Re: [tlug] [REMINDER] "Defending the Creative Commons"

[simon colston <simon@example.com>]

On Fri, 13 Dec 2002 16:49:02 +0900
Matt Doughty <wyndigo@example.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Dec 12, 2002 at 09:48:48PM -0800, Brett Robson wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > I understand my girlfriend when she confuses 'a' and 'the', and gets
> > countable nouns completely screwed (she has many money), but my mother
> > doesn't understand her. We rely on a commonality for understanding,
> > you can just make stuff up.
> 
> Not true at all.  That is how things get into the vernacular.  Language
> is adapted and changes with the times and the world in which we live. 
> It adapts.  I suspect he is using the term to represent process of
> designing, and implementing. 
> 

Surely it has got to be true.  Without such a commonality each person's
interpretation of a particular word could be different, which leads to
misunderstanding.  Language does evolve (which is both necessary and very
interesting) but if the speaker chooses to use a word in a new way then
the speaker risks being misunderstood.  People end up 'suspecting' the
meaning rather than 'understanding' it.

-- 
simon colston
simon@example.com