melancholy enthusiast (chinesestudio) wrote in linguaphiles,
melancholy enthusiast
chinesestudio
linguaphiles

question about scopal ambiguity

Hey all, I'm reviewing for a semantics exam and the following question appears on the test review sheet (which is without answers, what the hell?) and I was hoping someone could tell me if the logical forms are sensible readings of the sentence (which I really, really doubt since I am not very good with logic).

The sentence is "Everybody doesn't get a flushot" and the readings I've come up with are:

A: ∀x∃y((PERSON(x)&FLUSHOT(Y))&~GET(x,y), which is supposed to read out "For every person, x, there is a flushot, y, and not every person got a flushot.
B: ∃y∀x((PERSON(x)&FLUSHOT(Y))->~GET(x,y), which should read "There is a flu shot, y, for every person, x, and if x is a person it did not get y.

Or something like that. I'm incredibly confused by this for some reason and would reallllly appreciate some help, if you have any to offer. Thanks!
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