<Assuming a back-to-back stance with DDB as, together and alone, we prepare to fight off the ravaging hoards, ready to die bravely with Strunk & White in our hand and a pronoun in our mouth.> At 03:03 AM 8/15/2002 -0500, David Dyer-Bennet wrote: >Steven Brust <skzb at dreamcafe.com> writes: > > > "Language is subjective, like all things." Well, in the first place, > > we're simply going to have to disagree about all things being > > subjective. In fact, I believe that there is an objective reality, > > and that we will never understand it fully does not relieve us of the > > responsibility to try. > >Reality is what causes our nose to hurt when we attempt to treat a >wall as subjective. Oh yes, very nice. >Aspects of language take place outside any one individual, and in that >sense are not completely subjective. (Like the *other* individuals >you wish to communicate with.) Yeah, that's what I was trying to get at. >In the first case, personal opinion, there's not that much relevance >to what other people think. In the other case, consensus reality, >it's useful to be in step with other people, particularly as to word >usage. And yet both are pretty subjective. We can watch words change >their meanings just because people decide they have. Okay, that makes sense.