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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Several towers of Babel are being built and we cannot halt it.
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Carpal Tunnel
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In the Miscellany thread "Good old guy" is the following:
J.W.v.Goethe : Roughly translated: "He who speaks no foreign language, does not know his mother tongue"
and it seems appropriate to this fascinating discussion, too. As we progress and learn we absorb the "jargon" of various fields into the everyday language. We begin to understand the applications that come to us from the adventurers who are now investigating new phenomena. The names of all those now rarified things will become part of the language as our children and children's children become as familiar with these now-esoteric fields as we are with how to drive a car.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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But the "jargon" will accumulate far faster than us peasants can absorb even a few crumbs.
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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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All language about "specialist" topics is jargon - whether it's the words used, or the way in which they are used - until the usage becomes common knowledge. Most educated people now know something about my second field, economics. So, if I say that the economy is in equilibrium, 1. today I'd be lying, and 2. most people will understand, in general terms, what I mean. I hope. But that wasn't a "standard" meaning of the word even 30 years ago. To moan that all language must be understandable to all listeners is a very socialistic attitude which drags everything down to the lowest common denominator. Nothing progresses under those conditions. So while, if I saw "compactified" used in prose which was not related to superstring theory I might go "aargh!", I wouldn't make the same assumption if I was reading "New Scientist" or (God forbid) a text on nuclear physics. If I was interested enough, I'd go and find out what was meant by it, since, on the whole, physicists use rather precise language to describe their field. Interestingly enough, I note that no one has challenged our old bean's use of "superstring" which is as jargonistic as all get out! PS, SpellShredder doesn't like "superstring", it thinks that it's jargon. It suggests that I should use "superuser" instead which, of course, isn't, is it?
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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"pet peeves" - "suffixages" are other threads that YCLU. I was hoping for more slatherings of Don Kingesque... something to correctify my boredomity.
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Joined: Aug 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
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Thanks, Bean for your eloquent defence of jargon. I have no problem at all with specialists using specialist language, especially when it gives the proudly omnascient a chance to poke fun. Speaking strictly from my own point of view as a semi-evolved simian, I do think that in the context I saw it used, a non-technical newsletter designed for lay consumption, some consideration ought to have been given to linguistic aesthetics. In that instance, using "compacted" would not have compromised the clairty of communication, and would have been a lot less uglified, resulting in greater happification for me. It's physics, Jim, but not as we know it.
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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...uglified, resulting in greater happificationThanks, Max you've "fabricated my 24hr period". I have no problem at all with specialists using specialist language... I agree with this sentiment completely! Can anything ever be truly "out of context" (linguistically speaking, of course)?
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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>Can anything ever be truly "out of context" musick... this, coming from *your keyboard, suddenly sheds new light on 99% of your previous posts.
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Posts: 315
enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Good, Bean! Anyway, to exactly define what a compact space is, it is necessary a small course in Topology, so to have the correct definitions of topological space, open and closed set, and so on... and also, the usage of these words is NOT the usual one, for example, OPEN does not mean NOT CLOSED. So, I don't hope that it is really possible to explain the meaning of TO COMPACTIFY to everyone, unless giving some confused - and maybe even partially wrong - idea..
Emanuela
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...sheds new light on 99%...I suddenly wonder which 2.24 posts are still darkened by their *sense of context.
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