Reverse "support" again

[Jonathan Lighter]

>  a shortening, not a reversal.

Sounds like it's a shortening that has resulted in a reversal of meaning.

JL

On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 4:55 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Reverse "support" again
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I still don't see why this is a reversal. The usage is symmetric, but it is
> exactly the same in both directions. On one hand, you have Developer of X
> supporting X on platform Y. On the other hand you have Developer of
> platform Y supporting Y to use with X. In each case, the developer supports
> the program they are responsible for to interact correctly with some other
> program. Where is the reversal?
>
> It seems the "reversal" comes from the reinterpretation of platform Y
> supports X into X is supported on Y, so "X supports Y" seems unusual. But
> my contention is that "support" in this case is a shortening, not a
> reversal. So this reinterpretation is logical, but incorrect.
>
> VS-)
>
> On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 2:02 PM, Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> >
> > Neal Whitman wrote:
> > >
> > > And it's no fluke. Here's his Facebook comment from early
> > > this morning: "Turns out amnesia was like the one game
> > > that wouldn't support intel graphic cards."
> >
> > I have heard the term "supports" being used symmetrically in the
> > domain of computer games and video cards for some time. Below are
> > examples. I was not able to find much. These are relatively recent:
> >
> > Here is an example of a game supporting a video card:
> >
> > Title: Far Cry 2 On Pentium 4 & X1650 AGP
> > Uploaded by Androlas7 on Aug 30, 2010
> > Website: Youtube.com
> > Date: Aug 30, 2010
> > Comment by uploader Androlas7:
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGXl7R7pcOA
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > The game supports these video cards:
> > NVidia 6800, NVidia 7000 series, 8000 series, 9000 series, 200 series.
> > 8800M and 8700M supported for laptops.
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> >
> > Here is an example of a chip maker supporting a computer game.
> > (Actually, it is an example of the lack of support.) Nvidia is a chip
> > maker, and Crysis 2 is a computer game.
> >
> > Subject: Re:Where are new 5xx series drivers? - Thursday,
> > Poster: rmmil978
> > Date: March 24, 2011 7:33 AM
> > http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=923747&mpage=1&print=true
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > ... but it's pretty sad that no new drivers from Nvidia since January
> > means nothing from Nvidia officially supports Crysis 2 SLI....really
> > Nvidia, for the biggest PC release in the past year, nothing?
> > [End excerpt]
>
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