Exercise 2.4 - Answers
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(i)
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Yes.
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(ii) |
The
first sentence is ambiguous. But, if it means that they are friends
with each other, then, the first sentences will be false, but the
second true, if each is one of the speaker's friends, but they aren't
friends with each other.
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(iii) |
Yes
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(iv)
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No. Suppose that John lives next door and that Mary went to visit
someone in the next street. Then the second sentence would be true,
but not the first.
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(v) |
Debatable. If Mary
and John had three children and then got married, the second sentence
would be true. Would the first be false? There is certainly some sort
of implication that they were married first and then had three children.
But, arguably, this is a matter of implicature rather than logical
implication. So the first sentence would be true (but to assert it
might be misleading).
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(vi)
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Yes.
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(vii) |
No. The problem
is that whether something counts as small or not depends on what
it is being compared with. In the first sentence it is evident that
Dumbo is being compared with elephants. So that sentence will be
true if he is small for an elephant. In the second sentence he may
be being compared with animals in general. In that case the second
sentence is presumably false.
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(viii)
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Yes. It is true that the first sentence implies that there is some
sort of contrast between being an elephant and being quite intelligent.
But this is a matter of implicature, rather than of logical implication.
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(ix) |
No.
To say that Dumbo is a skilful flier is to say that he is skilful
at flying. To say that Dumbo is skilful (simply) may be to say that
he is skilful at a wide range of things, or that he is skilful at
some specific thing, which may not be flying. So, the first sentence
would be true and the second false, if he were skilful at flying,
but not at a wide range of things (or not at the specific thing in
question). Equally the second sentence would be true but the first
false if, say, he were skilful at a wide range of things which did
not include flying. |
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