| Since, in the 150 messages on this list since I went off for spring break, no
one has chewed me out for my last item on numbers, I am going ahead with the position that it was essentially correct. I can then generalize one portion of it, the response {nosoci} to the question {xonono}, to say that the way to say that a number fails to come up to your hope/expectation/need is to prefix it with {no}. This has the advantage of not changing truth values, etc. and of filling a gap in the patterns (or, better, using an anomolous form for a felt need). The suggestion that your target was in the next order of magnitude may be hyperbole, but serves to make the point (I can imagine a Hollywood bomb's gross being preceeded by {nono} even). |