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Okay, it looks like we are finally connected on that platform. I will send you there this message "cats are funny". Please, tell me today if you have received it.

Does the speaker want his interlocutor to let him know only in the case the said message has been received? Or does he also want to be informed of the fact that the message hasn't arrived (in case it hasn't arrived on that day)?

2 Answers 2

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The person wants you to confirm you got it, or tell them if you didnt get it. Either way, they want a reply.

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Literally or pragmatically?

The literal or logical meaning is "receive → let me know" and the sentence doesn't say anything about what to do if it is not received. English doesn't have a non-mathematical word for "if and only if"; does your language?

But that is nonsense, and a good example of why you need to understand the pragmatics of a situation. It is clear that the speaker wants to find out if the messaging system is working or not. His interlocutor should wait a reasonable amount of time and then let the speaker know yes or no. There is no special use of English here, there is nothing in the grammar, only the understanding of context. The ambiguities of "what is a reasonable amount of time" and so on are resolved by context.

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