Message-Id: <9108162230.AA05149@alfalfa.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 91 13:51:03 EDT
From: cbmvax!uunet!alfalfa.com!pro-angmar!steffan (Steven Mesnick)
To: cbmvax!buphy.bu.edu.lojban-list@snark.thyrsus.com!cowan.conlang
Subject: Re: Kennaway on speaker's intent
Status: RO

I'm sitting in my office. You come in and say "Do you have the time?" At
this point I, of course, can utter any utterable utterance conceivable
(including a null one), but there is a finite subset of utterances that
really answer the question. "George" is not normally one of them, unless,
perhaps, I have a 2 o'clock appointment with George and it is now 2
o'clock. Likewise, I can answer "2 o'clock" but that really answers the
question "What time is it?" It's as though I prefixed an implied "Do what I
really want you to do when I ask the following question:", sort of a Do
What I Mean command. So the answer, in a logical language, to the question
"Do you have the time" is "Yes, I do" or "No I don't". The answer to "DWIM:
Do you have the time?" is usually something like "2 o'clock" and sometimes
even "George". I think this distinction would be even clearer in Welsh,
which has no explicit "yes" or "no". There you would have to answer
"Yes-I-have-it" or "No-I-don't" (although here, too, you can answer "2
o'clock". Or "Hugh Evans" :-) ).