Re: Briskets
Re: Briskets
- Subject: Re: Briskets
- From: Ric Phillips <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 10:03:30 +1000
Nope!
The phonetic simplicity of 'briskets' is bound win over and
pa-ra-comen-whatsits any day.
(And despite the 'cultural hegemony of the good'ol U S of A' quite a bit of
nomenclature travels west over the Atlantic by virtue of its ergonomic
brevity. Note how 'Fridge' has displaced 'Ice Box' - though the latter is
more empirically descriptive - and the warm and friendly - almost human
quality - of 'Lift' is slowly winning the war against its colder more
technical counterpart 'elevator'.)
Long since disgraced by American affluence the true warmth and nourishment
of the brisket was kept alive longer in England's green and rolling hills by
war-time rationing and a stubborn determination to hold out longer than any
other people on earth against the concept of food being enjoyable to eat.
As to the question of 'brackets' versus 'parentheses', - parentheses
definitely has that techno-grecko-latin abstract feel that imparts to the
user a certain air of esoteric erudition, distinguishing them from the
banality of ordinary folk. But it lacks, again, the warmth and fundemental
in-der-welt-sein of 'bracket'. Brackets are concrete, they are something
anyone can put their hands on. You can hold your bookshelves up with them.
'Braces' would have a minor claim here, except for the fact that no-one
wears them anymore (fashion tragedy hold outs of the 1980's and
Pennsylvanians notwithstanding.)
As per the prototyping mechanism of idealised cognitive models (ICM's - see
Lackoff and Johnson "Women Fire and Dangerous Things - What Categories
Reveal About the Mind") the bracket is by far more proto-typical than
parenthesis, and (), [], {}, <>, <<>>, all share the root concept of setting
something apart (also connoting the idea of the sacred). There is no doubt
that hybrid and qualified versions such as (* *) can fit easily into this
model. As there is equally little doubt that all these constructs both
"bracket" and "parenthesise" their holdings. But consider the ugliness of
the verb 'parenthesise' in light of the elegant efficiency of the verb
'bracket' which differs not one jot from the noun. A sure sign that
'bracket' is more authentically English (language, not nationality) than the
interloping 'parenthesis'. 'Parenthesis' was brought in to serve 'Bracket'
where an adjectival intention was required - 'Brackets indicate a
parenthetical meaning' - because English speakers like to pretend that
synonyms used in definition avoid tautology. In the service of this
stylistic imperative, parentheses have their place. But they should be kept
to this minor role and not allowed to usurp the colour, warmth, and basic
human-decency of the humble bracket. A decency, I might add, that has made
the English language the all-powerful conqueror of global discourse it has
become today.
I vote for 'brisket'
On 11/5/02 1:23 AM, "Paul Skinner" <email@hidden> wrote:
>
Parencommenterisks?
>
>
sullen Smiley-Crawford beauty marks? : (*
>
>
Block comment tags?
>
>
On Friday, May 10, 2002, at 10:46 AM, Paul Berkowitz wrote:
>
>
> On 5/10/02 7:30 AM, "Arthur J Knapp" <email@hidden> wrote:
>
>
>
>>> Date: Thu, 09 May 2002 12:14:05 -0400
>
>>> From: "Marc K. Myers" <email@hidden>
>
>>> Subject: Re: Briskets
>
>>
>
>>>> From: Mr Tea <email@hidden>
>
>>
>
>>>> I've never quite known what to call those bracket/asterisk
>
>>>> combinations that
>
>>>> can be used to comment-out blocks of code in scripts.
>
>>>>
>
>>>> So I would like to humbly propose that we call them 'briskets'. As
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>>>> in: "To
>
>>>> enable the positive response in this script, simply remove the
>
>>>> briskets".
>
>>
>
>> I like the idea, but object to the word bracket. To me, bracket
>
>> exclusively refers to "[" and "]". They are parenthese/asterisk pairs,
>
>> so I would prefer one of the following:
>
>>
>
>> pasterisk
>
>> parasterisk
>
>> parisk
>
>>
>
>> ;-)
>
>
>
>
>
> All you pedants! Forbear! Mr. Tea had the best, and most entertaining,
>
> suggestion yet. None of you has a patch on "briskets". I like
>
> "briskets".
>
> (For that matter, I like briskets too.) Accept Mr. Tea's offering (and I
>
> haven't quite understood whether said offering also includes a warm pot
>
> and
>
> its contents), or go off and ruminate until you come up with something
>
> better.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Paul Berkowitz
>
--
>
Paul Skinner
>
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| References: | |
| | >Re: Briskets (From: Paul Skinner <email@hidden>) |