7 Oct. 1814

Logic or Language

Ch. Qualities

Rules

Terms

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5. Ordinals: more especially the word first.

Of the aptitude of this term to involve in ambiguity the import of the sentence in which it is employed, the causes are of the same nature in this instance, as in that of the restrictives, alone and only, viz. -

1. Uncertainty of the part of speech, and thence of the subject, to which the attributive is meant to be applied.

2. Uncertainty in regard to the part of speech to which it is meant to be considered as belonging, viz. whether an adjective or an adverb.

Example of the mode in which the ambiguity may be avoided.

1. Ambiguous expression - Columbus first saw Hispaniola.

2. Correspondent pair of sentences, by which the existence of the ambiguity, and at the same time, the mode of avoiding it, are indicated.

1. Columbus was the first person who ever saw Hispaniola.

2. Of the islands now called the West India Islands, Hispaniola was the first that Columbus discovered.

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