From lojbab@lojban.org Fri May 12 20:03:08 2000 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 29125 invoked from network); 13 May 2000 03:03:06 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.142) by m3.onelist.org with QMQP; 13 May 2000 03:03:06 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO stmpy.cais.net) (205.252.14.63) by mta3 with SMTP; 13 May 2000 03:03:05 -0000 Received: from bob (209-8-89-105.dynamic.cais.com [209.8.89.105]) by stmpy.cais.net (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id XAA19854 for ; Fri, 12 May 2000 23:01:29 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <4.2.2.20000512225707.00aad390@127.0.0.1> X-Sender: vir1036/pop.cais.com@127.0.0.1 X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.2.2 Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 23:05:12 -0400 To: lojban@egroups.com Subject: Re: [lojban] centripetality: subset vs component In-Reply-To: <200005122338.BAA02914@Zeke.Update.UU.SE> References: <4.2.2.20000512183902.00a6d4d0@127.0.0.1> <4.2.2.20000512183902.00a6d4d0@127.0.0.1> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed From: "Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" At 01:38 AM 05/13/2000 +0200, Thorild Selen wrote: >Bob LeChevalier (lojbab) writes: > > Not likely if we are talking dates. If the listener only wants the > century, > > then giving the date to any greater significance is drowning him in > > irrelevance. > >This brings up another interesting question; how should you specify >a century? In English, you usually say "the 18:th century" where a >Swede would say "the 1700:s". I admit that the second version is >somewhat ambigous, since it could possibly be intended to mean only >the years 1700-1709, but, on the other hand, the n:th century style >seems kind of off by one, and therefore causes confusion among those >who aren't used to it; also, it doesn't look a bit like how you talk >about decades in any language that I know, and to be consistent with >that style you'd possibly have to consider talking about, for example, >the 171:th decade. >Does anyone have a good suggestion for how to talk about centuries >and decades in lojban? It just so happens ... We thought of that one, and there is a "non-specific number" tu'o and a "typical number" no'o corresponding to sumti placeholders zo'e and zu'i. So pazetu'otu'o is the 1700s. The 18th century is of course le pabimoi ke nanca panonomei (or ctona'a). lojbab ---- lojbab lojbab@lojban.org Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org