[Sigia-l] [spam] Retraction re: "IA" value postingImadeearlier

[Andrew McNaughton]

On Fri, 19 Jul 2002, Christopher Fahey [askrom] wrote:

> Émigré put it best:
>   "Design is a good idea."
>   http://www.emigre.com/Tshirt.php?id=6
>
> So did Lewis Carroll:
>   "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in
>   rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I
>   choose it to mean - neither more nor less."

I like this latter one.  Very much to the point.

The descriptive power of language is based to a large degree on the
ability to re-purpose words, and to create usage on the fly which applies
in a local context, and through common usage may become more widely
accepted.  Usage evolves rapidly within particular contexts.  Even within
particular texts.

It's no surprise that our usage requires a bit of discussion now and then,
but the strength of recent statements about what the word 'design' means
seems silly given how far we've disconnected from context and usage.  The
word has a number of related general meanings, with a healthy amount of
vagueness which makes the term easily adaptable.  It commonly stands in
for extended terms like 'visual communication design'.  On their own such
terms may be more precise, but contextual usage may make 'design' a
convenient shorthand for a very precise meaning.  A particular plan or
perhaps intent.  A particular kind of planning.

There's a lot of well thought out and thought provoking comment to be
had on prescriptive and descriptive usage in this review of the new 1860
page book 'The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language'.  I thoroughly
enjoyed reading it.

http://books.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4459711,00.html


Andrew McNaughton