[Indlinux-group] On sentence meaning

[Christian P. <bu...@de...>]

Quoting sh...@gu...:

> without casting any doubt on your personality i want to explain the "error"
> 
> this sentence above "I'm not French by error...." does not make it
> clear whether you are French or not.
> 
> maybe it does to you, but not in the whole sense of it.
> 
> two angles:
> 
> 1. i am French by design.
> 2. it's an error that i am not French.


The exact meaning was:

- I am French
- French people have the reputation to be somewhat arrogant,
worldwide, giving lessons to everybody
- I happen to be arrogant from time to time
- so, I can't deny that I'm French...

(that would be called a syllogism: "All French are arrogant. I am
French. Thus, I'm arrogant". Actually, this is a fake syllogism as the
exact meaning was "All French are arrogant. I am arrogant. Thus I am
French"...then it becomes a sophism)

Please note that the above is an example of another well-known French
"quality" which I use (too) often: being pedantic..:-)


The exact sentence in my own language is "je ne suis pas français par
hasard" which was unfortunately difficult for me to translate properly
in English (which I happen to speak quite badly with words missing
from time to time...).

As additionnal clue to the sentence, a small smiley would probably
have helped understanding I was more or less making fun of
myself... ;-)