More PREP-Loss?

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:18 PM +0000 3/13/08, ronbutters at aol.com wrote:
>Cf. the ambiguity of "I don't believe some of the things you people
>talk about!"


or cf.:

--Do you believe in adult baptism?
--Believe in it?  Hell, I've seen it done!

LH

>------Original Message------
>From: Arnold M. Zwicky
>Sender: ADS-L
>To: ADS-L
>ReplyTo: ADS-L
>Sent: Mar 12, 2008 11:03 PM
>Subject: Re: [ADS-L] More PREP-Loss?
>
>On Mar 11, 2008, at 2:54 PM, Andrea Morrow wrote:
>
>>  Maybe the intended meaning isn't like "believe in." Maybe it's
>>  transitive, like "believe + noun" - as in, I believe the theory of
>>  evolution, I believe Hillary, I believe my local newspaper, etc.  It
>>  sounds
>>  OK to me to say, "I believe modern physics," which is similar to
>>  saying, "I
>>  believe astrology," in form if not in content.  Maybe I'm just weird.
>
>in the clearest cases, "believe" + NP is understood as 'believe what
>NP says/proposes/maintains/etc.'  that's the sort of interpretation
>(and not 'believe in') i'd get for "I believe modern physics" and "I
>believe astrology", though frankly those sound odd to me.  and the
>line between believing in astrology and believing what astrology says
>is pretty fine.
>
>arnold
>
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