Nerdy linguistics discussion on tumblr

[snowgall]

Yesterday I got into a lively discussion with another tumblr user on the proper interpretation of one of Bucky's lines in Captain America: The First Avenger.

The line in question goes like this:

“Hell, no. That little guy from Brooklyn who was too dumb not to run away from a fight, I’m following him.”

Comments

[ext_5088637]

I read all your Who Wants to be a Millionaire cases and found an error.

You said
In both scenarios, we can say, “He’s too dumb to pick mayonnaise,” even though it means something different in each case.

But in my opinion, the sentence means exactly the same in both case 1 and 2. The fact that Steve picked differnt answers in each case doesn't make difference in the meaning of the sentence.

In both cases, "He's too dumb to pick mayonnaise" means that he doesn't have enough intelligence to pick mayonnaise.
The only differnece is that
in case1, Steve's behavior supported the prediction
and in case2, his behavior was against it.

And it is much clearer with conjunctions.

Case 1 : He didn’t pick mayonnaise because he’s too dumb to pick mayonnaise.

Case 2 : He did pick mayonnaise even though he’s too dumb to pick mayonnaise.

You see, the sentence "He's too dumb to pick mayonnaise" means the same in both cases. The difference is whether he behaved as predicted or not.

It goes same with case 3 and 4.

Now I'll give you two cases.
A firsrt grade student took a third grade test. In case1 he failed it and in case2 he passed it.

Case 1 : I knew he would fail the test. He's in the first grade.

Case 2 : How did he pass it? He's in the first grade.

Now tell me, can you say that "He's in the first grade" can be interpreted in more than one way?