On Aug 19, 10:35 am, Smitty Two wrote:
In article .com,





wrote:
On Aug 19, 3:03 am, mm wrote:
On Sun, 19 Aug 2007 02:54:32 +0100, John Rumm

wrote:
Fred wrote:

It's very much the issue! I recall stories as the poster had where the
starting of a fluorescent tube was equivalent to 1/2 hour running.

Analyse that statement logically and you will see it makes no sense....

First off, it's true, and it may be the basis for the original post,
so it's worth discussing.

Secondly, I would say that it does make sense**, but it's not accurate
and for someone who knows anything about the topic, it's not
believable.

Something that makes no sense, to me, would be something whose
intended meaning I can't discern.

**A lot of things use more electricity on start-up, so the sentence is
not illogical. But the numbers are wrong.

Well, Duh! His obvious point was that if you look at the real facts,
which he clearly presented, then it makes no sense, because the
current required in the few secs of startup would be huge. And I
think your definition of "makes no sense" equals "can't discern
intended meaning" isn't exactly mainstream. For example, if someone
said that Mars revolves aroung the Earth, the meaning is quite clear,
yet any reasonable person would say that makes no sense.

mm's definition may not be mainstream, but it's correct.

According to whom? Here's a dictionary definition of the word sense,
when used as a noun:

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth
Edition. 2000

"sense 4c. Something sound or reasonable: There's no sense in waiting
three hours."

Or applied in this case:

Analyse that statement logically and you will see it makes no sense...

or my example:

For example, if someone said that Mars revolves aroung the Earth, the meaning is quite clear, yet any reasonable person would say that makes no sense.


Both of those are perfectly correct usage as defined by the
dictionary, not colloquialisms or misuse of the English language. So
maybe you should check the dictionary before you start spouting about
collective ignorance.


Colloquialisms
aside, the liberties we take with our (mis-)use of the English language
are staggering. It's surprising we understand half of what's said or
written. I try to bite my tongue when it comes to playing grammar and
spelling cop on usenet, (and I'm not even close to perfect myself, and
well aware of it) but there's a hell of a lot of people wandering around
the planet that barely qualify as literate. The significance and
implications of our collective ignorance are widely underestimated.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -