Message-Id: <199511021957.OAA06148@locke.ccil.org>
Date:         Thu, 2 Nov 1995 19:51:29 +0000
Reply-To: ucleaar <ucleaar@UCL.AC.UK>
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
From: ucleaar <ucleaar@UCL.AC.UK>
Subject:      Almost & barely
To: John Cowan <cowan@locke.ccil.org>
Status: OR

Jorge:
> How do we say these in Lojban:
>        I touched it.
>        I barely touched it.
>        I almost touched it.

(1) Either (a) it shd be something that modifies the selbri, semantically,
so not something from UI, or (b) it should be along the lines of Steve's
suggestion, i.e. a specification of degrees of truth, so, I guess,
should be new additions to selmao NA.

(2) But one might hope that the solution would generalize to
"almost 30 people" (e.g. 29) and "barely 30 people" (e.g. 31).

(3) {soa} seems to have the aptest meaning such that it might be the
acorn from which a solution may sprout.

(4) "barely" and "almost" denote regions on a linear scale that
has 0 in the middle with positive and negative on either side.
"almost" is slightly negative, nearly positive, and "barely" is
slightly positive, nearly negative.

(5) As Chris has sort of said, one might also wish for a way to specify
which domain such a scale applies to. A famous example is "you almost
killed me": it can mean "you almost did something that caused me to die",
(e.g. you were going to pull the trigger but thought better of it at
the last minute) or "you did something that almost caused me to die"
(the bullet whizzed past my head) or "you did something that caused me to
almost die" (the bullet pierced a lung and it was touch and go but I
pulled through).

---
And