On Tue, 2 Jun 2020 at 01:57, nch via agora-discussion <agora-discussion@agoranomic.org> wrote: > On Monday, June 1, 2020 8:46:09 PM CDT James Cook via agora-discussion wrote: > > > > Isn't that still a difference in intended meaning? Maybe I didn't > > phrase it clearly enough the first time, but my intended meaning was > > "Right now at the moment I'm calling this CFJ, the truth value > > (true/false) of 'Falsifian owns at least one blot' equals the truth > > value of 'English Wikipedia has an article titled "Sponge"'". > > If you had used "right now" or "currently" I'd agree with your reading, see > below. > > > Also, CFJ statements about things like "Alice owns a blot" are usually > > assumed to be about the current situation at the time the statement > > was called. Are you saying the words "if and only if" override that > > default, and lead you interpret my statement as encompassing other > > times and/or situations other than the current one? Or am I > > misunderstanding your argument? > > There's no "override". In "Alice owns a blot" there's no ambiguity about > whether that statement is present progressive. When you introduce a modal, you > also introduce an ambiguity: now the sentence could be present progressive or > it could be conditional, which can refer to an "always" time frame or a > "currently" time frame without clarity. My honest first take of your CFJ was a > conditional always time frame. > > -- > nch
I think I have some linguistics to learn. I think a quick web search has taught me what the "present progressive" tense is, but I'm not sure I've grokked what a modal is. I do see that the "if and only if" wording opens the door to another interpretation. Interpreting it that way feels a little odd to me, but maybe that's because my intended meaning is still stuck firmly in my mind. - Falsifian
