Klarinet Archive - Posting 000260.txt from 2005/03

From: "Joseph H. Fasel" <jhf@-----.gov>
Subj: Re: [kl] Things to say after concerts
Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2005 11:32:55 -0500

Some years ago, a playful note appeared in a CS technical newsletter
suggesting some deliberately ambiguous sentences to place in letters
of recommendation. Here are a couple of my favorites:

I cannot recommend him too highly.

You should waste no time making this candidate an offer.

Many delightful ambiguities are based on negation. Here's one the
linguists have gotten some mileage out of:

Sally doesn't like tripe because it tastes unusual.

There is one straightforward interpretation of that sentence that
entails the proposition that Sally doesn't like tripe. There are
several other interpretations implying that Sally (or in one case,
someone else) _does_ like tripe (or something else).

Cheers,
--Joe

On Sat, 2005-03-05 at 11:59, Tony Pay wrote:
> Another blood-curdling one is:
>
> "I've never heard you play better!"

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