Bertrand Russell, I believe, somewhere presents a joke (if I remember correctly). Someone is shown the boat of another, and the first says: "I thought that your boat is longer than it is." The owner replies: "No, my boat is not longer than it is."


Does someone know the reference?



"The boat is not longer than it is."
Bertrand Russel, [**On denoting**](http://web.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/web%20publishing/russell_on_denoting.htm)  

*Mind*, October 1905, pages 479-493.



> 
> When we say: "George IV wished to know whether so-and-so", or when we
> say "So-and-so is surprising" or "So-and-so is true", etc., the
> "so-and-so" must be a proposition. Suppose now that "so-and-so"
> contains a denoting phrase. We may either eliminate this denoting
> phrase from the subordinate proposition "so-and-so", or from the whole
> proposition in which "so-and-so" is a mere constituent. Different
> propositions result according to which we do. I have heard of a touchy
> owner of a yacht to whom a guest, on first seeing it, remarked, "I
> thought your yacht was larger than it is"; and the owner replied, "No,
> my yacht is not larger than it is". What the guest meant was, "The
> size that I thought your yacht was is greater than the size your yacht
> is"; the meaning attributed to him is, "I thought the size of your
> yacht was greater than the size of your yacht".
> 
> 
> 


