Of course I realise this, Ken. But we use them, endlessly, to discover
"true" meanings (the dictionary defines it as...), and we use
etymology, a dubious and wonderfully inventive science, to confirm the
authority of the dictionary.
Of course not everyone does this. Of course the well informed don't, or
at least remember part of the assumptive shorthand they are using. Yet
somehow these myths become taken as the reality of reference.
The problem doesn't really lie with the lexicographers, but with us,
the users: just as the responsibility for understanding lies not with
the hearer and not with the speaker.
Ranulph
________________________________________________________
Ranulph Glanville
CybernEthics Research
52 Lawrence Road, Southsea, Hants, PO5 1NY, UK
tel +44 (0) 23 92 73 77 79
fax +44 (0) 23 92 79 66 17
mobile +44 (0) 79 13 49 14 55 (Note: only occasionally used, normally
by prior arrangement.)
http://homepage.mac.com/ranulph/FileSharing1.html
http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/people/glanville/cv.html
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