Subject: re : 2 . 882 s - > np np

> date : sun , 15 dec 91 02 : 25 : 02 est > from : michael < mmorse @ vm1 . yorku . ca > > subject : re : 2 . 864 queries > > wlodek zadrozny asks if there is " anything interesting " to be said > about the construction " s > np np " . . . second , > and very much related : might we consider the construction to be a form > of what has been discussed on this list of late as reduplication ? the > logical sense of " john mcnamara the name " is tautologous and thus , at > that level , indistinguishable from " well , well now , what have we here ? " . to say that ' john mcnamara the name ' is tautologous is to give support to those who say that a logic-based semantics is irrelevant to natural language . in what sense is it tautologous ? it supplies the value of an attribute followed by the attribute of which it is the value . if in fact the value of the name-attribute for the relevant entity were ' chaim shmendrik ' , ' john mcnamara the name ' would be false . no tautology , this . ( and no reduplication , either . )
