James Tappin wrote:
On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 07:19:42 +0000 (UTC)
Andrew Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
AB> Reg Kennedy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in news:43154C99.7030809
AB> @dnainternet.net:
AB>
AB> > Then, up comes the UK Thesaurus!! Of course, that's useless if I have to
AB> > work in US English!
AB> >
AB>
AB> Colo(u)r me stupid, but does it matter what dialect the thesaurus is in? I
AB> can see that it makes an important difference with dictionaries. But the
AB> word meanings really aren't that far apart except in slang, and that won't
AB> be covered by a thesaurus anyway.
AB>
To take one (potentially embarassing) example:
UK: solicitor = lawyer
US: solicitor = prostitute or door-to-door salesman
Just in case anyone should be confused, although prostitutes and
door-to-door salesmen are both said to in the US to be "soliciting", I
have never in 57 years heard the word "solicitor" used in conjunction
with either.
But there are serious problems, not always in slang. Parts of
automobiles, for example, are frequently different. Also, there are
obvious problems involving spelling in the /working/ of a computer
thesaurus.
And, one way or another, most thesauruses include slang.
--
John W. Kennedy
"I want everybody to be smart. As smart as they can be. A world of
ignorant people is too dangerous to live in."
-- Garson Kanin. "Born Yesterday"
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