Re: rules

[Marilynne Smith <mrsmith -at- CTS -dot- COM>]

Support the dictionary whose policies you prefer.  Different compilers use
different methods to gather terms.  One uses "what are people saying?" as a
guideline, another uses "what are people saying that is good and
necessary?"  If you want a dictionary that applies some sense and not just
usage, use an American Heritage dictionary.

Marilynne
mrsmith -at- cts -dot- com
-------------------------------------------------
At 09:43 AM 8/14/97 PST, DIGEST Deborah Snavely wrote:
>>From their beginnings, English-language dictionaries have recorded current
>usage. Only once they existed did there begin to be rules. Me, I like
using such
>rules, but I note that succeeding editions of dictionaries record the growing
>ignorance of the writing and printing public, post-desktop publishing. Any
year
>now, I expect to see Webster or Merriam-Webster claim that "it's" and
"its" are
>interchangeable. (It happened to imply and infer decades ago.)
>
>For that matter, orthography is similarly slippery. Anyone else here still
>prefer the simple spelling rule that you double the consonent when adding
a verb
>ending?  Nowadays dictionaries give the nod to this simple and memorable
rule by
>listing "canceled," "labeled," and similar pronounciation-neutral spelling
>shifts as the first (preferred) spelling, and only including "cancelled,"
>"labelled," in second place. Sigh. One can't fight published authorities,
unless
>one owns the style guide.
>
>Deborah Snavely
>Lead Technical Writer
>Publications, Software & Systems
>Savi Technology / a Raytheon TI Systems company
>dsnavely -at- savi -dot- com
>
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---------------------------------------------------------------
Marilynne Smith
Writing, Editing, and Online Documentation
---------------------------------------------------------------

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