CDR: Re: The Dark Horse of Intellect Rides Again

[David Marshall]

David Marshall <marshall at athena.dhis.org> writes:

> to which he clearly wants more than a simple "yes" or "no." (Note that
> I'm not counting as sloppy thinking the problems which are inherent in
> most languages, such as the answer to "Is it day or night?" being
> "yes" in all cases.)

*slap* Now I'm doing it. It must be osmosis or something. I'm also
aware that I'm nitpicking in both these posts.

I should have added "and 'no; in intermediate cases such as dusk or
dawn."  Either way, the point is that English and most, if not all,
languages I'm aware of have this particular problem. Some artificial
languages, such as Lojban, tend to discourage this by, among other
things, requiring or encouraging the respondant to restate the true
portion of the statement.