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<!--Weave of 'Adverbs of Certainty' generated by Inweb-->
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<ul class="crumbs"><li><a href="../index.html">Home</a></li><li><a href="../compiler.html">Services</a></li><li><a href="index.html">linguistics</a></li><li><a href="index.html#3">Chapter 3: VP Categories</a></li><li><b>Adverbs of Certainty</b></li></ul></div>
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<p class="purpose">To represent levels of certainty.</p>
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<ul class="toc"><li><a href="3-aoc.html#SP1">§1. Scale of certainties</a></li></ul><hr class="tocbar">
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<p class="commentary firstcommentary"><a id="SP1"></a><b>§1. Scale of certainties. </b>Inform uses the following scale to measure how certain it is that something
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is true:
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</p>
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<pre class="definitions code-font"><span class="definition-keyword">define</span> <span class="constant-syntax">IMPOSSIBLE_CE</span><span class="plain-syntax"> -2</span>
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<span class="definition-keyword">define</span> <span class="constant-syntax">UNLIKELY_CE</span><span class="plain-syntax"> -1</span>
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<span class="definition-keyword">define</span> <span class="constant-syntax">UNKNOWN_CE</span><span class="plain-syntax"> </span><span class="constant-syntax">0</span>
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<span class="definition-keyword">define</span> <span class="constant-syntax">LIKELY_CE</span><span class="plain-syntax"> </span><span class="constant-syntax">1</span>
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<span class="definition-keyword">define</span> <span class="constant-syntax">CERTAIN_CE</span><span class="plain-syntax"> </span><span class="constant-syntax">2</span>
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</pre>
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<p class="commentary firstcommentary"><a id="SP2"></a><b>§2. </b>A special certainty level is used for a temporal sense of certainty:
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</p>
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<pre class="definitions code-font"><span class="definition-keyword">define</span> <span class="constant-syntax">INITIALLY_CE</span><span class="plain-syntax"> </span><span class="constant-syntax">3</span>
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</pre>
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<p class="commentary firstcommentary"><a id="SP3"></a><b>§3. </b>Certainty adverbs are found mainly in regular sentences:
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</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p>A door is usually open.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<p class="commentary">They are syntactically legal in existential sentences too, though in
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English this usually expresses emphasis rather than a measure of
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probability: consider "there certainly are men in the room". Inform allows
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this, in any case.
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</p>
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<p class="commentary">Note that no adverb corresponds to the <span class="extract"><span class="extract-syntax">UNKNOWN_CE</span></span> certainty level, which
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expresses no information.
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</p>
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<p class="commentary">The use of certainty adverbs is a point of difference between Inform's two
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grammars. In assertions one can write
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</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p>A box is usually closed. (1)</p>
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</blockquote>
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<p class="commentary">but in conditions one can't write
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</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p>if a box is usually closed, ... (2)</p>
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</blockquote>
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<p class="commentary">This is because (1) is essentially a statement about the future, not the
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present or the past, whereas conditions like (2) must always be determinable at
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once: Inform cannot know what will generally happen, only what is now the case
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and what has been the case in the past.
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</p>
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<pre class="Preform-displayed-code all-displayed-code code-font">
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<span class="Preform-function-syntax"><certainty></span><span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> </span><span class="Preform-reserved-syntax">::=</span>
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<span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> </span><span class="Preform-constant-syntax">always/certainly</span><span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> </span><span class="Preform-reserved-syntax">|</span><span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> </span><span class="Preform-reserved-syntax">==></span><span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> CERTAIN_CE</span>
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<span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> </span><span class="Preform-constant-syntax">usually/normally</span><span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> </span><span class="Preform-reserved-syntax">|</span><span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> </span><span class="Preform-reserved-syntax">==></span><span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> LIKELY_CE</span>
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<span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> </span><span class="Preform-constant-syntax">rarely/seldom</span><span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> </span><span class="Preform-reserved-syntax">|</span><span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> </span><span class="Preform-reserved-syntax">==></span><span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> UNLIKELY_CE</span>
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<span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> </span><span class="Preform-constant-syntax">never</span><span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> </span><span class="Preform-reserved-syntax">|</span><span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> </span><span class="Preform-reserved-syntax">==></span><span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> IMPOSSIBLE_CE</span>
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<span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> </span><span class="Preform-constant-syntax">initially</span><span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> </span><span class="Preform-reserved-syntax">==></span><span class="Preform-plain-syntax"> INITIALLY_CE</span>
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</pre>
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<ul class="endnotetexts"><li>This is <a href="../words-module/4-ap.html" class="internal">Preform grammar</a>, not regular C code.</li></ul>
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