On Tue, 11 Oct 2011 09:58:58 -0700, Al Eridani wrote: > On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 9:09 AM, Camaleón <noela...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> "Pasao" is not a valid word in Spanish > > Absolutely correct.
No, it's not. If you think it is, please send any authoritative reference that points to that direction. >> (you won't find that term >> registered in the RAE dictionary which is nowadays the maximum >> authority that regulates the Spanish language). And Spanish language is >> very strict with its rules and norms. >> >> OTOH, I've found some references to the word "dunno" in English >> dictionaries (e.g., Oxford's, Cambridge Advanced's, Thesaurus's...) so >> you can say its usage can sound "rare" or "strange" but incorrect? > > The "DRAE" is prescriptive. Yes, that's what I said. > All the English language dictionaries are merely descriptive, as there > is no "de jure" or "de facto" prescriptive body for the English > language, unlike the bodies for the Spanish or French languages. And so the validity of "dunno" which does not mean it was the most appropiate term but I already explained why I use that style when posting here (that is, you will not see me to write "dunno" on business writings). > Therefore, the presence of an entry in an English language dictionary is > orthogonal to its correctness, which, for practical purposes, is a very > slippery concept regarding the English language, anyway. You can't like the usage of a term in a phrase and you could have choosen another one, that's fine, but you can't say is "incorrect". As you say, it's a matter of taste. But this is not valid for Spanish. If you say a word that is no currently available at the RAE's dictonary, is not correct, regardless you find it right or not because is not people who makes the rules but academics. > When somebody gently chided you for using "dunno" and you seemed > genuinely interested in finding out the reason, I tried to help you by > pointing to "pasao", as I assumed that you would be more familiar with > it and that you could make the mental leap from one to the other. Sorry, but it wasn't a good example. Greetings, -- Camaleón -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/pan.2011.10.11.17.25...@gmail.com
