I received yet another invitation that ended with the phrase "Please RSVP ..."
Redundant.
RSVP = Répondez s'il vous plaît
S'il vous plaît = Please (or more literally, If it pleases you).
Therefore, Please RSVP = Please reply please.
Redundant.Or, according to Wikipedia (that source of all knowledge), it is a Pleonasm. This is a Greek word for TMI.
Pleonasms, or redundancies, appear everyday. A common one is when the cashier in the store asks you to enter your PIN number. Since PIN = Personal Identification Number, PIN number = Personal Identification Number number.
Even Librarians and other book loving people are guilty. I often hear ISBN number. Just in case you don't know, ISBN = International Standard Bibliographic Number. ISBN number is another pleonasm.
Pleonasm is a new word for me. I wonder how many times I can incorporate "pleonasm" into my conversation today.
Showing posts with label words. Show all posts
Showing posts with label words. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Funky letters
The English language doesn't have any accent marks except on the words that have been borrowed (or should that be usurped since I don't think we're going to return them) like facade (which should have a cedilla since it is French) or Noel (which should have an umlaut, but you rarely see it with one). In the library world, accent marks are called diacritics.
Now that we have word processing programs, those diacritics are often automatically added by the computer software (but not in Blogger, I guess, since they did not pop in).
Since libraries often have books (and other materials, of course) in languages other than English, and usually have books (and other materials) written by or acted by people with names that require diacritics, you'll see many cedillas and umlauts as well as acute or grave accents, and rings (which I thought was called an angstrom but, according to Wikipedia, that is a unit of measure). Depending on the software a particular library uses for its catalog, these accent marks may or may not display correctly.
When bib records are transferred from one program to another (such as Koha, which is used by MassCat), the correct coding for those accent marks may or may not be transferred correctly.
One of the things I do at work is to look for funky characters (that's letters, not people). As I scan the list of brief records looking for duplicates and misspellings (remember the Portuguese Picket Dictionary?) I look for misplaced symbols like ? or @ in the middle of words. That usually signals there should be some sort of accent mark over or under or through a letter. Often I can tell what it should be, but since all of these programs translate the codes differently, I'm not always sure.
Fortunately, it's easy for me to correct these - what should I call them? - mis-translations when I find them. I actually have a word document with all of the different possibilities of letters with accent marks. I simply copy and paste over the offending symbol. Or if it's someone's name and I'm not certain what it should be, I go to WorldCat.org, search the part I do know, and copy and paste the correction.
If only all of life's problems could be solved so easily.
Now that we have word processing programs, those diacritics are often automatically added by the computer software (but not in Blogger, I guess, since they did not pop in).
Since libraries often have books (and other materials, of course) in languages other than English, and usually have books (and other materials) written by or acted by people with names that require diacritics, you'll see many cedillas and umlauts as well as acute or grave accents, and rings (which I thought was called an angstrom but, according to Wikipedia, that is a unit of measure). Depending on the software a particular library uses for its catalog, these accent marks may or may not display correctly.
When bib records are transferred from one program to another (such as Koha, which is used by MassCat), the correct coding for those accent marks may or may not be transferred correctly.
One of the things I do at work is to look for funky characters (that's letters, not people). As I scan the list of brief records looking for duplicates and misspellings (remember the Portuguese Picket Dictionary?) I look for misplaced symbols like ? or @ in the middle of words. That usually signals there should be some sort of accent mark over or under or through a letter. Often I can tell what it should be, but since all of these programs translate the codes differently, I'm not always sure.
Fortunately, it's easy for me to correct these - what should I call them? - mis-translations when I find them. I actually have a word document with all of the different possibilities of letters with accent marks. I simply copy and paste over the offending symbol. Or if it's someone's name and I'm not certain what it should be, I go to WorldCat.org, search the part I do know, and copy and paste the correction.
If only all of life's problems could be solved so easily.
Monday, February 29, 2016
Foot in Mouth
Sometimes, I don't quite know what to say.
You know those awkward moments when someone has said something and you want to be supportive or witty? It is those times when I have, on occasion, said something stupid. Or perhaps, even a little hurtful.
I'm not a mean person, just not as witty as I'd like to be. Of course, a few hours later, the exact right phrase - or something close to it - sometimes pops into my head. Why couldn't it have arrived earlier?
Just in case any of you, my readers, have had the misfortune of being on the receiving end of one of my feeble attempts, I sincerely apologize. Please know that my less-than-appropriate comment was not due to my dislike of you, but to my less-than-razor sharp intellect.
I'm trying to practice simple statements. Something like "Oh, I'm sorry" or "Gee, that's too bad. I hope things work out" or "I'm glad for you." Perhaps those comments are a little trite, but at least they won't get me into trouble.
You know those awkward moments when someone has said something and you want to be supportive or witty? It is those times when I have, on occasion, said something stupid. Or perhaps, even a little hurtful.
I'm not a mean person, just not as witty as I'd like to be. Of course, a few hours later, the exact right phrase - or something close to it - sometimes pops into my head. Why couldn't it have arrived earlier?
Just in case any of you, my readers, have had the misfortune of being on the receiving end of one of my feeble attempts, I sincerely apologize. Please know that my less-than-appropriate comment was not due to my dislike of you, but to my less-than-razor sharp intellect.
I'm trying to practice simple statements. Something like "Oh, I'm sorry" or "Gee, that's too bad. I hope things work out" or "I'm glad for you." Perhaps those comments are a little trite, but at least they won't get me into trouble.
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