[PLUG] Feedback wanted: Virtual PLUG Events

[John Jason Jordan]

On Wed, 25 Mar 2020 13:09:45 -0700
Keith Lofstrom <keithl at kl-ic.com> dijo:

>Online, I made a hypothetical comment including "you would"
>(which should have been phrased as "one would"), which was
>interpreted by the just-prior-speaker as a disparaging
>personal comment, leading to brief upset.

Your difficulty here was due to the pathetic nature of English
inflections. We really have just one word to use in addressing someone
- 'you.' Latin had 12, and present day Spanish has expanded it to 16.
Worse, English has what linguists call 'the indefinite you,' where we
use 'you' without referring to anyone in particular, which is what you
were trying to say. Rather than blame yourself for the
miscommunication, you should blame the vagaries of English syntax and
usage.