Re: [OT] Yet Another Language Issue (wa: imap with claws mail problem)
On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 9:09 AM, Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com> wrote:
> "Pasao" is not a valid word in Spanish
Absolutely correct.
> (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. 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.
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.
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.
Al
Reply to: