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by csicseri 2011 days ago
If you say it out loud, you will realize that the question "Do you want to eat pizza or pasta?" (exclusive-or case with the answer "pizza" or "pasta," i.e. in the sense "these are your two choices, which would you prefer?") is an entirely different utterance from "Do you want to eat pizza or pasta?" (inclusive-or case with the answer "yes" or "no," i.e. in the sense "would you like to go to an Italian restaurant?"). The first case is pronounced with primary stress on the first syllables of both "pizza" and "pasta," and with a high tone on "pizza" and a low tone on "pasta," indicating a contrast between the two alternatives. The second case is pronounced with primary stress on the first syllable of "pizza," secondary stress on the first syllable of "pasta," and a uniform tone over the phrase "pizza or pasta" on which is superimposed the rising tone on the last syllable of the sentence indicating a yes/no question. (To see that the latter is true, add "tonight" to the yes/no sentence - "would you like to eat pizza or pasta tonight?" The tone does not rise until the syllable "night.")

You have to be very careful in reasoning about natural language based solely on the written record, since spoken language regularly includes features, such as the suprasegmentals (stress and intonation) in the above examples, that aren't recorded in the orthography.

3 comments

The first one is not exclusive-or, though: if you wanted to eat pizza and pasta, you would not answer "no" to "Do you want to eat pizza or pasta?", you would answer "both". Rather, "or" is serving as a inclusive-or with (perhaps) the incidental implication that picking more than one doesn't make sense in the first place.
Do you want to eat pizza and garlic bread? - inclusive

Do you want to eat pizza or garlic bread? - exclusive

In natural language "and" works like a inclusive or. If there is pizza and garlic bread I can choose to eat one or both. Or is always exclusive in this sentence.

With minor modifications, it can become inclusive or:

Do you want to eat some pizza or some garlic bread? - probably inclusive or

Also, I would interpret the first question as "addition" (pizza with garlic bread, on the model of mac and cheese), not as an inclusive or.

>inclusive-or case

I used to drive my friend crazy when he would ask if I wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a ham and cheese sandwich and I would answer yes.

He should have given you peanut butter, and a cheese sandwich