Ancestors

Written by Kate Morley on 2024-12-12 at 11:21

Updated my e-mail signature for the generative AI era:

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Written by Kate Morley on 2024-12-12 at 11:22

Yes, I hyphenate “e-mail”, and I will continue to do so until the day I die

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Written by Gary Parker on 2024-12-12 at 11:57

@kate similarly, I will continue to capitalise the Internet, for it is a proper noun

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Toot

Written by Abie on 2024-12-12 at 18:37

@WiteWulf How is it different from "the telephone" or "the newspaper"?

(Sincere question, my first language is French, and we say the equivalent of "on Internet", which I don't like)

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Descendants

Written by Gary Parker on 2024-12-12 at 19:15

@temptoetiam umm, may be hard to explain to someone whose first language isn’t English (and I’m not an English teacher😀)

It’s because Internet is a “proper noun”: https://www.scribbr.com/nouns-and-pronouns/proper-nouns/

The Internet is a singular concept. There are many newspapers, but there is only one Le Monde, and one Internet.

Which is a bit crazy, really, as what defines The Internet (to me, at least) is its distributed nature, being made up of millions and millions of component computers and networks.

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Written by Abie on 2024-12-12 at 21:13

@WiteWulf thanks !

Still not entirely persuaded (you get on the road, not on The Road), but I see your point.

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Written by Gary Parker on 2024-12-12 at 21:22

@temptoetiam what can I say: English is a messy language 🤷‍♂️😀

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Written by Brett R on 2024-12-13 at 02:46

@WiteWulf @temptoetiam Not The English? (And I'm legit now trying to understand why it isn't "The English". Still a proper noun like The Internet, right?)

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Written by Gary Parker on 2024-12-13 at 07:43

@swiftone @temptoetiam no, I was referring to English as a language. Usually “the English” would be interpreted as referring to all English people. It’s being used to denote a particular or specified thing.

Conversely, a band name like The Beatles has a capitalised “The”, because The is part of the name. This is why someone people write The Internet (which I think is incorrect, but it’s open to discussion 😀)

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/the

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Written by Gary Parker on 2024-12-13 at 07:48

@swiftone @temptoetiam for example, we would also refer to Chinese as a language, but all people of Chinese heritage as “the Chinese”, but not “The Chinese”

“the Chinese” is a disparate group of people who are Chinese, “The Chinese” would imply a singular, unique, specific thing.

I’m sure a linguist could do a much better job of this 😀

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