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not good for you
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navi
2024-11-01 12:33:04 UTC
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Which are correct:

1) No exercise is bad for you. (Taking no exercise is bad for you.)
2) No fruit is bad for you. (Eating no fruit is bad for you.)

3) No exercise is not good for you. (Taking no exercise is bad for you.)
4) No fruit is not good for you. (Eating no fruit is bad for you.)

The intended meanings are in parentheses.

--
Gratefully,
Navi


Lost in the Twilight Zone of the English language
Obsessed with ambiguity
Interested in strange structures
Hibou
2024-11-01 13:54:00 UTC
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Post by navi
1) No exercise is bad for you. (Taking no exercise is bad for you.)
2) No fruit is bad for you. (Eating no fruit is bad for you.)
Neither is clear. Their apparent meanings are that all exercises are
good for you and all fruits are good for you. The first would pass if it
were "Not exercising is bad for you".
Post by navi
3) No exercise is not good for you. (Taking no exercise is bad for you.)
4) No fruit is not good for you. (Eating no fruit is bad for you.)
Those are strange.
Post by navi
The intended meanings are in parentheses.
(This reply is not from a server farm running an AI and using large
amounts of electricity, but from a squidgy mass of cells powered - for
the moment - by a chicken-tikka croissant with lashings of butter and
caramelised-onion chutney.)
Rich Ulrich
2024-11-01 15:19:05 UTC
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On Fri, 1 Nov 2024 13:54:00 +0000, Hibou
Post by Hibou
Post by navi
1) No exercise is bad for you. (Taking no exercise is bad for you.)
2) No fruit is bad for you. (Eating no fruit is bad for you.)
Neither is clear. Their apparent meanings are that all exercises are
good for you and all fruits are good for you. The first would pass if it
were "Not exercising is bad for you".
Or, "Getting no exercise is bad for you."

If I was going to reify "no exercise" or "no fruit" by leaving
out other words, I would write them with a hyphen, or maybe
in quotes.
--
Rich Ulrich
Sam Plusnet
2024-11-01 18:35:27 UTC
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Post by Hibou
Post by navi
1) No exercise is bad for you. (Taking no exercise is bad for you.)
2) No fruit is bad for you. (Eating no fruit is bad for you.)
Neither is clear. Their apparent meanings are that all exercises are
good for you and all fruits are good for you. The first would pass if it
were "Not exercising is bad for you".
Post by navi
3) No exercise is not good for you. (Taking no exercise is bad for you.)
4) No fruit is not good for you. (Eating no fruit is bad for you.)
Those are strange.
Post by navi
The intended meanings are in parentheses.
(This reply is not from a server farm running an AI and using large
amounts of electricity, but from a squidgy mass of cells powered - for
the moment - by a chicken-tikka croissant with lashings of butter and
caramelised-onion chutney.)
Chicken-tika croissant.... <no carrier>
--
Sam Plusnet
Athel Cornish-Bowden
2024-11-01 14:15:21 UTC
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Post by navi
1) No exercise is bad for you. (Taking no exercise is bad for you.)
2) No fruit is bad for you. (Eating no fruit is bad for you.)
3) No exercise is not good for you. (Taking no exercise is bad for you.)
4) No fruit is not good for you. (Eating no fruit is bad for you.)
The intended meanings are in parentheses.
Read what I've said 100 times. Then you won't need to ask. All are
ambiguous and unnatural in writing.
--
Athel -- French and British, living in Marseilles for 37 years; mainly
in England until 1987.
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