Confusingly, number agreement
can nonetheless in some contexts be plural. Still, that doesn't underwrite the
back-formation of a singular noun without the -s. RH
Dictionary:
In certain uses, often
when preceded by a determiner like the, his, her, or their, most
of these nouns can take a plural verb: The acoustics (the
sound-reflecting qualities) of the hall are splendid. Their politics
(political opinions) have antagonized
everyone.
More fully
below:
semantics
[...]
/si man"tiks/, n.
(used with a sing. v.)
[...]
3. the meaning, or an interpretation
of the meaning, of a word, sign, sentence, etc.: Let's not argue about
semantics.
[...]
-ics
a suffix of nouns that denote a body of facts, knowledge, principles, etc.,
usually corresponding to adjectives ending in -ic or -ical:
ethics; physics; politics; tactics.
[pl. of -IC, repr. L -ica ( < Gk -ika, neut. pl. of
-ikos), as in rhetórica (pl.) rhetoric book]
Usage. Nouns ending in -ICS that name fields of study, sciences, arts,
professions, or the like are usually not preceded by an article and are used
with a singular verb: Acoustics (the science) deals with sound.
Politics (the art of government) fascinates me. In certain uses,
often when preceded by a determiner like the, his, her, or their,
most of these nouns can take a plural verb: The acoustics (the
sound-reflecting qualities) of the hall are splendid. Their politics
(political opinions) have antagonized
everyone.
Chambers has the noun usually plural, treated as singular, so let's
go with the usual usage and have "semantics", as Bruce suggests.
Regards,
Doug Morrison
Information Architect
http://dita4all.com
On 14/09/2010 17:02, Bruce Nevin (bnevin) wrote:
6D6F1AB5D0078540A309D4BACDCFA8E60285C194@XMB-RCD-104.cisco.com
type="cite">
"Semantic" is an adjective;
the singular noun is "semantics"; SFAIK there is no plural noun. Compare
acoustics, ballistics, linguistics, ...
Hi Su-Laine,
A few
suggestions:
Change
A publishing tool could present
<ol> elements as numbered lists, and also style any
specializations of <ol> elements the same way by
default.
==>
A publishing tool could present <step>
elements as numbered items in a list, and also style any specializations
of <step> elements the same way by
default.
Add
An authoring tool could insert
related groups of elements for convenience (such as automatically
inserting a <cmd> element when a <step> element is
inserted).
Change
For example, a <pre>
element should generally not be rendered as flowing text without line
breaks, because doing so would be inconsistent with the basic semantic of
<pre>.
==>
For example, a <pre> element
should generally be rendered as text that preserves the original white
space, such as line breaks, to be consistent with the basic semantic
of <pre>.
Add a summary/closing
statement:
Whilst this brief guide may suggest some things to look
for, it is up to adopters to assess what aspects of DITA-awareness are
useful for them, and in what types of tools.
(This is said earlier,
but I think it would be good to end on a point like this.)
Some
headings may make the structure clearer.
I would keep the scope of
this document narrow or it will grow too large and lose its present
purpose.
Cheers,
Doug Morrison
Information Architect
http://dita4all.com
On 13/09/2010 19:43, Su-Laine Yeo wrote:
BECDDDED92C3B949A38F5BC4BF56D21F03EFE3E0@van-mail.jena.local
type="cite">
Hi everyone,
At today's meeting, we
decided to review the documents without waiting to get them converted to wiki format.
Please send substantive comments to the list, and minor
comments/copyedit issues to me.
PDF version: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/document.php?document_id=38150
DITA
version: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/document.php?document_id=36488&wg_abbrev=dita-adoption
Looking through my email
archives, I see that this draft triggered some
thoughtful discussion in March about having a
different angle or wider scope. This document
is narrow in scope, serving mostly to define some terms
used in the DITA specification. Perhaps we could follow it up with other
documents that address other aspects of selecting tools.
Cheers,
Su-Laine
Su-Laine Yeo Solutions Consultant
JustSystems Canada, Inc. Office: 778-327-6356 syeo@justsystems.com
www.justsystems.com
XMetaL Community
Forums: http://forums.xmetal.com/
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