NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #16/NN_1992_16.iso/spool/alt/usage/english/5366

Text File | 1992-07-21 | 1.6 KB | 40 lines

Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Path: sparky!uunet!caen!sdd.hp.com!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!baron
From: [e-mail] (Dennis Baron)
Subject: anymore unique
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Keywords: anymore, unique, journal
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 15:24:34 GMT
Lines: 29

The suggestion that unique can mean either `one of a kind' or
`one of a small group approaching one of a kind', ie that it may
be compared or noncomparable, comes close to claiming that a word
can have but one meaning, which is of course arrant nonsense,
though quite a few well------------known (is that enough hyphens
for ya?) usage critics have made just this claim.

For example, one insisted that _journal_ could only refer to daily
writing or publication, another that _hectic_ can only mean feverish,
that _paraphernalia_ could only be used in its strict legal sense,
referring to the possessions of a bride exclusive of her dowry.

But of course words are leaky things; they don't do what we tell
them to, we resist other people's strictures, we reject language
authority at the same time we seek to know what's right, and where
to put the commas.

Sure there are conventions of usage.  But like most conventions,
they drink too much and walk a less than steady line.  To insist
on rigor from a flabby system, which is what language is, means
you will always be disappointed, and usage critics are always
disappointed.


--

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