Mr. Snrub
10-26-2001, 05:35 AM
The Word according to Microsoft: no more idiots, or any other losers
By Kirsty Needham
There are no losers in Microsoft's language. No idiots either. Type bastard into the latest version of the world's most-used word processing software and the thesaurus is stumped.
Author Mark Goldblatt was similarly puzzled, bewildered and at a complete loss to find chunks of the English language had disappeared as he wrote at a laptop using Microsoft Word.
Contacting Microsoft, the American was informed it was company policy not to suggest words in the dictionary, or thesaurus, that may be offensive. Word Version 2002 is a cad-free zone. But it wasn't always so.
Checking an older copy of the software finds losers are failures, flops, washouts and duds. An idiot is a dimwit, booby, nincompoop or jerk.
Susan Butler, publisher of The Macquarie Dictionary, said the revision of Microsoft's thesaurus and dictionary appeared to be "political correctness carried to an extreme".
Opening the Macquarie Thesaurus reveals the bastard in full glory: akin to a wastrel, drip or rat-fink, and progressing to more colourful terms that won't be gratuitously mentioned.
Macquarie has received requests to remove offensive terms and even words such as cancer, in the belief that if the word is extinguished, the things themselves will be.
"Some people feel that by putting words in the dictionary, we are giving approval," Ms Butler said. "But it is a misunderstanding of the role of the dictionary. It is not there to put words into people's mouths or computers. We are there to gather up all the words that people use. Language hums along at its own pace and the community decides what we will or won't use."
Dr Louise Ravelli, lecturer in linguistics at the University of NSW, says dictionaries are invested with a lot of authority in our culture, and whether print-based or digital, will influence language usage.
"We tend to take their word as gospel, without really considering who has made the decisions about what has been included or excluded."
Casual conversation aside, the sanitised synonyms could limit writing, she said.
Ms Butler is unconvinced: "The words will not disappear because Microsoft deletes them. It just makes Microsoft look silly."
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By Kirsty Needham
There are no losers in Microsoft's language. No idiots either. Type bastard into the latest version of the world's most-used word processing software and the thesaurus is stumped.
Author Mark Goldblatt was similarly puzzled, bewildered and at a complete loss to find chunks of the English language had disappeared as he wrote at a laptop using Microsoft Word.
Contacting Microsoft, the American was informed it was company policy not to suggest words in the dictionary, or thesaurus, that may be offensive. Word Version 2002 is a cad-free zone. But it wasn't always so.
Checking an older copy of the software finds losers are failures, flops, washouts and duds. An idiot is a dimwit, booby, nincompoop or jerk.
Susan Butler, publisher of The Macquarie Dictionary, said the revision of Microsoft's thesaurus and dictionary appeared to be "political correctness carried to an extreme".
Opening the Macquarie Thesaurus reveals the bastard in full glory: akin to a wastrel, drip or rat-fink, and progressing to more colourful terms that won't be gratuitously mentioned.
Macquarie has received requests to remove offensive terms and even words such as cancer, in the belief that if the word is extinguished, the things themselves will be.
"Some people feel that by putting words in the dictionary, we are giving approval," Ms Butler said. "But it is a misunderstanding of the role of the dictionary. It is not there to put words into people's mouths or computers. We are there to gather up all the words that people use. Language hums along at its own pace and the community decides what we will or won't use."
Dr Louise Ravelli, lecturer in linguistics at the University of NSW, says dictionaries are invested with a lot of authority in our culture, and whether print-based or digital, will influence language usage.
"We tend to take their word as gospel, without really considering who has made the decisions about what has been included or excluded."
Casual conversation aside, the sanitised synonyms could limit writing, she said.
Ms Butler is unconvinced: "The words will not disappear because Microsoft deletes them. It just makes Microsoft look silly."
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<IMG SRC="http://www.obeygiant.com/posters/images/riot-cop.gif" border=0>