RE: [jboske] The ugly head of ni

["And Rosta" <a.rosta@lycos.co.uk>]

pc:
> arosta@uclan.ac.uk writes:
> <<
> 
> 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
> 
> >>
> Neither the Englsih nor the Lojban translation looks right here. {le 
> ni ce'u nenri le dakli} is a function that returns a quantity of some 
> sort (I suspect distances, but others are possible) for a sumti, just 
> as {ka ce'u} returns a property and {du'u ce'u} a proposition and 
> {jei ce'u} a truth value. 
> 
> <<
> 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.
> >>
> Not if that means "How many such pairs there are." It is 
> the-amount-of-love function. 
> 
> I think mucking about with {ni ce'u} before you have {ni ko'a} down 
> pat gets into all kinds of unnecessary problem, and. conversely, once 
> {ni ko'a} is under control, {ni ce'u} raises no problems at all -- 
> except for being kind of odd.

Well I have {ni ko'a} under control -- I think we all do, even if
xod thinks that jei can do ni's job. But I don't know what ni+ce'u
means. I invite people to tell me. 

--And.