la tsani cu cusku di'e
> {me SUMTI mei} is awesome...
Thank you for taking the time to respond.
> ... and it seems like we can nicely gloss it as
> "x1 is an amount (on an unspecified scale) represented by SUMTI. IMO,
> however, the x2 should simply be the type of stuff being quantified.
> This makes it hold more consistently with the BPFK definition of numeric
> mei.
Yes, that is exactly the problem I had with my proposed definition; it
doesn't parallel {PA mei}. This one does, however, for the price of no
longer being able to "quantify the quantity". Of course you can instead
do this directly via SUMTI itself, so it's not a real problem I guess.
> Indeed, rather than numerically quantifying some x2s, which is what
> the numeric version does, we can vaguely quantify by comparison with
> another object.
>
> e.g. {.i mi pinxe lo me lo xance mei be lo djacu} {.i mi citka lo me lo
> palte mei be lo cakla}
Yes, that is a very practical place structure, and it has the same
structure as {me SUMTI moi}, which is a big plus in my opinion.
I would still like to work out a Lojban definition, though.
Interestingly, it is possible to express {me SUMTI moi} in a way that
gets rid of ordinality, using {ckini}:
x1 me SUMTI moi x2 boi x3 : x1 me x2 gi'e ckini SUMTI x3
And how about:
x1 me SUMTI mei x2 :
x1 me x2 gi'e mapti lo co'e be SUMTI lo ka ce'u klani ma kau zo'e/zi'o?
I introduced {lo co'e} because klani2 must be a number and the
contextual vagueness needs to be mirrored in the definition. {lo co'e}
would stand for things like {lo canlu} or {lo sefta} etc, which is left
up to context. What do you think?
Also, now that we apparently have a use for both {me SUMTI moi} and {me
SUMTI mei}, we should finish the job and give the rest of MOI an equal
treatment. That is, we ought to look for meanings for {me SUMTI si'e},
{me SUMTI va'e} and {me SUMTI cu'o} or else we are left with an ugly
hole in this paradigm.