Referentiel des utilisateurs Linux

Marcus Brinkmann Marcus.Brinkmann at ruhr-uni-bochum.de
Fri Nov 29 13:19:13 UTC 2002


On Wed, Nov 27, 2002 at 04:34:34PM +0000, MJ Ray wrote:
> John Tapsell <tapselj0 at cs.man.ac.uk> wrote:
> > Now you're being silly.  [...]
> 
> I think you are missing the point.  Someone started being a language lawyer
> and claiming that the list is "primarily" English-language, so I was just
> pointing out that phrase was also an inadequate description.
> 
> Do we need to declare one language primary?  We have some translation
> services and some people who will translate important things.

[...]

> > This isn't arrogance, merely basic set-theory.
> 
> I'm afraid I can't agree.  You are merely using set theory to justify it.
> 
> Please, let's all just let people post in whatever they think best for each
> task, without claiming any "primary" status and end this thread!

[...]

I just want to throw in WordNet's definition of "primarily".

  primarily
       adv 1: for the most part; "he is mainly interested in butterflies"
              [syn: {chiefly}, {principally}, {mainly}, {in the main}]
       2: of primary import; "this is primarily a question of
          economics"; "it was in the first place a local matter"
          [syn: {in the first place}] [ant: {secondarily}]

I read Neal's comment in the sense "1", which is a matter of fact
and not subject to discussion (count the number of english postings
and divide through the count of all postings, and you will get
something a bit smaller, but very close to 1), while MJ Ray seems to
have read it in the sense "2".

This is just another example of misunderstanding through ambiguity. 
Interesting for linguists, but not something we should spend a lot of time
on here.

If I can choose between several languages, it's a matter of courtesy for me
to choose the language that is understood by most people in the group. 
Likewise, it's a matter of courtesy for me to translate for the people who
are in the minority, so they are not left out.

Have fun!
Marcus


-- 
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' GNU      http://www.gnu.org    marcus at gnu.org
Marcus Brinkmann              The Hurd http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/
Marcus.Brinkmann at ruhr-uni-bochum.de
http://www.marcus-brinkmann.de/



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