From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!utcsri!rutgers!jvnc.net!darwin.sura.net!wupost!csus.edu!netcom.com!sheaffer Wed Sep 16 21:23:40 EDT 1992
Article 6931 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: sheaffer@netcom.com (Robert Sheaffer)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.skeptic,soc.men,soc.women,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: missing verbs (was: Biological Sex Differences...)
Message-ID: <yzzn0hm.sheaffer@netcom.com>
Date: 15 Sep 92 20:24:31 GMT
References: <1992Sep9.230021.5182@news.media.mit.edu> <1992Sep10.233546.1057@lmpsbbs.comm.mot.com> <qjzntwk@lynx.unm.edu>
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>>In article <1992Sep9.230021.5182@news.media.mit.edu> minsky@media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky) writes:
>>)Umm, no.  The problem was to replace phrases like "A defeated B" by a
>>)homologous phrase with the same meaning, like "B <verbed> A", where A
>>)and B are of equivalent status.  Really, half of the verbs seem to be
>>)missing, in this sense.  It is really hard to say that <Jack verbed
>>)Jim> in a case in which we regard Jack as coming out the worse for the
>>)event. 
>

Maybe the reason for these "missing verbs" is a psychological one. If
I say, "I defeated Jack," I can feel good for saying this. If I say,
"I was defeated by Jack," the sentence form tends to absolve me of
responsibility for the loss. The doing was Jack's, not mine. If, however,
we had an active verb whose meaning was opposite of "defeated", and I
said "I <verbed> Jack" (where "verbed" = "took actions to get myself
clobbered by"), then the listener would invariably reply, "Why did you
do that? That was a shameful thing to do!"

After all, it's no secret that we vain little creatures hate to say 
anything that reflects badly on us.


-- 
  
        Robert Sheaffer - Scepticus Maximus - sheaffer@netcom.com
  
 Past Chairman, The Bay Area Skeptics - for whom I speak only when authorized!

       "Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.
        Then all things are at risk. It is as when a conflagration has
        broken out in a great city, and no man knows what is safe, or
        where it will end."
                               - Emerson: Essay, "Circles"


