Sharp PW-E500 operation manual Usage Notes, Standard English

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Usage Notes ()

Interest in questions of good usage is widespread among English speakers everywhere, and many issues are hotly debated. In the Oxford Dictionary of English, traditional issues have been reappraised, and guidance is given on various points, old and new. The aim is to help people to use the language more accurately, more clearly, and more elegantly, and to give information and offer reassurance in the face of some of the more baffling assertions about ‘correctness’ that are sometimes made.

This reappraisal has involved looking carefully at evidence of actual usage (in the Oxford English Corpus, the citations collected by the Oxford Reading Programme, and other sources) in order to find out where mistakes are actually being made, and where confusion and ambiguity actually arise. The issues on which journalists and others tend to comment have been reassessed and a judgement made about whether their comments are justified.

From the 15th century onwards, traditionalists have been objecting to particular senses of certain English words and phrases, for example ‘aggravate’, ‘due to’, and ‘hopefully’. Certain grammatical structures, too, have been singled out for adverse comment, notably the split infinitive and the use of a preposition at the end of a clause. Some of these objections are founded on very dubious arguments, for example the notion that English grammatical structures should precisely parallel those of Latin or that meaning change of any kind is inherently suspect. For examples of notes on such issues, see preposition, due and aggravate.

The usage notes in the Oxford Dictionary of English take the view that English is English, not Latin, and that English is, like all languages, subject to change. Good usage is usage that gets the writer's message across, not usage that conforms to some arbitrary rules that fly in the face of historical fact or current evidence. The editors of the Oxford Dictionary of English are well aware that the prescriptions of pundits in the past have had remarkably little practical effect on the way the language is actually used. A good dictionary reports the language as it is, not as the editors (or anyone else) would wish it to be, and the usage notes must give guidance that accords with observed facts about present-day usage.

This is not to imply that the issues are straightforward or that there are simple solutions, however. Much of the debate about use of language is highly political and controversy is, occasionally, inevitable. Changing social attitudes have stigmatized long-established uses such as the word ‘man’ to denote the human race in general, for example, and have highlighted the absence of a gender-neutral singular pronoun meaning both ‘he’ and ‘she’ (for which purpose ‘they’ is increasingly being used). Similarly, words such as ‘race’ and ‘native’ are now associated with particular problems of sensitivity in use, and the ways that disability is referred to have come under close examination. The usage notes in the Oxford Dictionary of English offer information and practical advice on such issues. For examples, see man, native and disabled.

Standard English

Unless otherwise stated, the words and senses recorded in this dictionary are all part of standard English; that is, they are in normal use in both speech and writing everywhere in the world, at many different levels of formality, ranging from official documents to casual conversation. Some words, however, are appropriate only in particular contexts, and these are labelled accordingly. The technical term for a particular level of use in language is register.

The Oxford Dictionary of English uses the following register labels:

formal: normally used only in writing, in contexts such as official documents.

informal: normally used only in contexts such as conversations or letters among friends.

dated: no longer used by the majority of English speakers, but still encountered occasionally, especially among the older generation.

archaic: very old-fashioned language, not in ordinary use at all today, but sometimes used to give a deliberately old-fashioned effect or found in works of the past that are still widely read.

historical: still used today, but only to refer to some practice or artefact that is no longer part of the modern world, e.g. baldric and almoner.

literary: found only or mainly in literature written in an ‘elevated' style.

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Image 41 Sharp PW-E500 operation manual Usage Notes, Standard English
Contents PW-E500 Introduction Contents Getting Started Using the PW-E500 for the first timeAuto power off function Turning the power on/offKey notation used in this manual ExampleData contained in the PW-E500 Layout Operation guidance message Display symbolsKey assignments Selecting a dictionary / function in the main menu Basic OperationInputting words for a dictionary search Filter search view selecting an item scrolling List view selecting an item scrollingRecalling the terms previously searched h Detail view scrollingShifting the displayed character size z Browsing Notes r Listing a summary of detail view items qSearching a word on the screen Set-up Menu Setting the key sound on/offAdjusting the LCD contrast Setting the Auto power off activation timeStarting Auto Demo mode Inputting Characters4WD Modifying entryBrowsing Notes Looking up a word Filter searchIf there is no match found Crossword solver Phrase searchSpellcheck function Anagram solverIf the list of words do not appear as expected Further informationThesaurus of English Press tto open the New Oxford Thesaurus of English Searching by an author name Filter search Using the Oxford Dictionary of QuotationsPress uto open the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Keyword searchRandom quote Theme searchHow to use the Super Jump function Using the Super Jump functionAbout the detail view after the Jump Specifying a Dictionary to jump toDeleting the history list of a Dictionary How to use the History functionDeleting a history item Example Operation Display Prior to initiating calculationsCalculation examples Converting currencies Setting a currency rateCurrency converter Units capable of being converted Metric converterBattery used Replacing the batteryPrecautions When to replace the batteryReset procedures Reset procedure if trouble occursSpecifications Product support TroubleshootingIntroduction Oxford Dictionary of EnglishStructure Core Sense and Subsense NoseSpecialized case of the core sense, e.g Encyclopedic Material Specialist VocabularyTerms relating to nouns GrammarTerms relating to adjectives Other terms relating to nounsTerms relating to verbs Terms relating to adverbs Evidence and Illustrative ExamplesOxford English Corpus Oxford Reading ProgrammeExamples Word HistoriesSpecialist reading Standard English Usage NotesWorld English Variant spellings SpellingIse or ize? HyphenationNouns InflectionVerbs Adjectives PronunciationsConsonants Foreign pronunciationsNew Oxford Thesaurus of English Tables a table is displayed as a in this model Selection of entriesHomonyms SynonymsIllustrative examples Register standard vs informal and regional English Linguistic evidencePhrasal verbs and idiomatic phrases Opposites Related terms Oxford Dictionary of QuotationsCombining forms Awkward synonyms and confusablesPage Page How to use the Dictionary Keyword Search Theme SearchMemo Memo Europe Sharp Corporation