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From: rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: Is English decaying rapidly? (dictionaries)
Message-ID: <224@opus.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 6-Nov-85 02:44:17 EST
Article-I.D.: opus.224
Posted: Wed Nov  6 02:44:17 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 8-Nov-85 21:10:29 EST
Organization: NBI,Inc, Boulder CO
Lines: 15

One of the notable failures of some dictionaries and of many people who use
dictionaries is the failure to distinguish "meaning" from "usage".  As much
as the authors of a dictionary might like to offer definitions which give
strict guidance, they cannot.  In the interest of following evolving
language and making error-tolerant communication possible, they must
present information about commonly-understood meanings of words.  A new,
somewhat peculiar meaning of a word may appear in a dictionary because the
new meaning has become common enough that the dictionary needs to provide
it to those who are trying to figure out what is going on.  At that point
someone can pick up the dictionary and say, "See, it does so mean xxx" when
in fact all the dictionary is saying is, "Some people use this word to mean
xxx."
-- 
Dick Dunn	{hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd		(303)444-5710 x3086
   ...Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.