Can someone explain the discrepancy in the numbers on this official Massachusetts site?

[LAS14]

What is the significance of the big difference between the number "subject to quarantine" and the number "currently undergoing monitorying/undergoing quarantine?"

tia
las

[Blues Heron]

1. First is the sum of the next two?

[LAS14]

3. Yup. That's it. Thanks. 20 years ago that would have leaped out at me. No problem. :-(

[Igel]

2. The first has no tense or aspect.

Adjectives are atemporal. If there's any aspect to adjectives (an interesting question, actually), it probably comes from their semantics and context. I ditched my linguistics library so I can't consult those oracles who claim wisdom in such matters.

In the second line, we have present perfect: They were monitored in the past, and the monitoring and other things were sufficient ("perfect" enough) to make it so that at present they are no longer in quarantine. Canonically the present perfect is used for actions in the past that have a relevant effect in the present.

In the third line w have the present progressive aspect implied by the participle. This would be the set of people for whom monitoring and other things have not yet been sufficient to remove them from quarantine.


Grammar has its own truth-propositional semantics (and temporal logic, 1st and 2nd order, has been and will continue to be on my bucket list). "It depends on what the meaning of 'is' is" made perfect sense at the time but don't ask me to make it all nice and formal.