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Subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed how we use language

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Re: Subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed how we use language

#21

Post by pm215 »

otteromkram wrote: post #2

> Write a word ending in "-ise" and it will suggest changing it to "-ize" [...] Sounds like it's working fine to me. Joking aside, this is a great article with many strong points, but disabling or mitigating spellcheck is always a possibility. I usually disable it since many of the grammar suggestions Word provides are questionable. In a workplace setting when consistency is key, it seems like grammar and spellcheck…

I think the point the article is trying to make there is about the power of defaults. Sure, you can disable the grammar and spellcheck (I do that too), or you can configure it to specifically UK English and otherwise adjust it, but most users will not, and so on aggregate the choice of default setting will exert some pressure on the user base.

Re: Subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed how we use language

#22

Post by didntcheck »

matsemann wrote: post #5

I'm a but wary in general about how US tech used around the world slowly erodes the nuances of different cultures. Often the software doesn't take into account how things work in other languages, different regions etc. I'm also not sure I'd blame the engineers in SV too much, of course they design software based on their own context. But with tech becoming global, it's a bit sad how it's not prioritized more. Example…

The one that always gets me is how Google's image captcha assumes everyone knows what American school buses, fire hydrants, crosswalks, and various other street features look like. As a youngish EU citizen I do know those from cartoons and the internet, but I doubt my parents do

> Or how things are moderated to an US standard

It's just comical how adults on Youtube talking about adult topics are pressured into censoring even mild profanity

Re: Subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed how we use language

#23

Post by uxp8u61q »

mikepurvis wrote: post #16
matsemann wrote: post #5

I'm a but wary in general about how US tech used around the world slowly erodes the nuances of different cultures. Often the software doesn't take into account how things work in other languages, different regions etc. I'm also not sure I'd blame the engineers in SV too much, of course they design software based on their own context. But with tech becoming global, it's a bit sad how it's not prioritized more. Example…

Related to that is all the angst about how Sim City basically just lets you make car-centric hellscapes, not at all unlike San Jose, the city in which it was birthed. And City Skylines inherited a lot of that legacy, that designs centered around mass transit and cycling (such as one would find in Europe or Japan) really only become fully practical with a bunch of mods installed.

The whole game of City Skylines is based around a grid-shaped city and clearly delineated zones for housing, commerce, and industry. It's never going to be able to model a European city (or an old east coast US for that matter).

Re: Subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed how we use language

#24

Post by cubefox »

I remember that Word's German spell checker started quite early to only accept the spelling "E-Mail" as correct. This was at a time when emails were fairly new, and spellings like "eMail" were also common. (Though not "email", as nouns are capitalized in German.)

I'm pretty confident that Word played a significant role in "E-Mail" becoming the canonically accepted German spelling.

Re: Subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed how we use language

#25

Post by Jenk »

Lukas_Skywalker wrote: post #10
tomrod wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate your thoughts. You made me realize AM (antemeridian, before noon) and post meridian (after noon, 24 hours mod 12) aren't universal standards!

Noon and midnight are especially difficult for people used to the 24 hour system. Noon is neither ante nor post meridiem. And midnight is both.

I don't follow - Noon is 12pm, midnight is 12am.

Re: Subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed how we use language

#26

Post by sshine »

matsemann wrote: post #5

I'm a but wary in general about how US tech used around the world slowly erodes the nuances of different cultures. Often the software doesn't take into account how things work in other languages, different regions etc. I'm also not sure I'd blame the engineers in SV too much, of course they design software based on their own context. But with tech becoming global, it's a bit sad how it's not prioritized more. Example…

Grammar suggestions in Office 365 is terrible. It just can’t guess the document’s language when it doesn’t align with the browser’s language settings.

The automated suggestions are still so poor and out of touch with reality, I reckon they will only be useful to dyslexics who are throwing dice anyways.

Re: Subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed how we use language

#27

Post by carlosjobim »

panzi wrote: post #11
tomrod wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate your thoughts. You made me realize AM (antemeridian, before noon) and post meridian (after noon, 24 hours mod 12) aren't universal standards!

Yeah, but because if analog clocks here in Austria we have no problem to convert back and forth. Are there no analog clocks in Norway?

People in 24h cultures always use 12 analog hours in normal situations, but the 24h system is needed for situations where it is easy to make a mistake.

When is dinner?

- It's at seven.

When does the flight depart?

- At 19:00

Re: Subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed how we use language

#28

Post by Mordisquitos »

matsemann wrote: post #5

I'm a but wary in general about how US tech used around the world slowly erodes the nuances of different cultures. Often the software doesn't take into account how things work in other languages, different regions etc. I'm also not sure I'd blame the engineers in SV too much, of course they design software based on their own context. But with tech becoming global, it's a bit sad how it's not prioritized more. Example…

I fully agree with you. Another gripe to add to the list is the Anglocentric expectation made by American software [0] that any full personal name with three words must necessarily mean (given_name) (middle_name) (surname), to be displayed as "Givenname M. Surname" and initialised as "GS" (skipping the ostensible "middle" name). Nevermind the diversity of conventions across cultures [1], every name must obviously follow American cultural expectations.

[0] Also British, Canadian & Australian software, but with few exceptions (Shopify, Atlassian…) few of these have such global presumptions as US software products.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36989683

Re: Subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed how we use language

#29

Post by cebert »

I was in middle school in the late 1990’s. Microsoft Word and Encarta were popular with some students, but the teachers weren’t necessarily tech savvy. If you copied text from an encyclopedia entry in Encarta to Word, the text would change to red burgundy. Students would copy content in their papers and wouldn’t even bother to change the color. I remember seeing examples of good papers in the hallways with the red text, and couldn’t believe that teachers had no idea what had happened.

Re: Subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed how we use language

#30

Post by ginko »

matsemann wrote: post #5

I'm a but wary in general about how US tech used around the world slowly erodes the nuances of different cultures. Often the software doesn't take into account how things work in other languages, different regions etc. I'm also not sure I'd blame the engineers in SV too much, of course they design software based on their own context. But with tech becoming global, it's a bit sad how it's not prioritized more. Example…

Another example I recently ran into is Google translate stripping gender from words even when translating between languages with grammatical gender.

(German) die Banditin -> (Spanish) el bandido

(Spanish) la bandida -> (German) der Bandit

So it always turns a female bandit into a male one.

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