From a.rosta@dtn.ntl.com Sat Jul 14 18:16:58 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: a.rosta@dtn.ntl.com X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_2_0); 15 Jul 2001 01:16:58 -0000 Received: (qmail 71901 invoked from network); 15 Jul 2001 01:16:57 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.142) by l9.egroups.com with QMQP; 15 Jul 2001 01:16:57 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO relay3-gui.server.ntli.net) (194.168.4.200) by mta3 with SMTP; 15 Jul 2001 01:16:57 -0000 Received: from m676-mp1-cvx1b.bir.ntl.com ([62.255.42.164] helo=andrew) by relay3-gui.server.ntli.net with smtp (Exim 3.03 #2) id 15LaHn-0000XB-00 for lojban@yahoogroups.com; Sun, 15 Jul 2001 02:01:27 +0100 To: Subject: RE: [lojban] so'a Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2001 02:16:08 +0100 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) Importance: Normal In-Reply-To: X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2615.200 From: "And Rosta" Jorge: > la and cusku di'e > > >Am I right in reasoning that so'a 3 = 2 or 4 (among other > >possible values), and that to express English "almost 3" > >(= just under 3) one should use "so'a su'o 3", while "just > >over 3" would then be "so'a su'e 3"? > > That would pull so'a out of the so'V series. For the other > members, the meaning is as in {so'u ci} = "3 which are few", > {so'e ci} = "3 which are most", so I would say {so'a ci} = "3 > which are almost all". > > {ji'i ci} is "about 3". Maybe {za'uru'e ci} for "just over 3" > and {me'iru'e ci} for "just under 3". I have used {za'usai ci} > for "much more than three". > > mu'o mi'e xorxes Your reasoning is sound, but solo {so'a} then becomes sort-of equivalent to {ji'i ro}. Except that "almost 3", "almost 0", "almost all" entail "not 3", "not 0", "not all", whereas these aren't entailed by "ji'i ci", "ji'i no", "ji'i ro". This also means that {ji'i gai} does not mean "close to but not exactly a dozen", which is what I had thought "so'a gai" would mean. "Close to but not exactly a dozen" doesn't sound like something one would often want to say, but OTOH, "close to but not exactly enough" sounds like something it would be very useful to be able to say, and if not "so'a rau", then how should it be said? (I don't deny that it would also be useful to be able to express "almost all, which is enough".) Still, I think I buy your analysis (as I generally do). --And.