[lit-ideas] The Joan Rivers Appreciation Society

In a message dated 6/22/2009 6:21:08 P.M.  Eastern Daylight Time, 
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
When we ask "What  age is X?", or say "X is y years", we surely mean to ask 
after, or state, their  present _maximal_ age; not merely an age they may 
be said to have attained some  time ago. This (implicature?) means that the 
"is" in such statements cannot  reasonably be understood to refer to any past 
age they may have attained but  only to their current maximal age. 
To say Joan Rivers's is sixty, fifty etc.  is a similar cheap trick if the 
question is "What age is she?". If she "is 76"  it follows that she has been 
all the ages that logically are prior to reaching  that age; but it is 
highly misleading to suggest she therefore "is" all these  ages, rather than 
"has been" all these ages where they denoted her maximal age  at previous 
times.  

----
 
It's odd that in nothing that McEvoy says he mentions the word 'year',  
which is crucial here. For '76' should read as "75 complete years -- leap years 
 and all -- plus a few weeks more" (I have to check her birthday with  
wiki).
 
In a different culture -- Gaelic perhaps? -- or old Roman -- where they  
count ages by _month_ (the 'menstrua' of the Romans) -- Geary should know the  
answer.

JLS
**************Make your summer sizzle with fast and easy recipes for the 
grill. (http://food.aol.com/grilling?ncid=emlcntusfood00000004)
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