Re: The Logical use of ANY
by Serpent on October 14th, 2020, 3:26 pm
Human language, unlike machine code, is not constructed on logical principles. Like any [each particular example of an] organic entity, it evolves; it adapts to environments; it changes and grows. While it has discernible and explicable systems - plural, because there are many languages and each has more than one application - of logic, this is the logic of social interaction, not of a philosophical artifice.
Like any [each particular example of the category] versatile tool, language can be employed to convey specialized information with great precision, but is not restricted to that function. Aside from the obvious specialized applications, such as liturgical, legal, commercial and medical, a particular word or phrase is understood, not only in the context of a sentence or subject matter, but also in the context of its intent, which may be jocular, peremptory, persuasive, cryptic, deceptive, lyrical, etc..
An example such as "I'm not happy. I'm ecstatic!" is intended as jocular hyperbole.
'Not happy' isn't synonymous with 'unhappy'. 'Unhappy' has one, and only one specific meaning, which is a definite existing emotional state from which all forms of happiness are excluded. 'Not happy' is ambiguous by the very absence of a definite state: it allows for all other emotions, including all the permutations of joy and delight. It is not a contradiction, because one could clarify the first statement by one word: "I'm not merely happy; I'm extremely happy." just as one might say, without contradiction, "I'm not just unhappy; I'm profoundly unhappy; I'm lower and bluer than a mandril's backside."
Therefore, when one says, "I'm not happy," the hearer is likely to, and is generally expected to infer a state of discontent, and feel let down. This is intended to lend the impact of surprise to the punchline that follows: "I'm ecstatic!" to lift him up higher than would have been the case if one simply said, "I'm ecstatic."
The case of 'any' is quite different. Any is short for any one. It refers to an individual specimen, of whom/which the particular identity is not [currently] known. "Pick a card, any card." is universally understood to mean a single rectangle of paperboard. "Pick any card." still means the same: one card only. The 'any' there means that no individual has been identified by the speaker; all individual specimens of the category are eligible: the other person is invited to select one particular specimen.
It's the same with time. "Call me any time," means "You choose the [one particular] moment at which you call me." It is not synonymous with "Call me all the time." It still works the same with a plural word ending. "Are any of you ladies from Texas?" is a question directed at each individual within a designated group of adult females who fits the criterion. And "I didn't see any bears on my camping trip." means all of the individual specimens of the category 'bear' eluded the speaker; it would be contradictory if he then added, "I saw all of them." However, if he intended jocular hyperbole for dramatic effect, he might say : "I didn't see a single bear on my camping trip.(pause) They were all married, with children!"
A great deal of poetic, dramatic and humorous effect is grounded in the ambiguity of an expression which is imprecise enough to imply, or allow the hearer to infer, a common usage that is not the strict or exclusive meaning of the word.
