In a message dated 5/22/00 3:04:04 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
Kent.Lofgren@xxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
<< But being in-exact is not always being unclear or useless. W. asks the
reader if not this phrase can work perfect, in some everyday situations
(Like, a photographer asks the person to be photographed to "stand roughly
there". >>
It is not the inexactness of the specified location that is important here,
it seems that the modifier of the command, 'stand there,' serves to mitigate
the effect of the imperative and perhaps elicit compliance. Here, the
success of the statement, that is, the pragmatic effect, is of a higher order
than the mere semantic meaning, the
correspondence of the statement and the location being referred to!
Fred W.
Kent.Lofgren@xxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
<< But being in-exact is not always being unclear or useless. W. asks the
reader if not this phrase can work perfect, in some everyday situations
(Like, a photographer asks the person to be photographed to "stand roughly
there". >>
It is not the inexactness of the specified location that is important here,
it seems that the modifier of the command, 'stand there,' serves to mitigate
the effect of the imperative and perhaps elicit compliance. Here, the
success of the statement, that is, the pragmatic effect, is of a higher order
than the mere semantic meaning, the
correspondence of the statement and the location being referred to!
Fred W.