Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 07:32:52 -0700 From: David Schultz <dschultz@uclink.Berkeley.EDU> To: Brad Knowles <brad.knowles@skynet.be> Cc: "Crist J. Clark" <cjc@FreeBSD.ORG>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG, Alexey Dokuchaev <danfe@regency.nsu.ru>, Peter Wemm <peter@wemm.org>, Tom Rhodes <trhodes@FreeBSD.ORG>, Greg Lehey <grog@FreeBSD.ORG>, "David O'Brien" <dev-null@NUXI.com> Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/sys/alpha/alpha clock.c Message-ID: <20020521073252.A13690@HAL9000.wox.org> In-Reply-To: <p05111704b90fc1b412dc@[10.0.1.4]>; from brad.knowles@skynet.be on Tue, May 21, 2002 at 01:05:11PM %2B0200 References: <200205162121.g4GLLGQ43405@freefall.freebsd.org> <20020516220511.A9DBE380A@overcee.wemm.org> <20020517114010.A57127@regency.nsu.ru> <20020519100324.GK44562@daemon.ninth-circle.org> <20020519134348.I67779@blossom.cjclark.org> <p05111722b90de01cc974@[10.9.8.215]> <20020520195703.A79046@dragon.nuxi.com> <p05111702b90fb30b64bb@[10.9.8.215]> <20020521020941.A12551@HAL9000.wox.org> <p05111704b90fc1b412dc@[10.0.1.4]>
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Thus spake Brad Knowles <brad.knowles@skynet.be>: > At 2:09 AM -0700 2002/05/21, David Schultz wrote: > > > Oh come on. Dictionaries don't determine the language; it's the other > > way around. > > In the English language, that's generally true. However, > dictionary editors usually tend to be fairly conservative, and they > do not document usage of a particular type until it is fairly well > embedded into the actual common use of the language. The most > respected descriptive English language dictionary is the OED, which > is why I used it as my "gold standard". The OED tends to more accurately document the actual language than Webster's, because the Webster people want to dictate how the language ought to work, rather than merely describe it.[1] Nevertheless, every dictionary is inevitably out of sync with respect to the common usage some words. A dictionary is not like a standard for a network protocol; you can't tell several million people that they're wrong just because their preferred spelling isn't in the dictionary. By the way, an amusing book on the English language (and how it got that way) is Bill Bryson's ``Mother Tongue''. I understand he has also published a sequel, although I have not had a chance to read it. [1] This is still better than the situation with the French language, where the decision to (among other things) drop the 's' from 'fenestre' was made by an oligarchy. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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