Re: Final text of GPL v3 (original) (raw)

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Ben Finney bignose+hates-spam@benfinney.id.au wrote:

Francesco Poli frx@firenze.linux.it writes:

Is "I am afraid it cannot" a definite answer? It does not even seem to express certainty...

(I am not a professor of English)

Clearly.

The usage of "I am afraid that " in English has changed. [...]

Rather, it has gained another, less literal, use, which may not be what Francesco intended to communicate.

I would interpret it as a fear. Unless there's some survey data or something to the contrary, I suspect most other rural Englishmen would. I'm a bit old-fashioned like that, which is why newspeak like "You're forcing me to ..." looks silly to me.

More generally, please cut non-native speakers some Slack about English use when it matters like this. If a German walks into your restaurant and says "Please can I become a steak?" then that is not justification for killing and butchering him. You know damn well what was meant.

(The only non-native speakers who I won't cut slack are those who start preaching their interpretation of English as The One True Meaning over objections from Englishmen. ;-) )

Regards,

MJR/slef My Opinion Only: see http://people.debian.org/~mjr/ Please follow http://www.uk.debian.org/MailingLists/#codeofconduct

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