Re: Subject/Object + Everyone/Someone

on 9/5/03 4:42 AM, Tristan McLeay at zsau@FIRESPEAKER.ORG wrote:

> My logic lecturer pointed out that while 'Mary loves John' and 'John is
> loved by Mary' mean the same thing, 'everyone loves someone' and 'someone
> is loved by everyone' mean different things and so concluded that you
> can't apply 'subject' and 'object' to 'everyone' and 'someone'.
>
> Is that true? Then what would you call the everyone and someone? If not,
> what's happening?
>
>
> --
> Tristan                  <kesuari@...>
>
> Yesterday I was a dog. Today I'm a dog. Tomorrow I'll probably still
> be a dog. Sigh! There's so little hope for advancement.
> -- Snoopy
My 2¢...

'Everyone loves someone' has two meanings to begin with:
Meaning 1: there is only one 'someone' (X, Y, and Z all love Z)
Meaning 2: there can be multiple 'someone's (X loves Y; Y loves Z; Z loves
X)

For 'someone is loved by everyone' there should be parallel meanings:
Meaning 1: there is only one 'someone' (Z is loved by X, Y, and Z)
Meaning 2: there can be multiple 'someone's (Z is loved by Y; Y is loved by
X; X is loved by Z)

For each sentence, which meaning is understood is affected by stress and
intonation. Spoken in the most neutral way, I find Meaning 2 more natural
for the active sentence, and Meaning 1 more natural for the passive
sentence,* but the other configurations are certainly also possible.
When you mismatch the meanings for the two sentences, of course they mean
different things. But if you tell yourself that 'someone' refers to
absolutely only one person in each sentence, they match up fine; likewise if
you choose the other meaning.

*I think these can be explained in a functional way: it's plausible, if not
true, to say 'everyone loves someone' with the multiple 'someone' meaning.
If you wanted to say that everyone loved the same person though, not only is
it implausible, you'd probably just name the person, unless you were trying
to hide the information. With the passive sentence, 'someone' with the
'multiple unknown entities' meaning is not preferred because it refers to
something so vague that there's usually little reason to topicalize it and
make it the subject. Additionally, this interpretation depends on the
'everyone,' which hasn't yet entered the sentence (cf. 'Someone is loved by
Jill,' which has only one meaning).

--
Josh Roth
http://www34.brinkster.com/fuscian/index.html

"Farewell, farewell to my beloved language,
Once English, now a vile orangutanguage."
-Ogden Nash