WikiDiscuss

pc:
> But apparently you do give different meaning
> depending on the nature of brodas.

PA sumti is "PA referents of sumti". Always.
piPA sumti is "a piPA fraction of one referent of sumti". Always.

Those work for any form of sumti, {lo broda}, {lo'i broda}, etc,
and for broda that mean "is an apple" or "is a set". So the meaning
of the construction is independent of the nature of brodas.

> > piso'i lei broda = a large fraction of the
> > broda
> > so'i le broda = many of the broda
> >
> That is, the two mean virtually the same thing in
> reality, however different they are in form.

The first one is collective, the second one distributive.

> And
> {piso'i le broda} would be?

A large fraction of one of the referents of {le broda}.

If {broda} means "is a set of apples", then
{piso'i le selcmi be lo plise} means "a large subset of the set
of apples.

If {broda} means "is an apple", then {piso'i le plise} means
"a large fraction of the apple".

> Or {so'i lei broda}
> for that matter.

{so'i lei broda} would be meaningless, because {lei broda} has
a single referent, so there cannot be many of them doing anything.

> It starts to look as though
> these {pi} with nonnumeric quantifiers are just
> redundant.

I think they are. I wouldn't want to define them if they weren't
already there.

> Is that why you decided to give them
> a new use (or why the creatorss of Lojban did --
> to the extent that they did)?

You should ask them. I'm just defining them in accordance with CLL.

mu'o mi'e xorxes

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