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Would such statements as 'That is quite true' or 'That is very true' be taken as non-pleonastic, acceptable ways of saying by educated people in the UK? (In formal logic, true or false are boolean values, not scalar ones: a statement cannot be half or partly true — or false.)

I will stop wasting my time here.

Brice C.
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    I’m voting to close this question because it is about advanced theoretical grammar, and would be best asked on SE Linguistics. – BillJ Jan 08 '24 at 08:06
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    Statements can absolutely be half or partly true. There's no sense in applying formal logic to natural language like this. – the-baby-is-you Jan 08 '24 at 09:15
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    Look up "half-truth". – Billy Kerr Jan 08 '24 at 09:46
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    @BillJ — My query is not about theoretical grammar, but USAGE. Either you have not read it through, or it is badly formulated, in which case you may have an opportunity to edit it. – Brice C. Jan 08 '24 at 10:51
  • @the-baby-is-you — Your comment should be rejected, not upvoted, since it is obviously about English usage, not "natural language": I can assure you that in other Western European languages the equivalent for 'quite true' is laughable. Think twice. – Brice C. Jan 08 '24 at 11:01
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    @BriceC. Then give examples from those languages. This could be a perfectly good question with appropriate sources for its premise. – the-baby-is-you Jan 08 '24 at 11:09
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    Feasibly a duplicate of "very unique" - Is it wrong? Why? – FumbleFingers Jan 08 '24 at 13:05
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    (But I actually closevoted for lack of prior research. It's not difficult to establish that "educated" Anglophones quite naturally say things like "That's not completely true") – FumbleFingers Jan 08 '24 at 13:15
  • What gets me about this question is the attempt to relate it or connect it to British English. "educated people in the UK". Please. – Lambie Jan 08 '24 at 16:15
  • Does this answer your question? Difference between "illegal" and "very illegal" – ColleenV Jan 08 '24 at 16:17
  • @Lambie - I find it perfectly natural and understandable ;-) – Michael Harvey Jan 08 '24 at 21:09
  • @the-baby-is-you Eh bien ! puisque vous comprenez les langues étrangères — mais est-ce vraiment le cas ? — sachez qu'en français "c'est très vrai" fait éclater de rire tout le monde dans une soirée: c'est le genre de propos qu'on retrouvera dans la bouche d'une élégante manquant une occasion de se taire. E anche in italiano il fatto di dire "è molto vero" o "è così vero" porterà l'uditore a pensare che l'allocutore è un cretino che non capisce ciò che dice. I fear your might be none the wiser. – Brice C. Jan 09 '24 at 17:47
  • Enough is enough: this is a farewell by a seasoned, professional linguist who has a feel for scientific attitudes and not for ochlocratic downvotes or upvotes when it comes to closing a perfectly relevant question. Some will say 'good riddance', some will know better than following ill-disposed blockheads. – Brice C. Jan 09 '24 at 18:03

2 Answers2

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You should read "That is very true." as "That is very surely true".
The same applies for "quite true": there is little or no doubt about it.

They are both acceptable expressions in English.

You might also look up "fuzzy logic", where truth isn't a binary value. But English isn't within either formal logic or fuzzy logic.

See Wikipedia "Fuzzy Logic"

Jack O'Flaherty
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    Funny: I upvoted your answer — which I feel satisfied whith — while my query has been downvoted. I surmise I must resort to fuzzy logic to fully get the hang of it. – Brice C. Jan 08 '24 at 10:56
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Natural language isn't subject to the same terseness of expression as formal logic inasmuch as it not only makes declarations but reveals a speaker's degree of commitment to what they're saying along with making other interpersonal forms of communication. Thus, "That is quite true" indicates that the speaker agrees with something their interlocutor has said and wants their interlocutor to have a sense of the degree of the concord between them on the subject.

https://youtu.be/2IPAOxrH7Ro

TimR
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  • I do not quite understand why 'That is quite true' bears a higher degree of concord than 'That is true'. But I have upvoted your answer on its own merit. – Brice C. Jan 09 '24 at 17:35
  • As you said, true is true, it's not scalar; "quite", an "emphatic", doesn't add anything in the boolean sense but it does tell you something about the speaker's attitude towards what was spoken. – TimR Jan 09 '24 at 17:46