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Subject:Controlled English From:Damien Braniff <Damien_Braniff -at- PAC -dot- CO -dot- UK> Date:Mon, 18 May 1998 08:59:48 +0100
As far as I understand it Controlled or Simplified English is something
that came into being about 10 years ago (may be longer but that's when I
first encountered it). The flavour I encountered was created by British
Aerospace for use in their manuals for shipment abroad (standard docs were
all in English) and the aim was to limit confusion (as if English is
confusing!!). Basically it provided a limited vocabulary of words
(technical?) which had to be used - anything which was at all ambiguous was
out. Anyone who is fluent in English (mother tongue) would probably find
the writing a bit stilted but to somebody who wasn't it was (meant to be
anyway!) simpe to understand and totally unambiguous.
