A pair of how-do-i-say-it's

["Mark E. Shoulson" <cbmvax!uunet!ctr.columbia.edu!shoulson>]

>Date:         Fri, 20 Mar 1992 17:22:24 GMT
>From: Ivan A Derzhanski <iad%COGSCI.ED.AC.UK@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu>

>Now what did we say by stating this?  Not much, it seems to me, for it
>is evident that there are a lot of possible values for R which make
>the sentence true.  Say,

>   `c := lambda x lambda y [is_a_citizen_of (x, y)]',
>   `d := lambda x lambda y [has_spent_at_least_one_week_in (x, y)]',

>and so on.  In fact, it should be possible to say `ID {bu'a} UK & GB
>{bu'a} US', because the sentence is true for {bu'a} = `d' (`x has
>spent at least one week in y').  Yet if someone says in English "Ivan
>is to the UK what George Bush is to the US", I'd give him a very
>strange look.

>What is going on?  Since {da} really can mean any object/concept,
>{bu'a} should be able to mean any relation, but it obviously doesn't.
>Is this a problem similar to the one with the meaning of {na'e}?

Youch.  Good point, Ivan.  {bu'a} really has to mean something like {da};
"just some selbri", thus losing the veridicality, or, in this situation,
since it's used twice, retaining a truly laughable quantity of meaning.
How about {mezu'i}=="the typical relationship"?  For starters, is that a
fair thing to do?  I sorta like the idea of {mezu'i} myself, and it *is*
veridical, if ambiguous.  Thus:

la djordj. mezu'i le merko gugde .ije la djan. mezu'i le brito gugde.

Is more helpful, but doesn't say what we want; {zu'i} is specific to the
situation.  I guess I was thinking more of

la djordj. mezu'i cei broda le merko gugde .ije la djan. broda le brito
gugde.

With the assignment, I think this nails down the first {mezu'i}.  But I'm
not sure if {mezu'i} has the right semantics in the first place.  {zu'i} is
sort of "the typical sumri for this position".  In a case like this, it
could be argued that {mezu'i} is "the typical selbri for this", but of
course "typical" is asking for trouble.  It's more like "the one I'm
thinking you, you figure it out..."  Sigh.  I don't know....

~mark