Re: 'Blockbuster picks Blu-Ray' - questions

On Jul 2, 5:05 pm, "Jay G." <J...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mon, 02 Jul 2007 06:58:45 -0700, moviePig wrote:

...
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.

Really? Because agreeing with that statement pretty much means you were
wrong when you wrote:
It's not sentences that are correct or incorrect, but.merely their
interpretations; sentences are but scratches on a page.

Since that statement absolves the writer of *all* responsibility.

Responsibility, schmesponsibility... there's no truant officer here.
The writer has only the wish to be understood, and the formalities of
language are only a tool towards that. His 'responsibility' is to
himself, that his efforts should bear fruit.


But, apart from grammatical nitpicking, this discussion is
about where 'halfway' is ...

The "halfway" point is writing according to the standard and accepted forms
of spelling and grammar, and using the standard and accepted definitions of
words, as well as providing the necessary context. If those are lacking,
one can't fault the reader for misunderstanding.

Actually, I'm faulting the reader for *dis*understanding (...i.e., for
refusing to venture further than he believes to be "halfway").


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...

*What* sufficient background?

The language you're speaking, if any.


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.

"Usefully" being the operative word here. Writing in a way that is
unclear, and in a way contrary to the rules the majority of us use to read
and write, is not useful.

The next time the instructions accompanying your new Walkperson are
printed in risible pidgin English, do throw them immediately onto the
pyre of things that aren't useful...


The only cite [you] 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?

The word "Blu-ray" before the word "software." If the headline had said:

Software Sales Surpass HD-DVD

Then that'd be a vague and hard to understand headline, and thus incorrect.
*What* software surpassed HD DVD? DVD software? Digital downloads? *All*
software? The idea of qualifiers is so natural to the way most of us write
that you seem unable to see them when they're right in front of you. It's
those sort of qualifiers that trotsky's post was sorely lacking in.

"*Sorely* lacking" the word 'Blu-Ray' before the word
'software'? ...in a thread titled "Blockbuster picks Blu-Ray"? Does
not compute.

--

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

.

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