May I come in, teacher/miss/ma'am?
this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2024
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This is so mind numbingly fucking stupid. I have linguistics training and my dickhead uncle tried to pull this one on me. He’s never tried to flex his grammar on me since.
Next time this shit happens to you, try this trick.
In the above question, the word “can” could be interpreted in one of two senses.
- One is the deontic sense, which denotes permission or approval.
- The other is the epistemic sense, which denotes capability.
As a competent English speaker, you will easily infer that vampire is using the deontic “can”.
The confusion seems to derive from the recipient’s inability to understand that modals in English grammar can possess different senses depending on context.
It is worth noting that the deontic “can” has been documented in writings for hundreds of years. It is a normal and standard element of English grammar. Case in point: the idiot trying to flex on you knows what you mean but they’re pretending they don’t.
It’s not my problem that you don’t understand basic English grammar. Maybe you should go read a few books and educate yourself.
I was thinking the Vampire could actually take this as permission. She told him to make the determination.
Vampires need to ask permission to enter and physically can't without permission. Can the 'can' be read in both senses here?
This is literally the one case in which that is the grammatically correct question.
An English teacher that gets capitalisation wrong.
Read it in the voice of Hades's narrator
Wouldnt that be an actual question?
If the answer is no, the vampire is not able to come in
If the answer is yes, the vampire is able to come in
It’s a paradox If he can come in he can come in if he can’t come in he can, But he can’t come in unless she says he can come in and she said he can come in conditionally if he in fact can come in.
To put it another way:
Condition 1: Entry is permitted on the grounds that Entry is permitted.
Condition 2: Entry is permitted on the ground Entry is permitted.
In Python:
define Entry(permission):
if Entry(permission) == True:
permission = True
else:
permission = False
Entry(False)
Sorry bit tired rn and English is a second language to me so I'm not quite understanding your reasoning.
If he can come in he can come in
So far so clear
If he can't come in he can come in
Is that a typo?
My understanding here is this.
-
The joke is that the correct question in this situation normally would be "May I come in" asking for permission rather than "Can I come in" asking if he (physically or otherwise) is able to come in.
-
Since Vampires can only cross a threshold if they are "allowed" in or "invited" inside so unless the resident tells him he may come in he actually physically can't
However saying he can come in wouldn't actually be an invitation inside if we're being nitpicky here since, from the humans point of view, assuming the vampire is another human, he would assume that he can come in from his perspective (i.e. he doesn't know of any physical hindrance for the Vampire to come in) but since he hasn't invited him in the Vampire actually can't come in so the humans statement "You can come in" would be a subjective fact that would not be objectively true?
Sorry I got more to think about on this but gotta sleep. Maybe I'll edit this later 😅
It was long ago enough to forget what the hell I was talking about but I think you are correct if he can’t, he can’t and I said can, I think it was a typo.
Not gonna change it just in case I was more profound than I realized, either way it is literally written in code so technically correct.
This is why people hate nerds
spoiler
Heavy /s as I am a nerd
Because vampires can't cross boundaries without permission, the answer is no, they can't come in until allowed in.