From - Tue Feb 20 15:05:43 1996 Received: from VMS.DC.LSOFT.COM (vms.dc.lsoft.com [205.186.43.2]) by locke.ccil.org (8.6.9/8.6.10) with ESMTP id HAA13469 for ; Sun, 18 Feb 1996 07:06:19 -0500 Message-Id: <199602181206.HAA13469@locke.ccil.org> Received: from PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (205.186.43.4) by VMS.DC.LSOFT.COM (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.0a) with SMTP id 45F2F9E8 ; Sun, 18 Feb 1996 6:32:00 -0500 Date: Sun, 18 Feb 1996 11:29:50 +0000 Reply-To: ucleaar Sender: Lojban list From: ucleaar Subject: Re: GEN: almost-PROPOSAL: intervals X-To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: John Cowan X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 1479 Jorge: > >> 2. xe'i (with asperations of te'i-hood) > >I prefer this, because (1) has the further disadvantage of the > >redundancy of calling an interval/distance small or large and then > >saying exactly how big it is. > There is no problem with that: use za, or va, when you don't want > to say that it is a small or large distance. What if I don't want to say it's a medium distance, either? What if I just want to say what the distance is, without making a judgement of its magnitude relative to other distances? > >I believe that the omission of this feature from the current > >language is just an oversight; I think it would be in there if whoever > >made the system had remembered they were needed. > Whoever made the system did remember they were needed, because > zi/za/zu are precisely there to mark the interval size between the event > and the reference point. There was no omission or oversight. Yes, but no way is provided for specifying the distance, except in this relative way. I think it's an oversight because English does offer a way, and it's used a lot, so I reckon that if the designers had noticed that english does this then they would have copied it, that being a common and sensible method in the design process. I wonder how "four score and ten years ago" was done: Lojbab translated it a few years back. [See? "a few years back". Ubiquitous.] Does anyone have the gettysburg address translation? coo, mie and