Re: just 5 quick answers then I can summarise and GO

From: |-|erc (h_at_r.c)
Date: 01/13/05 

Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 17:16:33 +1000

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"george" <greeneg@cs.unc.edu> wrote in message
> Herc> How many stars are there?
> Herc> There are infinite stars out tonight.
> Herc> That IS ENGLISH.
>
> No, really, it isn't. If it's intended to be English

Yes it is.

> then it's ungrammatical and therefore imparseable

No it isn't. its perfect English.

> and impossible and reflective of deep idiocy on the
> part of the idiot who uttered it (who, being an idiot,

How many lamingtons are there? half a dozen
There are a half a dozen lamingtons.

How many numbers are between 5 and 8? 2
There are 2 numbers between 5 and 8.

How many stars are there in the sky? Infinite.
There are infinite stars in the sky.

How many naturals are there? Infinite
There are infinite naturals. *

This is the only questionable one, using infinite as an adjective.
But its just language, infinity is a quantity and hence descriptive.

The problem is EXTENDED REALS and the 1000 other disciplines
of 'maths' that have come to cover up the new infinity lie.
They take infinite_number as a particular number.

> didn't know enough about ENGLISH grammar to know
> how to correct it).
>
> The reason why you have to be grammatical if you
> are talking about proofs is that the inference rules
> depend on the syntactic structure of the sentences.
> If you violate the rules of the structures then you
> can seem to be "applying the rules" yet still come
> up with unsound results.
>

If you swap from one meaning to another. Double meaning terms
are fine in English, unless used with too many global references
it introduces ambiguity. We use language ALL THE TIME
its part of natural language to parse the only possible interpretation
that fits.

I just did it then, ... all the time.

Herc

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