{"id":8956,"date":"2013-02-23T11:29:33","date_gmt":"2013-02-23T11:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2013\/02\/23\/crap-can-mean-anything\/"},"modified":"2013-02-23T11:29:33","modified_gmt":"2013-02-23T11:29:33","slug":"crap-can-mean-anything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2013\/02\/23\/crap-can-mean-anything\/","title":{"rendered":"Quantificational Uses of ‘Crap’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\"Crap\"<\/a>Crap, diddlysquat, squat, shit, jackshit, jack.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Crap<\/em> and cognates as universal quantifiers.  It is indeed curious that words for excrement can assume this logical role.<\/span><\/p>\n

'No one owes you crap' = 'No one owes you anything' = 'Nothing is such that anyone owes it to you' = 'Everything is such that no one owes it to you.'<\/span><\/p>\n

'He doesn't know jack' = 'He doesn't know anything.'  <\/span><\/p>\n

'He doesn't know shit, so he doesn't know shit from shinola.'  In its first occurrence, 'shit' functions as a logical quantifier; in its second, as a non-logical word, a mass term.<\/span><\/p>\n

You Don't Know Jack About Kerouac. A Trivia Test.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Addendum<\/strong> (26 February):  Steven comments, "I have my doubts about "crap" meaning "anything." I think it means "nothing", but appears in acceptable double-negative propositions which, because of widespread colloquial usage. The evidence I bring forth is the following. "You've done shit to help us" means "You've done nothing to help us," not "You've done anything to help us."
<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

BV:  I see the point and it is plausible.  But this is also heard: 'You haven't done shit to help us.'  I take that as evidence that 'shit' can be used to mean 'anything.'  Steven would read the example as a double-negative construction in which 'shit' means 'nothing.'  I see no way to decide between my reading and his.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Either way, it is curious that there are quantificational uses of 'shit,' 'crap,' etc!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crap, diddlysquat, squat, shit, jackshit, jack. Crap and cognates as universal quantifiers.  It is indeed curious that words for excrement can assume this logical role. 'No one owes you crap' = 'No one owes you anything' = 'Nothing is such that anyone owes it to you' = 'Everything is such that no one owes it … Continue reading “Quantificational Uses of ‘Crap’”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,408,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language-matters","category-language-philosophy-of","category-logica-docens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}