Re: The.
| From: | John Cowan <jcowan@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, May 22, 2001, 13:22 |
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Adrian Morgan wrote:
> It's a contrived example, but I think it illustrates certain facts about
> language. Here's how it works.
I suppose. But it took five minutes of hard thinking for me to "get"
the reading you intended, so perhaps it illustrates certain facts about
Australians... :-)
Now that I've gotten it, of course, I have no problem with it.
If you had said "What is 1977 minus the 19?" I think I would have had
no problem. But the frame "my year of birth minus the nineteen is equal
to my waist size in cm" is to me too mathematical to trigger the
non-math interpretation of "minus"; perhaps because "equal" here has its
math sense.
--
There is / one art || John Cowan <jcowan@...>
no more / no less || http://www.reutershealth.com
to do / all things || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
with art- / lessness \\ -- Piet Hein
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