number format and semantic hairsplitting in China

[Tom Zurinskas]

> And declaring
> something to be a rule because "perhaps there is good reason for the
> rule" is the equivalent of parental "because I told you so".

Actually I said we are given rules to follow whether or not we know they are reasonable.  I guess we assume they are reasonable until we find out different.  I don't know about you, but I considered my parents' dictates "because I told you so" as rules regardless if it made sense or not.  ;).


Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
see truespel.com


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> Date: Sat, 9 May 2009 08:02:17 -0400
> From: aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Re: number format and semantic hairsplitting in China
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Victor
> Subject: Re: number format and semantic hairsplitting in China
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It's not a rule, it's *style*. Every publisher has its own style,
> although some make it easy and subscribe to someone else's, e.g., AP,
> NYT or Chicago Manual of Style. The same applies to fractions (ordinary
> and decimal), percents, years, etc. Just because someone expresses a
> particular style preference in rigid terms (e.g., Strunk&White) is no
> reason to either take on faith or accept it as universal. And declaring
> something to be a rule because "perhaps there is good reason for the
> rule" is the equivalent of parental "because I told you so".
>
> VS-)
>
> Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>> I remember being taught in grammar school not to say the "and". It's a rule. Why not follow the rule. Perhaps there is good reason for the rule. For instance if someone asks how many boys are in that class, and the answer spoken is "one hundred and fifteen boys". It might be confusing such that one might think it was said that there are 100 in the class and 15 are boys. It would be especially confusing if one expected to hear "one hundred fifteen" which is the standard and instead hears the "and" thrown in there.
>>
>>
>> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
>> see truespel.com
>>
>
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