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From: rwt@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Rainer Thonnes)
Subject: Re: Use of "those" to mean "all those"
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Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 14:33:20 GMT
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In article <332d8874.41080129@news2.lightlink.com>,
jess@lightlink.com (J. Edward Sanchez) writes:
> 
> Are you telling me that you consider both cases (a) and (b) incorrect?
> If so, I'd love to hear what *you* think the sentence means. Here is
> the original sentence again:
> 
>   Several have Pascal, including those with synthesizers.
> 
> Which of the following does it mean?
>   a. several(all_computers) U all_computers_with_synthesizers
>   b. several(all_computers U all_computers_with_synthesizers)
> And what is your argument for saying so?

Your meanings are incomplete.  The original sentence does not *mean*
either of your two alternatives.  We can only assume that you're
interpreting the original sentence as meaning that some set, X, of
computers have Pascal, and that the "formula" for X is one of your
two alternatives.  That, however, is not exactly what is being said,
at least not directly.

Anyway, it cannot mean (b) because the synthesizer phrase would be
redundant.  A_c is a superset of a_c_w_s and therefore the union
of these two sets is just the same as the set a_c.

The original sentence is sloppily worded and is really making two
statements.  The first of these is that some of the computers have
Pascal.  The second is that this set of computers which have Pascal
includes (i.e. is a superset of) the set of computers which have
synthesizers.  This combination appears to be equivalent to your
meaning (a).
