Date: Sat, 31 May 2003 08:45:55 +1000 From: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> To: John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: grammar Message-ID: <20030531084555.S33085@welearn.com.au> In-Reply-To: <XFMail.20030530182836.jhb@FreeBSD.org>; from jhb@FreeBSD.org on Fri, May 30, 2003 at 06:28:36PM -0400 References: <20030530221619.GA41668@wopr.caltech.edu> <XFMail.20030530182836.jhb@FreeBSD.org>
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On Fri, May 30, 2003 at 06:28:36PM -0400, John Baldwin wrote:
>
> On 30-May-2003 Matthew Hunt wrote:
> > On Sat, May 31, 2003 at 08:06:45AM +1000, Sue Blake wrote:
> >
> >> Tell me, how would you follow the following (hypothetical) instruction?
> >>
> >> In case you run out of memory, don't run all of the programs together.
> >>
> >> Is it something to do as a precaution, or a response to take when
> >> an unlikely situation occurs? I would read it as a precaution and
> >> make a workplace rule that we must follow it.
> >
> > Do you know the national origin of this documentation? Was it generally
> > satisfactory otherwise? I'm wondering if it was written by a non-native
> > speaker.
>
> It feels that way. That sentence read very odd. Doesn't "feel" like
> it's correct. Maybe the contrast of "in case" which implies a chance
> occurrence, and the present tense of "run". I.e. it might sound better
> as:
>
> In case you have run out of memory, <blah>.
>
> In which case I think it is a grammar error.
I would understand that as
You might have run out of memory without realising it,
so take the precaution of doing <blah>.
--
Regards,
-*Sue*-
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