Antoon Pardon wrote:
> On 2007-04-19, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> On Apr 19, 6:54 am, Antoon Pardon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>> I don't know how you come to the conclusion that it is a mathematical
>>> absurdity but consider this: If you find that common usage propagates
>>> something that is incorrect, should we just shrug it off or should we
>>> attemp a correction?
>> a) In English, "learning curve" is not restricted to a mathematical
>> plot--Webster's also defines it as "the course of progress made in
>> learning something". In that context, adding the adjective steep
>> ("extremely or excessively high...STEEP implies such sharpness of
>> pitch that ascent or descent is very difficult") makes sense.
>
> How much sense does it really make? Suppose we would talk about
> an income curve. Would you not prefer a steep curve over a shalow
> one? What about a productivity curve? It is all about the progress
> made in something.
>
> So how much sense does it make that a steep curve in earnings and
> productivity is good but a steep curve in learning is bad?
>
Just as much sense as that a motor car is great for driving around in
but bad for being run over by. Context is everything. Do *all* steep
curves have to be good or all bad? What the hell happened to common sense?
>> Trying to apply a mathematical definition to an English-language
>> phrase is prone to incorrect outcomes.
>>
>> b) The purpose of language is to communicate. In English, if a phrase
>> now means something in common usage, then that is (one of) its current
>> definition(s)--this is possibly different from some other languages
>> where there is an attempt to have an "officially sanctioned" set of
>> definitions and spellings that may differ from common usage. If you
>> find that everyone else means something when they say a phrase, you'd
>> best learn what they mean if you want to be speaking the same language
>> (and hence be able to communicate with them).
>
> But the problem is that even if this would be only a way to communicate
> in englishi, a lot of people get the wrong idea about real curves from
> this idiom, as this thread shows. So even if you only want to communicate
> one specific idea that comes accross as intended, you also propagate
> a lot of nonsense with it.
>
Well, I have to bow to your expertise when it comes to propagating nonsense.
regards
Steve
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