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Anonymous Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
Fallacy in logic?
Hi. Please tell me why there is a discrepancy between the following two in terms of how they are interpreted. For no. 1, I got the idea from looking at the answers in this forum that only one president of the hypothetical corporation "XXX Corporation" exists, whereas for no.2, I got the idea from looking at the answers in this forum that such certainty of only one son doesn't exists, even though the two in terms of general structure look the same. Why is that?
1. He is the president of XXX Corporation.
2. He is the son of Mr. John Doe.
1. He is the president of XXX Corporation.
2. He is the son of Mr. John Doe.
Top answer
Your answers are right. In business there would be one and only one president of a given company. And in 2, the person might have a brother.
- Your answers are right.
- In business there would be one and only one president of a given company.
- And in 2, the person might have a brother.
- However, in 2 the only thing under consideration is that the person is John Doe's son.
- The fact that he may have a brother is not even considered here, and would be the furthest thing from the listener's mind.
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1 Answers
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Your answers are right. In business there would be one and only one president of a given company. And in 2, the person might have a brother. However, in 2 the only thing under consideration is that the person is John Doe's son. The fact that he may have a brother is not even considered here, and would be the furthest thing from the listener's mind. Maybe in other languages, upon hearing 2, on
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