rau

[Nick Nicholas <opoudjis@optushome.com.au>]

Like the list needed yet another instance of an ambiguously defined 
cmavo...

The What Is Lojban brochure speaks of being "enoughth in line" to get a 
ticket for a movie.

In private email (which I've posted as errata, and am now working 
through), Arnt complains:

> *** (Difficult-to-fix issues) "and one can talk of being "enough-th in 
> line" for tickets to a sellout movie" Now wait a minute. Is there any 
> other ways in Lojban to number the places in a line than to call the 
> foremost number 1? In that case, one would want to have a *small 
> enough* number in line, instead of *large enough*, as I think "raumoi" 
> must mean.

Jorge responds:

> ****Interesting issue! I think ''rau'' should be able to mean "few 
> enough" in contexts where fewer is more significant. I can't think of 
> a case where this would cause problems. --[xorxes]

The cmavo itself is defined merely as "enough; subjective"

In accordance with the supplicatory model: If Lojbab wrote this text, 
then Lojbab must have intended "rau" to mean 'small enough' as well as 
'large enough'.

The formal way of stating this without being braindamaged is: "rau" 
indicates a quantity which is satisfactory for the purposes of the 
perspective-holder in context [not necessarily the speaker], as they 
can be inferred from context. Its reference is not constrained to being 
a ceiling value ('large enough value'), it may be a floor ('small 
enough value') or a median value, according to context.

(This is the kind of thing I'd like to see in a mini-dict, btw.)

Kai san swqhkan t' akriba piota,          N N O  nickn@unimelb.edu.au
kai san plhsiaze pia h wra tesseres,      I I L  http://www.opoudjis.net
ston erwta doqhkan eutuxeis.              C C A  Universtity of 
Melbourne
 K.P.Kabafhs, _Duo Neoi, 23 Ews 24 Etwn_  K H S   *Ceci n'est pas un 
.sig*