Michal Suchánek wrote: > On Wed, May 26, 2021 at 06:49:58PM -0500, Varun Varada wrote: > > On Thu, 13 May 2021 at 04:48, Michal Suchánek <msuchanek@xxxxxxx> wrote: > > > Yet Felipe insists that 'impact' is somehow generally bad word to use or > > > that it should be abolished solely because he finds it bad and nobody > > > objected to the alternative wording. > > > > > > Opinions on use of 'impact' differ both among the participants of this > > > discussion and authorities like authors well-known dictionaries. > > > > > > It looks like this is generally matter of stylistic preferences and > > > opinions. That is even if there is some slight stylistic preference for > > > not using the word 'impact' it is very hard to prove such and then it is > > > very hard to request change based only on writing style preferences. > > > > The argument is not that it is generally a bad word to use, but that > > it is generally bad to use words when they don't mean what one thinks > > they mean, especially when all evidence says otherwise. > > Not all evidence. There are people who think the use is fine. What people think is not evidence. There's people who think the Earth is flat. > > All major dictionaries define "impact" as "a strong effect" or "to > > affect strongly". This is not style, but semantics. In the same way > > Not all dictionaries, actually. You don't need all dictionaries. If 50% of trials show a drug is safe, and 50% show it's not, you don't approve bit because "not all say say it's unsafe". If there's evidence that A is bad, you should consider avoiding A, especially when you have B, and you have *zero* evidence showing B is bad. > > that "per se" being used to mean "necessarily" is not a style issue, > > using "impact" to mean "an effect" or "to affect" is not a style > > issue. > > > > As has been stated already, the clear and substantial argument for > > this change is that it reduces the confusion that arises from > > improperly using the word "impact" in the instances without any loss > > There is no final authority on 'correct' word use in English. You don't need a final authority. There is evidence that A is problematic. > We should learn to work together with people that use different > variant of the language rather than insist that the variant that I or my > teacher uses is the only correct one and everyone else should use it. Except one variant is problematic, and the other is not. Do you have *ANY* evidence that shows a problem with "effect"? -- Felipe Contreras
