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How can 'some' suggest 'not all' without saying it?

If someone says that some guests have arrived, you may infer that others have not. Yet “some” can be true even when every guest is there. The extra message comes from expectations about what a speaker would choose to say, and it can change with context or a follow-up such as “in fact, all of them.”

3–7 min

Questions you could explore

  • What changes if the speaker knows only that a few guests have arrived?
  • Why can adding more information cancel an inference without contradicting the original sentence?

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How can 'some' suggest 'not all' without saying it? | Speech Topic | speaking.app