#16743
02/01/2001 8:57 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544
addict
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addict
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tsuwm wrote: hyla, I only quote myself to reinforce this point.
I think I was writing my post while you were posting yours, which has caused me a bit of confusion. Someone (perhaps wow?) called it an acronym, I started to reply, got distracted, and a few minutes later finished posting. In any case, we're in agreement. I think. About something.
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#16744
08/18/2001 3:18 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 14
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 14 |
Is there a specific term for collections of letters such as this one, which tend to be specific to the internet, which actually stand for a sentence (as in YCLIU) or a phrase (YART)?
Macronym?
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#16745
08/18/2001 8:08 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Goatboy: When I started this thread back in January, I despised acronyms, and I despise them now even more. Over fifty years ago there was an excuse for using acronyms, because for instance in Ham Radio it took up to seven keystrokes to produce a single letter. Now with word processors acronyms are a stupid annoyance. When I come to a monstrosity like the one in the subject line, I refuse to waste my time on it, and conclude that the sender was sufficiently arrogantly inconsiderate that I make no attempt to read his message. F word him or her.
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#16746
08/18/2001 8:43 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
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Agreed, Bill. When those "in the know" speak in acronym, they leave others "in the dark".
Thank you, goatboy. If you hadn't brought this thread up to current date, I'd have never found it, and would be tearing out my limited hair trying to decipher these darn acronyms. (I'm losing enough sleep anyway over "abceghilnoprtuy", but that's another thread.)
EDIT, in recognition of Sparteye's note below:
I clearly mispoke when refering to "these darn acronyms".
The techically correct phrase is "these F__ acronyms".
Enough acrimony.
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#16747
08/18/2001 8:49 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
So, can one letter constitute an acronym?
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#16748
08/18/2001 9:11 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
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Dear wow: I repent my venom for that particular one, which I had forgotten was yours. But the very fact that I forget them so easily is the thing that makes them drive me nuts. I hate it inagazines too, when they use them in the first paragraph, and five or six paragraphs later I have having to go back to first paragraph and spend more time than it is worth to find the lousy acronym. I wish I were capable of buying you a drink.
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#16749
08/19/2001 6:22 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
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When those "in the know" speak in acronym, they leave others "in the dark"And there, perfesser, in a nutshell you have half the magic of language: for anyone still naive enough to believe this is a medium of communication, I would respectfully point out that exactly half of language effects are designed to define ourselves and therefore by implication define the outsiders. U and non-U, in a thousand tribal contexts! Communication in neat and continual apposition to obfuscation! Yah gotta just learn to roll with the punches, an' keep on laughin, guys! This is a secret code we're using, and my version (or idiolect, as was noted the other day) does not ever correspond exactly to yours... speshully damerkins 
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#16750
08/19/2001 6:55 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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And the bdelygmia content of many acronyms is far too high.
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#16751
08/20/2001 11:43 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
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When I come to a monstrosity like the one in the subject line, I refuse to waste my time on it
Which was, in my first exposure to it, simply a bar joke. Its self referentiality can hardly be considered any attempt to exclude anyone from meaningful discourse. It was meant as an attempt to put lecherous sailors in their place relative to the hot barmaids. I am reminded of an attempt by a lecherous sailor to gain the good graces of a hot barmaid by presenting her with a card that read, "If You Want To Go To Bed With Me, Smile And Give This Card Back To Me; If You Don't, Tear It In Two And Throw It Away." The card was made of a material that was impossible (or so the lecherous sailor thought) to tear. The hot barmaid looked at the card, tore it in two and threw it away. She knew the trick of nicking it with a fingernail before attempting to tear it.
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#16752
08/20/2001 2:29 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
I imagine you have all noticed that government and other bureaucratic types are, of all people, the most fond of speaking in acronym. Worse yet, they are addicted to the constant use of abbreviations, form numbers, grade/position designators, etc. instead of using real words. While I'm willing to believe that a good bit of the time it's just an unconscious, although deplorable, habit picked up from being immersed in such a milieu, I also suspect that there are plenty of times when this is a code designed to keep outsiders from understanding what is being said. What is any normal person to make of something like "Reimbursement to GS13s or higher is made on WW55 or BA22-8 supported by dec from indig supp."
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#16753
08/20/2001 2:33 PM
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Posts: 13,803
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Reimbursement to GS13s or higher is made on WW55 or BA22-8 supported by dec from indig supp
Would we understand the expansion any better?
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#16754
08/20/2001 3:50 PM
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Posts: 4,757
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Possiblly. The Plain English Campaign over this side of the pond is having a few notable victories. Do you have a similar movement where you-all are?
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#16755
08/20/2001 4:50 PM
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Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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The Plain English Campaign over this side of the pond is having a few notable victories.
Plain English? Here? Surely you jest.
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#16756
08/20/2001 6:31 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
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Plain English? Here? Surely you jest.
Indeed. If Plain English were to catch on, how could lawyers ever make a living?
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#16757
08/20/2001 7:03 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
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If Plain English were to catch on, how could lawyers ever make a living?
The lawyers among us excepted, of course.
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#16758
08/20/2001 7:25 PM
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Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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#16759
08/20/2001 8:31 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Yes, Max, I think you followed the English model on this - ours too is drafted with admirable clarity in exactly the terminology familiar to the average reading public in the UK http://www.yahgottabejokin-wedonthaveone.co.uk
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#16760
08/21/2001 2:13 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 618
addict
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addict
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Having just re-read Nineteen Eighty-Four for the nth time, I can't resist the urge to mention newspeak. Even though it does not employ acronyms, and it's purpose was (satirically) to make language and communication easier, it was still as painful to read Byb's post.
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#16761
08/21/2001 2:23 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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GS13s or higher would insp bgb the dirops wrfl.
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