Re: [OT] Terrific - was: [tlug] email programs

[Martin Baehr <mbaehr@example.com>]

On Mon, May 26, 2003 at 09:45:48PM +0900, Matt Doughty wrote:
> Unless
> of course you consider the Humpty Dumpty approach to language somehow
> valid.  Common misusage doesn't make it correct.

but it does!
or else how come gay means anything else than happy?
how come it's insulting when you call someone nigger?

language is made up by the people who use it.
it evolves and changes.
meaning changes.
correct is whatever the people agree on to be correct.
wrong is, when you disagree and nobody understands you.

doctionaries have no say here. all they do is preserve the state of the
language at one given point of time.
just compare the difference between a dictionary today and one one or
two hundred years ago. you'll be amazed at the differences.

greetings, martin.
-- 
Pike Conference 2003 - Sep 25-27  -  http://pike.ida.liu.se/conferences/2003/
-- 
interested in doing pike programming, sTeam/caudium/pike/roxen training,      
sTeam/caudium/roxen and/or unix system administration anywhere in the world.
--
pike programmer   working in europe                           open-steam.org
unix system-      bahai.or.at                       iaeste.(tuwien.ac|or).at
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Martin Bähr       http://www.iaeste.or.at/~mbaehr/