From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!uwvax!jon
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Title: second verse, same as the first
Article-I.D.: uwvax.462
Posted: Mon Jul  5 09:08:57 1982
Received: Tue Jul  6 00:49:02 1982

ALRIGHT! Let's get hot and heavy into argumentum ad hominem.
Pablo Alliende thinks I am a computer troll who thinks all words
have 32 bits, and I think that anyone named Alliende is intrinsically
incapable of accurately judging questions on the English language.
(that was facetious)

Seriously,  I think the argument can be summed up as follows:

Mr. Alliende claims that any unit of speech or writing that
conveys meaning is a word. (perhaps he would narrow this a bit,
but you get the drift.)

I claim that a word must conform to convention,  at least if
it's to be considered a word in a particular language. "Ov" does not
conform to English convention.
The dictionary definition only addresses the question of "what is a word"
not "what is 'a word in a language.'"  The distinction is important.

And furthermore, eggs should always be opened at the big end.

				  Jon Mauney