Re: Conflicts, contrasts or differences between Catholics and Protestants in Great Britain

Simon Robinson wrote:

Mark Goodge wrote:
English, like all languages, is a method of expression. Something is
not English until it has been put into language and expressed. So,
while it is theoretically possible that someone (or something) may one
day produce an English sentence of infinite length, it is entirely
correct to say that all existing English sentences are finite.

The potential problem with that is that you could argue about whether
the same is true of numbers (and remember Gareth was originally
talking about mapping the set of sentences to integers). Although in
theory, the set of integers is infinitely large, I think we can be
pretty certain that only a finite number of them have ever been
individually conceived of (in the sense of a person or machine having
somehow explicitly expressed that particular number, eg. a person
thinking of that number or writing it down, or a computer storing it.)

If we are allowing the set of all integers to include integers that
are theoretically possible, even if they have never been individually
expressed, why should we not do the same for sentences?

We should. (I don't agree with Mark that we should consider
only "existing sentences".) But I still see no reason at all
to consider infinite sentences "theoretically possible".

--
Gareth McCaughan
..sig under construc
.

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