Beat The Dead Horse :-)
On Oct 8, 2009, at 2:24 PM, SIP <[email protected]> wrote: > Alex Balashov wrote: >> Geraint Lee wrote: >> >> >>> no conclusions seem to have been drawn from the original >>> question/observation though! >>> >> >> I was just about to say the same thing. >> >> >>> and yes i have noticed random >>> capitalisation in the past just ignored it and carried on with life, >>> after all, it's not like it takes any meaning away from what's >>> been written. >>> >> >> Depending on who is doing the reading, it can communicate the >> impression >> of an amateur, fly-by-night operation and negatively impact business. >> >> But that is beside the point of this thread; as I said to Jai, I >> am not >> expressing an "opinion" here - plenty of other threads have seen that >> already. >> >> What I do find surprising is that nobody has found this phenomenon >> curious enough to raise the topic before. It's quite conspicuous, >> and >> thus piques my curiosity. >> >> > > To be perfectly honest, I think the consistency you've heretofore seen > has been simply because of a consistency in its use by some writers > common to the forum. Whether by misunderstanding or by simply a desire > for visual emphasis (there is so little one can do to emphasise > straight, unformatted text) of certain key words or terms that those > writers feel to be important. I've seen somewhat random, and haphazard > capitalisation from a variety of 'native' English speakers here in the > US time and time again, and it often boils down to preference. It's > often a learned affectation, in imitation of someone they've seen do > the > very same thing. I would find it incredibly difficult to believe that > there's some standardisation of improper capitalisation that stems > from > former British colonies and their understanding of English. > > If public school taught me one thing it's that people who grow up in > the > UK and people who grow up in the US are by no means an adequate > barometer of acceptable grammar, spelling, punctuation, or > capitalisation. > > But then, having two English professors for parents, there were often > great wars fought over the dinner table as to whether or not English > should be a descriptive or a prescriptive language. I have a bad habit > of subconsciously and immediately judging someone who uses poor > grammar > or spelling (in a manner consistent with a lack of understanding as > opposed to simple typos), but if that were my only barometer for > dealing > with a company, there would be few companies with which I would bother > dealing. My father, quick to defend the descriptive camp, would argue > that such a thing goes against the idea of language, and that language > itself is there for accepted communication. As long as both parties > can > agree that an idea has been conveyed properly and appropriately, the > basic rules of grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalisation need > not be as strict as I might want them. > > Some Asian languages have NO capitalisation whatsoever. Japanese, for > instance, has no capitalisation or even spacing, preferring to rely on > interspersed differentiation of syllabaries in order to break up a > sentence into something meaningful. It's sometimes difficult to teach > someone coming from such a tradition to understand why he sees random > capitalisation on the Internet, in advertising copy, in newspapers, > etc. Knowing this, I'm often somewhat lenient when I read what is > written by non-native speakers, as I know the important part is to > convey the information. If they're making an honest effort to convey > information, they are, in essence, speaking the same language as I. > > It is readily apparent, however, when someone is NOT interested in > making an effort to convey information. And those are the missives I > find suspect. Those are the emails on the list that, to me, scream > 'scam.' The emails from Jai, Rehan, and dozens of other non-native > speakers that you occasionally blast for sounding poorly-written > are, to > me, completely acceptable in that I know that they're trying very hard > to convey important information, and are both happy and eager to > answer > questions if I am confused about something they say. I neither > begrudge > them their capitalisation nor their grammar if there are mistakes. > They > often, of course, get defensive when you lambaste them publicly, but > that's to be expected. I would do the same, I imagine, even if I > didn't > say so, I'd still FEEL unnecessarily chastised. > > On the flip side, there are those who drop in and just blast a quick, > unintelligible spam, Google-translated from Chinese, Polish, Russian, > Thai (or some other language that a computer translates VERY poorly), > and then refuse to answer any questions about intent, often preferring > to hide behind a shield of defensiveness. Those emails -- those are > the > ones which cause me to lose all faith in the company or product being > offered. They say to me that if someone is not willing to at least try > to be understood by me when selling me his product, he's certainly not > going to bother if I end up having a problem with his product. > > N. > > _______________________________________________ > --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- > > AstriCon 2009 - October 13 - 15 Phoenix, Arizona > Register Now: http://www.astricon.net > > asterisk-biz mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- AstriCon 2009 - October 13 - 15 Phoenix, Arizona Register Now: http://www.astricon.net asterisk-biz mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
