Re: clani

["Lee Daniel Crocker (none)" <lcrocker@MERCURY.COLOSSUS.NET>]

> The reason I prefer not to talk about ni is that I never fully
> understood what it's for. I'm confortable using ka, nu and du'u,
> but I don't know about the other "abstractors", maybe because
> the first three are the only ones that have been used
> significantly.
>
> Where would one use {ni mitre} for example? Isn't  the measure
> {se mitre}? I know what {le ka mitre li ci} means: The property
> of measuring three meters. But what does {le ni mitre li ci} mean?

{mitre} is a special case because it already has a place for
measurement, so I might agree that {le ni mitre} is just the same
thing as {le se mitre}.  But something like {ninmu} makes it more
useful: {mi nelci le ni ti ninmu} "I like the amount-of she is-a-
woman/I like her degree of femininity".

> >longness" is different.  A (subjectively) long thing has "some"; a
> >subjectively short thing has none.  A subjectively very long thing
> >has a lot.  Similarly, a long thing has no amount of shortness, and
> >a very short thing has a lot of shortness.
>
> I agree, but I would say it with ka rather than ni:
>                     le clani cu ckaji le ka clani
>                     le tordu cu claxu le ka clani
>                     le clatce cu mutce le ka clani

That seems OK, but for something like {ninmu}, {ka} and {ni}
are very different: {mi nelci le ka ti ninmu} expresses not that I
like the degree of her femininity, but merely the existence of it.

--
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
"All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC