Postby janKipo » Fri Apr 09, 2010 2:02 pm
Well, the tp motto is "Context will decide" and, while I agree that all the things you list are possible readings, only a couple seem at all likely context-free. I (and you) could fadge any number of contexts that would make some of the others look likely or even obviously correct, And we could each surely come up with several more reading, each into an ever more odd context. Trying to decide what an expression means without context is at best a guessing game involving assuming some context, usually the "nothing special" one. And, of course, insisting on one same reading of an expression in every context is equally useless (why common expressions are not quite idioms). I suppose the point here ought always be, does it communicate the right message. If so, then it was good tp, whatever someone may want say it "really " means; if not, it is bad tp, even if its "real" meaning is just right. But, of course, there are covertly statistical reasons for thinking that one expression is more likely than another to convey the right message in a given context.