1......... September 11, 2001, at 8:46 A.M., a

2.hijacked airliner crashed into the north tower

3.of the World Trade Center in New York. At

4.9:03 A.M. a second plane crashed into the

5.south tower. The resulting infernos caused

6.the buildings to , the south tower

7.after burning for an hour and two minutes, the

8.north tower twenty-three minutes after

9.that. The attacks were masterminded by

10.Osama bin Laden in an attempt to intimidate

11.the United States and unite Muslims for a

12.restoration of the caliphate.

13.9/11, as the happenings of that day are now

14.called, has set off debates on a vast array of

15.topics. But I would like to explore a lesser-

16.known debate triggered by it. Exactly how

17.many events took place in New York on that

18.morning ........ September?

19.It could be argued that the answer is one.

20.The attacks on the two buildings were part of

21.a single plan conceived by one man in service

22.of a single agenda. They unfolded ........ a few

23.minutes and yards of each other, targeting

24.the parts of a complex with a single name,

25.design, and owner. And they launched a

26.single chain of military and political events in

27.their aftermath.

28.Or it could be argued that the answer is two.

29.The towers were distinct collections of glass

30.and steel separated by an expanse of space,

31.and they were hit at different times and went

32.out of existence at different times. The

33.amateur video that showed the second plane

34.closing in on the south tower as the north

35.tower billowed with smoke makes the twoness

36.unmistakable: while one event was frozen in

37.the past, the other loomed in the future.

38.The gravity of 9/11 would seem to make this

39.discussion frivolous to the point of impudence,

40.a matter of mere "semantics," as we say, with

41.its implication of splitting hairs. But the

42.relation of language to our inner and outer

43.worlds is a matter of intellectual fascination

44.and real-world importance.

45.______ "importance" is often hard to

46.quantify, ........ this case I can put an exact

47.value on it: 3,5 billion dollars. That was the

48.sum in a legal dispute for the insurance

49.payout to Larry Silverstein, the leaseholder of

50.the World Trade Center site. Silverstein’s

51.insurance policies stipulated a maximum

52.reimbursement for each destructive "event."

53.If 9/11 comprised a single event, he stood to

54.receive 3,5 billion dollars; if two, he stood to

55.receive 7 billion. In the trials, the attorneys

56.disputed the applicable meaning of the term

57.event. The lawyers for the leaseholder defined

58.it in physical terms (two s); those for

59.the insurance companies defined it in mental

60.terms (one plot). There is nothing "mere"

61.about semantics!

Adapted from: PINKER, Steven. The Stuff of

Thought. New York: Penguin, 2007. p. 1-2.