Re: in or on the lists

Blue Sow wrote:
Mike Stevens wrote:
Blue Sow wrote:
Mike Stevens wrote:

OK, how about "today's abusage is tomorrow's usage"?

To my mind, if a significany number of people use a particular
linguistic entity, then it's a current usage. To call some current
usages "abusage" is adopting a value judgement that other may not
accept.

'significant number' being the important point.

Your use of 'significany' above was almost certainly a typographical
error such as anyone might make.
If you persisted with it however, it would be a spelling error (an
abusage). If large numbers of people adopted it, it might become
current usage, but meanwhile it remains an abusage.

My point was that search engines would report it as an example of
current usage during the period when it was either a typo. or a
simple spelling mistake (assuming it was published in a way that the
search engine could access it).
I used an example of a spelling error to illustrate the point
previously, and have now done so again.

So are you suggesting that "usage" is something that is done (a) by a
significant number of people and simultaneously (b) delibefrately, whereas
"abusage" is either done by very few people or is done accidentally?
Personally I'd call the "very few bur deliberate" case "idiosyncracy" and
the accidental case "accident", thus escaping from the value-judgement
implicit in the word "abusage".


--
Mike Stevens
narrowboat Felis Catus III
web-site www.mike-stevens.co.uk

Defend the waterways.
Visit the web site www.saveourwaterways.org.uk


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