vim printing stuff on startup

[Alisdair McDiarmid <alisdair@letdown.demon.co.uk>]

every time i load vim (5.3, the latest .deb package) some of the
contents of the /usr/share/vim/syntax/ directory are printed to
stdout:

SpecialKey     term=bold  ctermfg=9  guifg=Cyan
NonText        term=bold  ctermfg=9  gui=bold  guifg=Blue
Directory      term=bold  ctermfg=11  guifg=Cyan
ErrorMsg       term=standout  ctermfg=15  ctermbg=4  guifg=White  guibg=Red
IncSearch      term=reverse  cterm=reverse  gui=reverse
Search         term=reverse  ctermfg=0  ctermbg=14  guifg=Black  guibg=Yellow
MoreMsg        term=bold  ctermfg=10  gui=bold  guifg=SeaGreen
ModeMsg        term=bold  cterm=bold  gui=bold
LineNr         term=underline  ctermfg=14  guifg=Yellow
Question       term=standout  ctermfg=10  gui=bold  guifg=Green
StatusLine     term=bold,reverse  cterm=bold,reverse  gui=bold,reverse
[more like this]

this is obviously quite irritating. is it likely to be something
i've done or it a known bug?

tia,
-- 
alisdair mcdiarmid
[i won't tear again i won't breathe in the shards of what is left]