Tim Kynerd <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> posted [EMAIL PROTECTED], excerpted below, on Sat, 06 Jan 2007 00:49:06 -0600:
> Unfortunately, the English language isn't even that consistent. Usenet is > a medium, but we're not even consistent about how we refer to media. You > watch TV, but you listen to the radio and you go to the movies; you surf > the Internet, but you post to Usenet. Well, the TV/radio thing is easy. You can listen to "the radio", and watch "the TV", either one, talking about a specific one. You can also watch "TV" and listen to "radio". It's the same thing as shearing "the sheep" if you have only one (or one flock), or shearing "sheep", if you are talking about it in general (shearing sheep for a living, but when it's a specific flock, it's "the sheep). When you "watch TV" or "listen to radio", it's the medium in general, when "the" is inserted, your attention is on a specific unit, generally the only one in the house or the room or that you have with you. > I can imagine that in its early days some people may have referred to it > as "the Usenet," but by now usage has settled on simply "Usenet." I don't > think I've ever heard or seen anyone refer to "the Usenet." (Except maybe > in old RFCs?) My two cents. Similarly to above, "the Internet" refers to the single collective whole, "the internet" not capitalized, would refer to any of a group of networks linked, but not /the/ Internet, which is formally always capitalized. Singular internet, whether capitalized or not, would almost always have "the" in front of it, since you are referring to a specific instance, either the Internet (the universal one), or the internet (as for instance the one linking the individual building networks on a campus). However, one could use "internets" in something like "The Internet is the linking of many smaller nets and internets together", without "the" on the plural version. The problem with "the Usenet" is I believe because it's not homogeneous enough to be considered a single entity -- it's always the medium. There are Usenet servers, but there is no "the Usenet", as it would be just a nebulous "Usenet" or referring to a specific group of servers as "the group of Usenet servers" (or "those Usenet servers"). It's interesting, I can't think of another medium where there's never an individual piece that is never referred to as "the X". There's a site I discovered recently, called "Language Log". It's a number of linguists blogging about interesting words and usages they come across, how usage changes, etc. Extremely fascinating stuff, at least to me. The first time I stumbled upon it (after reading that "tow the line" was incorrect, it was "toe the line, googling it to see what others had to say, with one hit being Language Log, "toe the line" is correct, BTW, google it if you doubt me), I couldn't tear myself away for something like two hours, reading one interesting tidbit after another. I now have their RSS feed scrolling along with all my regular news and technology sites in knewsticker. I wonder if they have a writeup on "Usenet". I'll have to look, one of these days. It'd be very interesting to see what the linguists think of its usage! BTW, the content is licensed Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA). =8^) Language Log (The URL's kinda weird, definitely not something easy to remember, so be sure and bookmark it if you find it anywhere close to as interesting as I do!): http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/ The rss/rdf feed: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/index.rdf -- Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. "Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman _______________________________________________ Pan-users mailing list Pan-users@nongnu.org http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/pan-users
