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| In a message dated 10/4/2002 1:35:07 PM Central Daylight Time, jjllambias@hidden.email writes: << It's unsettling to be told by a logician that my sense of logic >> Not what I said. I said that briniging in non-importing quantifiers messes up the system and are virtually useless, making introducing them seem ill-advised. << But I would like to be told what the problem is with non-importing quantification, rather than just being told that it is useless and screwed up. >> Useless and screwed up seem enough for me. But, to the point, once you have them, it is virtually impossible to get importing expressions, which presumably -- since they cover 99+% of the cases, you do want. On the other hand, once you have importing quantifiers, getting non-importing ones for those occasions when they are needed (or, rather, the effect of them) is cheap way out of Zipfean proportions. << As far as I can see, in most cases it makes no difference, and when it does make a difference, non-importing is the one I want. So it seems more useful. Not to mention that it seems more elegant. >> In most cases it makes no difference -- except that inferences that go through directly with impoarting quantifiers require an extra step with non-importing ones (not a big problem, but an inelegance surely). And, of course, when it makes a difference, the non-importing one is what you want, precisely because it does make a difference. If you don't want the non-importing one, then it doesn't make a difference to be considered. And, should that occasion arise -- I'll trust you that it does -- you know where to get what you want within the importing quantifier framework. |