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https://www.npr.org/2020/07/06/887540598/the-debate-over-the-word-irregardless-is-it-a-word
All right. Let's settle something here. The word irregardless - is it a word or is it not a word? Well, this is a debate that Merriam-Webster is now weighing in on in a tweet saying that it is, in fact, a word. And that has led to a whole lot of reaction online.
Merriam-Webster has confirmed that "irregardless" is a word in the dictionary, despite concerns from teachers that it is not.
So fellow Soylentils, irregardless of my opinion, what do your think?
See Also:
Is 'Irregardless' a Real Word?
Definition of irregardless
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The Debate over "Irregardless" -- is it a Word?
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The last time I saw him he was walking down Lover's Lane holding his own hand.
-- Fred Allen
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @12:31PM (16 children)
We simply need more words because of all the ones recently dropped from the language
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Monday July 13 2020, @02:01PM (15 children)
What if English could move to a more RISC style set of words. With orthogonal parameters and modifiers of the word.
And simpler pronunciation of the letters of the alphabet. The letter C would never make the sound of the letter S or the letter K, and thus be unused. The letter G would make the soft Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) sound instead of the hard Jif peanut butter sound just as Santa Claws intended.
Sentences could all fit into one of a small number of syntax forms, rigidly enforced by the state.
An alternate proposal is to convert all of the world's languages into a new Emoji standard and extend Unicode to have enough Emoji and modifiers for humans to communicate only happy thoughts.
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(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Monday July 13 2020, @02:56PM (8 children)
I can't tell you the sadness this idea makes me feel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday July 13 2020, @03:28PM (7 children)
There should be no emojis for that.
Oh nooooes!
My code that fixes all "irregardless" to be "regardless" also fixes all "irrigation" to be "rigation".
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(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday July 13 2020, @07:53PM (6 children)
Does it also change “irrational” to “rational”? Because that might explain why people seem no longer to be able to distinguish those two. :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday July 13 2020, @07:58PM (5 children)
Once you realize that 64 bit floating point can represent every possible rational and irrational number, it no longer matters.
Then you can look forward to 128 bit floating point which can actually represent all possible rational and irrational numbers that did not have an exact representation under 64 bit floating point.
Then you can look forward to 256 bit floating point, etc.
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(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday July 13 2020, @08:12PM (3 children)
Wrong. Indeed, it cannot even represent one third. It only can represent dyadic fractions, and even there only a finite subset of them.
If your previous sentence had been true, then this would say that a 128 bit floating point can represent exactly the same numbers as a 64 bit floating point.
Of course in reality this sentence is as wrong as the previous one. Also a 128 bit floating point only can represent a subset of the dyadic fractions, but a larger subset of them.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday July 13 2020, @08:59PM (2 children)
Shirley with 256 bit floating point we could represent every conceivable rational and irrational number that can possibly exist.
Until 512 bit floating point comes along.
Maybe you detect a pattern here. If 32 bit floating point could represent every possible number, then why would we need 64 bit floats, 128 bit, etc.
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(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday July 14 2020, @05:46AM (1 child)
No. But that was exactly what you claimed.
To quote your post I replied to:
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday July 14 2020, @02:02PM
I did not use any <no-sarcasm> tags.
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(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Monday July 13 2020, @08:41PM
Then you can look forward to 256 bit floating point, etc.
With 256 bits of floating point, I would expect to be able to represent inconceivable and incomprehensible numbers as well
as the irrational ones.
What happens with sinking point numbers? (only available on Pentiums)
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @03:29PM (1 child)
Spoken languages are evolved, not engineered. Which is to say they favor deception and strategy over utility. Language is the expression of biological entropy at the user level. For example Chinese has way more entropy than English, which should make it MORE concise. But typically it isn't.
Which is the same as English. Just make shit up and wait for the advertisers to decide what is or isn't important. The English department always sides with the market definition, even if that definition is completely intransigent to the engineered definition. Case in point "Internet v. internet". There was a great debate back in the 90's. It was settle among the industry that "Internet" was the public network, and that "internet" just meant interconnected networks, which were not neccessarily public. The retards that came after never looked it up, and the English department cowtowed to the retards. So now most people use it wrong. Same with "cable modems" that don't modulate. etc. etc. etc.
Language is defined by advertising. Not the other way around.
(Score: 3, Touché) by DannyB on Monday July 13 2020, @03:37PM
By law, new words should only be crafted (A) if they are brand names, and (B) by licensed advertising and marketing people.
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by kazzie on Monday July 13 2020, @06:16PM (1 child)
That would be doubleplusgood.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday July 13 2020, @06:22PM
Doubleplus like:
English++
But I think they would call it Newspeak.
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(Score: 2) by Booga1 on Monday July 13 2020, @11:09PM
Aside from the rest of the comment, the hard versus soft G is backwards. Abridged from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_and_soft_G [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Tuesday July 14 2020, @10:11AM
It might be double plus good.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.