Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 Fluke 1/4/84; site fluke.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!harpo!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!tektronix!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!fluke!toma
From: toma@fluke.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.ai
Subject: Re: Use of "and" - (nf)
Message-ID: <592@vax1.fluke.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 4-May-84 13:09:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: vax1.592
Posted: Fri May  4 13:09:46 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 18-May-84 00:04:21 EDT
References: <32300023@uiucdcs.UUCP> <237@metheus.UUCP>
Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Everett, WA
Lines: 20

The use of "and" in speech really is an example of an implicit 
disambiguating rule people apply, rather than a contradiction
resolution.  "And" used in conversation is not the same as "and"
used in logic theory, where logicians have appropriated the word
from common usage and attached an unambigous meaning to it.  In doing
so, they had to throw out all the other meanings encountered in 
common usage.  When one refers to "people living in Transylvania
and Iceland", one is using "and" in the sense of implying a union
of two sets.  Usage of "and" as set intersection is another commonly
encountered meaning, as in "throw out all the cats that are red
and have eaten already."

This ambiguous usage of "and" is foisted on us by the common 
usage of "or", which usually denotes mutual exclusion, but can
be used to imply inclusion (especially by logicians).

			Tom Anderson
			John Fluke Mfg.
			Everett, Wa.