On Fri, Nov 07, 2003 at 12:12:08PM -0500, Allister MacLeod wrote: > On the other hand, as someone who's played Live-Action > Role-Playing games, I certainly don't mind being pummeled a bit with > some PVC pipe wrapped in foam insulation and duct tape. :^) LOL. . . > > Official rules of English in Holland don't frighten me. I don't have > > to start worrying until our good friends at Webster decide to put it > > in their dictionary ... and when they do, I can point to the Oxford > > dictionary, which is a lot better at keeping crap out of our language. > > (Webster specifically states that their dictionary follows common use, > > and that the reverse is not intended to be the case.) > > I kinda like having a crap language. I don't stick to standard usage, either [1]. That can be done with any language, though, whether or not there's an official dictionary. > I often use "ain't" in everyday > speech, and commonly say "like I said" instead of "as I said." What > disappoints me is people who are convinced that their way is the one > right way, and are unwilling to do any research (e.g. in Webster or > Oxford.) Especially if their way defies many standards, both de facto > and well-specified. (<- look! A sentence fragment! I'm so bad.) I think it's important to distinguish between "right" and "better." Daveglish is not always more "right" than Webstish, but I believe it's better (better being defined as being capable of expressing more given the same number of learned terms) 100% of the time. > Of course, I'm guilty of such chauvanism myself sometimes, as I'm sure > pretty much everybody is or has been at one time or another. One > incidence that sticks out in my mind is regarding the pronunciation of > "wyvern." I was adamant that it rhymed with "wither," until my cousin > had to virtually bean me with the dictionary to prove otherwise. I love Hebrew because nobody has to look in the stinkin' (well, since it's full of crap, after all) just dictionary to figure out the pronunciation of a freakin' word. It's 100% phonetic ... like I wish English were. . . > > I guess the best conclusion here is: don't use the term "learning curve." > > If you hear somebody else using it, pretend you didn't hear the words > > "learning curve" being used. If the guy tries to force you into a corner, > > pretend you didn't know that _that's_ what "learning curve" meant. > > If he tries to explain what it means, _then_ you can "let him have it!" > > This way, you're not actively fighting somebody else's war unless you're > > sucked into a battle - in that case, you're fighting that battle and > > nothing else. If you want to fight a battle just for the hell of it, > > though, please do the computer world a favor and pick one in the computer > > field, so you at least do us some good in the process. > > Aie! I'm almost sorry I used the term in the first place. It's a > good thing that, if any of you grammarians (or should I say > punctilious purveyors of picayune pedantry) are gun-nuts, you have the > good judgment to keep those passions separate. Gun permits are really difficult to get here in NJ, so don't expect any bullets from me ;-) > I'd hate to end up in > front of a firing squad for abusing an ambiguous and oft-misused term. It's only ambiguous because it's oft-misused, as I'm sure Rene will be more than glad to pound into you ;-) > Of course, I'm really not sorry at all. This thread has proved rather > interesting and has been a source of immeasurable amusement. I'm sure a lot of guys who didn't read this thread are very sorry you started this thread (or are studying techniques to have procmail cat anything with OT in the subject to /dev/null, if they don't yet have their gun license yet). I'd be a lot more affraid of gun-nuts among them than among grammar pedants, if I were you ;-P - Dave [1] http://www.bigfatdave.com/me/glossary.html -- Uncle Cosmo, why do they call this a word processor? It's simple, Skyler. You've seen what food processors do to food, right? Please visit this link: http://rotter.net/israel
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