negation + coordination, again

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Sun Jun 18 18:13:15 UTC 2006


caught 6/15/06 on NPR's Morning Edition (though i can't find it on
the site; maybe it was a local bit), from a scientist being interviewed:

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No pauses [in RNA/DNA transcription] are accidents, but are serving a
very important role.

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the second conjunct is to be interpreted with some sort of universal
subject, like "all (pauses)", but the subject in the first conjunct
is, alas, negative.  this is a lot like the example from GWB that we
discussed here in september 2004:

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... a decision no president would ask for, but must be prepared to make.

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and perhaps related to this case from a paper draft i got from a
student in may 2005:

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A computer is a machine; it cannot understand the sense of the words,
but only apply formulas to sentences.

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and likely related to the "comp-set" reference in an example we
talked about here that same month (since the complement of the null
set is the universal set):

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...not everyone was in favor of the agreement, including council
member Yoriko Kishimoto. [YK was against the agreement.]

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