Re: [OT] The stigma of schema

[Uche Ogbuji <uche.ogbuji@fourthought.com>]

This is my last message on this OT thread, so I'm just combining 2
responses.

W.E. Perry:

<Much correction snipped>

You're right there.  I was confusing my feminines with my neuters (it's
pretty easy for me to do beyond declensions 1, 2 & 3.

So I did what I should have done at first and actually looked it up.  here
are your counter-examples:

cornu: horn
genu: knee

Of course, as soon as I saw them, I thought "duh!".  These are the
standard examples in any Latin text.

Bob DuCharme:

> As a matter of fact, Orwell is the reason that I prefer "schemas" to
> "schemata." From his "Politics and the English Language"
> (http://eserver.org/langs/politics-english-language.txt):
>
> "Bad writers, and especially scientific, political and sociological
writers,
> are nearly always haunted by the notion that
> Latin or Greek words are grander than Saxon ones."

He's right in general, but the right word is the right word.  I have,
however, seen this comment by Orwell (and similar comments by Fowler)
abused as if to say that all latin ang greek words are flowery pretension
in English, which is, of course, rubbish.

"Schema" is the right word.  I sometimes do say "plan", but it misses some
of the nuance.

> I like to think that this applies to pluralizing suffixes as well as to
> entire words.

I rather think not, regardless of the rightness of Orwell's original
thought.


-- 
Uche Ogbuji                               Principal Consultant
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