forever

[Taka]

It's impossible to work forever.
You are unable to work forever.
You are prohibited from working forever.

Which do these mean?
1: You can never work.
2: You cannot work for the time being, but maybe you can some time in the future (i.e partial negation)

 

[Rover_KE]

None of the first three mean either 1 or 2.

Rover

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Hello, Taka:

(1) Since I am 75 years old, your question really interested me.

(2) Please remember that "forever" is really two words: for + ever ("always").

(3) Does anyone live forever? Of course, not. (We must all die.)

(4) Nothing can last forever. Everything will come to an end someday.

(a) I have read that in a few million years, even this planet (earth) will burn up. So there will no more

human beings here. (By then, I guess, human beings will be living on other planets.)

(5) Thus:

"It is impossible to work forever" = Are you working now? That's great! Do you love your job? That's great!
Do you want to work forever? Sorry, that is impossible. You are a human being. That means you will die one day.
So no one can work forever! (And before people die, many of them get sick and weak, so they cannot work anyway.)


HAVE A NICE DAY!

 

[Barb_D]

I agree. I read the first one as meaning "Work without ceasing is impossible." The second is essentially the same. The third is therefore semantic nonsense, like saying "I forbid you to hold your breath without ceasing" or "I forbid you to jump up in the air and not land."

Similar to "You can't avoid me forever" (I will catch up with you at some point in the future.)

There is no partial negation of any sort.

You are forever prohibited from working -- This is possible, but a bit archaic sounds, as a way to say "You prohibited now and you always will be."

You need to stick with "never" for your intended meaning.

 

[BobSmith]

(a) I have read that in a few [strike]million[/strike] billion years, even this planet (earth) will burn up.

FTFY.

 

[Taka]

I agree. I read the first one as meaning "Work without ceasing is impossible." The second is essentially the same. The third is therefore semantic nonsense, like saying "I forbid you to hold your breath without ceasing" or "I forbid you to jump up in the air and not land."

Barb, do you think 'forever impossible to do/forever unable to do/forever prohibited from doing' is semantically different from 'impossible to do forever/unable to do forever/prohibited from doing forever'? If you do, what do you think the difference is?