From nobody@digitalkingdom.org Wed Mar 10 21:28:01 2010 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-beginners); Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:28:01 -0800 (PST) Received: from nobody by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1NpawC-00061S-B4 for lojban-beginners-real@lojban.org; Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:28:00 -0800 Received: from cdptpa-omtalb.mail.rr.com ([75.180.132.123]) by chain.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Npaw5-000607-Fn for lojban-beginners@lojban.org; Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:27:58 -0800 X-Authority-Analysis: v=1.0 c=1 a=lZdWkxxt7xwA:10 a=ORa4HqFjfvEA:10 a=Q9fys5e9bTEA:10 a=rJMoepG4IrpXtk0jsbAA:9 a=witlLDK1mIkt3KAGH4QA:7 a=9rwwYeBXpJEtKE0NIjRBefMtkpsA:4 a=PUjeQqilurYA:10 X-Cloudmark-Score: 0 X-Originating-IP: 71.71.198.100 Received: from [71.71.198.100] ([71.71.198.100:39129] helo=chausie) by cdptpa-oedge02.mail.rr.com (envelope-from ) (ecelerity 2.2.2.39 r()) with ESMTP id C5/9C-22814-15F789B4; Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:27:45 +0000 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by chausie (Postfix) with ESMTP id ECAE9A4DB for ; Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:27:44 -0500 (EST) From: Pierre Abbat To: lojban-beginners@lojban.org Subject: [lojban-beginners] Re: Duration questions Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:27:39 -0500 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.6 (enterprise 0.20070907.709405) References: <1f1080831003101520r1e87f21cuacb4cd23fa9a2d4c@mail.gmail.com> <12d58c161003101532q3bf8ca8exc72b1fb3c5bcc9c@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <12d58c161003101532q3bf8ca8exc72b1fb3c5bcc9c@mail.gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-15" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by Ecartis Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <201003110027.41498.phma@phma.optus.nu> X-archive-position: 2987 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-beginners-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: lojban-beginners-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: phma@phma.optus.nu Precedence: bulk Reply-to: lojban-beginners@lojban.org X-list: lojban-beginners On Wednesday 10 March 2010 18:32:18 komfo,amonan wrote: > I take {ze'a} (and its kin {za}, {ve'a}, and {va}) to mean not only > "medium", but also "unspecified". Others follow this usage as well, even > though it's not strictly in accordance with the definition. So, {[.i ti > zdani mi ze'a] lo cabdei} is a reasonable answer to the question. I agree. This is one of several things called "markedness" in linguistics. In Lojban, the middle degree is unmarked. In English, there is no middle degree, and "long" is unmarked. The unmarked degree is used in questions, unless you know in advance that the marked degree applies. So "How short have you been living in this house?" implies that you already know that it has been a short time. Pierre -- When a barnacle settles down, its brain disintegrates. Já não percebe nada, já não percebe nada.