Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2009 05:32:12 +0100 From: RW <rwmaillists@googlemail.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: I hate to bitch but bitch I must Message-ID: <20091018053212.60b6ea4d@gumby.homeunix.com> In-Reply-To: <20091017034952.GA26451@stainmore> References: <4AD8EB8F.9010900@videotron.ca> <20091017010758.088b8b8c.freebsd@edvax.de> <4AD9016E.20302@videotron.ca> <4AD90946.4020204@ibctech.ca> <4AD91DE0.3030701@videotron.ca> <200910170234.n9H2YeRI077329@asarian-host.net> <20091017034952.GA26451@stainmore>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:49:52 -0400 Bob Hall <rjhjr0@gmail.com> wrote: > On Sat, Oct 17, 2009 at 02:34:40AM +0000, Mark wrote: > > Actually, this has got very little to do with being a native English > > speaker or not. It's ere a matter of intonation (which, in writing, > > can only be conveyed to a certain degree, of course). 'Should' can > > certainly mean "Don't try that." As in: > > > > Will the ice hold me? > > Well, technically it should. > > > > (Meaning: it probably will, but I'm not overly confident.) > > Actually, what's happening here is dropping part of a sentence. It's > common in English to shorten > Yea, it should work, but it doesn't. Not really, but the only sensible meaning is that it should, in an ideal world, work. It seems that people are grasping for ambiguity here. If a phrase has one sensible meaning and other absurd meanings then there really is no ambiguity all unless one is trying to be deliberately obtuse.
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20091018053212.60b6ea4d>