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RE: [OT] The stigma of schema
- From: Jeff Lowery <jlowery@scenicsoft.com>
- To: 'John Cowan' <jcowan@reutershealth.com>
- Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2001 14:47:47 -0700
Well, if "doh" can make it in the Oxford Dictionary, certainly "schemas"
can.
What is the plural of doh, anyway? Dohata? Rhymes with 'Murata'... hey! a
'ta' singular! Or is that the family name? I can never remember...
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Cowan [mailto:jcowan@reutershealth.com]
> Sent: Friday, June 29, 2001 2:29 PM
> To: Tim Bray
> Cc: XML DEV
> Subject: Re: [OT] The stigma of schema
>
>
> Tim Bray wrote:
>
> > All the
> > best [English] dictionaries recognize that their role is
> *descriptive* -
> > describing what the language is - rather than *prescriptive* -
> > trying to prescribe rules for what the language should be.
>
>
> Hence the Hartree-Fock evolution that I mentioned. Publishers
> use dictionaries to decide on usage questions; dictionaries
> generate their information by summarizing the practices of
> earlier (generations of) publishers. Neither one is
> authoritative by itself. Clearly this process
> is circular, but in fact it does converge, with a small
> number of exceptions.
>
>
> > Lots of educated, articulate people find it natural to
> > use "schemas" in both written and spoken discourse. Thus it
> > is incontrovertibly a part of both the written and spoken
> > English language. So is "schemata". It is useful for the
> > community that discusses schemas to settle on one of these
> > forms merely as a matter of conventional convenience. -T
>
>
> As a result of which, future dictionaries will doubtless
> include "schemas" as a variant plural, and (if the weight
> of usage grows) eventually the preferred plural, at least
> in computing. We do have plurals differentiated by
> profession already: biologists say "antennae", radio
> engineers speak of "antennas".
>
> --
> There is / one art || John Cowan
> <jcowan@reutershealth.com>
> no more / no less || http://www.reutershealth.com
> to do / all things || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
> with art- / lessness \\ -- Piet Hein
>
>
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