Re: "Shared" procedure division code

"Chuck Stevens" <charles.stevens@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:dd8bd0$1mpp$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> "jce" <defaultuser@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:F8LJe.39377$iG6.6353@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>> You have found that M-W best reflects common current American
> English...and
>> by what means did you determine this?
>
> I have compared various English dictionaries and have also done some
> rudimentary research into the scholarship and research methodology that
> has
> gone into those dictionaries (and families of dictionaries). I believe
> M-W's research is both more extensive and more careful than its
> competition
> among those dictionaries that are specifically targeted to that purport to
> reflect American English. That has been confirmed by comparison of a
> number
> of definitions, in particular between the M-W Third Unabridged and the
> American Heritage and Random House erstwhile competitors.
>
> A four-year degree in Linguistics, with several courses on the history of
> English as well as on American Dialectology, also gave me some tools to
> form
> such opinions.

You are indeed more qualified than I.

<snip good stuff>

The M-W's I have handy at work don't mark the verb "dialogue" archaic. What
> "majority" considers it archaic?

I was referring to the American Heritage Usage Panel from which the original
argument was drawn.
98% of the following http://www.bartleby.com/64/12.html
I assume it's the ones without the "*".

It's not relevant particularly, but as you asked the least I could do was
show that I didn't just make it up.

<snip more good stuff>

>> I agree whole heartedly with your assertion that a dictionaries exist as
>> a
>> reflection of common usage..to assist with communication..if only people
>> would use them as such.
>
> Well, hmm. My assertion is *not* a blanket assertion. Some American
> English dictionaries don't do as good a job of it, in my observation, as
> others, and it is common in *some* languages (e.g. French) for
> dictionaries
> to be *prescriptive* rather than *descriptive*. My observations while
> comparing the styles and approaches used in the development of
> dictionaries
> in various language lead me to treat current Merriam-Webster's offerings,
> starting with their Third Unabridged as a base, with more respect than
> those
> from other publishers, from the standpoint that it was a better
> *reflection*
> of common usage than most. Such was also the opinion of my various
> English
> Linguistics professors.

Correction understood and taken on board.

Interesting response - I've often wondered how and why someonen would choose
dictionary (a) over dictionary (b).
I assumed (rather incorrectly for the more scholarly and literary amongst
us) that the main reason would have been primarily size and then price.

Thanks.

JCE


.

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