--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Aug 27, 2006, at 2:29 AM, authfriend wrote: > > > > P.S.: Notice, once again, that Barry has conflated > > "What MMY sez..." (or in this case, "What MMY > > may have meant...") with "What MMY sez is true." > > > It's really a very obvious distinction, but Barry > simply cannot seem to make it. > > OK, Judy so then you think MMY goes around stating things > he thinks are *lies*?
I don't pretend to know whether he does, actually, but that has nothing to do with the point I was making. "Is true" in my formulation refers to what the person quoting MMY believes, not what MMY believes. It's likely that someone who believes what MMY says is true also assumes that MMY believes it, but that's beside the point. > The distinction may be obvious, but I guess I don't quite > understand. You've said this now so many times I'd like to > know what it is you're driving at. It's *so* obvious that I'm not quite sure how to make it any clearer. When a person quotes MMY (or anybody else, for that matter), they can (a) simply be reporting what he says without offering an opinion about whether they believe what he says is true, or (b) indicating that they believe what they're quoting him as saying is true, or even (c) indicating that they believe what they're quoting him as saying is *not* true. It depends on the context. Barry and some others here automatically assume that when a TMer says "MMY says..." the TMer is expressing their belief that whatever they're quoting MMY as saying is true. But that, of course, isn't necessarily the case. If it isn't clear from the context (e.g., "MMY says X, but that's a load of crap," or "MMY says do X, so you'd better start doing X right away"), at the very least you'd want to *ask* whether they believe what they're quoting is true. They might believe it, they might not believe it, they might think it was likely, they might think it *wasn't* likely, or they might have no earthly idea. And in many cases what they think on that issue may not even be relevant to the point they're making. Does that help any? To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
