From cbmvax!uunet!cuvma.bitnet!LOJBAN Thu Oct 3 01:27:57 1991 Return-Path: Date: Thu Oct 3 01:27:57 1991 Message-Id: <9110030001.AA06194@relay1.UU.NET> Reply-To: cbmvax!uunet!pucc.princeton.edu!jimc Sender: Lojban list From: cbmvax!uunet!pucc.princeton.edu!jimc Subject: Re: 'only' X-To: lojban@cuvmb.columbia.edu To: John Cowan , Ken Taylor , List Reader In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 01 Oct 91 09:27:16 BST." <9110012317.AA09573@julia.math.ucla.edu> Status: RO Richard Kennaway writes: > "Only" seems to me to be a three-place predicate masquerading as a > two-place one. "X is only Y" means "X is Y and, perhaps contrary to > expectation, is not Z", where Z is left unstated. It has yet another related meaning: x1 is (abstract) x2, and, perhaps unexpectedly, it is no more than that on some scale (x3?) relevant to x2. The polar opposite in this version is "very". Example: You got only a B on the test? (I expected an A.) I have only $10 (while I need more to buy...) You are only a teacher (Speaker character is putting down listener character by saying her social class is less than that of her new boyfriend) -- jimc