Return-Path: Message-Id: <9201161912.AA21447@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1992 12:15:19 EST Reply-To: John Cowan Sender: Lojban list From: John Cowan Subject: Re: The dreaded word "only" X-To: Lojban List To: John Cowan , Eric Raymond , Eric Tiedemann In-Reply-To: <199201160927.AA17412@munagin.ee.mu.OZ.AU>; from "mullian.ee.mu.oz.au!nsn" at Jan 16, 92 8:27 pm Status: RO X-From-Space-Date: Thu Jan 16 15:29:15 1992 X-From-Space-Address: cbmvax!uunet!CUVMA.BITNET!LOJBAN mi cusku di'e > > ro da poi cevni du la .alax. > > all x1s which are-gods are-identical-to Allah la nitcion. cusku di'e > Which transforms to: > > la alex. du roda poi cevni > .i la alex. du ro cevni All's well so far. > .i la alex. romei lei cevni Here I disagree on two counts, one minor, one fundamental. The minor point is that "ro cevni" means "ro lo cevni", and therefore the mass form must be "loi cevni", not "lei cevni". But even making this change, la alex. romei loi cevni still seems to me to mean: That-named "Allah" is-an-allsome-of the-mass-of gods In other words, there are one or more gods, and "Allah" is a collective name for all of them taken as a mass. Remember that "la alex." is not marked for number! -- cowan@snark.thyrsus.com ...!uunet!cbmvax!snark!cowan e'osai ko sarji la lojban