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Assume v. Presume

Just to show my ignorance without the help of Google, surely 'analyse' means to study something to improve understanding and 'deconstruct' means to take something to pieces, possibly to better understand how it works, but possibly just because you can and want to be destructive.
 
So when somebody (notably in TV discussion programmes) says "let's deconstruct that" they don't really mean "let's analyse that" and are not just using 'deconstruct' as a faddy way of saying 'analyse'? I think not.

If they really do mean in the physical sense that you mean, surely 'disassemble' would be more meaningful?
 
I read a wonderful euphemism in some official H&S stuff in my local rag about an adventure playground . 'Small beings'. WTF is wrong with 'Children'? After all, it is a childrens' playground. And my spell checker does not like 'childrens' for some obscure reason or another.
 
I watched the Panorama on TV last night about Jimmy Savile. I wish the editors would learn British English usage! Endless captions saying Dr. Jimmy Savile, Dr. This, Dr. That.

NO! It's Dr Jimmy Savile, Dr This, Dr That, etc.
 
Is Dr not an abbreviation for Doctor. If so then surely it's correct to put the full stop to indicate an abbreviation? If the theory is that the last letter in the abbreviation is the last letter in the word, that's how the French do it -apparently.
 
Mike0001 said:
NO!
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Owww!!! This is becoming an epidemic.

The use of a dot to indicate a contraction is not totally deprecated, even though I choose not to use it. It's a style choice - but looks silly in something like H.D.M.I.. (Especially at the end of a sentence!)
 
Trev said:
Is Dr not an abbreviation for Doctor. If so then surely it's correct to put the full stop to indicate an abbreviation? If the theory is that the last letter in the abbreviation is the last letter in the word, that's how the French do it -apparently.
Click to expand...

Dr is an abbreviation for Doctor, in British English.
Mr is an abbreviation for Mister, in British English.
Prof. is an abbreviation for Professor, in British English.
Rev. is an abbreviation for Reverend, in British English.

See the pattern? In the USA they do things differently.

Even worse is

Mr.W.C. Fields

or

Mr. W.C.Fields

or the other variants. Yeuk!
 
I wondered where Dr. was a well. I thought that they said it was a list of common abbreviations and they don't come much more common than Dr. or Mr.
But Mts. is, for mountains and Mtg. for meeting as is Northumbld. as is Regr. for register. See the pattern?
 
Of course. Children is a plural that does not end in an 's'. Silly me!
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I was thinking of a singular that has been pluralised by the addition of an s, with an apostrophe to indicate the possessive as in mothers' meeting. Or in fact, any singular noun ending in an s, as in Thomas' book (although Thomas's book is not strictly incorrect, it doesn't look right so the extra s after the apostrophe is optional).
 
Trev said:
I wondered where Dr. was a well. I thought that they said it was a list of common abbreviations and they don't come much more common than Dr. or Mr.
But Mts. is, for mountains and Mtg. for meeting as is Northumbld. as is Regr. for register. See the pattern?
Click to expand...


It's a list of abbreviations used in the OED. Maybe they didn't use Dr in the OED.

It is plain wrong, anyway. 0/10 for consistency.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/punctuation-in-abbreviations

Second opinion:

http://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/abbreviations_contractions_full_stops_periods.htm
 
It annoys me that shops don't "do what it says on the tin". Go into Timberland and ask for 8' of 4x2 and they look at you as if you're mad. The Vyella shop is advertising "new season handbags and clutches" - not only were there no mops in sight, neither were there any car parts.
 
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