From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!uunet!techbook!szabo Wed Sep 16 21:22:59 EDT 1992
Article 6877 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: szabo@techbook.com (Nick Szabo)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.skeptic,soc.men,soc.women,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: missing verbs
Message-ID: <1992Sep11.120124.15227@techbook.com>
Date: 11 Sep 92 12:01:24 GMT
References: <1992Sep9.162211.11503@lmpsbbs.comm.mot.com> <1992Sep9.230021.5182@news.media.mit.edu> <BILL.92Sep9232609@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu>
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Dr. Minsky has pointed out a curious assymetry in the English language,
but does any language _not_ have such an assymetry?

In article <BILL.92Sep9232609@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu> bill@nsma.arizona.edu (Bill Skaggs) writes:

>Anyway, English (and other languages) are full of curious asymmetries.
>For example, it's okay to say "The bicycle is next to the house", but
>it's not okay to say "The house is next to the bicycle", though
>logically they ought to mean the same thing.

"Is" here seems to carry far more than an Aristolean logic semantics;
in particular it seems to imply an action -- one would park a bicycle
next to the house, but not vice versa.


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