Another News Item -- Was RE: Breeding

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Mon Jun 4 14:45:46 UTC 2007


On Jun 4, 2007, at 7:37 AM, Amy West wrote:

> Perhaps I'm being thick/dense/slow, but I don't see the problem with
> the sentence that you do, so I'd appreciate some elucidation as to a)
> the problem and b) how you'd fix it.

see my earlier responses, pointing out the potential ambiguity (also
pointing out that i didn't find the sentence problematic when i first
read it).

the easiest fix would be to use "missing" instead of "without".
"without" has negation incorporated in it, so gives rise to a
possible scope ambiguity.

>>>         "So far, the Army has treated nearly 600 service members
>>> who have
>> come back from Iraq or Afghanistan without an arm, leg, hand or
>> foot."

arnold

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