Re: 'Blockbuster picks Blu-Ray' - questions

On Jul 2, 1:25 am, "Jay G." <J...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sun, 01 Jul 2007 08:28:23 -0700, moviePig wrote:
On Jun 30, 11:11 pm, "Jay G." <J...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 06:44:26 -0700, moviePig wrote:

... There's things like
grammar and spelling that determine whether a sentence is correct or not.
That sentence, as written, is incorrect, regardless of what the "meaning"
of the sentence is.

Which sentence is correct, according to you?

Two and three is five.

That sentence, as written, is incorrect, regardless of what the "meaning"
of the sentence is.

Two and three are six.

This is actually a good example of what trotsky wrote, since he essentially
wrote this. Whether or not he *meant* to write "five" instead of "six" is
irrelevant, since the sentence, as written, is incorrect.

Hmm. Is this sentence correct?

"Though others sat near Lincoln, the only one injured was him."

And, later in this post, you've mistakenly typed 'your' for 'you'. Is
that sentence correct?

Assuming the answers (according to you) are 'no', one wonders how
finely the razor cuts. E.g., consider this sentence:

"A deck is comprised of 52 cards."

Is it correct... in view of http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/comprise ?


Vagueness is not a sign of correctness.

Indeed.

In fact, it's the opposite of that.

I have no idea what the opposite of a sign of correctness might be.
But I do arrive at three distinct evaluations for:

Socrates is a man.
Socrates is a giraffe.
Socrates is a felbisch.


And defining "software" to mean "prerecorded discs" is *not* a
legitimate interpretation, unless there are specific contextual modifying
qualifiers to the word.

....as indeed there were ...where Trotsky assumed, rightly or wrongly,
they'd be within your grasp.


(The point being that neither well-intentioned
readers nor failures in translation determine whether a writer's
correct.)

No, whether the sentence was written correctly determines whether the
writer's correct.

Only in computer languages. (And in fewer and fewer of those.)


It's not sentences that are correct or incorrect, but.merely their
interpretations; sentences are but scratches on a page.

That's very zen, and in regards to most of the thinking world, very wrong.

Not wrong, just not widely recognized by those who don't look.


There are standard and accepted ways of writing to make oneself understood.
To deviate from those methods is to write a sentence that is incorrect.

And when those rules change (as they do), are previously 'wrong'
writers somehow rehabilitated, and allowed to remove their scarlet
'W'?


If
we were to abandon the writer's responsibility to have what he writes meet
the reader at least half-way, then we'd literally have nothing but
scratches on a page, or the equivalent of a monkey pounding on keys for
electronic communication.

Of course. But, apart from grammatical nitpicking, this discussion is
about where 'halfway' is ...or rather, about the unavoidable
subjectivity of measuring.


For example:
sfga tyrwa fgs hjoajkb fjsoujn d apoijfs mdapoiuen d pwajapjd gjklnad
hosgnlh tepusphf shfoh

If you can decipher that sentence in the next 700 years, then I'll concede
the argument.

But, given sufficient background, I perhaps *could* decipher it... and
then maybe even say whether you were wrong to write it...


Trotsky had a
"fact" in mind, and wrote a sentence *he* interpreted as representing
it... though he and we are *always* at the mercy of others'
interpretations and contexts.

Foremost, however, one should be at the mercy of the standard and accepted
forms of spelling, grammar, and writing.

Not in a million years. *Foremost*, one should speak truthfully and
usefully.


Quite separately, though, you seem to persist that Trotsky's
(momentary) meaning for 'software' (i.e., prerecorded discs) has *no*
validating independent precedent despite our citing of just such
usage.

The only cite your provided showed precisely what trotsky's post lacked,
contextually modifying qualifiers in front of the word "software."

Here's the cited headline (...first thing on the page):

Blu-ray Software Sales Surpass HD-DVD

What qualifiers are you referring to?

--

- - - - - - - -
YOUR taste at work...
http://www.moviepig.com

.

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