On Sun, March 2, 2008 10:24 am, David Brown wrote: > On Sun, Mar 02, 2008 at 08:49:29AM -0800, Lan Barnes wrote: > >>One of the real failings of spell checkers is the inability to pick up >>compound words spelled separately, like "cannot" being munged into "can >>not" (almost[0] always wrong). > >>[0] Actually, according to my 5th form English teacher, Mr. Armstrong >> (who >>knew a hell of a lot more than I ever have), _always_ wrong. > > Other people will have had English teachers who taught that 'cannot' was > wrong. The qualifications to be an elementary school English teacher are > quite different than what might be expected for someone to each "grammar". > I wouldn't put an overly large amount of credence on something learned > from > a single teacher in elementary school, especially if it was just spoken. > > Teachers will often emphasize things that annoy them, not that are wrong. > I think the best example is the using a preposition to end a sentence > with. > Sometimes, a preposition at the end of a sentence is ungrammatical, but > usually it is fine <http://grammartips.homestead.com/prepositions2.html> > > Both forms, 'can not' and 'cannot' are valid, they just mean slight > different things. > > I cannot change the world. > > implies that I don't have the ability to change the world. > > I can not change the world. > > implies that I could change the world if I wanted, but I also can decide > not to. Most occurrences warrant the 'cannot' form. > > David > >
Mr Armstrong would have appreciated your counter example. I will point out in his defense that that is a rare instance. Safest to spell it cannot. This also gets to something I have observed. Computers have had the unintended consequence of undermining accurate English. The Micro$oft spelling dictionary is rife with inconsistencies and outright errors ... a clear example of something that shouldn't have been developed my SW engineers. And to pick a favorite, the typsetting term "justified" means one and only one thing -- flush on both the right and left. "Right justified" is an error -- the correct term is "flush right." Again, engineers out of their depth (and armed with SW engineer arrogance) have revealed their underlying ignorance. But that's another rant for another time. BTW, I fully expect and will not respond to the usual avalanche of "but it's all right (or "alright") because language changes and that's what _I_ say." Sure sure. Tell me about it the next time you correct some Joe Sixpack who calls his hard drive capacity "memory." -- Lan Barnes SCM Analyst Linux Guy Tcl/Tk Enthusiast Biodiesel Brewer -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
