Linguistic Aspects
Traditionally, a dilemma is a problem which offers two possibilities, neither of which are practically acceptable. Therefore Warnock's Dilemma, as originally phrased, is not a true dilemma. Properly speaking it is a logical disjunction. However, many modern dictionaries consider this restriction needless and allow "dilemma" to be used colloquially to refer to a difficult situation with any number of choices, since the term polylemma, which is the appropriate description, has not come to widespread use. Alternatively, the literal-minded can consider the Dilemma to be about whether people are not replying to messages because 1) they are not interested, or 2) for some other reason.
Read more about this topic: Warnock's Dilemma
Famous quotes containing the words linguistic and/or aspects:
“The most striking aspect of linguistic competence is what we may call the ‘creativity of language,’ that is, the speaker’s ability to produce new sentences, sentences that are immediately understood by other speakers although they bear no physical resemblance to sentences which are ‘familiar.’”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“I suppose an entire cabinet of shells would be an expression of the whole human mind; a Flora of the whole globe would be so likewise, or a history of beasts; or a painting of all the aspects of the clouds. Everything is significant.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)