H: Is this correct?
J: is what correct?
H: She had no eyes, no nose, no mouth.
J: Ah, Lafcadio Hearn's retelling of the woman and the vendor and the traveler on the bridge.
H: Hearn?
J: Koizumi Yakumo. From Kwaidan. Spooky people with no face.
H: Uh, yes. Is it correct?
J: Yeah.
H: Why? Isn't there a better way to say it?
J: Depends on your purpose.
H: Well, you know my ultimate goal ...
J: To pass the college entrance exams with the highest score and get into the best university.
H: So? Are you going to try to tell me again that college isn't important?
J: Cart before the horse, but we never get anywhere discussing that. Are you willing to try to understand the grammar?
H: Of course.
J: It's going to sound a little like math.
H: You always tell me English is math.
J: Language is a branch of math. English is a language. So's Japanese, but the complexity ...
H: No eyes, ...
J: Okay, okay. In most languages, when you string stuff together, unless you say otherwise the assumption is "and".
H: I don't understand.
J: If you mean "or", you usually say "or". But if you mean "and", maybe you don't really need to say it.
H: Hmm. So what would it mean if I said, "no eyes or no nose or no mouth"?
J: Let's start with a short list, okay? And extrapolate from there?
H: Ex strap O' late?
J: See if we can figure it out.
H: You always make things hard.
J: Short lists are easier.
H: Oh-kay.
J: Peas.
H: Yum.
J: No peas.
H: No fair.
J: Good. Peas and carrots.
H: That's American.
J: True. Peas or carrots.
H: I'll take peas.
J: Of course you will. But you see that "or" gives you an alternative.
H: Could you take both?
J: Actually, in English, yes.
H: Hmm.
J: No peas or carrots.
H: Uhm, carrots or no peas?
J: That would want a comma to break connections -- no peas, or carrots. But it's a bit ambiguous.
H: I am not biguous.
J: True. I mean, without the common, the no negates or flips the whole expression upside-down.
H: Okay, that sounds like math.
J: Yep.
H: So, no peas or carrots would be no peas, flip the or to and, no carrots? No peas and no carrots?
J: Right.
H: And no peas and carrots means no mix, but it could have just peas by itself?
J: Or just carrots. No, what does "no peas, no carrots" mean?
H: Neither. Like "no peas and no carrots".
J: Very good.
H: Okay, I think I got it. "No eyes, no nose, no mouth. Nothing."
J: Ve-ry good.
H: Would it be the same as "no eyes, nose, or mouth"?
J: Because the comma can mean more than one thing, it gets a little tricky, but, usually, yes.
H: What about "no eyes, nose, and mouth".
J: Heh. In Kwaidan, Simplicity takes over and it means the same thing.
H: Oh, ...
J: Language is not ideal math.
H: I believe that.
J: But you would prefer to write it with "or".
H: Okay, I think I get it. What if ...
J: Uh, huh?
H: I were drawing a picture and had to choose to leave one out?
J: Be explicit.
H: "Draw a face without the eyes or without the nose, or without the mouth."
J: Something like that.
