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Re: [lojban] rau
Further evidence that you are right is that a distinction is made between
du'e and mo'a, "too many", "too few", but rau is "enough" and there
is no "few enough"/"many enough" contrast.
--And.
>>> Nick Nicholas <opoudjis@optushome.com.au> 09/24/02 04:39pm >>>
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*
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