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Moon7296 Posted 15 years ago
Grammar
All men are not wise
1. All men are not wise.
Doesn't No.1 mean there's no single wise man because of the position 'not?'
Isn't it only the translation we can get from No.1?
But my book says No.1 is a partial negative sentence. i.e. It's not that all men are wise. (perhaps it means 'there are some/many men who are not wise.')
I got confused due to the book.
Doesn't No.1 mean there's no single wise man because of the position 'not?'
Isn't it only the translation we can get from No.1?
But my book says No.1 is a partial negative sentence. i.e. It's not that all men are wise. (perhaps it means 'there are some/many men who are not wise.')
I got confused due to the book.
Top answer
All men are not wise = no man is wise, and should be not all men are wise . However, the original construction is used [incorrectly] so often that it is widely understood.
- All men are not wise = no man is wise, and should be not all men are wise .
- However, the original construction is used [incorrectly] so often that it is widely understood.
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5 Answers
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All men are not wise = no man is wise, and should be not all men are wise.
However, the original construction is used [incorrectly] so often that it is widely understood.
However, the original construction is used [incorrectly] so often that it is widely understood.
00
This is an unclear sentence that uses the ambiguity of position to confuse you.
All men everyone (in this case, it's probably mankind vs. just males)
All men
everyone (in this case, it's probably mankind vs. just males)
are are
00
moon7296All men are not wise.Again you have a universal quantifier and a negation.
All men are not wise.
~ 1 attributing "not wise" to "all men". (They are all unwise. Every one of them.)
~ 2 "not" attributing "wise" to "all men" (but to fewer than all). (Many may be wise, but at least one is unwise.)
In term
00
Ah!! I got it!!
'All men are not wise' can have two translations but to avoid ambiguity, it's better to say:
1 All men are unwise.
2 Not all men are wise. (like you mentioned, isn't it?)
#1 and #2 covering the meaning of 'All men are not wise' are clearer to be understood, aren't they?
'All men are not wise' can have two translations but to avoid ambiguity, it's better to say:
1 All men are unwise.
2 Not all men are wise. (like you mentioned, isn't it?)
#1 and #2 covering the meaning of 'All men are not wise' are clearer to be understood, aren't they?
00
moon7296'All men are not wise' can have two translations but to avoid ambiguity, it's better to say:Yes. Exactly.
1 All men are unwise.
2 Not all men are wise. (like you mentioned, isn't it?)
CJ
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