RE: [OT] The stigma of schema

[Fotios <f_bass@yahoo.com>]

> >"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."

First of all "schema" is not a "saxon" word so I don't see the relevance of
this comment. This comment would be relevant if we had "schema" on one hand
and an English alternative on the other and we had to choose between them.
This is not the case here.

> That's really nothing but
> nostalgia, fueled by the
> nonsensical assumption that Greek and Roman everyday life were
> similar to Greek and Roman High
> Culture.  I remember an anecdote about Isaac Asimov back when he
> was teaching: he had a student who
> kept going on about how much better things were in classical
> times, and he treated that student to a
> lengthy description of what his life would have been like as a
> slave in classical Athens.

Probably terrible but what does that have to do with what we are discussing
here?
The issue at hand is that all *English* dictionaries (and not just Greek)
list "schemata" as the plural of "schema" (and only some also list "schemas"
as a second alternative) and that the W3C has chosen to use "schemas" as the
acceptable plural form. This choice we will of course respect but we will
also discuss it and doubt it. It never was an issue of which civilization or
times were best (which BTW is a moronic discussion subject anyway).

>
> Comparisons of the High Culture of the past with the pop culture
> of the present are always biased in
> such a way as to make the present look bad, simply because any
> period's dreck gets forgotten.

I agree. However, it is irrelevant.

>
> IMHO, if you insist on using Greek or Latin plurization for
> English words derived from Greek or
> Latin, then you ought to be treating (e.g. marking them up) those
> words as foreign words.

Again: According to English dictionaries "schemata" *is* the right plural
form of "schema".

Fotios




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