Subject: [lojban] Re: How would you say "plural" and "singular"?

From: Nora LeChevalier <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 15:52:20 -0500

At 07:38 PM 11/27/02 -0500, you wrote:
>I was attempting to say <"Dog" is the singular form of "Dogs">
>
>My solution was:
><zoi gy dog gy cu pamei valsi lo se su'omei valsi be zoi gy dogs gy>
>
>Now, that seems like it really sucks. Anyone have a better idea?

Well, whatever we do will be kludgy because singular/plural is not a lojban 
concept.

But, pamei valsi seems to imply that "dog" is a single-word concept (as 
opposed to, for example "hot dog", which is a two-word concept). I'd try 
for something like pamei sumti valsi (trying for "singleton-sumti word") 
for singular. Plural is not as simple. Some languages have more than one 
type of plural (Russian 2-4 is sometimes different from 5-or-more); and, as 
I noted in "le glibau cu cizra" on the Wiki, zero takes the PLURAL (at 
least in English). In fact, since "plural" and "singular" are so quirky 
(1/2 cup, .8 liters), you'd do much better with a lujvo that would only 
have to hint strongly at the meaning.

BTW, "dog" is NOT the plural of "dogs" if you are talking about the verb 
(as in "They dog his footsteps"); just the reverse! Though we don't 
normally label a verb "singular" or "plural" - merely "agreeing with the 
subject".

-- 
mi'e noras [email-masked]
Nora LeChevalier