3 ms·
It's similar to the debate about "begging the question.". Enough people misuse/misunderstand the phrase that the intended meaning becomes vague: did the author
by ycombobreaker 5y ago
It's similar to the debate about "begging the question.". Enough people misuse/misunderstand the phrase that the intended meaning becomes vague: did the author really mean "beg" or "raise"?
It doesn't make the incorrect usage correct, but it does mean correct interpretation of _intent_ requires acknowledging incorrect _vocabulary_.
- kbelder 5y agoThat reminds me of the pronunciation of GIF. There's enough people pronouncing it incorrectly that the incorrect version became an acceptable alternative.
- SideburnsOfDoom 5y agoThere are differences. Linguistics is more "descriptive" than "prescriptive", meaning that "it seeks to describe reality" of what people say - if we actually pronounce a word one way and are correctly understood, then that is a valid way that the word is pronounced, whatever it is. In chemistry, validity is not so subjective. it seeks to describe reality by measuring presence of clearly definable chemicals. The question of "what percentage of the sugar in this food item has been converted via caramelisation (or the Maillard reaction)" is not something that we can choose different but equally correct measurements of.