WikiDiscuss

WikiDiscuss


BPFK Section: gadri

Well, there are no manifestations of Mr. Unicorn, but Mr. Unicorn exists like all kinds. You really have to settle down on what this locution means — or, I suspect, get better about saying what that is. If Mr. Unicorn does not exist, then he is only a disguised way of talking about his instances and so in practice not different from "some unicorn." The juggling to get something externally generalizable out of such expressions is also then just a trick that needlessly — and misleadingly — hides what is going on: the generalization on, e.g., {le ka pavyseljirna} (I do agree that the gadri there is otiose, even odious).
pc
Jorge LlambĂ­as <jjllambias2000@yahoo.com.ar> wrote:


> U: But unlike {la meripapnz na zasti} {lo pavyseljirna na zasti} seems to be
> false, since Mr. Unicorn exists whether or not any manifestations of him do.

Mr. Unicorn is as inexistent as Mary Poppins.
{lo pavyseljirna na zasti} simply means "Unicorns don't exist"
in the same way that {la meripapnz na zasti} means "Mary Poppins
does not exist".

To understand the meaning of {lo pavyseljirna na zasti} you need
to know what {lo pavyseljirna} means in the same way that you need
to know what {la meripapnz} means to understand {la meripapnz na zasti}.
That the meanings of both those expressions "exist" doesn't imply that
there are real objects in the world that respond to them.
There is no distinction in principle between Mary Poppins and
Mr Unicorn.

mu'o mi'e xorxes





__
Do you Yahoo!?
Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger.
http://messenger.yahoo.com/