+++ /dev/null
- EXPURGATING THE ENABLE LISTS\r
-ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ\r
-\r
-\r
-The ENABLE2K word lists are not filtered or expurgated in any way. Words\r
-are excluded only for reasons of form (e.g., o'clock, DNA) or linguistic\r
-affiliation (e.g., bonjour, ubermensch), but never for reasons of bad\r
-taste (quinine), offensiveness (televangelism) or disreputability\r
-(irregardless).\r
-\r
-Nevertheless, the ENABLE2K compilers recognize that its lists may have\r
-applications in situations where such all-inclusiveness may not be\r
-appropriate. For instance, an ENABLE list may be used in a game program\r
-which might be used by children. The ENABLE2K supplement includes\r
-the MAKELIST program, which allows one to produce a custom word list by\r
-merging one or more or the lists supplied by ENABLE2K and its supplement.\r
-This program offers the option of removing potentially offensive words\r
-from its output, at any of three levels of squeamishness.\r
-\r
-It should be noted that the nature of the English language is such that\r
-complete expurgation of potentially offensive words is impossible, even\r
-ignoring the problem that each individual has his or her own standards of\r
-offense. Many English words have both offensive and inoffensive uses, and\r
-many of these are so common in their inoffensive uses that it would make\r
-no sense to attempt to remove them. Examples of such words are "screw" and\r
-"fairy". The best that one can hope to do is to remove words that are\r
-generally considered offensive, and which do not have common inoffensive\r
-uses.\r
-\r
-Further, the compilers of ENABLE2K can make NO GUARANTEE that the MAKELIST\r
-program will remove all words which might prove offensive in your\r
-application. If the possible presence of offensive words in any ENABLE\r
-list is important to you, it is *your* responsibility to check for such\r
-words and remove them yourself, whether or not you use the MAKELIST\r
-program. And while we have made a serious attempt to determine sets of\r
-words which might reasonably be found offensive, we cannot know the\r
-requirements of your application. In fact, as the legal boys say, we\r
-disclaim any warranty that this package is fit for a particular purpose.\r
-\r
-The MAKELIST program offers you the choice of three levels of expurgation:\r
-Cautious, Aggressive, and Politically Correct. (Of course, you also have\r
-the option of not expurgating at all.) A more detailed explanation of\r
-these options is as follows:\r
-\r
-1. Cautious expurgation attempts to remove patently offensive words, but\r
-does not generally remove words which are not universally agreed to be\r
-offensive, or which have significant inoffensive meanings. (A few words\r
-are so notorious that they are removed despite minor inoffensive uses.)\r
-Almost all of the words removed from the second edition OSPD (r) by\r
-Milton Bradley for OSPD3 fall into this category. However, several very\r
-familiar vulgarities (of the sort still not heard on network television)\r
-are *not* removed at this level. This level of expurgation should be\r
-chosen if the goal is to have expurgation interfere as little as possible\r
-with the completeness of the lexicon.\r
-\r
-2. Agressive expurgation removes additional words that we consider likely\r
-to offend, even if they have inoffensive meanings or are held by some to\r
-be inoffensive. This results in some linguistic anomalies, such as\r
-permitting participles for verbs that have been removed (due to the\r
-offensiveness of their meanings as nouns or adjectives). We believe that\r
-this level of expurgation is most likely to be appropriate for use in\r
-situations involving children.\r
-\r
-3. Politically correct expurgation removes additional words which are\r
-found offensive by some. This list is based primarily on the standards\r
-of the Encarta (r) World English Dictionary, which are much stricter than\r
-those of any other dictionary we have seen. It labels as offensive\r
-many words with which most people seem comfortable, particularly words\r
-associated with mental disability and gender stereotypes. Examples of\r
-words considered offensive by Encarta include "idiotic", "henpeck",\r
-"crone", "slob", "klutz", "wimp" and "weirdo". If you, or your intended\r
-audience, are likely to find such words offensive, then you should choose\r
-this level of expurgation. We find it hard to imagine that this degree of\r
-sensitivity is ever necessary. But then, I'm an able-bodied middle-class\r
-white American male heterosexual baby boomer; of course, I would think\r
-that. (I'm also a "slob" and a "klutz", but we'll let that pass...)\r
-\r
-The process of removing potentially offensive words obviously entails the\r
-existence of lists of such words. These lists, unlike the other ENABLE2K\r
-lists, are not distributed in a readable form. The lists might well, in\r
-themselves, prove offensive, and besides, the last thing we would ever\r
-want to do is to increase anyone's vocabulary of abuse. We of course\r
-recognize this will not prevent anyone who really wishes to ferret out\r
-their contents from doing so. Most attempts to sanitize the English\r
-lexicon are equally futile, a fact which potential users of the ENABLE2K\r
-expurgation option should consider.\r
-\r
-\r
----\r
-The OSPD is a trademark of the Milton Bradley Co., Inc.\r
-Encarta is a trademark of the Microsoft Corp.\r
-\r
-\r
-\r
---Alan Beale\r
projects / deb_pkgs / scowl.git / blobdiff