Re: A question of semantics
| From: | michael poxon <m.poxon@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, August 13, 2003, 11:54 |
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Isn't this just the result of the wide meaning of "thought" in English,
where it can do service for both 'mental process' and 'belief' - as you say,
a question of semantics. I think (hah! Think = "I have a suspicion that")
French gets round this by using 'penser' for the general act of thinking and
'croire' for 'having a belief - je crois que je pense donc je suis!
Mike
> I'm not entirely sure what's wrong with 'I thought I saw Jenny'. Indeed,
> I would say that describes exactly what happened. If I was unable to
> tell whether or not it actually was Jenny (looked again and I she wasn't
> there, or even after looking again I wasn't sure because I hadn't seen
> Jenny in some time), then I would've said 'I think I saw Jenny' (even if
> I'm no longer actively thinking it and I'm just mentioning it, so the
> tense is technically wrong).
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