response to jimc on 'quantified questions'

[lojbab (Bob LeChevalier)]

jimc asks:
>In putting together some sentences for the L.A. group I was hunting for
>a cmavo which I'm sure is there, but which I couldn't find.  Can someone
>please translate:
>
>        which cat caught the rat
>
>The problem word is "which" in the outside quantifier site.  Also inside,
>if different.

I have trouble relating your question to inside/outside quantifiers.  The
quantifier question is "xo", which would serve your needs for a variety of
questions, but you need to be more explicit as to what this English sentence
means. Following are a couple of possibilities.

There are no specific set of possible cats in mind:

ma   poi  mlatu cu kavbu    le  ratcu
what that cats     captures the rat
What cat(s) catch(es) the rat?

The best way to make this explicitly singular is

ma   poi  mlatu     pamei     cu kavbu    le  ratcu
what that cattishly one-somes    captures the rat
What cat alone catches the rat?

You have a specific set of cats in mind, which you can order by some rule
permitting them to be numbered:

le  mlatu     xomoi         cu kavbu    le  ratcu
The cattishly what-th thing    captures the rat
Which in order of the cats catches the rat?

[I prefer this tanru order, but reversing the order gives approximately
the same meaning, with a more confusing grammar if actually called upon
to specify the ordering rule place of "moi"]

le  xomoi   mlatu cu kavbu    le  ratcu
The what-th cat      captures the rat

le  xomoi   be fi         le  javni be'o mlatu cu kavbu    le  ratcu
The what-th    ordered by the rule       cat      captures the rat

le  mlatu       xomoi         be fi            le  javni cu kavbu    le  ratcu
The cattish-ly  what-th thing    as ordered by the rule     captures the rat

The latter needs no "be'o" because the "cu" adequately terminates.  Furthermore,
you don't leave the presumably important "mlatu" hanging so long

You can also use "co" inversion:

le  mlatu co      xomoi   be fi         le  javni cu kavbu    le  ratcu
The cat   of-type what-th    ordered by the rule     captures the rat

which easily converts into the restrictive clause version:

le  mlatu poi   [ke'a] xomoi      be fi         le  javni cu kavbu    le  ratcu
The cat   which  [it]  is-what-th    ordered by the rule     captures the rat



Questions about inside and outside quantifiers change the meaning as follows.
The parenthetical quantifier is the default value for "le" that is implied
when no value is specified in that quantifier place.  It is not usually
stated:

xo          le  [su'o]          mlatu cu kavbu   le  ratcu
How-many-of the [at-least-some] cats     capture the rat

[ro]      le  xo       mlatu cu kavbu   le  ratcu
[Each-of] the how-many cats     capture the rat


lojbab