> I don't like it when people go nutso pedantic like this. Particularly the people that insist that a word be used always and only to express its dictionary meaning, even in conversation. And I can say this because I used to be one of them. The spoken word communicates meaning in a variety of ways... the actual written definition being one that sometimes doesn't even come into play. Thus you get words like "really?", the meaning of which every English speaker understands, even though you won't find it in a dictionary defined as "acknowledgement that the event just described is unexpected, and encouragement to the other party to tell more."

> When you think about it, it's actually pretty incredible that we can process linguistic elements like this, taking tone, context, and definition all into play and understanding the true meaning of the words given immediately. An alien or computer that analyzed a conversation solely on the basis of the words' literal meanings would be very confused.

The phenomenon you describe is, of course, only compounded in difficulty when dealing with some oriental languages, which contain many words whose interpretation hinges on vocal inflection. Imagine trying to translate a song from English into a language where vocal pitch can change the meaning of the words. Wow. Of course, for some of us, just to imagine that we could translate a song at all would be enough of a miracle.

> Now, if your professor was talking primarily about written language, I wholly agree. Different rules apply, and there your aim should be to express yourself as clearly as possible in as few words as possible. Unnecessary quantifiers weaken a sentence tremendously. But there's no need for me to rant on that, since others have done it longer and better.

And i'm positive that's where the main emphasis of his pet peeve was directed. A great deal of philosophy in the 20th century, particularly in British schools of thought (if my poor memory serves correctly) dealt strictly with the analysis of ideas' wording, rather than with wholly new ideas. Now imagine being a professor in such a field, having to grade papers written by average college students. Oh, how the crimson doth flow!

> Lire"over-attached to adverbs myself"lyn

Mi "I, myself, have always been fond of modifiers dangling" ke

And if this is a double-post, sorry. My computer is being screwy.