[Attempto] Object Ops, eq vs exactly?

[Kaarel Kaljurand]

Hi,

On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 4:40 PM, David Whitten
<david.whitten.cyc at gmail.com> wrote:
> Has there been any discussion about handling "just" in Attempto:
> i.e.:
>
> Every American has just one President.
>
> It seems to be a way to differentiate between
>
> Every American has one mother.
> and
> Every American has one President.
>
> I guess other examples would be
>
> The team has just one leader
> Each organization has just one headquarters.

"just" is currently supported (in APE's built-in lexicon)
as an adverb, i.e. a content word
with now particular semantics. I.e. one can say:

John owns a car just.
John just owns a car.

These sentences are syntactically OK, but probably misleading,
so maybe we should
remove "just" from the lexicon and declare these sentences syntax
errors. (Of course, users can reintroduce "just" in their user lexicon.)

ACE does offer "exactly" and "nothing but" as function words.
These words seem to cover some (semantic) aspects of "just".

Every American has exactly one President.
Every koala eats nothing but eucalypt-leaves.

I guess we have considered "just" to be too ambiguous to force it
into a single meaning...

--
kaarel