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And under what logical system does "women generally don't do " imply that "men generally do ?" At most, it implies that "more men than women generally

And under what logical system does "women generally don't do ____" imply that "men generally do ____?" At most, it implies that "more men than women generally do ______," which is totally true. Even that implication would be a bit of a leap were it not for parent's later explicit clarifications on the point.

this2shallpaas 10y ago
I want to talk to you about two groups - tall people and short people. Usually, short people can't reach items that are on very high shelves. Above, did I imply something about tall people's abilities to reach items on very high shelves? I didn't claim anything about tall people specifically. But I think I did make a claim about their abilities here, by implication, given the context. It's natural to infer the claim - this is just part of how people communicate. The claim is strongly implied - tall people can reach items on very high shelves. I believe OP's clarified claim (of people in AP CS classes, most are men; of people at summer coding camps, most are men; etc), rather than OP's initial claim (most men take AP CS classes; etc). The clarified claim seems accurate. The initial claim is clearly inaccurate - and OP "stand[s] by it 100%".
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- dominotw 10y ago
  yea exactly. 'Usually people don't fly' is valid statement grammatically but makes no sense.
sbov 10y ago
English is an ambiguous language interpreted by flawed humans. It feels like we're dancing around the issue. There's no reason for this line of thought to have continued like it has. "My side" should have made a polite comment, and when rebuffed, thought "they don't think it's a problem," and moved on. "Your side" should have thought "a slight rephrase could increase clarity and address their concerns." Instead we're just pointlessly banging our heads against a wall. As is, both sides of this argument are actually pretty stupid. Mine included.
- ethanbond 10y ago
  Haha, the most valuable lesson I got from my linguistics class was that language is obscenely difficult to generate and understand – even without "mistakes," understanding can suffer. It's worth stepping back and re-establishing common ground or giving people the benefit of the doubt. Good point, thanks for introducing some sanity.

And under what logical system does "women generally don't do ____" imply that "men generally do ____?" At most, it implies that "more men than women generally

this2shallpaas 10y ago

I want to talk to you about two groups - tall people and short people. Usually, short people can't reach items that are on very high shelves. Above, did I imply something about tall people's abilities to reach items on very high shelves? I didn't claim anything about tall people specifically. But I think I did make a claim about their abilities here, by implication, given the context. It's natural to infer the claim - this is just part of how people communicate. The claim is strongly implied - tall people can reach items on very high shelves. I believe OP's clarified claim (of people in AP CS classes, most are men; of people at summer coding camps, most are men; etc), rather than OP's initial claim (most men take AP CS classes; etc). The clarified claim seems accurate. The initial claim is clearly inaccurate - and OP "stand[s] by it 100%".

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
dominotw 10y ago
yea exactly. 'Usually people don't fly' is valid statement grammatically but makes no sense.

sbov 10y ago

English is an ambiguous language interpreted by flawed humans. It feels like we're dancing around the issue. There's no reason for this line of thought to have continued like it has. "My side" should have made a polite comment, and when rebuffed, thought "they don't think it's a problem," and moved on. "Your side" should have thought "a slight rephrase could increase clarity and address their concerns." Instead we're just pointlessly banging our heads against a wall. As is, both sides of this argument are actually pretty stupid. Mine included.

ethanbond 10y ago
Haha, the most valuable lesson I got from my linguistics class was that language is obscenely difficult to generate and understand – even without "mistakes," understanding can suffer. It's worth stepping back and re-establishing common ground or giving people the benefit of the doubt. Good point, thanks for introducing some sanity.