OT -- Re: random cover of a range

[Daniel de Kok]

On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 9:48 PM, Yigal Chripun <yigal100 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I was trying to be a bit more liberal than the strict mathematical
> definition since I was talking about human (natural) languages.

Sorry, I heard CFG and CSG and alarm lights went of ;).

> a context for natural languages contains more than what you described above.
> for instance, I can say the exact same sentence and reveres it's meaning by
> the intonation of my voice.

Indeed. For instance, in Dutch we can put the direct object in the
sentence initial position. A classical example:

Elvis drinkt wijn (Elvis drinks wine)
Wijn drinkt Elvis (Wine drinks Elvis)

Depending on the intonation the second sentence either has the same
meaning as the first sentence, or a very unlikely meaning ;). Of
course, the fact that the verb 'drinken' tends to have a preference
for having drinkable stuff as its direct object helps ;).

Of course, you may also be referring to rethorics ;).

Take care,
Daniel