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School is just one simplification after the other (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 9 months ago by illectrility to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I wouldn't even try to defend OP, but I once heard someone say that if you have more than four apples, then it is also definitely true that you have four apples.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago

That's true in a very literal sense, but there's a whole branch of linguistics called pragmatics that's concerned with things like why it's usually safe to conclude that when someone says they have four apples, they mean that have only four apples. When there's any ambiguity I talk like a mathematician and use phrases like "at least four apples" or "exactly four apples".

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's technically correct, like saying at least 4 people died from covid.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (1 children)

More specifically: "4 people died from covid" is also true

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

On the other hand, adding a single world like "only" in there suddenly makes it completely false. Language is fun.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

OP treating his statement as a correction requires that he’s not using this interpretation. If he were to use this defense, so could the teacher, so he’d just be changing how he’s wrong, not that he is.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

What if there's a worm in one of them?

Like, you think you habe more than four apples.

Then you find out that most of them have worms.

In the end, you are left with two apples.

So now, it is not true that you have four apples.