RE: SUO: Re: Parse Of Things Remembered
Jay Halcomb sent me an interesting counterexample to my claim
that giving involves intentionality:
John gave Mary the flu.
The verb "give" may be used in a triadic form when there is
no intention involved. But in such a case, it is possible
to break the triad into dyads:
John sneezed out the flu virus.
Mary caught the virus.
Peirce called examples of this kind "degenerate triads"
because they have the appearance of taking 3 arguments,
but they can be decomposed into two independent sentences
that only invove two participants at a time.
Following is another example, which uses the verb "throw",
which frequently (but not always) has an intended goal:
The quarterback threw the ball to the wide receiver.
According to the rules of football, the quarterback would
normally intend to throw the ball to a player on his own
team. If a defensive player caught the ball, that would
thwart the intention. Therefore, the triad can be broken
down into two sentences, each of which has two participants:
The quarterback threw the ball.
One of the defenders intercepted it.
If the quarterback is particularly inept, a sports commentator
might make a statement like the following with a tone of
sarcasm:
The quarterback threw the ball to the defenders.
This statement suggests that the quarterback deliberately
made a losing play.
Bottom line: Intentionality requires three arguments, and
if a sentence with verbs like "giving" and "throwing" can be
split in two parts, each of which involves only two of the
participants, the intentionality is missing.
John Sowa