RichardKennaway comments on Rationality Quotes September 2014 - Less Wrong

8 Post author: jaime2000 03 September 2014 09:36PM

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Comment author: RichardKennaway 03 September 2014 07:27:38AM 2 points [-]

Yes, if you just invented the non-literal meaning yourself, there are limits to how far from the literal meaning you can be and still expect to be understood, but these limits do not apply when the non-literal meaning is already established usage.

Established by whom? You are the one claiming that

"I don't understand how" is synonymous, in ordinary conversation, with "the other person appears to be in error."

These two expressions mean very different things. Notice that I am claiming that you are in error, but not saying, figuratively or literally, that I cannot understand how you could possibly think that.

Non-literalness is a get-out-of-your-words-free card when the words are normally used in conversation, by English speakers in general, to mean something non-literal.

That is not how figurative language works. I could expand on that at length, but I don't think it's worth it at this point.

Comment author: Jiro 03 September 2014 01:05:34PM 0 points [-]

Notice that I am claiming that you are in error, but not saying, figuratively or literally, that I cannot understand how you could possibly think that.

"A is synonymous with B" doesn't mean "every time someone said B, they also said A". "You've made more mistakes than a zebra has stripes" is also synonymous with "you're in error" and you clearly didn't say that, either.

(Of course, "is synonymous with" means "makes the same assertion about the main topic", not "is identical in all ways".)

Comment author: RichardKennaway 04 September 2014 07:27:44AM 0 points [-]

Of course, "is synonymous with" means "makes the same assertion about the main topic"

Indeed. "You've made more mistakes than a zebra has stripes" is therefore not synonymous with "you're in error". The former implies the latter, but the latter does not imply even the figurative sense of the former.

If what someone is actually thinking when they say "you've made more mistakes than a zebra has stripes" is no more than "you're in error", then they have used the wrong words to express their thought.

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