Bob Muncie wrote:
> Victor Sack wrote:
>> blake murphy > wrote:
>>
>>> On Sun, 28 Jun 2009 08:27:50 +0200, Victor Sack wrote:
>>>>> Victor Sack > wrote:
>>>> It is not about a validity of anything; it is about "bulk sausage"
>>>> being semantic nonsense. The term is perfectly well understandable
>>>> by anyone, but is semantically ridiculous.
>>>>>> The "term" was probably first used by someone with a limited
>>>>>> knowledge of both English and cooking (and it was surely the very
>>>>>> same harmful drudge who started to use "hamburger" in a similar
>>>>>> sense). "Sausage" is defined by its casings. The minced meat that
>>>>>> goes into the casings or is used for many other related or
>>>>>> unrelated products and dishes is correctly called "forcemeat"
>>>>>> throughout the English-speaking world, America including.
>>> ...and everyone in america seems to know what it means. i fail to see
>>> the problem, or 'semantic nonsense' involved.
>>
>> Explained above.
>>
>> Besides, using terms such as "sausage" or "hamburger" for things that
>> are neither sausage nor hamburger only shows one's limited vocabulary,
>> laziness, or a lack of respect to one's own language - and maybe leads
>> to general moral turpitude. Ha!
>>
>> Really, this particular case may be a triviality, but even here there is
>> more to English than "sausage" and "hamburger". There is no good reason
>> to imitate what is effectively pidgin English, or the language of a
>> five-year-old child. A language that limits itself to just getting a
>> general idea across would be a very poor language indeed.
>>
>> Victor
>
> Are you for real? I've respected many of your posts over the years. But
> this is likely one I will not recall, except for the fact I did not
> respect it.
>
> Language is there to communicate, to pontificate that the usage has some
> greater purpose than to get your point across is well, pompous.
>
Well, but in order to communicate and/or to get your point across you
need to use the correct words, not some semantic nonsense like
"bulk sausage". Humpty-dumptying the language hinders communication.

Cheers,

Michael Kuettner