Re: Quine text

[And Rosta <cbmvax!uunet!ucl.ac.uk!ucleaar>]

Mark:
> I think I'm slowly getting to understand the way {loi} works, from a
> statement made in passing by John Cowan in one of his papers.  As I see it
> now (as opposed to how I saw it 2 weeks ago and how I will see it in a
> little while), the mass is sort of talking about the individuals
> collectively.  That is, the qualities of the collective do not enter into
> things.  As John worded it, the qualities of the mass are the qualities of
> the members.  Thus, the collective of humanity, {lo'i remna}, is neither
> male nor female, but the mass of humanity, {loi remna} is both male and
> female.  {loi bidju} is small, since pebbles are small, but {lo'i bidju} is
> large, since there are many pebbles ({lo'i} works with qualities of the
> collective, not the individuals).  This leads me to worry a bit about the
> distinction between {loi} and {lo'e}, so I've gotta think about it more.
>
> By that reasoning, {loi remna cu morsi} would work well for "Man is mortal"
> (would {lo'e remna} be better?), and {lo'i remna noroi morsi} would work
> for "Man is immortal" (i.e. the human race as an entity).
>
> This sound good, people?

Which Cowan paper discusses these?

If lo'i remna is neither male nor female, then this looks like the
candidate for "Man is immortal".

If loi remna is both male and female (& I reckon this is so), then this
is rather iffy for "Man is mortal". "Man is mortal" means the typical person
('man', to be safe) is mortal. But "loi remna is mortal" means that at least
some part of loi remna, *but possibly only a single person* is mortal.

On the question of the appropriate logical connective:
  lo'i parent is neither male nor female.
  loi parent is both male and female.
  The typical parent is either male exc.or female.

It occurs to me that loi may actually be an (inclusive) alternative to
lo'i for the "man is immortal" type.
  The mammoth penetrated North America.
  [If Sophy is a mammoth, can't conclude Sophy penetrated N.America.]
  loi mammoth penetrated N.America.

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And