Re: Quartz/Halogen incandescent bulbs

["Bernard G. Cleyet & Nancy Ann Seese" <georgeann@REDSHIFT.COM>]

My point exactly.  A physicist is the last person to praise descriptive
english usage -- our vocabulary (argot) is probably the most conservative
of any field.

About communication, please note the difference between:

    Do you mind me asking a question?       and

    Do you mind my asking a question?

Another example:

    They heard him singing in the shower.  and

    They heard his singing in the shower.
 

Usually, the meaning requires the possessive.

bc

P.S.,  The standards are not arbitrary -- they tend to ensure logically that the meaning intended is communicated.  I suggest, to all, The Elements of Style.

"Buy it, study it, enjoy it.  It's as timeless as a book can be in our age of volubility."
                                                                                                -The New York Times

and only $5.95 (ca. 1990) and 92 pp.!
 
 

Jack Uretsky wrote:

        See below.

Adam was by constitution and proclivity a scientist; I was the same, and
we loved to call ourselves by that great name...Our first memorable
scientific discovery was the law that water and like fluids run downhill,
not up.
                          Mark Twain, <Extract from Eve's Autobiography>

On Sun, 13 Feb 2000, Zach Wolff wrote:

> Kudos to Mark for showing some linguistics knowledge
> on this physics list.

___________________________________snip_______________
>   If native speakers of a
> lanuage understand an utterance it is correct.
> Language is about communication, not arbitrary
> standards.

        Oh, c'mon.  Without "arbitrary standards" as
to the meaning of words, how could you communicate?
Your posting is utterly semigrlphigpichel.
        Go back and consider humpty-dumpty's dictum.
        The two quoted sentences are logically inconsistent.

>