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The indomitable Naomi Wu dug at exactly this point in the thread. She got OP to clarify that by typing "not making eye contact" he did not mean "not making eye

The indomitable Naomi Wu dug at exactly this point in the thread. She got OP to clarify that by typing "not making eye contact" he did not mean "not making eye contact" but meant "communicating with". I'll leave the irony of this unstated.

a_shovel 4y ago
He didn't, though, he clarified that he meant making eye contact with the man but not the woman.
phendrenad2 4y ago
Apparently when he said "Doesn't make eye contact with or communicate with" he meant "doesn't communicate with or communicate with"
- renewiltord 4y ago
  “Doesn’t do X or Y” has colloquial meaning of “Does neither X nor Y”. In cases of X being subset of Y or otherwise lower degree it means “Doesn’t do Y, e.g. X” You’ll see this in common speech “My husband doesn’t do the dishes or clean up at all”, “he doesn’t reply to emails or update anything in JIRA”, etc. Pretty standard language structure in English. Odd that people are having trouble.
  - phendrenad2 4y ago
    Except he didn't say "doesn't do X or Y" he said "is unwilling to X or Y", which breaks the colloquial defense and makes it questionable what he meant. (And I don't fully trust further explanations by someone under this kind of pressure)
    - renewiltord 4y ago
      Do you interpret "unwilling to X or Y" as "unwilling to X" or "unwilling to Y"? I interpret it as "unwilling to X" and "unwilling to Y". For instance, "my husband is unwilling to take care of the twins or take the dog to day-care" means the husband is not going to either of those things, i.e. the speaker wishes for the husband to do one of these two things and the husband is doing neither. Likewise, "unwilling to make eye contact or communicate" means "is not willing to either make eye contact" and "is not willing to communicate". In fact, it feels very natural to me to take that interpretation. But I am completely open to the idea that this is not the case in other people's English. I don't know the OP guy, so there's no real skin in the game for me, but I really think he has the same meaning as me here.
      - phendrenad2 4y ago
        My initial take was that "unwilling to make eye contact or acknowledge" meant either/or as opposed to neither/nor. But I think there's also a possibility that I'm wrong. But can we know for sure? I feel that we have to try to interpret the first tweet as a standalone thing, because the followup explanations happened after he started getting called out for what is, in theory, illegal.
        whynaut 4y ago
        > My initial take was that "unwilling to make eye contact or acknowledge" meant either/or What would that even mean in practice though. It’s like a pointless thing to write.
whynaut 4y ago
The indomitable frumiousirc is incredibly incorrect.

a_shovel 4y ago

He didn't, though, he clarified that he meant making eye contact with the man but not the woman.

phendrenad2 4y ago

Apparently when he said "Doesn't make eye contact with or communicate with" he meant "doesn't communicate with or communicate with"

renewiltord 4y ago
“Doesn’t do X or Y” has colloquial meaning of “Does neither X nor Y”. In cases of X being subset of Y or otherwise lower degree it means “Doesn’t do Y, e.g. X” You’ll see this in common speech “My husband doesn’t do the dishes or clean up at all”, “he doesn’t reply to emails or update anything in JIRA”, etc. Pretty standard language structure in English. Odd that people are having trouble.
- phendrenad2 4y ago
  Except he didn't say "doesn't do X or Y" he said "is unwilling to X or Y", which breaks the colloquial defense and makes it questionable what he meant. (And I don't fully trust further explanations by someone under this kind of pressure)
  - renewiltord 4y ago
    Do you interpret "unwilling to X or Y" as "unwilling to X" or "unwilling to Y"? I interpret it as "unwilling to X" and "unwilling to Y". For instance, "my husband is unwilling to take care of the twins or take the dog to day-care" means the husband is not going to either of those things, i.e. the speaker wishes for the husband to do one of these two things and the husband is doing neither. Likewise, "unwilling to make eye contact or communicate" means "is not willing to either make eye contact" and "is not willing to communicate". In fact, it feels very natural to me to take that interpretation. But I am completely open to the idea that this is not the case in other people's English. I don't know the OP guy, so there's no real skin in the game for me, but I really think he has the same meaning as me here.
    - phendrenad2 4y ago
      My initial take was that "unwilling to make eye contact or acknowledge" meant either/or as opposed to neither/nor. But I think there's also a possibility that I'm wrong. But can we know for sure? I feel that we have to try to interpret the first tweet as a standalone thing, because the followup explanations happened after he started getting called out for what is, in theory, illegal.
      - whynaut 4y ago
        > My initial take was that "unwilling to make eye contact or acknowledge" meant either/or What would that even mean in practice though. It’s like a pointless thing to write.

whynaut 4y ago

The indomitable frumiousirc is incredibly incorrect.