Author Topic: Jade Knight's thread of Proofreadingishnesses  (Read 83506 times)

The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers

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Re: Jade Knight's thread of Proofreadingishnesses
« Reply #30 on: November 11, 2005, 09:54:59 AM »
oo! Let's have a debate!

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Re: Jade Knight's thread of Proofreadingishnesses
« Reply #31 on: November 13, 2005, 02:08:27 AM »
Balderdash. Farther and further are really regional variants of the same word. There are some people who never, ever say "farther," and there are some who say "farther" when others would usually say "further." The rules for differentiating their use only exist because someone sat down and decided to write a rule.
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The Jade Knight

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Re: Jade Knight's thread of Proofreadingishnesses
« Reply #32 on: November 13, 2005, 03:35:01 AM »
Yay for Descriptivism!
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Re: Jade Knight's thread of Proofreadingishnesses
« Reply #33 on: November 13, 2005, 11:16:52 AM »
Ookla's right, Further and Farther both have the same root. Far. The rules for differentiating are apparently not hard and fast either because Dictionary.com lists Futher and Farther as the same adjective like this....

adj. farther, or further farthest or furthest

1. Being at considerable distance; remote: a far country.
2. Going back a considerable extent in time: the far past

Anyhow I look at it like this, his mode of time travel actually requires him to travel huge distances at nearly the speed of light. In a sense he is traveling into the future on heels of billions of real miles.
So even by fells definition Farther would have been better,

as a self respecting southerner I would never stoop to using the Yankee word Further, unless I am Furthering my own cause. :) Now If anyone needs me I'll be over yonder.
« Last Edit: November 13, 2005, 11:24:35 AM by ElJeffe »
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Re: Jade Knight's thread of Proofreadingishnesses
« Reply #34 on: November 13, 2005, 03:05:27 PM »
The official word on American usage (taken from Mirriam-Webster):

usage Farther and further have been used more or less interchangeably throughout most of their history, but currently they are showing signs of diverging. As adverbs they continue to be used interchangeably whenever spatial, temporal, or metaphorical distance is involved. But where there is no notion of distance, further is used <our techniques can be further refined>. Further is also used as a sentence modifier <further, the workshop participants were scarcely optimistic -- L. B. Mayhew>, but farther is not. A polarizing process appears to be taking place in their adjective use. Farther is taking over the meaning of distance <the farther shore> and further the meaning of addition <needed no further invitation>.
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Mad Dr Jeffe

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Re: Jade Knight's thread of Proofreadingishnesses
« Reply #35 on: November 13, 2005, 03:17:43 PM »
Signs of diverging to me means, havent diverged yet.



I guess I find it annoying because it strikes me as evolving because of grammar elitism, ... some person somewhere just decided that he was going to use one word incorrectly and he brow beat enough people into starting a linguistic shift. Using the words to describe two aspects of what is essentially the same concept doesnt serve any real purpose except to eliminate a neat word choice from our language.
« Last Edit: November 13, 2005, 03:29:32 PM by ElJeffe »
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Re: Jade Knight's thread of Proofreadingishnesses
« Reply #36 on: November 13, 2005, 03:34:31 PM »
In spite of my posts it doesnt bother that much, even though I guess it looks like it.
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Re: Jade Knight's thread of Proofreadingishnesses
« Reply #37 on: November 13, 2005, 03:41:15 PM »
I'm also in favour of Descriptivism.  So I don't care that much.  I was taught to distinguish the two in usage, however, so that's why I do.

If you oppose this for linguistic or moral reasons, that's fine too.

It still bothers me that we spell "island" with an "s", but I'm not about to start spelling it "iland".
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Re: Jade Knight's thread of Proofreadingishnesses
« Reply #38 on: November 13, 2005, 03:46:51 PM »
I just pronounce it IS-land (jk)
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Re: Jade Knight's thread of Proofreadingishnesses
« Reply #39 on: November 13, 2005, 09:56:59 PM »
Technically speaking, if the words are interchangeable but are beginning to diverge due to common usage, then the descriptivist route would be to use the diverged versions.
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Re: Jade Knight's thread of Proofreadingishnesses
« Reply #40 on: November 14, 2005, 09:21:00 AM »
yeah! What he said.

My only concern is consistency on the site. Since further/farther isn't something noticeably used that much. I don't care how we treat it.

But I'm glad you had a debate like I wanted.
« Last Edit: November 14, 2005, 09:21:13 AM by SaintEhlers »

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Re: Jade Knight's thread of Proofreadingishnesses
« Reply #41 on: November 15, 2005, 07:01:29 PM »
The last question in the blurb for icons part 1 ends with a period.  It should be a question mark.
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Re: Jade Knight's thread of Proofreadingishnesses
« Reply #42 on: November 17, 2005, 09:47:30 AM »
And there's this (for the FoW blurb):
"Shell him with the artillary, flank him with the infantry (including ninjas) and prevent him from reaching the objective. Yeah, but, isn't there a Plan B?"

I would add a comma after Ninjas.

Sorry for the delayed proofreading.
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Peter Ahlstrom

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Re: Jade Knight's thread of Proofreadingishnesses
« Reply #43 on: November 17, 2005, 12:56:24 PM »
"in Desert Shield, later to become Desert Strom."

Yeah! Now I'm changing my last name to Desertstrom!
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Re: Jade Knight's thread of Proofreadingishnesses
« Reply #44 on: November 17, 2005, 03:18:53 PM »
Yeah, I actually hadn't gotten around to proofing the article yet.  I'll get on it after I write a little more today.
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