Received: from VMS.DC.LSOFT.COM (vms.dc.lsoft.com [205.186.43.2]) by locke.ccil.org (8.6.9/8.6.10) with ESMTP id XAA16361 for ; Sun, 26 Nov 1995 23:40:22 -0500 Message-Id: <199511270440.XAA16361@locke.ccil.org> Received: from PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (205.186.43.4) by VMS.DC.LSOFT.COM (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.0a) with SMTP id F6A68E1B ; Mon, 27 Nov 1995 0:30:07 -0400 Date: Sun, 26 Nov 1995 20:28:50 -0800 Reply-To: "Peter L. Schuerman" Sender: Lojban list From: "Peter L. Schuerman" Subject: Re: fuzzy questions X-To: Jorge Llambias X-cc: Lojban List , jorge@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu To: John Cowan In-Reply-To: <199511270217.VAA00325@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu> Status: OR X-From-Space-Date: Sun Nov 26 23:40:25 1995 X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN%CUVMB.BITNET@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU On Sun, 26 Nov 1995, Jorge Llambias wrote: > How can I know what 0.6-tallish means? I've no idea whether that means > that you are taller or shorter than me. What if you say "I'm 0.6-tallish, > how about you?" There is no way that I can respond truthfully with > a number, since I would be commiting myself to being taller or shorter > than you, but I have no way of knowing how 0.6-tallish translates to > meters, and if you tell me the equivalence between tallishness and meters > then tallishness ceases to be a subjective word and becomes a measure > word. Forgive me for quoting this, but it bears repeating. It summarizes quite nicely the problem with these sorts of constructions. Peter Schuerman plschuerman@ucdavis.edu Co-editor, SPECTRA Online for back issues: http://www.well.com/user/phandaal/