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Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2005 20:34:38 +0200
From: Philip Newton <philip.newton@gmail.com>
To: Lojban Beginners List <lojban-beginners@chain.digitalkingdom.org>
Subject: [lojban-beginners] Asking for connectives, or "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"
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Would a suitable way of asking "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"
be {pau do se bruna gi'i se mensi}? (That is, something along the
lines of "please fill in the appropriate connective for the relations
'x is a brother to you' and 'y is a sister to you'".)

I suppose the answers would be along the lines of {na gi'e} "I have no
brothers, but I do have at least one sister"), {gi'e nai} "I have no
sisters, but I do have at least one brother", {na gi'e nai} "No,
neither brothers nor sisters", or {gi'e} "Yes, I have both at least
one brother and at least one sister".

What about the forethought equivalent, presumably {pau do ge'i se
bruna gi se mensi} -- how would one answer that? "Both" seems
straightforwardly {ge} but what about "Brothers but no sisters", which
would require {ge ... ginai ...} in a sentence, i.e. doesn't have one
word that can substitute for the {ge'i} as an answer. Would the
answerer have to be more explicit and say {mi ge se bruna ginai se
mensi} or could they be more terse and say something like {ge ginai}?

mu'o mi'e .filip.
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@gmail.com>