Apparent Illiteracy 1

[chipperMDW]

This is the title of an article:

Recursive Make Considered Harmful

It's about the pitfalls of using the recursive features of the software build tool "Make."

Of course, without knowing "Make" is a noun, not a verb, the title of the article seems like a bad translation!


Considering that, in technical fields, (at least computer science), we often use commonplace verbs and adjectives (e.g. names of programs) as nouns, I figured that this type of occurrence probably happens a lot, and we never notice because the sentences make perfect sense to us.

Does anyone else have examples of phrases or sentences that appear to be incorrect for similar reasons? You've probably read some, and never noticed. Perhaps you might even find something amusing in your last few Tek-Tips replies!

 

[CajunCenturion]

One of the things the greatly contributes to the problem, and in some cases actually creates the problem, is the lack of proper punctuation and capitalization.

I agree that we frequently use commonplace words as program names, but when that word functions as the name of a program, it becomes a proper noun and should be capitalized. I submit that when we don't notice, it's because it is properly capitalized. It is the capital letter that triggers our awareness that the word is not its normal common self.

Ambiguity is introduced by failing to properly capitalize. In fact, reducing and eliminating ambiguity is the primary purpose of punctuation and capitalization.

Another aid is the use of the trademark, whenever appropriate. I don't know if Make is trademarked, but if it is, then consider the following:

Recursive Make[®] Considered Harmful

Again, I think the Registry is a clue that Make is not the common verb.

Of course, that doesn't help in titles or when the word would normally be capitalized or when registry doesn't apply. In that case, we're left with context or less ambiguous wording.

Recursive Version of Make is Considered Harmful
Recursive Make is Considered Harmful

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[earthandfire]

Even if properly capitalised in normal use, words that would normally start with a lowercase letter are often capitalised in titles. As such, the case of the first letter of a particular word in a title would not necessarily be indicative of its meaning.

 

[grande]

That reminds me of a bash.org quote I read:

#4780 +(3844)- [X]
<Thumb> do you know of any major organizations that are similar the CDC?
<Lucent> who?
<Thumb> center for disease control
<Lucent> i said WHO
<Thumb> what? i'm asking you
<Lucent> World Health Organization

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Just call me Captain Awesome.

 

[grooke]

I thought this was the standard grammar of Business Analysts

In front of me is a menu:
'Search for x'
'Search Results'

Capitalisation is NOT a useful guide. Firstly there is a growing tendancy to capitalise all sorts of nouns; for example, 'all terms that have been defined in this document'. As has been pointed out, it is not always distinguishable. I prefer the legal approach where they must make their sentences uniquely understandable without punctuation; I consider capitalisation is punctuation.

I would rather see people write English and NOT English muddled by local rules and jargon.

Acronyms should be grounds for sacking.

Lack of consideration when defining those 'Proper Nouns'. For example, one project where a small part of it had the same name as the total project. 20 people reviewed each document, but NONE picked up that several of them had the wrong definition of the name at their beginning.

The use of verbs and nouns and others as adjectives is the cause of much of the problems. The genative case has been killed by too many people who cant be bothered to write the simple word 'of'.

One trick I use is that, wherever I find a single object referred to by a string of words of various kinds, I hyphenate them together using the minimum of hyphens, but ensuring there is only one interpretation. This preserves the initial illiteracy of the namers and original authors, whilst making it readable to the readers.

I still prefer to try to write standard English.

Gil

 

[grande]

Acronyms should be grounds for sacking.

So every time I write an email/memo about COBOL, I have to say what it stands for? No Dice!

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Just call me Captain Awesome.

 

[manarth]

I would rather see people write English and NOT English muddled by local rules and jargon.

Would that be British English? American English? Canadian English? Hong-Kong English?

The only English that HASN'T been muddied by local rules and jargon is British English, and even that's debatable.

<marc>
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[grooke]

There is ONLY ONE and you identified it. The others hardly warrant the name.

If the acronym is in the COED then it may be acceptable

Gil

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

grooke ... Thou hast spake in jest, but tread warily lest thee dost offend thy helpful neighbours.

 

[CajunCenturion]

I still prefer to try to write standard English.

Can we take your post (25 Nov 05 8:45) as a shining example of your efforts to write standard English?

--------------
Good Luck
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As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[strongm]

>British English

Without taking anything away from other speakers of English, I'd argue that the above is a tautology

 

[grooke]

Sorry guys. I was just seeking light relief from horrible work.

I do find acronyms over used and the standard of English (of any sort) incredibly low. The standard in my reply of 25th is still way better than what I was reading when I got fed up.

Gil

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
If I recall correctly, it was George Bernard Shaw who said that America and England were '2 countries separated by a common language'..






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