an odd example of legalese

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Tue Jan 31 00:50:07 UTC 2012


At 1/30/2012 03:37 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>(3) "free-choice" permission and possibility contexts
>"You can go to the movies or the beach" = "You can go to the movies"
>& "You can go to the beach"
>"He could be Italian or Greek" = "He could be Italian" & "He could be Greek"

Is this really correct?  Aren't these disjunctive choices?  The &
says that both are possible together.  But

"You can go to the movies or you can go to the beach, but not both
(at the same time)."
"He could be Italian or he could be Greek, but he cannot (no one can) be both."

Joel

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