A simple question about the English language(New)
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Last time I made a mistake in the message. What I wanted to say is Does the sentence "All of them DON'T agree with you." mean "Some of them agree with you but some don't." or mean "None of them agree with you."?
The same principle applys - all = all. Christian After all, there's nothing wrong with an elite as long as I'm allowed to be part of it!! - Mike Burston Oct 23, 2001
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Last time I made a mistake in the message. What I wanted to say is Does the sentence "All of them DON'T agree with you." mean "Some of them agree with you but some don't." or mean "None of them agree with you."?
It means that all of them dont agree with you [oops thats what you asked eh?] well lets put it numerically. Lets say there are 10 people in a room. You enter and say "I am handsome and clever" Then I come in and tell you "All of them dont agree with you". It means that n people agree with you where n is between 0 and 9 but never equal to 10 Nish Sonork ID 100.9786 voidmain
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Last time I made a mistake in the message. What I wanted to say is Does the sentence "All of them DON'T agree with you." mean "Some of them agree with you but some don't." or mean "None of them agree with you."?
Ah - ambiguity! If only English was context-free :) I would say that the sentence in question means "None of them agree with you". Most likely, a native English speaker would have said "Not all of them agree with you" if they meant "Some of them agree with you but some don't". But, then again, the interpretation of the sentence's meaning would rely heavily on the context in which it was said: Person 1: My idea is right because everyone on the panel agrees with me. Person 2: But all of them don't agree with you Interpretation: Person 2 is probably saying that not everyone on the panel necessarily agrees - some may, but not everyone. Person 1: My idea is right even if only 1 person on the panel agrees with me Person 2: But all of them don't agree with you Interpretaion: Person 2 is saying that every single panel member disagrees. -- Russell Morris Georgia Institute of Technology "WOW! Chocolate - half price!" - Homer Simpson, while in the land of chocolate.
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Ah - ambiguity! If only English was context-free :) I would say that the sentence in question means "None of them agree with you". Most likely, a native English speaker would have said "Not all of them agree with you" if they meant "Some of them agree with you but some don't". But, then again, the interpretation of the sentence's meaning would rely heavily on the context in which it was said: Person 1: My idea is right because everyone on the panel agrees with me. Person 2: But all of them don't agree with you Interpretation: Person 2 is probably saying that not everyone on the panel necessarily agrees - some may, but not everyone. Person 1: My idea is right even if only 1 person on the panel agrees with me Person 2: But all of them don't agree with you Interpretaion: Person 2 is saying that every single panel member disagrees. -- Russell Morris Georgia Institute of Technology "WOW! Chocolate - half price!" - Homer Simpson, while in the land of chocolate.
Poor Shengqian must be totally confused by now. :-) Nish Sonork ID 100.9786 voidmain
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Ah - ambiguity! If only English was context-free :) I would say that the sentence in question means "None of them agree with you". Most likely, a native English speaker would have said "Not all of them agree with you" if they meant "Some of them agree with you but some don't". But, then again, the interpretation of the sentence's meaning would rely heavily on the context in which it was said: Person 1: My idea is right because everyone on the panel agrees with me. Person 2: But all of them don't agree with you Interpretation: Person 2 is probably saying that not everyone on the panel necessarily agrees - some may, but not everyone. Person 1: My idea is right even if only 1 person on the panel agrees with me Person 2: But all of them don't agree with you Interpretaion: Person 2 is saying that every single panel member disagrees. -- Russell Morris Georgia Institute of Technology "WOW! Chocolate - half price!" - Homer Simpson, while in the land of chocolate.
Well said. I was gonna say something similar: There are two ways to say it: 1. All of them don't agree with you. 2. Not all of them agree with you. When you compare them like this, it's clear that the first one means none of them agree with you and the second that some do, some don't. Of course, what you said about context is very true and could make the first one imply what the second one says more clearly. Regards, Alvaro
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The same principle applys - all = all. Christian After all, there's nothing wrong with an elite as long as I'm allowed to be part of it!! - Mike Burston Oct 23, 2001
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It means that all of them dont agree with you [oops thats what you asked eh?] well lets put it numerically. Lets say there are 10 people in a room. You enter and say "I am handsome and clever" Then I come in and tell you "All of them dont agree with you". It means that n people agree with you where n is between 0 and 9 but never equal to 10 Nish Sonork ID 100.9786 voidmain
Wrong. If you had made the statement "Not all of them agree with you", then you could safely assume that at least one does agree with you. Since you said "All of them don't agree with you", it means that none of them agree with you. "...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001
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Last time I made a mistake in the message. What I wanted to say is Does the sentence "All of them DON'T agree with you." mean "Some of them agree with you but some don't." or mean "None of them agree with you."?
I do not think that "All of them DON'T agree with you." is grammatically correct because it is ambiguous. It may mean that as a group all within that group hold the same opinion , and that opinion is not to agree with you . It could also mean that not all of those in the group agree with you . It is not clear if the 'do not' refers to the "all of them" part of the sentence or the "agree with you" part of the sentence. There is probably some obscure grammatical rule that some academic may raise to point out how the sentence should be interpeted , or why it is grammatically incorrect. But I would rewrite it in order to convey the information in a less ambiguous manner. "Is it further father or father further ?" . Groucho Marks.
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Ah - ambiguity! If only English was context-free :) I would say that the sentence in question means "None of them agree with you". Most likely, a native English speaker would have said "Not all of them agree with you" if they meant "Some of them agree with you but some don't". But, then again, the interpretation of the sentence's meaning would rely heavily on the context in which it was said: Person 1: My idea is right because everyone on the panel agrees with me. Person 2: But all of them don't agree with you Interpretation: Person 2 is probably saying that not everyone on the panel necessarily agrees - some may, but not everyone. Person 1: My idea is right even if only 1 person on the panel agrees with me Person 2: But all of them don't agree with you Interpretaion: Person 2 is saying that every single panel member disagrees. -- Russell Morris Georgia Institute of Technology "WOW! Chocolate - half price!" - Homer Simpson, while in the land of chocolate.
Or if you're a certain speaker you'd say something like: All of them agree with you, except for the ones that don't.
