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Trick sentences was Bi-objective Prepositions & betweeness.

From:Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...>
Date:Saturday, January 3, 2004, 7:01
Observing:

> > "This gift is from me and Carlene" means (to a > first approximation, anyway) > > the same as "This gift is from me and this gift is > from Carlene". > > But "Newark is between New York and Philadelphia" > does not unpack to > > "*Newark is between New York and Newark is between > Philadelphia".>>
The question arises, is there (or should there be) a list someqwhere of "trick sentences" that conlangers could use to test out the consistency and completeness of their conlang creations? Sort of a "can you say this" check-list for conlang grammars. like, can you say: ... as big as ... ... between X and Y ... the meanest of dogs. ...etc. Each time you find a sentence you can't translate into your conlang, you've perhaps found a hole in your grammar. --gary