SC - Language (was: .food riddle and query)
LrdRas at aol.com
LrdRas at aol.com
Mon Dec 13 15:48:22 PST 1999
In a message dated 12/11/99 3:30:24 AM Eastern Standard Time,
cclark at vicon.net writes:
<< BTW, I checked my dictionary and didn't find any definitions equating
grains/kernels with berries. And that is as it should be. >>
I suppose this is correct if you wish a language to become stagnant and dead.
There are many languages that fit the picture of perfection you describe.
Latin comes first to mind. No one speaks Latin. So if you wish the standards
you tout so highly to be rigorously and unyieldingly applied to English, I
would assume that you wish English to become a dead language?
Agriculture and food sciences recognizes the term wheat berries' a a precise
term. We are discussing food science and agricultural on this under list most
circumstances. When we are not this is readily apparent to all. So I submit
that botanically correct terms, while sometimes useful to a few people on
this list for specific needs, for the most part add confusion and unnecessary
burdens when they are applied in situations where using industry standard
terms (e.g., wheat berries) immediately creates common ground and facilitates
communication.
Amazingly, you seem to be the only person that I know, or have ever known,
that seems to have any difficulty differentiating between strawberries and
wheat berries without being confused.
(BTW, going by the 'ideal' language standards you propose, the word 'silly'
in the manner you used it was incorrect since by those standards it means
'happy, innocent, pitiable.' It's use as a term for helpless/weak (archaic),
rustic/plain, lowly in station (obsolete), humble, weak in intellect
(foolish), exhibiting or indicative of a lack of common sense or sound
judgment, trifling/frivolous and being stunned or dazed well outside the
original meaning of the word).
Ras
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