Re: correct English usage
On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 03:15, Pierre Frenkiel <pierre.frenkiel@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 2 Apr 2012, Paul E Condon wrote:
>
>>> As far as I know, Squeeze is posterior to Lenny, and the recommended
>>
>> ^^^^^^^^^
>>
>> This is the wrong word in English to describe the relation between
>> Squeeze and Lenny. Maybe OK in some other European language, but not
>> in English.
>> . . For named releases of software and to express a relationship in time,
>> posterior is the wrong word in English.
>>
>> Since the thread seemed mainly about correct English usage, I thought
>> it would be helpful to point this out before the word got incorporated
>> into Debian documentation.
>
>
> I agree that it is important to have a correct English usage, at least in
> the documentation, and that I am less qualified than you in that field.
> Still, I am really puzzled by what I found in several dictionaries.
> I admit that most of the translation tools found on Internet are
> not very reliable, but I thought that it was not the case for
> dictionaries.
> Here are some results I got for the "posterior" entry:
>
> Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
> 1 chiefly Anatomy further back in position . . .
> 2 Medicine . . .
> 3 formal coming after in time or order; later.
>
> WordReference English Thesaurus © 2012
> Sense: Subsequent, succeeding, next, following
> Sense: Behind, at the rear, dorsal, in back o, back
>
> Collinsdictionary.com
> 1. situated at the back of or behind something
> 2. coming after or following another in a series
> 3. coming after in time
>
> Are all these dictionaries wrong?
They are not wrong per say, but only the first definition you mention
(anatomy) is in widespread use these days (which is why it said
"chiefly"). If you say "posterior" people's first thought will be "ass".
That happens all the time with dictionary-based translations, by
the way. It can be very hard to tell if a definition is really used
much in practice.
In general there is a tendency in modern American English to
use rather simple words or descriptive phrases made of simple
words rather than a single very precise but less well known word.
In conversation at least, people will virtually always say, "Squeeze
came after Lenny". Written work pushes back against that to some
extent, and going overboard can make a text seem aimed at
children or the very uneducated...
Cheers,
Kelly Clowers
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