User talk:Abunyip

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[edit] Logic, Language and Nosty

Alexander, I understand your opinion from a perspective of logic, and if that were all we had to go on, you'd be correct. Unfortunately, language is not as logical as math or computer science, and tends to change in ways that are only explainable after the fact, but not predictable. That was why I inquired about your level of French -- it really does make a difference how much you've studied the language.

As an example, take "apprehend" -- most people see the word as meaning to physically seize, yet it has sixteen possible meanings, six of them now obsolete, ranging from "phyical seizure", to "to fear", from "to understand", to "to write down", etc. For example, if you read something from the 15th Century containing the word apprehend, it never meant to seize physically -- 200 years later that definition was well on it's way to being the predominant definition. While one can show how and why that happened, no one could have logically predicted it. I hope this helps. •Jim62sch• 11:50, 7 October 2006 (UTC)