danoff
If it's actually more descriptive to call things feminine or masculine, which is probably almost never the case (like in Spanish), I'd say it's a complication that should be removed to help communication be more effective.
I agree, I hated learning French.
But wouldn't the differing pronunciations in English still add more to accuracy, although making it only slightly more difficult for spelling/reading? If our nation(s) knew how to read better (phonics,
ahem), this probably wouldn't be a problem.
You mean like direct and redirect or community and communication? I've never had that problem. There are a bazillion of examples where the root word keeps the same emphasis/spelling/pronunciation and it isn't confusing.
There are probably better examples that either of us are too lazy to search for, but I wasn't speaking for myself when I made the response to your last response (to my response before that, in response to...). What I say and what my opinion is are sometimes two different things.
But personally, I don't have any problems or beefs with English because it's constantly evolving, and newer, more simplified phrases are always comming about- perhaps to further convolute things?
If we were to change now to your proposed pronunciations, perhaps that would perplex people more than the purportedly confusing language at present?
danoff
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
"After this therefore because of this"
Probalby my favorite logical fallacy. And I've come to the realization that crosswalks are a good example of... [...] he must figure that it was that last umptybillion and 1th hit that made the crosswalk change. Because after he hit it that time, the light changed. If he doesn't think that, why does he pound away at the button?
Impatience, I suppose. I admit, I do that with the "close door" button on elevators because i'm just impatient. . .Although the button
does ignore input sometimes, I've ended up sitting around going nowhere after pushing the #5 three times.
Actually, to be perfectly honest, I think some of the original biblical stories are somewhat like that.
"Tree fall down, Ug come home with deer. . . tree=food?"
There's also a common joke that applies to that:
(the short version)
Bunch of kids sitting around crying because some guys in plane throwing various objects hit them in the head. One kid sitting around laughing because his house blew up after one object was a grenade, and by chance the farted at the same time.
Fart -> House blow up -> Post hoc, ergo propter hoc
How is it possible that his brain (and many others that do this same thing with crosswalks) honsetly thinks that the first 30 tries were ignored but the next one is the one that did it.
How can your brain h
onsetly think that's what their brain is thinking?
Jumping to conclusions is another logical fallacy.
The same thing happens with elevator buttons...
Eh...hehe.
Ahem.
I like how sometimes people think noone is noticing them in public. They pick their nose, ears, arse, all behind the shield of a 1/4'' tempered glass thinking they're invisible. But they're not- it seems that to them, if they're cacooned in something of theirs, they must be alone. Or, something along that mentality.
One thing I saw today, that particularly disgusted me, was that Pro-Lifers (I like to call them
Anti-choicers, my clever and witty analagous word for facist) had posted pictures of aborted fetuses from various points in pregnancy all along the road. As if it wasn't enough, these pictures were huge and I was stuck in traffic.
Why tf would they do that? They called themselves "Showing the Truth" or something, "because that's what [they] do". There was a sign posted next to the road warning about it (in a no u-turn zone, no less, with 3 lanes of traffic) and next thing I know I'm box in forced to look at 9 or 10 of these dismembered and bloody babies. It was brutal- things like that shown at concerts get riots, and these morally righteous "crusaders" think they can get away with doing it themselves in the name of their own agenda.
So what happens when I have 2 crying and screaming kids in the car who are going to have nightmares for the next 3 years?
You do what every American does, sue like hell.
But I won't.
