Hi, I put my hands up to being one of those people who only speak two languages, English and Rubbish, although I suspect they may be inexplicably linked. (Programming languages can be discounted as I might only be able to libel somebody in those rather than slander them.)
In the context of an earlier post "It's the pervasive internal inconsistency within the language itself. Steel vs. steal vs. stele. Say what?" My interpretation would be that "to steal" is the act of theft, and that "steel" might be medium of the blunt instrument used to perpetrate the crime. If the crime were really ancient then it might have been reported for posterity on a "stele" if I refer to a stone slab rather than the stem of a plant. The words whilst sounding the same have very different meanings and whilst that might lead to aural confusion, it should convey precise meaning in written form. On a different tack abbreviations and there use has cropped up recently. I usually have no trouble interpreting technical abbreviations, IBM has a Glossary to assist with this. It is the vernacular abbreviations which throw me, my assumption is that IIRC is "If I Remember Correctly" but IMHO has me perplexed. I could only afford two bits worth I'm afraid due to inflation and general lack of affluence, but I do love language it can provide great entertainment. Kind regards - Terry P.S My apologies for exploring one of the bunny trails alluded to in another post. Terry Sambrooks Director KMS-IT Limited 228 Abbeydale Road South Dore Sheffield S17 3LA UK Tel: +44 (0)114 262 0933 WEB: www.legac-e.co.uk Reg: England & Wales 3767263 at the above address All outgoing E-mails are scanned but it remains the recipients responsibility to ensure that their system is protected from viruses, trojans, worms, and spy-ware. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
