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John: > And Rosta scripsit: > > > I start counting at one, but only for things I'm sure can be counted. For > > that, I need to know what re broda would look like and how it differs from > > pa broda. > > "Two presidents of the U.S. elected in 1790" doesn't make any sense (the > office is by nature singulative) but that doesn't mean that "one president > of the U.S. elected in 1790" doesn't make sense either. Sometimes counting > is sensible even though it begins and ends at "one". The singularity is contingent and the phrase is compositional. Because I can count presidents, I can count presidents elected in the US. Because I can count mothers, I know I have exactly one mother. Likewise, as I have already said, I can count integers between 4.1 and 5.1. To convince me, you'll need to find a noncompositional example whose singularity is not contingent on facts of the local world. --And.