On Wednesday, 10 June 2015 at 19:57:15 UTC, Russel Winder wrote:
Please note, OED (which is the definition of the English
language
As Tofu Ninja said, a dictionary only (partly) reflects the
current usage of a language. Look up the word "sophisticated" and
you'll find out that it had a different meaning in the 1920s. In
fact, dictionaries invariably lag behind and as soon as a new
version is published it's already out of date.
Also, do not forget that those who create and revise dictionaries
are not representative of all speakers. They will typically be
part of an elite that defines the language in terms of their own
belief system. Most certainly so in Great Britain.
whatever any USA upstarts may try to pretend)
I shouldn't really comment on this cultural snobbery. However,
different linguistic communities have different linguistic
realities. The English spoken in the US, Ireland or Scotland is
not the same as in England. The linguistic reality for a speaker
in Liverpool is not the same as for a speaker in London. But who
cares, English is beyond the grasp of Oxford now. You only have
yourselves to blame, nobody asked you to go and spread the
language all over the globe.
is gearing up to define
"they" as both singular and plural, thus at a stroke solving
all the
he/she, she/he, (s)he, it faffing.
On Wed, 2015-06-10 at 19:05 +0000, via Digitalmars-d wrote:
On Wednesday, 10 June 2015 at 18:41:56 UTC, Adam D. Ruppe
wrote:
> That's actually a good idea, you might not have noticed it,
> but I rarely use "he" alone as a general term and I notice
> it when other people do. Little things like this in language
> can make a difference in people's feelings and cause
> discomfort in the environment.
Sure, follow your own ethics, but that won't work in an
international environment as a rule without coming off as
censorship. You cannot force people globally to follow a local
culture. I also try to cut down on the term "you" as a general
term since people might think I mean them personally.
At some point you just have question intent if there is a
misunderstanding, rather than control every expression or else
everything becomes "it":
"A bad programmer create bugs when it edits its files...".
And if people force you to write "it", it is quite reasonable
to wonder what else they strongly object to so you better just
stay silent. I really do try to cut down on the term "you"?
