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#143464 06/03/05 10:45 PM
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Well, for heaven's sake--I never knew any of that; I just would say "my notebook", or something. Thanks, everybody!

On something of a tangent, I have been rather put to it in the past few days to try and get across to my children (born in '84 and '85) the significance of the term "Deep Throat". Their primary acquaintanceship with it is from the X-Files. I don't think they can fully appreciate all the connotations it has for those of us who lived (and watched) when the Watergate investigation was going on.


#143465 06/03/05 10:52 PM
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>>The decision about the question "Does this bunch of phonemes, nay, lexemes, qualify as a word?" is clearly not a democratic one, even less the affair of a commitee. It is more like the fate of a pebble carried along by a river: some are ground down to sand quickly, others end up well-rounded and smooth.<<

I like that very much, Werner. But, if we the speakers are the river, then isn't language *essentially democratic? the streams of speech the referenda?



#143466 06/04/05 01:22 AM
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WHY I MOVED MY COMMONPLACE BOOK FROM PAPER INTO A COMPUTER DATABASE.

My very first commonplace book was a bound book with blank pages. The problem with it was that things went in chronologically as I discovered them which made retrieval a problem. The best classical commonplace books (e.g. those of Thomas Jefferson) were divided into sections so that his political stuff could be kept separate from his botanical/agricultural stuff. My later commonplace books were all three-ring binders which allowed me to move stuff around into different sections and even rearrange the sections over time. This was ducky except that some things fit into more than one category. For example, I might want to keep everything about politics in one place and everything written in Latin in one place. Mini-crisis: where to put something about politics written in Latin? This led me inexorably toward moving my commonplace books into a database -- a project which is not yet complete but keeps me out of the tavern on slow days. The database does not care where a file may be "physically" located within itself. If one identifies a single file with separate identifiers -- e.g. POLITICS and LATIN QUOTES -- then it is appropriately retrieved with its brothers and sisters when that identifier is keyed into the search function. How cool is that!? While I am certain that none of this seems marvelous to those on this Board who are computer sophisticates, I am still struck with awe and wonder by it all.

#143467 06/04/05 01:31 AM
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I'm with you, Steve, a good database is a delight.



formerly known as etaoin...
#143468 06/04/05 11:40 AM
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It has its points, I grant you. I, however, am more of a rambler than that, and, besides, I can read my commonplace book by candlelight, and carry it everywhere. (OK, you can carry a laptop everywhere, too.)


#143469 06/04/05 02:39 PM
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I can read my commonplace book by candlelight, and carry it everywhere.

If one is sure-handed and not too rambunctious, one may read one's commonplace book book in the bathtub. It is not recommended that one take one's laptop into the bathtub, no matter how sure-handed and quiescent one is.


#143470 06/06/05 05:36 AM
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isn't language *essentially democratic? - If, by that term, you mean it is beyond the reach of dictators, then I agree. But in the narrow sense of "determined by majority", I have my doubts: many words owe their existence to persistent minorities.


#143471 06/06/05 09:47 AM
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many words owe their existence to persistent minorities. And the consensus of the majority.


#143472 06/06/05 10:32 AM
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>>And the consensus of the majority.

Well, not necessarily, Faldo. Remember the jazz ergot which stayed in the jazz clubs for many moons before it escaped into the wider world. And professional jargon often stays in the shadows. Only the consensus is really necessary ...


#143473 06/06/05 10:39 AM
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A word or phrase might get started by a persistent minority and even maintain a minority existence for a long time, but, for it to become a part of the language as a whole, it needs majority support.


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