[luxdancer]

What does this sentence imply? Is it grammatically correct?

I don't like sports, but I do like tennis.

 

[theLaika]

implies that you don't consider tennis a sport.

 

[paperhanger]

Ernest Hemmingway claimed that there were only three sports: motorcycle racing, bullfighting, and mountain climbing. Everything else is a game.

 

[luxdancer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by paperhanger

Ernest Hemmingway claimed that there were only three sports: motorcycle racing, bullfighting, and mountain climbing. Everything else is a game.

XD

 

[SuicideBlonde]

Maybe except for. I do not know.

 

[Capstan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by theLaika

implies that you don't consider tennis a sport.

This. The implication is contradictory. Try, I don't like sports, except tennis.

 

[Smnth]

You would really need to have a tone of voice or some context. I could easily see this being EITHER "I don't consider tennis a real sport, ha ha ha" or "I don't generally enjoy sports - excepting tennis."

 

[Blobbenstein]

the sentence seems ok, to me.

 

[Identity_thief]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capstan

This. The implication is contradictory. Try, I don't like sports, except tennis.

I agree with this

 

[luxdancer]

It's not that I'm trying to build a sentence - I guess I'm looking for precedent why it's wrong. It actually came up like this, as part of flavour text for a fictional culture: They cannot eat meat, but they can eat fish and whale. I thought this implied fish/whale was not meat and the sentence was constructed ambiguously...

 

[paperhanger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by luxdancer

It's not that I'm trying to build a sentence - I guess I'm looking for precedent why it's wrong. It actually came up like this, as part of flavour text for a fictional culture: They cannot eat meat, but they can eat fish and whale. I thought this implied fish/whale was not meat and the sentence was constructed ambiguously...

Yours is not a grammar question. There ara many definitions for meat. In terms of vegetarianism the definition is obvious to most of us. If you're a wine steward doing pairings, a distinction between "meat" and "fish" is understood and appreciated.

 

[luxdancer]

It is a big to-do about how they cannot eat meat, but it's still ambiguous as to what they mean by meat. I think it's poorly constructed, it isn't in some chic-chic context of wine pairing.

Anyway, ignore the context, that's a separate issue - does saying "!a, but b" imply that "b is !a"? That is still the "meat" of the question.

 

[paperhanger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by luxdancer

It is a big to-do about how they cannot eat meat, but it's still ambiguous as to what they mean by meat. I think it's poorly constructed, it isn't in some chic-chic context of wine pairing.

Anyway, ignore the context, that's a separate issue - does saying "!a, but b" imply that "b is !a"? That is still the "meat" of the question.

I would agree that the sentence is poorly constructed, either way.

 

[whisper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by luxdancer

Anyway, ignore the context, that's a separate issue - does saying "!a, but b" imply that "b is !a"? That is still the "meat" of the question.

I think it implies that the person speaking/writing the statement does not consider that b is !a, despite the fact that others do, which they obviously realize.

I think that came out wrong and this might make it more confusing but....

It implies that b is normally recognized as being !a, but the person making the statement doesn't consider it to be.

I don't eat meat, but I do eat fish.
I don't like cars, but I do like vw's.

And context does matter. If you were to say it the other way around, it's a completely different meaning.

I don't eat fish, but I do eat meat.
I don't like VW's, but I do like cars.