From a.rosta@dtn.ntl.com Fri Jul 07 08:42:48 2000 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 2809 invoked from network); 7 Jul 2000 15:42:48 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.27) by m3.onelist.org with QMQP; 7 Jul 2000 15:42:48 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO relay3-gui.server.ntli.net) (194.168.4.200) by mta1 with SMTP; 7 Jul 2000 15:42:48 -0000 Received: from m75-mp1-cvx1c.gui.ntl.com ([62.252.12.75] helo=andrew) by relay3-gui.server.ntli.net with smtp (Exim 3.03 #2) id 13Aa83-00007w-00 for lojban@egroups.com; Fri, 07 Jul 2000 16:33:24 +0100 To: Subject: RE: [lojban] I don't think so, il ne faut pas, etc. Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2000 16:42:41 +0100 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) Importance: Normal In-Reply-To: <0006262159300G.01794@neofelis> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2615.200 From: "And Rosta" > From: Pierre Abbat [mailto:phma@oltronics.net] > Sent: 27 June 2000 02:50 > > In English we say "I don't think it will rain" when we really mean "I think it > won't rain" (mi jinvi lenu na ba carvi). In French we say "il ne faut pas > confondre boutique et magasin", meaning "il faut ne pas confondre". A Chinese > waiter once told someone "It is not necessary to eat the nut!" (it's > poisonous). Any more such illogical statements? I particularly like "I miss not being a student" = "I miss being a student". The pattern of "I don't think p" with intended meaning "I think not p" is quite extensive in English (e.g. "it doesn't seem to be" = "it seems not to be") & it was formerly much debated whether this amounts to a rule of semantically vacuous negative raising or whether it can all be explained by pragmatics (i.e. cooperative addressee not insisting on taking addresser's words too literally). --And.