Re: [jboske] The ugly head of ni

[Adam Raizen <araizen@cs.huji.ac.il>]

la .and. cusku di'e

> xod:
> #> From memory, his ex was
> #> something like {le ni la djan cilre ce'u} = "the amount of things
> #> read by John". Would this be an example of what you have in mind?
> #
> #Yes; which I phrase as "the number of sumti valid for that tergi'u".
> #
> #http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jboske/message/273 
>
> OK.
>
> le ni ce'u nenri le dakli
> the amount of things in the bag
>
> = da poi mo'e ke'a de nenri le dakli

To me, it would seem extremely strange if 'ni ce'u' was not some kind of 
a property-like thing. It seems similar to me to considering 'du'u 
makau' to be a sumti of the subordinate bridi. "the number of things in 
the bag" can be done with "le se klani be lei nenri be le dakli" (or a 
corresponding tanru), and that doesn't use any special syntax.

> Would {le ni ce'u prami ce'u} mean "the amount of lover--beloved 
> pairings"? That would be much harder to say in some other way.

I suppose it would if 'ni ce'u broda' counts le broda, but that is not a 
concept likely to be used often anyway. It's also highly ambiguous 
between the e-gadri interpretation and the o-gadri. In the rare cases 
where it might be useful, it can be done with ordinary selbri and 
ordinary syntax; something like 'le se klani be lei remei be tu'o prami 
ku ce'o tu'o se prami' (probably there's a better way to phrase that, 
but that's the general idea.)

mu'o mi'e .adam.