Re: [b-greek] time flies like an arrow and the notion of sentence

From: Jonathan Robie (Jonathan.Robie@SoftwareAG-USA.com)
Date: Fri Jul 27 2001 - 10:15:12 EDT


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At 09:53 AM 7/27/2001 -0400, Chet Creider wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Punctuate and capitalize:</blockquote><br>
Actually, how about not punctuating and capitalizing, since your point is to prove that sentences are needed to disambiguate the meaning, and a counterargument would be to show that the meaning can be disambiguated without doing so:<br><br>
Dear John / I want a man who knows what<br>
love is all about / you are generous, kind,<br>
thoughtful / people who are not like you<br>
admit to being useless and inferior / you<br>
have ruined me for other men / I yearn for<br>
you / I have no feelings whatsoever when<br>
we're apart / I can be forever happy / will you<br>
let me be yours / Gloria<br><br>
Now the question becomes: how much additional meaning is added by punctuating and capitalizing? A second question: how many different ways could we place the sentence boundaries, given a set of clause boundaries, and how different would the resulting meaning be in the eyes of native speakers? A third question: what model are you using for English syntax, and how are sentences described in that model?<br><br>
Jonathan</html>



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