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In ordinary English discourse "humans eat meat" is an existential proposition, with some possible claim of frequency, commonality, or representativeness. It's n
by prutschman 10y ago
In ordinary English discourse "humans eat meat" is an existential proposition, with some possible claim of frequency, commonality, or representativeness. It's not a universal proposition; that's conveyed by "all humans eat meat" or "humans always eat meat" or some such.
- colordrops 10y agoDo you really think the OP's claim was universal, when talking about something non-monolithic like the government? The implied meaning is one of frequency, not absolutes.
- imaginenore 10y agoThe OP wrote "never", which is an absolute, and only requires one counterexample to be proven false. What was implied is just you making sh*t up.
- colordrops 10y agoInformal natural language is in most cases not literal. For example, I assume you don't mean that I'm actually creating feces.