category errors in sumti

[Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>]

Cowan may have just said something roughly like this but:
>The fact remains that it IS possible for a selbri to have a sumti that
>must be concrete or must be abstract, just as it is possible for a
>selbri to have a sumti that must be male or must be female.

But the latter is not particularly true.  Can you give an example of
one?  Note that "lo fetsi cu nakni" is a possible predication (du'u)
whether or not such a thing can actually occur (it can with some
animals, and is arguable in the case of transsexuals and genetic
hermaphrodites).

On the other hand there are sumti places that would make no SENSE if an
abstraction were used instead of a concrete, and vice versa.  There are
also sumti places where specifying a gender would make no sense.  Such
predications are false, not merely meaningless.

lo du'u broda cu cukta
lo du'u broda cu fetsi
lo cukta cu fetsi
lo fetsi cu jetnu
li ci cu cukta
li ci cu fetsi
li ci cu jetnu

are all false (I hope).  They happen to violate the pragmatic bounds as
to what permissible values COULD be true in some possible world.

This has overlap with the meanings of ca'a and ka'e, which I post on
seperately.
----
lojbab                                                lojbab@access.digex.net
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
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