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[lojban] Re: "This number"



On Dec 14, 2007 8:59 PM, Penguino <spheniscine@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thus the first example goes to "mi nitcu paza'u pinsi", and the second "la
> .aslan. djica su'oza'u narge".

But I don't think that's really what "more" means in the original.
Consider this other example:

"I will buy one more pencil."

That does not mean that I will buy a number of pencils that is equal to
"some established number plus one". I will buy a single pencil. The other
pencils I already have, I either already bought them, or I got them by some
other means. Using {za'u} you could say:

   mi ba te vecnu lo za'u moi pinsi
   I will buy an other-than-first pencil.

i.e. "other than first" in some unspecified order, for example the order in
which I got them.

In your examples with "want" and "need" it is pehaps less clear, because
if you need one more presumably you also need the ones you already
have and if Aslan wants some more presumably he also wants/wanted the
ones he already has/had. But "I want one more pencil" and "Aslan wants
some more nuts" doesn't strictly assert anything about the previous
pencils/nuts, it only presupposes that you have them/Aslan had them.

>The interaction between multiple inexact
> numbers might have to be worked out, but in this case it is unambiguous. "At
> least two more" would be su'oreza'u, which would be the same whether
> interpreted as (su'ore)za'u or su'o(reza'u)

If {za'u} were to be used that way, then it would be a kind of
indicator. {reza'u
broda} would mean two broda, which are in some sense added to some other
broda already present in the context but which are not arguments of the current
bridi. Perhaps {ji'a} is more appropriate for that:

   mi nitcu pa ji'a pinsi

   la .aslan. cu djica su'o ji'a narge

mu'o mi'e xorxes


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