J. Tarrio's valiant keyboard replied: > > Deja vu. Could it be that you stopped reading my uninteresting > > post after finishing the first paragraph? I included K's formula a
> No, just after your second attempt to argue with the dictionary. "The" Dictionary. "A" dictionary or "some" dictionaries would be more correct. All dictionaries are fallible and can argued with, and that's why there's so many of them; every new dictionary is like a new artist trying to paint the same language and show the things the last artist left out, without the former painter's excesses. Alas, since you're not reading whole messages you probably missed my little survey of various dictionaries disagreeing. > It's not controversial at all unless you are extremely bored and need to > invent a controversy to keep yourself busy. Therefore you'd be wasting valuable time publicly giving a troublemaker who's trying to goad you more of the attention he craves. The usenet slang for that is "feeding the Troll." I wouldn't attempt to dispute with a "flat earther" because to me it's settled that the earth is round. > It needs no clarification since the language is perfectly clear, even to > someone who has English as his third language, like me. Thanks for the explanation, I had suspicions, but judging folks by last names (or even domain names) is impolite here in melting pot USA. Your English is pretty good then! However, your vocabulary of meanings is necessarily smaller than a native's, and various nuances and connotations are invisible for you. To you this must indeed seem "perfectly clear", and shows you to be an honest guy. Still, I wouldn't consider arguing in a third language about stuff like this, and would hope you'd again reconsider (if any doubt remains) if it's been time wisely spent. > It is your own fault if you do not want to understand it. The appreciation of preexisting prose obscurity (or clarity) is not subject to the will. A reader sees "Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim" and laughs. Yet we understand the text's intended meaning, which is what makes it funny.
