[lojban] Re: xorlo

[Kevin Reid <kpreid@mac.com>]

On Sep 9, 2009, at 16:28, Squark Rabinovich wrote:

> Then lo nanmu cu bevri le pipno means "at least one man carries the  
> piano(s)". This means precisely that a situation of men that carry  
> the piano(s) exists, but we don't know how many men are there.

Careful with that "we don't know".

  - The speaker may know how many men, but not say so.

  - The *listener* will not know how many.

This phrase is not specifically indeterminate in number in the way the  
English "at least one ..." is; it just doesn't specify any number  
other than at least one.

Similarly, in English "men carried the piano" implies there were su'o  
re men carrying the piano, but it is not specifically not-specifying  
the number, just leaving out the information.

--
Kevin Reid                                  <http://switchb.org/kpreid/>






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