From cbmvax!uunet!CUVMA.BITNET!LOJBAN Mon Jan 27 16:20:49 1992 Return-Path: Received: by snark.thyrsus.com (/\==/\ Smail3.1.21.1 #21.19) id ; Mon, 27 Jan 92 16:20 EST Received: by cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (5.57/UUCP-Project/Commodore 2/8/91) id AA04778; Mon, 27 Jan 92 10:09:45 EST Received: from cunixf.cc.columbia.edu by relay1.UU.NET with SMTP (5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AA15942; Mon, 27 Jan 92 09:36:17 -0500 Received: from cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu by cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (5.59/FCB) id AA14254; Mon, 27 Jan 92 09:36:06 EST Message-Id: <9201271436.AA14254@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> Received: from CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU by CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU (IBM VM SMTP R1.2.1) with BSMTP id 4238; Mon, 27 Jan 92 09:34:41 EST Received: by CUVMB (Mailer R2.07) id 7890; Mon, 27 Jan 92 09:34:06 EST Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1992 09:34:00 EST Reply-To: "Mark E. Shoulson" Sender: Lojban list From: "Mark E. Shoulson" Subject: Numeral strings: we need your help! X-To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: John Cowan , Eric Raymond , Eric Tiedemann In-Reply-To: nsn%MULLIAN.EE.MU.OZ.AU@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu's message of Sat, 25 Jan 1992 10:42:30 +1100 Status: RO Date: Sat, 25 Jan 1992 10:42:30 +1100 From: nsn%MULLIAN.EE.MU.OZ.AU@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu I vote for your position on strings like repai. That's kinda ambiguous, Nick. I take it you mean John's? I also don't trust "repai" for 2pi. I could see sanctioning its use informally and unofficially, among people who knew what you were talking about, but as to its official definition, I think you'd want to require the "pi'i". "repai" seems, at first glance, to be 20*pi, but maybe not... I vote that {zei} be deallocated, and the space given to one of the currently deallocated cmavo. Don't think factorials are really important? Ok.... In contrast to your position on {repai}, though, and after initial opposition, I do support the oddity {ropa}, and in general the concatenation of "adjective PA" and "digit PA", for pragmatic reasons, even though {rolopa} is the actual meaning (ropamei *is* handy; in fact, I came up with it independently; it's a bad thing to have a backlog, friend). Similarly for du'e, mo'a etc. As a whole Lojban's PA grammeme is an odd collection, with few analogies in the world's languages. Forms like {ropa} are *not* obvious, and require explanation in any presentation such as you're doing. "ropa" meaning what? "All-of-one"? Or "One-which-is-all-there-is"? The latter makes more sense to me, and.. oh, yes, I see, it conforms to "rolopa". Fine. ~mark