4 ms·
And what is the primary characteristic of a homeless person? "homeless" describes it pretty good.
by gsich 8y ago
And what is the primary characteristic of a homeless person? "homeless" describes it pretty good.
- pests 8y agoHow about being a person? Or friendly? Or a good father? When someone goes bankrupt most don't say "Oh this bankrupt person tried to [blah blah]." It just seems weird to me with homeless we replace their entire personality with the trait. The following sentences say the same thing but I feel they come across vastly different. "The mentally handicapped person went to the store." vs "The person, who is mentally handicapped, went to the store."
- gsich 8y ago>How about being a person? Or friendly? Or a good father? First one is obvious, every person is ... a person. 2nd and 3rd are not determinable by looking.
- pests 8y agoSo then let them be people. Why do you need to distill a person down to one adjective? Anyways, I can see this is pointless. I hope your day is as pleasant as you are.
- gsich 8y agoI know they are people. Why do you think otherwise? Don't you think about people when you read "homeless"? Makes me wonder, since you so strongly react to it.
- PeterisP 8y agoBecause it's more informative. "a person" doesn't tell anything descriptive at all; "friendly" or "a good father" would be relevant if we were talking about their personalities, but if we're talking about their economic needs, then "homeless" is the single property that's most relevant to the discussion. With your examples about mental handicap, the same principle applies - it matters what's the topic of the discussion, what's the next sentence, and thus where the emphasis should be. If the fact that that person is mentally handicapped is irrelevant to the rest of the story, then "person" is the part that should be emphasised; but if the mental handicap is the key factor for what happens next, then that is the most salient information of the sentence and it should be emphasised.
- pests 8y agoThen what is wrong with "person, who is homeless"? Describe the man, don't define him.
- komali2 8y agoArtist? Mother? PhD? Since we're firing off arbitrary primary characteristics, let's just choose "male" for me. Could be that I'm homeless. Could be I'm a billionaire. I could be a Nazi with heads in my freezer. Dimunitive language dehumanizes. Why the effort to classify with a single word?
- gsich 8y ago>Why the effort to classify with a single word? Reduce redundancy. Other "occupations" do this as well. You say "painter", not "people/person who paint(s)".
- pests 8y agoOne, you choose your occupation. Two, if you really want to reduce redundancy just use "person/people." Everyone knows if you say "homeless person", that that person is, in fact, a person. Seems like an extra word there. If you want to be precise and point out someone is homeless, use "person, who is homeless." If two words and a comma is too redundant for you, see my first point.
- gsich 8y agoyeah, with the extra word being "person", not "homeless"
- pests 8y agoI answered as well without seeing your comment but you phased this much better than I did. Thank you.