atw: Re: Detrain? on behalf of Richard Bell
- From: mkofler@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 4 May 2005 09:23:17 +0800
I'm sending this on behalf of Richard who gets those annoying =20 thingies
when he posts... so all de-comments are his and I de-claim any responsibility
for them. Except for de-following, as no-one as said it yet... "It's deplane,
it's deplane..."
I like "Captain Stubing, the passengers are de-enboatened..."
Following is Richards post:
-----Original Message-----
From: Bell Richard, Melbourne
Sent: 04- May- 05 11:03 AM
To: 'austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: RE: Re: Detrain?
Just to add a different slant on things . . . It amuses me that tech writers
(language experts of a sort) are often quick to condemn the latest coinage or
unusual use of a word (using a verb as a noun etc), when all through history
this has been happening and will continue to happen as the language evolves.
There is nothing 'wrong' with de-this or de-that: it's just that these are not
familiar words. If more people start using them, they will become familiar and
you won't notice them anymore.
Many of the familiar 'de-' words (and thousands of other coinages) would have
sounded odd when first used; now you don't think twice about them. I rather
like 'deboat' and 'deplane' - why not? 'Upstanding' has a certain tone that
suits ceremonial occasions
Of course, as a tech writer I stick to the conventions of the day . . .
Language is a series of arbitrary conventions, not a necessary state of
affairs like geology.
Richard Bell
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