How's
that? Unless you're a committed reductionist, the two words relate to
significantly different methods of agreeing meaning. You could take the
word 'Calculus' to mean very different things. Pure mathemeticians would
like one agreed meaning prescribed (agreed upon and unchanging) while others who
use the word in a less rigid sense create alternative meanings which any
linguist would be obliged to describe. Language is thankfully fluid but
prescribe doesn't mean the same as describe, in my limited understanding of
things.
-----Original Message-----To describe is to prescribe and to prescribe is to describe.
From: elephant [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: 20 May 2001 09:40
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: MD "friends"
I always thought Platonic was used because we all know he was a philosopher, therefore a thinker, therefore this is love which relates to the head more than any other part of the body. In other words - it's a get-out clause when someone just wants to be friends. As someone who doesn't know Plato too well it's easy to come to that conclusion so I guess this one goes back to the old debate on defining languages - do we 'prescribe' correct usage, or 'describe' actual usage.
From: "Bell, Tim" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 12:00:09 +0100
To: "'[EMAIL PROTECTED]'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RE: MD "friends"
