I like that. It's bending the formal rules a little bit, but in a way that makes sense. I hadn't noticed that English does pretty much the same thing, either; it's odd how being a native speaker (or perhaps just being fluent?) makes you miss things like that.
.i ki'e .i mu'omi'e .latros. On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 12:27 AM, Pierre Abbat <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wednesday 10 March 2010 18:32:18 komfo,amonan wrote: > > I take {ze'a} (and its kin {za}, {ve'a}, and {va}) to mean not only > > "medium", but also "unspecified". Others follow this usage as well, even > > though it's not strictly in accordance with the definition. So, {[.i ti > > zdani mi ze'a] lo cabdei} is a reasonable answer to the question. > > I agree. This is one of several things called "markedness" in linguistics. > In > Lojban, the middle degree is unmarked. In English, there is no middle > degree, > and "long" is unmarked. The unmarked degree is used in questions, unless > you > know in advance that the marked degree applies. So "How short have you been > living in this house?" implies that you already know that it has been a > short > time. > > Pierre > -- > When a barnacle settles down, its brain disintegrates. > Já não percebe nada, já não percebe nada. > > > >
