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These improper nouns show mostly a failure of the listener (not that I blame them) to be aware of the underlying culture behind the word. But to contribute in
by Bakary 4y ago
These improper nouns show mostly a failure of the listener (not that I blame them) to be aware of the underlying culture behind the word.
But to contribute in a useful way to the conversation or the actions involved, you would need that culture already to some extent.
-If you are so unfamiliar with psychology research that your intuition doesn't tell you that Highly Sensitive People might be a category coined by the researcher, you are unlikely to be able to add to the research without getting up to speed with that culture in the process.
-If your intuition doesn't tell you that repeated expressions in medical insurance probably have specific contractual definitions, you probably need outside help with the insurance discussion as soon as possible anyway.
- If you can't come to the conclusion that community centers or whatever implies specific local laws and politics, you would need to delve into those local politics anyway before acting or contributing productively following the content of the article
The Green/green building example makes sense to some extent, but I also cannot help but feel that it is a failure of intuition as well, or at least a failure of experience in human communication. You would hear green building and probably assume there's information missing because you know colors can be very vague and subjective, or the fact that you know to some extent how colleges work and how internal culture is strong in those places would prompt you to assume it is a proper or improper noun on the spot.
- StrictDabbler 4y agoThe author kind of cheats by picking phrases that involve multiple words. I think if you examine a single word the whole concept falls apart. An example from the HVAC industry: we have something called a reset. An operational sequence for an AC unit will say "the unit supply air temperature is based on an inverse outdoor air temperature reset." I'd challenge anybody in any other STEM field to look at this and correctly intuit what a reset is. You won't find a specific definition that matches in any ordinary dictionary. It turns out that a "reset" is a linear mapping from one range to another. Literally just a scale and offset. You are picking up a range of numbers and "setting" it on a new range. No state is involved, just a 1-1 relational mapping between ranges. So is that an improper noun just because there's a more popular meaning of the word "reset"? I don't think so. It's just an unpopular definition for the word. If you are unaware of this definition you will misunderstand the sentence but that's true of all words with multiple meanings. Also the phrase "improper noun" has the existing meaning "a noun that describes something general (rather than that which is purely unique)", so there's an painful irony in defining a new specialized meaning for the term. I'm not sure if that irony is intended but it annoys me. Edit: Why is the article even about nouns? This happens with verbs all the time. Every three minutes I'm thinking of another reason this article is a vague and largely incorrect waste of characters.
- justin_oaks 4y agoSuch single words with different meanings in different contexts are probably best described as industry-specific jargon than improper nouns. Even so, I'm still greatly upset when people take word and give it a more specific meaning in a technical context. For example, the term "container" such as in Docker container or LXC container. Container is such a generic term, but has a much more specific meaning in computing. I wish someone had invented a new term for it. As a good example, I take "blog" which was basically a new term for a new thing. I know that it has it's origins from the term "web log", but now everyone just says "blog". It's nice to have a new a term instead of taking old words and putting them into a new context.
- Bakary 4y agoAmusingly enough 'set' has the largest number of different definitions in the English language! To steelman the author's argument, I think it would have been better to focus the blog post on how people can sometimes deliberately or carelessly obfuscate discussions when using technical terms or technical uses of common terms. For instance, a user elsewhere in the thread mentioned how the word 'racism' can have at least three distinct meanings in North America that are used in cavalier ways sometimes.
- justin_oaks 4y agoUse of proper nouns are also commonly a failure of the speaker/writer instead of the listener. When the speaker/writer uses technical terms in speaking to the public then it's their fault for not recognizing that those terms WILL be misunderstood by the public. Consider the case of discussing "preventative care" vs "medically necessary care". If someone from a medical facility or health insurance company used those terms when talking with a layperson then they've failed. The layperson certainly doesn't understand that those terms are have a specific meaning in the industry and they will likely misunderstand the terms.
- Bakary 4y agoI don't necessarily disagree entirely with the author, and it's definitely true that the onus is to some extent on the speaker. It's just that the core of the author's argument can be redefined as the person not being equipped for the conversation, and in that case they would need to be equipped anyway for anything useful to happen. "Preventative care" etc. is what I was referring two in the bullet point about medical insurance. If you cannot intuit that such terms have contractual definitions, you are already deeply in trouble and would need assistance to navigate the insurance situation you are in anyway. Even if the issuer clarified it a bit, you would already be in trouble for other reasons taking place elsewhere in the process or with other terms.
- nullc 4y ago> then it's their fault for not recognizing that those terms WILL be misunderstood by the public feature or bug?