Re: Common Errors in English - pattern recognition

["Mark Baker" <listsub -at- analecta -dot- com>]

Sean Hower wrote a brilliant analysis of the phonetic vs. pattern
recognition issue and concluded with:

> Tech writer tie-in?
> It's all about internal consistency while maintaining a standard that
everyone can recognize easily.
> (Why make a reader work harder than they have to?) Minor variations across
documents are
> acceptable because readers would quickly learn those differences and
adjust to them.

Let's not neglect to notice that efficient pattern recognition does not
depend on absolute uniformity. There is no reason that the brain can't
internalize multiple patterns with the same referent. The claim for the
importance of absolute consistency is often overstated. All sorts of
inconsistencies, in fact, routinely go unnoticed because the brain
recognizes the inconsistent patterns without difficulty. Indeed, if you
start too look for them you can find inconsistencies almost everywhere.

The quest for consistency is not without merit, but it must be balanced
against a respect for the natural variability of the language and the
relative value of the different activities to which we could devote our
time.

Mark Baker