Raymott
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- Joined
- Jun 29, 2008
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- Academic
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- English
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No. Assuming that the author meant only one thing (A, for example), someone else can not legitimately use the sentence to argue the opposite (say, B) - assuming that this person knows that the author meant A.So can a person use that sentence as legitimate support for either view and still keep the integrity of the sentence the way the author intended?
Now, if the other person understands the author's sentence as meaning B, and uses it to argue B, then that is honest on the second person's part, but not a valid use of that sentence to make the B argument.
We have to assume also that the author wrote the sentence he meant to, ie. in arguing A, he wrote a sentence that would ordinarily be taken to mean A.
So here we have a problem. The author must not only believe A, but also have a good idea that a reader will understand A from his sentence. If the author writes a lazy sentence that could be construed as meaning B, he will be misunderstood by some.
And if this is case, what is the "integrity' of the sentence. Does it mean 'a sentence meaning A' or 'a sentence that could mean A or B'?
If by 'integrity' you mean that it could mean A or B, then you could legitimately use it as an argument for B, even though the author meant to have it mean A.