Abbreviations are treated separately from the corresponding full names. One doesn’t say “the ABC”, but one does say “the American Broadcasting Company”. Likewise, “SIAI” (not “the SIAI”), but “the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence”.
You say:
I personally find “the SIAI” sound ridiculous to me
Guess what: I agree! Quite a while ago, I pointed out that “the SIAI” was a non-native quirk introduced by XiXiDu (and for some reason picked up by certain native speakers). Maybe it was too subtle for some people, but in that comment I was expressing the fact that “the SIAI” sounds completely wrong to me.
I don’t understand why this is so complicated. One says “at the Singularity Institute”, but also “at SIAI”. This is the default English usage. It’s what people have been saying all along. There is nothing weird, complex, or freaky going on here. I’m advocating a return to normalcy!
You ask:
Notice a pattern?
The answer is yes: people consistently underestimate the information content of my comments, and often simply fail to read what they say. This drives me frickin’ crazy!
You have all of my sympathies. What you are saying makes perfect sense (as such, I have nothing to add or take away from it), and I agree with it completely.
That said, I understand why you’re getting so hot-blooded. I’m getting hot-blooded over Louie’s systematic failure to understand you, and I’m not even the one being misunderstood!
Guess what: I agree! Quite a while ago, I pointed out that “the SIAI” was a non-native quirk introduced by XiXiDu (and for some reason picked up by certain native speakers).
Please correct me if I am wrong, I haven’t read up on language evolution yet. But isn’t it the case that natural language evolves? Unlike math, if enough people believe that a certain syntax is correct then it is correct. So if I start to write “the SIAI” at a time when people think that it sounds wrong but then gradually more and more people adapt that notation and start to perceive it to sound right, doesn’t it become right?
If you like I will from now on use the syntax that you suggest simply because you seem to care strongly about it while I don’t care at all.
Louie, please read my comments again and tell me if you still think your reply makes any sense whatsoever as a response.
Because—I’m sorry to say—this represents a total failure of reading comprehension. Quoting myself:
here:
In the same comment:
Here::
Here::
You say:
Guess what: I agree! Quite a while ago, I pointed out that “the SIAI” was a non-native quirk introduced by XiXiDu (and for some reason picked up by certain native speakers). Maybe it was too subtle for some people, but in that comment I was expressing the fact that “the SIAI” sounds completely wrong to me.
I don’t understand why this is so complicated. One says “at the Singularity Institute”, but also “at SIAI”. This is the default English usage. It’s what people have been saying all along. There is nothing weird, complex, or freaky going on here. I’m advocating a return to normalcy!
You ask:
The answer is yes: people consistently underestimate the information content of my comments, and often simply fail to read what they say. This drives me frickin’ crazy!
You have all of my sympathies. What you are saying makes perfect sense (as such, I have nothing to add or take away from it), and I agree with it completely.
That said, I understand why you’re getting so hot-blooded. I’m getting hot-blooded over Louie’s systematic failure to understand you, and I’m not even the one being misunderstood!
(Keeping in mind, all the while, Wiio’s Laws.)
upvoted for the link to Wiio’s Laws.
Please correct me if I am wrong, I haven’t read up on language evolution yet. But isn’t it the case that natural language evolves? Unlike math, if enough people believe that a certain syntax is correct then it is correct. So if I start to write “the SIAI” at a time when people think that it sounds wrong but then gradually more and more people adapt that notation and start to perceive it to sound right, doesn’t it become right?
If you like I will from now on use the syntax that you suggest simply because you seem to care strongly about it while I don’t care at all.