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Location of "na" in sentence



On Thu, 25 Sep 1997, HACKER G N wrote:
> Why at the END of the bridi? It doesn't make any difference where you
> put the "na" in a bridi; its grammar and semantics are exactly the same.

My understanding is that "na"'s position does matter in a sentence
where we're using "lo" or "da poi" in a logical statment without a
prenex.

  mi ponse lo mlatu naku
     => da poi mlatu naku zo'u mi ponse da
     = There exists a cat such that it is not true that I possess it
     = There is at least one cat I don't own
  mi na ponse lo mlatu
     => naku da poi mlatu zo'u mi ponse da
     = It is not true that there exists a cat that I posses
     = I don't have a cat

We're trying to map a lojban sentence without a prenex to a formal logic
sentence (which always has a prenex).  The approved way to know what order
the quantifiers and negations are supposed to fall in, is to take them in
the order they're found in the sentence.