multiplicity

[Wilson Gray]

Thank you for your comment, Marc, but we're going to have to agree to
disagree. I think that we're talking past each other. However, I'm not
going to try to dissuade you from your argument, since it's so
"obvious" that even I am nearly persuaded by it, despite the fact that
I'm predisposed to disagree with it. Sometimes, decisions in cases
like this simply depend upon what a person is accustomed to hearing.

Back in the 'Fifties, when I worked for the L.A. Department of Water
and Power, in the Power Division, we spoke of "on / off _the_ line."
Most other power companies, judging by what appears in the power-plant
equivalents of learned journals, speak of "on / off line" in the same
environment, e.g. "[Equipment name] will come off [the] line [on some
date] and will go back on [the] line [on some date]." (Some companies
use "on / off stream" with the same meaning.) After fifteen years of
the W&P locution, when "on line" and "off line" moved out of
computerese into the general language, it took me several years to get
over the feeling that the phrases should be "on the line" and "off the
line."

-Wilson

On 7/30/07, Marc Sacks <msacks at theworld.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Marc Sacks <msacks at THEWORLD.COM>
> Subject:      Re: multiplicity
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Wilson,
>
> I don't think the meaning of "into" has changed over the years: one goes
> into something, then one is in it.  The database is "out there" until one
> logs "into" it. Of course no one would say "are you logged into?" but I
> think I would generally use "into" with logged.
>
> On the other hand, is it they of an even younger generation who now use
> "login" as a single word, or just unthinking tech writers?
>
> Marc Sacks
> msacks at theworld.com
>
>
> > We of an older generation would write "log in to multiple databases
> > ...," as opposed to "log into ..." All will agree, I think, that one
> > would write, "Are you logged in?" or even "Are you logged-in?" but
> > never, "Are you logged into?"
> >
> > -Wilson
> >
> > On 7/27/07, James Harbeck <jharbeck at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       James Harbeck <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA>
> >> Subject:      Re: multiplicity
> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> >Do you find this among people in general, or more among people who are
> >> >especially involved with computers?
> >>
> >> Now, that's a good question. Almost everyone I know is involved to a
> >> fair extent with computers, and those who aren't are in the main of
> >> an older generation.
> >>
> >> I'll have to start noting it when I hear it.
> >>
> >> James Harbeck.
> >>
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> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> > come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > -----
> >                                               -Sam'l Clemens
> >
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> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org