Dear Howard, Please see my comments below.
Have a nice evening, Marion -----Original Message----- From: Howard Posner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Mar 16, 2005 5:08 PM To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Subject: Re: Hoffmann Mandora/Gallichon Dr. Marion Ceruti wrote: > These terms are in common > usage. I am not particularly satisfied that this is the best that can be done > with definitions, but this is what the words mean in American English. I'm guessing that 99.999%, give or take a few, of the persons who've used the word "guitar" in the last 100 years have not looked up the word in Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. ++Probably not. Lexicographer derive their definitions from common usage. Most people don't care about exact definitions unless they come across an object that is difficult to classify. Even then, most people don't care about classifying objects. People in specialized fields like to have better, more useful definitions of words. Sometimes they are hard to find, not only for instruments but for lots of other things, according to my experience. > When > most people think of a lute, they think of a renaissance lute. ++I say this only because the dictionary shows a picture of a renaissance lute (as opposed to a baroque lute). I have assumed that since ren lutes are more commonly seen here that most people would picture one when they think of lutes. Again, there is the idea of common usage of terms that refer to familiar objects, as opposed to uncommon objects that are harder to classify. When most people think of a lute, they think of an instrument that you hold crosswise under your lower lip and blow across a hole in the top of the head joint. ++Unfortunately this has just been demonstrated graphically among a group of people who should know better. Without mentioning the name of the organization specifically, when a (past not current) membership directory was published and distributed, someone had gone through the listing and changed the word "lute" to "flute" wherever it occurred. So it listed my one of my instruments as "renaissance flute." Webster's Collegiate Dictionary may be useful for getting them in the right neighborhood of meaning, but it's utterly useless for a discussion among a bunch of people who know more about it than a non-specialist lexicographer. ++As I said before, it is good place to start. (But this implies, as I am sure you can tell from my analysis of the definitions, that it is not a good place to end.) And on that note, I will end. HP To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
