On Tue, 29 Oct 2002, Larry Wall wrote: > Logically entangle nouns *are* more basic than grade school. Kids are > even sophisticated enough to disambiguate "xor" from "or" by context, > despite the fact that English has no "xor" operator: > > Which do you want? A popsicle or a Mickey Mouse hat?
Hmmm... I've heard that this is a culturally driven thing: that whilst people can all disambiguate it, people from different cultures may do so differently In a "western" culture, exclusive-or is the assumed default unless context implies otherwise. But in many Pacific island cultures (*), if one offers "kava or coffee" one would be expected to provide both if answered "yes". -Martin (* This from annecdotal memory of 20 years ago, so I don't vouch that it still applies in any particular culture, but the essential point remains that the disambiguation is not as universal or consistent as may seem to us sitting here in Australasia, USA or Europe, speaking English.)
