all or any

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azz

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French
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United States
A says: I think one can sell some mind-altering drugs in this country.

B responds:
a. No. It is forbidden to sell any of them.
b. No. It is forbidden to sell all of them.


Which of the sentences in blue can be used in this conversation?

No mind-altering drug can be sold in this country.

Many thanks
 
No, it's illegal [to sell [any of] them].
 
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I'm not completely sure of your question, but I think you're asking something about logic rather than about natural language.

To answer simply: The logical opposite of some is not any.

You can sell some.
You can't sell any.


Logically speaking, some means 'not all and not none' and not any means 'none'. That is to say that not any does not mean 'not all'.

I'll put in a way that might make that clearer:

none = 0%
not any = 0%
all = 100%
some = not 0% and not 100% (I'm using the word and in its logical sense.)
not all = not 100%

So if you say You can't sell all of them, it means that you may sell some of them.

In your specific context, the verb forbidden substitutes logically for the word not.

I hope that's clear!
 
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