Subject: Re: [lojban] Regional difference ??

From: "Jorge Llambias" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 14:41:52

la ivAn cusku di'e

>Worse, I can't interpret {pu'onai} as `about not to'; it comes
>across as `not about to', which is false (if I did catch the
>train, then I *was* about to, even though I thought I wasn't).

Yes, I thought so too.

>There really is no (simple) way of saying `about not to', because
>the not happening of something isn't an event (no event, no event
>contour; no event contour, no prelude).

{le nu na broda} is not an event?

I think {pu'o na broda} does make sense, but the idea I get
from it is of the prelude to the transition from happening to
not-happening, which is not really what we want here.

>Let's look at another domain, quantity. I'd say that `almost
>caught' is to `almost 100' (which can mean 98 or 99 or so) as
>`barely caught' is to `only 100' (which does mean 100 but not
>101 or 102). What's the story about `only'?

Well, {po'o} will work in some cases for "only 100".
For example:

panono po'o le nanmu cu zvati.
Only 100 of the men are here.

That means that 100 are the only relevant cases, no other
case applies. But it won't always work:

ta ropnyrupnu li panono po'o
That costs "only" 100 euros.

which means that 100 euros is its only price, that no other
price applies.

I don't think {po'o} can work for "just barely".

As for "almost 100", I have no idea. Maybe we could try
something like "approaching 100", {zo'imo'i li panono}...
No, I didn't think so.

co'o mi'e xorxes

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