[lojban] Re: Translating "even"

[MorphemeAddict@wmconnect.com]

In a message dated 9/28/2009 23:58:18 Eastern Daylight Time, get.oren@gmail.com writes:


> 'Even two people can't move it, how could just you alone?' 
> or 
> 'She wasn't even awake, let alone concerned.' 


Here are my attempts at paraphrasing these two utterances.
1) Since two people aren't enough to move it, (surprise!) how could fewer people (or one person) do it?

Or generalizing: Even X can't Y, so how could less-than-X Y? (or in cases of opposite extreme: ... how could more-than-X Y?)
Since X is insufficient for Y to be true, it's surprising and doubtful that less than X would be sufficient for Y to be true.

2) (#2 also contains the idiom "let alone", which should be dealt with separately.)
She was not awake, but she would have to be awake in order for her to be concerned.

A necessary condition of being concerned is being awake.  This necessary condition is not met so there can be no question of being concerned.
Y requires X. X is not true, so Y is not true.

Comments?

mu'o mi'e stevon