Re: [lojban] Baby words: "more".

[selpa'i <seladwa@gmx.de>]

The problem with {za'u} is that it doesn't seem to do what is wanted, 
irrespective of default values. If {xo'e} is the amount of food already 
eaten, then {za'u xo'e} in

     * mi djica tu'a za'u [xo'e] lo cidja

would mean that I want to eat however much I already had plus some 
unspecified amount of extra food, instead of only eating the extra amount.

However, when looking at it from a different angle, the previous 
sentence suddenly makes sense: "I desire that there be an event of me 
eating more than I have currently eaten", and this event "replaces" the 
current event instead of being a seperate event that is being added 
after it (which was the case in the previous example). Then, {za'u} 
would actually seem to work.

For example:

     mi citka ci plise .i na banzu .i djica tu'a za'u [xo'e/ci] plise
     "I ate three apples. That's not enough. I want [to eat] more than 
three apples."

So here, {za'u} doesn't directly mean "additional", but the comparison 
between the actual and desired events entails that additional apples be 
desired. The important point to note is that the djica2-event is not a 
seperate event, but envelops the previous/current event of eating three 
apples and extends it, to an event of eating more than three apples.

I think this means there isn't really a problem with {za'u}, then. It 
just works for different reasons than one might think (or maybe it's 
obvious).

mu'o mi'e la selpa'i

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "lojban" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to lojban+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to lojban@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/lojban.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.