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Hi James,
I once heard that in (European) law French is the language of choice
because it were the most precise one (which I find easy to believe).
Maybe we should try and convince journals to only accept articles
written in French - not sure, this will improve their quality, though,
comparing my level of French with my level of English ;-)
Lovely discussion,
Tim
On 11/15/2012 09:15 PM, James Stroud wrote:
> On Nov 15, 2012, at 10:59 AM, Tim Gruene wrote:
>> I have heard this discussion before and reminds me of people
>> claiming strawberries were nuts - which botanically may be
>> correct, but would still not make me complain about strawberries
>> in a fruit cake I ordered at a restaurant.
>>
>> My Pengiun English Dictionary states (amongst other
>> explanations) freeze: "to make extremely cold",
>
>
> Tim's comment strikes at the heart of the problem.
>
> I think the scientific community should decide a few points.
>
> 1. What is the approved language and dialect for science? 2. Within
> this dialect, what should be the authoritative dictionary? 3. Will
> we allow use of definitions that are not the primary definition
> (second, third, fourth). 4. Will we allow the use of homonyms? 5.
> If not, which homonyms should prevail?
>
> These are all very important questions if we completely disregard
> context in writing.
>
> James
>
- --
- --
Dr Tim Gruene
Institut fuer anorganische Chemie
Tammannstr. 4
D-37077 Goettingen
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