Just wants a way to pad his score
Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”
111–120 of 735 posts
Re: Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”
#112The justifications given in that essay leave a really bad taste in my mouth: > I believe using "comprised of" is poor writing, because > It's completely unnecessary. There are many other ways to say what the writer means by "comprised of". It adds nothing to the language. That's true for many, many other words. In fact, most instances of definite and indefinite articles "add nothing to the language", since the actual…
Plus, generally languages are comprised of, among other things, a hodgepodge of colloquialisms that add flavor to the discourse.
Flavor isn’t part of the Wikipedia style guide though. The language used across articles is intentionally conservative and boring.
Re: Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”
#113The justifications given in that essay leave a really bad taste in my mouth: > I believe using "comprised of" is poor writing, because > It's completely unnecessary. There are many other ways to say what the writer means by "comprised of". It adds nothing to the language. That's true for many, many other words. In fact, most instances of definite and indefinite articles "add nothing to the language", since the actual…
> That's true for many, many other words. Well, yes, but other words aren’t wrong and irritating to many readers. The point is that the usage in question has several disadvantages, but zero redeeming features. > "To comprise" and "to be comprised of" contain the same word, but not in the same sense. That’s not the point. “To shoot” and “to be shot” contain the same word, but mean opposite things, but that’s a well un…
Well sure it’d be unsettling but like… what, are you just going to stop language from changing? Good luck with that. We’re just along for the ride, if people start using it that way, then that’s what it means now. Objecting to that is about as much use as to be pissed into the wind.
Re: Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”
#114> It's illogical for a word to mean two opposite things.
Maybe he can tackle “literally” once he is finished with “comprise”.
Re: Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”
#115The reasoning in that essay comprises pedantry and poor judgement. Language reflects usage. Accepting that a particular usage has existed for hundreds of years, but claiming it is too novel to be correct is quite bizarre.
Language correctness should not be just about usage; ease of understanding and aesthetics are also important. "Comprised of" arguably fails on both counts.
Re: Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”
#116This definitely falls deep into the pedantry zone. Lots of modern English uſage was once wrong and has become normalized. The language doeſn't have an Académie calling the ſhots. It inevitably evolves, warts and all.
No one seems to understand Wikipedia operates as a system of lords and serfs, where a powerful few pull this crap all the time . Most relevant example I can think of is when Mac OS X was renamed and stylized to "macOS" someone went and systematically did a find and replace all instances of "OS X" to macOS even in situations where it made absolutely no sense as the article was explicitly talking about prior versions.…
That's not nearly as irresponsible and illegal as editing a weather map with a Sharpie to reflect a fictitious future natural disaster and cover up lying in a tweet.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/04/trump-hurrican...
>Altering official government weather forecasts is against the law.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2074
>18 U.S. Code § 2074 - False weather reports
>Whoever knowingly issues or publishes any counterfeit weather forecast or warning of weather conditions falsely representing such forecast or warning to have been issued or published by the Weather Bureau, United States Signal Service, or other branch of the Government service, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ninety days, or both.
>(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 795; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(G), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)
Re: Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”
#117The justifications given in that essay leave a really bad taste in my mouth: > I believe using "comprised of" is poor writing, because > It's completely unnecessary. There are many other ways to say what the writer means by "comprised of". It adds nothing to the language. That's true for many, many other words. In fact, most instances of definite and indefinite articles "add nothing to the language", since the actual…
I don’t love “is comprised of,” and think it can usually be replaced with something like “contains” or simply “is,” resulting in a better, more direct sentence. But I’m not going to go on a crusade against it.
"My itinerary is comprised of four hotel stays." --->
"My itinerary is comPOSED of four hotel stays."
or
"My itinerary coNSISTS of four hotel stays."
Much better.
Re: Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”
#118Re: Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Articles obviously add information: is it a specific, known house you are going to ( I'm going to the house ) or a non-specific/not previously referred to ( I'm going to a house )? When it's your own house you're going to, you could argue the definite article wouldn't add anything, and the phrasal verb to go home drops it (ie. I'm going home ), though adding an article is possible and changes the meaning ( I'm going…
This statement is true only if it is not possible to tell from the context if the noun refers to a specific/previously mentioned thing or not. It would be possible to measure the amount of information contained in these articles, Shannon style, by taking a body of text, removing the articles, and then asking a bunch of english speakers ( that can possibly be approximated by a LLM ) to put back in the correct articles…
Human languages are highly redundant, for the most part. The communication channel is lossy, so you add parity bits and error correction codes.
Re: Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”
#120I'm not saying she's wrong, but: In patent claims, "comprising" and "consisting of" are different: 6,151,604 claim 1 is: 1. A data storage and retrieval system for a computer memory, comprising: means for configuring said memory according to a logical table, said logical table including: ... 6,151,605 claim 1 is: 1. A method for allowing a software application to access a configuration file, said configuration file c…
Note that this is using the word "comprising" correctly, so is irrelevant to the topic of the incorrect usage.