cvs commit: doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/disks chapter.sgml

[Greg Byshenk]

On Fri, May 09, 2003 at 05:28:39PM +0100, Paul Richards wrote:
> On Thu, May 08, 2003 at 10:22:39AM +0200, Greg Byshenk wrote:

> > Colorful neologisms need not be a large problem.  Should a reader
> > encouter such a thing as "automagical" with which s/he is not
> > familiar, it should not be terribly difficult to recognize it as
> > a neologism and discover or deduce the appropriate meaning.
 
> Assuming that is, that you're a native English speaker. For people
> who have English as a second language or perhaps can just about
> get by in it, spotting neologisms is not as obvious as it might
> appear.

Naturally, specific values of "not terribly difficult" will vary
with one's knowledge of the language.  And as someone who is in
the process of learning to function in a second language, I think
that I am aware of some of the problems.

That said, I stand by my point that neologisms are a different
matter than ambiguity.  Someone coming across a neologism (whether
s/he is or is not a native speaker) should be able to recognize
that such is a new and unfamiliar word (at least to the reader).
And this is an immediate cue to discover or deduce the meaning of
this unfamilar word.  (I believe that anyone who is not fluent in
the language being used will be familiar with this process.)

Ambiguity, on the other hand, is dangerous because it can mislead
the reader into thinking that s/he understands, when in fact such 
is not the case.

 
> If you spend any time with a professional copy editor you'll find
> they have very strong views about this sort of thing.

I've met some who are hell-bent on eliminating any trace of 
humour or originality from the written word.

IMO, though documentation should remain well this side of James
Joyce, there is room for at least of bit of orignality.  And
sufficiently common terms as 'automagical' and 'kludge' seem 
not to cross the line.


-- 
greg byshenk  -  gbyshenk at byshenk.net  -  Leiden, NL
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