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Box Sets

Mind that apostrophe.
OLTB
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Box Sets

#45956

Postby OLTB » April 14th, 2017, 6:03 pm

Isn't a box set a of set of boxes? Should the phrase be, 'boxed set'?

Cheers, OLTB.

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Box Sets

#45984

Postby UncleEbenezer » April 14th, 2017, 9:35 pm

OLTB wrote:Should the phrase be, 'boxed set'?

Isn't it?

chas49
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Re: Box Sets

#45985

Postby chas49 » April 14th, 2017, 10:33 pm

I think it's a bit like people saying "I text him", when they really mean "I texted him".

toofast2live
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Re: Box Sets

#46072

Postby toofast2live » April 15th, 2017, 3:44 pm

Or "I'm sat on the bus", when what they mean is "I'm sitting on the bus."

When did that affectation start? And while I'm at it, when did university become "uni"?

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Re: Box Sets

#46082

Postby PinkDalek » April 15th, 2017, 5:46 pm

toofast2live wrote:Or "I'm sat on the bus", when what they mean is "I'm sitting on the bus."


Would it be more accurate to say "I'm sitting in the bus" or "I'm sitting on a seat in the bus"?

And while I'm at it, when did university become "uni"?


Possibly around the same time some people established it was perfectly acceptable to start a sentence with a conjunction, despite what they'd been taught at school.

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Re: Box Sets

#46174

Postby DiamondEcho » April 16th, 2017, 12:42 pm

Without wishing to spoil the fun, might I observe that language is not really a place for pedantry IMHO. Wouldn't that only hold true if languages were static? But they're not, they always have and always will evolve. For example, how many people do you know who in regular speech speak in 'Chaucerian' English, or even 'Victorian' English? Are we all liable to be told we're wrong for not doing so, and if not why not? The versions of the language we speak in the modern day have been arrived at via millennia of evolution. At every small change and addition on that path, a pedant could have interrupted and said 'No no, that won't do, you can't say that, that's just wrong!'.

Are we allowed to import words into our language? Is the word schlepping allowed despite it's journey Israel/Hebrew>Germany>USA>UK?
Or beserk [IIRC Norse], pogrom [Italian], gratin [French], democracy [Greece], curry [Tamil] and legions [Latin] of other everyday examples [Latin].
Can words cross regional English boundaries? Should a Geordie outside of the north-east be corrected for suggesting a woman get going, by saying hadaway man or ha'way man [literal translation hold+away]? And pity those not born within ear-shot of Bow-bells for using the expression 'having a butchers' [Cockney rhyming slang: Butcher's hook>look]; oh the opprobrium [Latin] they invite [Latin].

Is a foreigner permitted to speak English with a dialect? A Singaporean or Malay might direct a car-driver to 'gostan' [pronounced mid-way between go-stan and go-stun]? Could friends from those parts visiting England suggest I do as such, or would that be 'wrong' as they'd then be in England? Would it be any less wrong in view of the fact that word has evolved from 'go astern', an expression that British sailors introduced to their part of the world before the age of the car? Or ought we insist that only the word reverse is correct despite it deriving from the Latin reversus?

There is a risk [Greek*] it's all taken a bit too seriously [Latin] ;)


* coincidentally this word also has a nautical origin, although not really when you consider language evolved via travel.
'ETYMOLOGY OF RISK: Classical Greek origin – Nautical Expression – Metaphor for “difficulty to avoid in the sea"'
http://research.dnv.com/skj/Papers/ETYM ... F-RISK.pdf

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Re: Box Sets

#46194

Postby PinkDalek » April 16th, 2017, 3:02 pm

DiamondEcho wrote:Without wishing to spoil the fun, might I observe that language is not really a place for pedantry IMHO. ... Or beserk [IIRC Norse] ...


Nor do I think we need to discuss non-standard spellings of berserk.

Anyway, as you are here, I've often noticed your regular use of square or closed brackets. I'm intrigued why you don't appear to favour round brackets or parentheses. I find square brackets somewhat disruptive to my reading flow. I might be alone on this but is your use of them keyboard related or something else?

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Re: Box Sets

#46201

Postby DiamondEcho » April 16th, 2017, 4:59 pm

PinkDalek wrote:Nor do I think we need to discuss non-standard spellings of berserk.


LOL! I knew I'd crash and burn somewhere in this thread :D
[In mitigation I've tried several times to set the language on this PC, and despite thinking I've managed it sites like this still don't 'red zig-zag' typos. I have a hunch the IP address somehow causes the language to periodically change, but who knows. It's annoying to me too, esp when people notice and kindly point it out :lol: ;)

PinkDalek wrote:Anyway, as you are here, I've often noticed your regular use of square or closed brackets. I'm intrigued why you don't appear to favour round brackets or parentheses. I find square brackets somewhat disruptive to my reading flow. I might be alone on this but is your use of them keyboard related or something else?


Sorry about that, and yes it is key-board related. I move country quite often, and hence my current evolved IT set-up derives from purchases in three countries, that don't always quite synch. The keyboard was bought in Asia. I can type [ and ] with single-clicks, whereas ( etc need shift+click, and as a slow typist I rely of reader's goodwill to interpret them as regular brackets. However I realise that on this board of all places, such punctuation is [arguably] flying close to the wind :lol:

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Re: Box Sets

#46212

Postby quelquod » April 16th, 2017, 6:23 pm

Flying?

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Re: Box Sets

#46217

Postby DiamondEcho » April 16th, 2017, 6:34 pm

quelquod wrote:Flying?

If you're unfamiliar with the expression, who are you to criticise? :)

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Re: Box Sets

#46221

Postby UncleEbenezer » April 16th, 2017, 6:48 pm

DiamondEcho wrote:Without wishing to spoil the fun, might I observe that language is not really a place for pedantry IMHO. Wouldn't that only hold true if languages were static? But they're not, they always have and always will evolve. For example, how many people do you know who in regular speech speak in 'Chaucerian' English, or even 'Victorian' English?

Oh, tosh. Language is precisely the place for pedantry, notwithstanding linguistic evolution. It's not about denying evolution, it's about simple coherence of thought and expression. The pedant's clarity of thought is precisely what makes archaic language (including Chaucer[1]) comprehensible, and enables us to adopt an element thereof should the mood take us. For though words and idioms evolve, the distinction between clarity and confusion remains always with us.

Give it a moment's thought, and consider what distinguishes the nonsense of the Jabberwock from that of the illiterate. Or Sheridan from his splendid creation Mrs Malaprop.

Perhaps you might also like to suggest where else pedantry might be more appropriate?

[1] A few years back I dived into the Canterbury Tales, fully expecting to struggle and to give up quite rapidly. To my surprise, I found it perfectly readable. Thinking I must have picked up a modern (though not too dumbed-down) translation, I made enquiries, and was even more surprised to learn it was no such thing.

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Re: Box Sets

#46225

Postby DiamondEcho » April 16th, 2017, 7:22 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:Oh, tosh. Language is precisely the place for pedantry, notwithstanding linguistic evolution. It's not about denying evolution, it's about simple coherence of thought and expression. ...


You use a colloquialism to seek to illustrate the precision of language?
If you are up to the minute with the gazetted record of what is permitted usage of the language, then surely you are still wrong.

UncleEbenezer wrote:Perhaps you might also like to suggest where else pedantry might be more appropriate?


In science, where there is ultimately just one answer and precision helps guide knowledge towards it.

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Re: Box Sets

#46231

Postby UncleEbenezer » April 16th, 2017, 7:45 pm

DiamondEcho wrote:In science, where there is ultimately just one answer and precision helps guide knowledge towards it.

Scientists know there is uncertainty over all but the trivial issues.

However, if we accept your premise that there is just one answer, that puts us into a domain of objective facts. Aren't you confusing pedantry with simple truth?

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Re: Box Sets

#46263

Postby AJC5001 » April 17th, 2017, 12:21 am

DiamondEcho wrote:
quelquod wrote:Flying?

If you're unfamiliar with the expression, who are you to criticise? :)


I thought the correct expression was the nautical 'sailing close to the wind'. Typing 'flying close to the wind' into Google seems to confirm this.

Adrian

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Re: Box Sets

#46386

Postby quelquod » April 17th, 2017, 1:03 pm

AJC5001 wrote:
DiamondEcho wrote:
quelquod wrote:Flying?

If you're unfamiliar with the expression, who are you to criticise? :)


I thought the correct expression was the nautical 'sailing close to the wind'. Typing 'flying close to the wind' into Google seems to confirm this.

Adrian

Of course it is, but don't upset DE as he strives to redefine the language. :mrgreen:

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Re: Box Sets

#46500

Postby DiamondEcho » April 17th, 2017, 9:10 pm

quelquod wrote:Of course it is, but don't upset DE as he strives to redefine the language. :mrgreen:


Surely anyone who creates a new word or redefines it's usage is 'redefining it', and it's been an ongoing process since the dawn of language?


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