Author Topic: u always follows a q-  (Read 18670 times)

Offline mallu

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u always follows a q-
« on: April 22, 2015, 08:14:02 PM »
See the sentence
In English orthography, a U always follows a q.
The first reading is obvious. q is always followed by a u.isn't it.
A paper (Krifka, Manfred. "Basic notions of information structure." Acta Linguistica Hungarica 55.3 (2008): 243-276.) tells another reading is also possible in which the sentence would mean that every u is followed by Q. I am oblivious to that reading. Could someone explain it to me?

Offline freknu

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Re: u always follows a q-
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2015, 08:24:20 PM »
I assume this is about the character q, whose name is pronounced "cue"? Hmm... maybe not "followed" as in the order after, but rather as in along with.

Q is always followed (in order) by a u, and u is always followed (accompanied) by a q.

Offline panini

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Re: u always follows a q-
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2015, 10:13:12 PM »
The obvious reading is that what follows a q is always a u; the non-obvious and false reading is that what u always follows is a q. I don't know that I can persuade you that both readings are available, but that's what it's about. I dunno if this helps, but I think it's because "follows" in this strict ordering sense implies a biconditional relationship (2 follows 1 and 1 is followed by 2); but using "follow" in that sense is a mixing of metaphors, since r alphabetically follows q and that's the only sense in which the strict-ordering concept of "follow" holds.

Offline mallu

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Re: u always follows a q-
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2015, 11:32:00 PM »
the non-obvious and false reading is that what u always follows is a q.
Whether that denies the possibilty of strings such as pu,tu ..etc.Correct me if I am wrong

Offline panini

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Re: u always follows a q-
« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2015, 09:10:28 AM »
Right, the other reading denies the possibility of pu etc.

Offline Daniel

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Re: u always follows a q-
« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2015, 09:58:50 AM »
For all Q [U follows]
For all U [it follows Q]

Different scope for the quantifier. Of course "always" here is really quantifying over situations, but it ends up being logically equivalent to "all Qs", etc.
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