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English Grammar question 6+ messages / 5 participants [nested] [flat]
* English Grammar question @ 2011-03-30 08:08 Susanne Ebrecht <[email protected]> 0 siblings, 3 replies; 6+ messages in thread From: Susanne Ebrecht @ 2011-03-30 08:08 UTC (permalink / raw) To: pgsql-docs Hello, during translation the history.sgml - I found the following sentences in http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/history.html "The design of the rule system at that time was described in /The design of the POSTGRES rules system/ <http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/biblio.html#STON87A;. The rationale and architecture of the storage manager were detailed in /The design of the POSTGRES storage system <http://db.cs.berkeley.edu/papers/ERL-M87-06.pdf>/"; I am not sure if the grammar is correct here. My feeling says it should be: "is decribed" and "are detailed" instead of "was and were" I am pretty sure these books still exist. Susanne -- Susanne Ebrecht - 2ndQuadrant PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training and Services www.2ndQuadrant.com ^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: English Grammar question @ 2011-03-30 08:15 Dave Page <[email protected]> parent: Susanne Ebrecht <[email protected]> 2 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread From: Dave Page @ 2011-03-30 08:15 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Susanne Ebrecht <[email protected]>; +Cc: pgsql-docs On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 9:08 AM, Susanne Ebrecht <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello, > > during translation the history.sgml - I found the following sentences in > > http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/history.html > > "The design of the rule system at that time was described in The design of > the POSTGRES rules system. The rationale and architecture of the storage > manager were detailed in The design of the POSTGRES storage system " > > I am not sure if the grammar is correct here. > > My feeling says it should be: > > "is decribed" and "are detailed" instead of "was and were" > > I am pretty sure these books still exist. It seems fine to me. The tense refers to when it was written, not when the papers were available (or not). -- Dave Page Blog: http://pgsnake.blogspot.com Twitter: @pgsnake EnterpriseDB UK: http://www.enterprisedb.com The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company ^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: English Grammar question @ 2011-03-30 08:18 Simon Riggs <[email protected]> parent: Susanne Ebrecht <[email protected]> 2 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread From: Simon Riggs @ 2011-03-30 08:18 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Susanne Ebrecht <[email protected]>; +Cc: pgsql-docs On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 9:08 AM, Susanne Ebrecht <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello, > > during translation the history.sgml - I found the following sentences in > > http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/history.html > > "The design of the rule system at that time was described in The design of > the POSTGRES rules system. The rationale and architecture of the storage > manager were detailed in The design of the POSTGRES storage system " > > I am not sure if the grammar is correct here. > > My feeling says it should be: > > "is decribed" and "are detailed" instead of "was and were" > > I am pretty sure these books still exist. I think both are correct, but you are right that those books still exist and so it looks archaic and can be reworded. -- Simon Riggs http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/ PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services ^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: English Grammar question @ 2011-03-30 08:18 Heikki Linnakangas <[email protected]> parent: Susanne Ebrecht <[email protected]> 2 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread From: Heikki Linnakangas @ 2011-03-30 08:18 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Susanne Ebrecht <[email protected]>; +Cc: pgsql-docs On 30.03.2011 11:08, Susanne Ebrecht wrote: > Hello, > > during translation the history.sgml - I found the following sentences in > > http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/history.html > > "The design of the rule system at that time was described in /The design > of the POSTGRES rules system/ > <http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/biblio.html#STON87A;. The > rationale and architecture of the storage manager were detailed in /The > design of the POSTGRES storage system > <http://db.cs.berkeley.edu/papers/ERL-M87-06.pdf>/"; > > I am not sure if the grammar is correct here. > > My feeling says it should be: > > "is decribed" and "are detailed" instead of "was and were" > > I am pretty sure these books still exist. Both would be correct, but with a slightly different meaning. What it means now is that someone wrote a description of (= described) the design in that book. If you change it to "is described", it means that there is a description on the (old) design, with nothing said about when the description was written. The difference becomes more clear if you change the sentence to active form: "[Some unnamed person] described the design of the rule system at that time in /The design of the POSTGRES rules system" (was described) vs. "/The design of the POSTGRES rules system/ describes the design of the rules system at that time" (is described) -- Heikki Linnakangas EnterpriseDB http://www.enterprisedb.com ^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: English Grammar question @ 2011-03-31 16:11 Robert Haas <[email protected]> parent: Heikki Linnakangas <[email protected]> 0 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread From: Robert Haas @ 2011-03-31 16:11 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Heikki Linnakangas <[email protected]>; +Cc: Susanne Ebrecht <[email protected]>; pgsql-docs On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 4:18 AM, Heikki Linnakangas <[email protected]> wrote: > On 30.03.2011 11:08, Susanne Ebrecht wrote: >> >> Hello, >> >> during translation the history.sgml - I found the following sentences in >> >> http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/history.html >> >> "The design of the rule system at that time was described in /The design >> of the POSTGRES rules system/ >> <http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/biblio.html#STON87A;. The >> rationale and architecture of the storage manager were detailed in /The >> design of the POSTGRES storage system >> <http://db.cs.berkeley.edu/papers/ERL-M87-06.pdf>/"; >> >> I am not sure if the grammar is correct here. >> >> My feeling says it should be: >> >> "is decribed" and "are detailed" instead of "was and were" >> >> I am pretty sure these books still exist. > > Both would be correct, but with a slightly different meaning. What it means > now is that someone wrote a description of (= described) the design in that > book. If you change it to "is described", it means that there is a > description on the (old) design, with nothing said about when the > description was written. I think this is a correct analysis of grammar - both are correct, with slightly different meanings. I actually find both phrasings a bit awkward, though. What we're really trying to do here is provide the links, but that is sometimes better done in a footnote or bibliography than in the middle of a body of text. -- Robert Haas EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company ^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: refer to books in footnote @ 2011-04-02 07:56 Susanne Ebrecht <[email protected]> parent: Robert Haas <[email protected]> 0 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread From: Susanne Ebrecht @ 2011-04-02 07:56 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Robert Haas <[email protected]>; +Cc: pgsql-docs On 31.03.2011 18:11, Robert Haas wrote: > I actually find both phrasings a bit > ... What we're really trying to do here is provide the > links, but that is sometimes better done in a footnote or bibliography > than in the middle of a body of text. > Honestly, I like the idea for the future. I think the effort doing it in existing docs is too high - but for future docs it is great. I have another argument for it: During translating the tutorial I found another sentence - referring books for SQL beginners. After very long thinking and after chatting about it with Peter - I skipped the sentence German translation. I translate the documentation into German mostly for ppl who are not able to speak English. It is not a good style to tell people here that when they want to learn SQL they should read English books - besides there is a translated version of the books - which wasn't the case. I would not have such a big problem here with translation when links to books would be just in a footnote - it don't look such painful to refer to English books in footnotes, when the books aren't available in German. Just my 2Cent, Susanne -- Susanne Ebrecht - 2ndQuadrant PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training and Services www.2ndQuadrant.com ^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 6+ messages in thread
end of thread, other threads:[~2011-04-02 07:56 UTC | newest] Thread overview: 6+ messages (download: mbox mbox.gz follow: Atom feed) -- links below jump to the message on this page -- 2011-03-30 08:08 English Grammar question Susanne Ebrecht <[email protected]> 2011-03-30 08:15 ` Dave Page <[email protected]> 2011-03-30 08:18 ` Simon Riggs <[email protected]> 2011-03-30 08:18 ` Heikki Linnakangas <[email protected]> 2011-03-31 16:11 ` Robert Haas <[email protected]> 2011-04-02 07:56 ` Re: refer to books in footnote Susanne Ebrecht <[email protected]>
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