Interesting read about the future of Ubuntu

[Doug]

On 12/27/2010 03:45 PM, Richard Owlett wrote:
> Goh Lip wrote:
>> On Mon, 27 Dec 2010 20:32:29 +0800, Richard Owlett<rowlett at pcnetinc.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> "Signage" is a collective noun implying the group has a quality
>>> in common. Saying "the signs are confusing" implies each sign
>>> individually is confusing. While "the signage is confusing"
>>> implies that although individual signs may not be confusing, the
>>> group as a whole is confusing.
>> .
>> .
>>> In the first, "motorcycles" is a noun and "parking" is a verb -
>>> there is an implied "are" before "parking".
>>> In the second, "motorcycle" is an "adjective" and "parking" is a
>>> noun.
>> Thanks Richard, for taking the trouble to explain.
>> Regards, take care - Goh Lip
>>
> I'm actually more interested in language/linguistics than
> operating systems. "Thank you high school English teachers of 50+
> years ago." One did her master's thesis on Indoeuropean and the
> another read us Beowulf in the original (with a running translation).
>
> Computers are tools. Language is fun.
>
I agree, language is fun. I was in high school almost 60 years ago.
I never had a grammar school or high-school English teacher
who taught any useful grammar at all.  I learned all my
grammar when I took German in HS, and it had to be explained,
_in English_!  (Rather than the gobbledeygook English teachers
used.)  Unfortunately, I discovered that when my kids took German
some 20 years later, they were using the gobbledeygook!  I
doubt that either of them could get along in the language
today, but when I went to Germany on business in 1975, I
got along pretty well. (I carried a pad and wrote down all the
unfamiliar words, and looked them up later.)

No doubt those who studied Latin also learned grammar, even
some of it that is wrong for English.  Regardless of what the old
prudes say, you _can_ split an infinitive in English without defiling
the language.  (It's impossible in Latin, which is where they got
the idea from. Oops! I used a preposition to end a sentence with!
Shame on me!)

--doug

-- 
Blessed are the peacemakers...for they shall be shot at from both sides. --A. M. Greeley