There was a typical Ankh-Morpork street scene outside, although people were trying to separate them.
-- I lost 10 marbles and found 9 of them. ??It's under the bed.
“Do you know what happens to lads who ask too many questions?” Mort thought for a moment. “No,” he said eventually, “what?” There was silence. Then Albert straightened up and said, “Damned if I know. Probably they get answers, and serve ’em right.”
-- Some weird pragmatics going on.
this was probably a metaphor, i.e., a lie.
-- Semantics at its strictest.
“You must consider yourself a very fortunate man to have such talented and hard-working sons,” said Teppic, staring down at the busy panorama of the quarry. “I…will, O…sire,” mumbled Ptaclusp, interpreting this as an order.
-- Modal flavours do count.
“If we don’t attack them, they’ll attack us first,” said Ibid. “‘S’right,” said Xeno. “So we’d better retaliate before they have a chance to strike.”
-- Let's ignore presupposition failures.
“Sir, they say he’s dead, sir. They say he killed himself and ran away.” “Killed himself?” “Sorry, sir.” “And ran away afterward?” “On a camel, they say.”
-- Telic predicates do make the discourse clock tick.
“An update from scientists trying to identify the model for Leonardo DiCaprio’s Mona Lisa. After digging up some woman’s remains and putting it through DNA testing it seems they are no closer to knowing the smile men [inaudible]. Stay tuned.”
Hahahaha! Shepard Smith just said Leonardo DiCaprio painted the Mona Lisa!!!!
-- Presupposed content as what is said?
They were then wiped out by a nearby tribe who knew that the lights had been a signal from the god Ukli to expand the hunting ground a bit more. However, they were soon defeated entirely by a tribe who knew that the lights were their ancestors
-- Nonveridical ``know''. It is possible.
“Am I dyin’?” YES. “Will I die?” YES. Granny thought this over. “But from your point of view, everyone is dying and everyone will die, right?” YES. “So you aren’t actually bein’ a lot of help, strictly speakin’.”
-- Maxim of Relevance is "more of a guideline, really".
My father grew up in this really racist part of Boston, called Boston.
-- So much for English ``part of'' not being reflexive.
The captain had a sudden awful thought. "What's the chance that they've detected the dilithium?" T'Vau said, "I can only estimate." "Then do it." T'Vau said, "Estimated probability one hundred percent." Trofimov turned to stare at the Vulcan. "That's your guess?" "It is an estimate," T'Vau said stiffly, "based on the level of Hecht radiation, and a standard survey of Klingon monitoring--" "Your guess is that you're certain," Trofimov said, feeling slightly dizzy.
-- Guessing and uncertainty.
“I suppose we’d have settled down, had children, grandchildren, that sort of thing…” Granny shrugged. It was the sort of thing romantic idiots said. But there was something in the air tonight… “What about the fire?” she said. “What fire?” “Swept through our house just after we were married. Killed us both.” “What fire? I don’t know anything about any fire?” Granny turned around. “Of course not! It didn’t happen. But the point is, it might have happened. You can’t say ‘if this didn’t happen then that would have happened’ because you don’t know everything that might have happened. You might think something’d be good, but for all you know it could have turned out horrible. You can’t say ‘If only I’d…’ because you could be wishing for anything.
-- The problem with counterfactuals.
How many people in the area have been broken into?
-- Metonymy at its best
Actually," said Emmanuel Rubin, "there's nothing in the bylaws that says we must have a guest. The only thing we must have present at the dinner is no women.
-- nonexistent "things"
In This Epic Puppy vs. Kitten Battle It's Really Us Who Win
-- presupposition suspension in an unembedded context (win -> participate)
All the things that cost more than a barrel of oil, including a barrel
-- measure readings are truly not container readings
I met my wife in Hong Kong. I said, what the bloody hell are you doing here?
-- on the temporal reference of nouns