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From: "G. Acharya" <ganeshjacharya@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: Re: Usage of "or" and punctuation
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2009 01:25:33 -0700 (PDT)
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>
>
>
> > G. Acharya wrote:
> > > Is there a punctuation to add to distinguish the following
>
> > > 1st e.g.
> > > A or B can be used
> > > ================
> > > A results in some problem. B results some other problem and both A an
d
> > > B can be used.
>
> > > 2nd e.g
> > > A or The first alphabet
> > > =================
> > > A is the first alphabet in the English language. This is the first
> > > letter the student of English language learns.
>
> > I think this should be "A or the first letter of the alphabet" which
> > means tha A is another way of describing the first describing the first
> > letter of teh alphabet. A cannot be an alphabet since it is just one
> > letter. The alphabet used for English has 26 letters. Other languages
> > have larger or smaller alphabet.
>
> So, is there no way in English to solve this ambiguity?
I meant the "or" ambiguity, to decide if its used to "explain further"
or, used in-order to "state alternatives"
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