Topics Language

Question If there is a 10 CM ruler and someone ask you how long is that. The answer should be 10CM. If there is a 5 CM ruler and someone ask you how long is that. The answer should be 5CM. Now, If there isn't any ruler and someone ask you how long is that. I should answer 0 or "N/A"? In this case, does 0 and "N/A" have the same meaning?

Accepted:
April 29, 2010

Comments

Suppose I ask, pointing out into empty space: What color is that apple? I take it that the question cannot be answered, that, to borrow a phrase from Sir Peter Strawson, "the question just doesn't arise". This is because the word "that" is not, in this utterance, used to refer to anything, so there isn't anything of which it has been asked what its color is. It is like asking: What color is OobaDooba?

The ruler case is the same: If there is no ruler, than you can't ask how long "it" is, because there is no "it" about which to ask. I take it that this means the answer, in your terms, is "N/A". I can see why you might think it could also be 0. After all, couldn't there be a ruler with no length? In principle (though not in fact), I suppose there could be: But it would have to be a ruler nonetheless, which might mean that it had width and breadth, but no length. (Think of a plane stood on end.)