Xah Lee, 2007-01-27
While working on my website today, i had to write: “This is called smotherbox.” — http://xahlee.org/sl/tor.html
and also: “A maid with her entire body covered in rubber gear. The collar she's wearing, with its unusual height, is called posture collar.” — http://xahlee.org/sl/bdsm.html
Note the phrases “... is called smotherbox” and “... is called posture collar”. Normally, one would write it with a article like this: “... is called a smotherbox”. But as you can see, from a logic perspective, the “a” doesn't belong there. The item's NAME is simply “smotherbox”, not “a smotherbox”.
Most grammarians are dumb-asses when it comes to logic or mathematics. However, they are forgivable, since vast majority of human animals are dumb-asses in one way or another, actually, vast majority of human animals are dumb-asses in vast majority of aspects. For example, a mathematician, doesn't necessarily even have a basic understanding of the world's histories, and this can be said to just about any one, of any profession, except professional historians. (World History, as histories from Asia to Europe to Oceania, from individual nations and regions to continents, from the view of a decade to eras to eons, from the specialized aspect of human progress, diversity, to specialized subjects (history of economics, history of math ...))
In the above, i've used the specialized knowledge in the areas of mathematics and history, to illustrate the foolhardy ignorance of those generally considered educated. You can now suppose that _mathematics_ and _history_ are just two fill-in-the-blanks, and fill it with any academic subject, and realize for a fact the vast majority of human animals know shit, on the whole.
I've stated how grammarians are dumb-asses. But given the above, you now understand it is really not special, because after all just about everyone are dumb-asses. But, here's the catch: Those dumb-asses, who refuse to accept the fact, are the true, fucking real dumb-ass. And is the criminal of humanity. (“criminals” here is defined as those who do society harm. (I say they are criminals here, in a serious way as the word implies, not as some beak-tweaking. In my opinion, which gradually formed into a thesis over the past half a decade, is that human-animal's woes, such as the perpetual wars, stem in part from this criminality.))
In my life of education of the educated, i have realized the task is not easy. From the education of grammarians and writers, to the education of mathematicians and professional computer programers.
Often, the task is not merely difficult, but easily kindles antagonism and a power struggle, especially if the communities are predominantly males (such as professional computer programers manifesting in various comp.lang.* newsgroups) or if the target throng are young (i.e. students, such as those infesting the various comp.lang.* newsgroups)
They would, find all ways to attack you verbally and calling names (aka troll-crying), without a single word on the subject i raised. And they would (the young males in programing language groups) start persecution by the means they know. (such as starting to announce your IP address or domain info, in part as a way to show to others that they are IN-crowd among the computing geeks by this (juvenile) technical know-how, and in some serious cases they HARRASS you as defined by US law. ( this has happened to me once ))
OK, i digressed a bit. What i was going to say, is that if you are the average grammarian or writer, chances are, you probably never had even the most basic study of mathematical logic or linguistics. Therefore, when i say you are a fool (or when i showed you some fact pertaining this), you should look at it and probably accept it with your tail between your legs. You should do this because it is for your own good.
Live, and learn. For you, and for me.
PS if you were wondering about the forms “a vs an”, please your highness see: To An Or Not To An
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