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Re: The.

From:Muke Tever <alrivera@...>
Date:Tuesday, May 22, 2001, 12:05
>===== Original Message From Constructed Languages List >Adrian Morgan scripsit: > >> Consider this. If I said that my waist measurement in centimetres is my
year
>> of birth minus the nineteen (minus definite article nineteen), that's >> seventy-seven centimetres. > >It took me many minutes of pondering to get this; the trouble is not >the "the", but the equivocation over "minus", which in this case does >not have its technical meaning, but is a synonym for "without".
I wouldn't put it that way... For me, 'minus' means 'take away' (in either case), and the equivocation is between 1977 as a value (one less than 1,978) and 1977 as a written numeral (made of 1, 9, and two 7s). If I wanted to say the 'the' version without the definite article, I'd use a pronoun: "the year minus its nineteen". I think that one isn't ambiguous because 1977 as a value isn't likely to have that kind of possession ascribed to it. *Muke!