le'e are given as a starting point towards their formalization, but many questions remain unanswered:
- Negation: Is lo'e broda na brode equivalent to lo ka ce'u na brode cu mutce kampu lo'i ro broda or to lo ka ce'u brode cu na mutce kampu lo'i ro broda?
- Expansions: Is lo'e broda cu brode gi'e brodi equivalent to lo ka ce'u brode gi'e brodi cu mutce kampu lo'i ro broda or to lo ka ce'u brode e lo ka ce'u brodi cu mutce kampu lo'i ro broda?
- Multiple lo'e: Is lo'e broda cu brode lo'e brodi equivalent to lo ka ce'u brode ce'u cu mutce kampu lo'i ro broda pi'u lo'i ro brodi or to something else?
- Subordination: Is lo nu lo'e broda cu brode cu brodi equivalent to lo ka lo nu ce'u broda cu brode cu mutce kampu lo'i broda or to lo nu lo ka ce'u brode cu mutce kampu lo'i broda cu brodi?
- ...
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: It is conceivable that some usages become more vague than intended if the default quantifiers played an important role in some expression, such as interactions between su'o and na, but it is hard to determine. If someone finds examples where this happens please report them.