From LOJBAN%CUVMB.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.YALE.EDU Sat Mar 6 22:52:26 2010 Received: from YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU by MINERVA.CIS.YALE.EDU via SMTP; Mon, 5 Apr 1993 13:13:13 -0400 Received: from CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU by YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 2491; Mon, 05 Apr 93 13:13:42 EDT Received: from CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU by CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Mailer R2.07) with BSMTP id 4793; Mon, 05 Apr 93 13:05:35 EST Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1993 17:59:53 BST Reply-To: C.J.Fine@BRADFORD.AC.UK Sender: Lojban list From: C.J.Fine@BRADFORD.AC.UK Subject: Re: TECH: only, {me} place structure To: Erik Rauch Status: OR X-From-Space-Date: Mon Apr 5 13:13:13 1993 X-From-Space-Address: @YaleVM.YCC.YALE.EDU:LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET Message-ID: > On only, Colin. I think it is NOT that "only" has many different phrasings > in Lojban that makes it a problem (although this might be true), and likewise > "just", "even", "still", but it is that almost always the phrasings in > Lojban are long, and somewhat metalinguistically tangled. The reason I > feel a need for a Zipfeanly short form is that in both of my current languages , > English AND Russian, these types of words are expressed briefly and stuck in > almost as easily into a text as we stick in our attitudinals and discursives. > My kids use the Russian words "tol'ko" and "yishcho" and "uzhe" (already) > in a high percentage of their sentences, as do I, it seems. The meanings > have some semantic spread, but not all that much. But what do they MEAN?? As Jim in effect pointed out, most discursive meanings of 'only' seem to be something like 'contrary to what you might have expected' - I think that might be what your 'xu'o' means. (Which is not quite the same as you suggested) Colin