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Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2003 08:09:43 -0700
From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>
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To: "Gary W. Swearingen" <swear@attbi.com>
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cc: Tim Vanderhoek <t.vanderhoek@utoronto.ca>
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Subject: Re: grammar
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"Gary W. Swearingen" wrote:
> Tim Vanderhoek <t.vanderhoek@utoronto.ca> writes:
> > (4)    Call the police in case there is an explosion.
> 
> Interesting.  I strongly disagree.  Sentence (4) tells me to call the
> police now to prepare for an explosion which only MIGHT happen.  I guess
> that's called an "idiomatic" usage, because it doesn't seem right when
> one analyzes it.  Here's a similar example in which the idiomatic meaning
> is more obvious: "Wear your jacket, in case it gets windy."  (Now THAT'S
> a precaution.)  In (4), that reading is so absurd that I know the writer
> must have meant (3) (or (5), below).

You can't put too much water in a nuclear reactor.

-- Terry