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John: > And Rosta scripsit: > > > I remember xorxes discovering this weird locution. As you say, > > the basic idea of "X's Y" being done as "the Xth Y" is an attractive > > one, but I can't work out how {me ko'a moi} gets us to that meaning. > > I'd have guessed it was {mo'e ko'a moi}. What's wrong with {mo'e > > ko'a moi}? And how can {me ko'a moi} parse, given that {me ko'a} > > is a selbri and {moi} requires somesort of MEX argument? (I know > > this was explained first time round, but I can neither remember > > nor guess what the explanation was.) > > It's a hack, that's all. ME+sumti+MOI really has little or nothing > to do with ME; I just needed something without introducing a new cmavo, > and that parsed. > > The intention is that the sumti should have a numerical value, in > Lojban's extended sense of "numerical". E.g. me li re su'i ny. boi moi > means "n+2th". Ordinary MOI without ME can only use a number or letteral > string, not an arbitrary MEX, still less a non-MEX representation of > a numerical value. Does {mo'e ko'a moi} work? There's a potential ambiguity, I think, between "100th" and "uniquely pertaining to 100". For example, if we are orded by our ages, then I am pe li 35, but I am not 35th. So {me li ci mu me'u moi} is potentially ambiguous. --And.