Logic and English.

[Logic4e]

Abraham Lincoln is the Author of The Gettysburg Address. Do you understand The Gettysburg Address? This seems like a question that asks for a simple answer of yes or no. But what is the question really asking?

Maybe it is asking if you understand the: Definition, terms, words, origon, subject matter, and content. Or maybe it is asking if you understand from the above list: All, at least one, most, or none.

Of course, the person asking the question knows the intent of the question. And the person recieving the question interpets what the question means. But is there a logical method to analize the question?

Any author and document may be substituted into the top paragraph. I am not a school student.

 

[ddj]

Abraham Lincoln is the Author of The Gettysburg Address. Do you understand The Gettysburg Address? This seems like a question that asks for a simple answer of yes or no. But what is the question really asking?

Maybe it is asking if you understand the: Definition, terms, words, origon, subject matter, and content. Or maybe it is asking if you understand from the above list: All, at least one, most, or none.

Of course, the person asking the question knows the intent of the question. And the person recieving the question interpets what the question means. But is there a logical method to analize the question?

Any author and document may be substituted into the top paragraph. I am not a school student.

I am assuming that a lot of people both understood the Gettysburg address and were moved by it. The Gettysberg speech was hugely popular amongst the Unionists. May scholars actually take the declamation of the Gettysberg speech as the truning point of the whole War.

 

[Logic4e]

So your answer is yes. And that is because you understand the subject matter. and you also understand the reaction of other people. I found a good tool is the dictionary for the word understand. That answered my question. And due to the low response to this post, it seems this question can not be answered mathamatically.

 

[pka]

Abraham Lincoln is the Author of The Gettysburg Address. Do you understand The Gettysburg Address? This seems like a question that asks for a simple answer of yes or no. But what is the question really asking?

In common speak a score is twenty , so that "four score and seven" is \(87\).

 

[JeffM]

If your point is that English and other natural languages are subject to interpretation and may not fully and clearly express the speaker’s meaning, that has been understood since at least the time that the Ancient Greeks distinguished between logic and rhetoric. If you mean something else, you will have to do better than you have done to express it.

 

[Logic4e]

to pka. I am not intrested in the Gettysburg Address, other than to use it as an example. I already know it. As I said, any text will do.
to JeffM. I was not trying to make a point, but rather to ask a question. I agree I did not express the question well, because I did not understand it myself.

Any way, I figured out what I wanted for now. Sorry for the confusion. To clarify, I was preparing to write artificial intellegence softwre program for English language. I quit that for now and am working on other projects. I hope to form my questions better in the future.

 

[Deleted member 4993]

Do you understand The Gettysburg Address?

The ambiguous part of the question is - "understand".

That word would (should) convey different "meaning" to a "fourth grader" and to a "university student of philosophy" (assuming the native language of both is English)