Re: Tenses, Gender & Number

["Doug, Data Librarian at Ext 4225" <engstromdd -at- PHIBRED -dot- COM>]

Bob was baffled and offended by the following passage from vocational
regulations:

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"Tenses, Gender, and Number.  As used in this chapter, the present tense
includes the past and future tenses, and the future includes the present;
the masculine gender includes the feminine, and the feminime includes the
masculine; and the singular includes the plural, and the plural includes
the singular."

Sounds to me like an admission that someone doesn't know their grammer.
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Actually, it's an admission that mistakes can be made in drafting a law or
regulation.  We discussed this in a business law class I took about a year
ago.  If no other interpretation is given, there are a bunch of rules about
how to interpret genders, tenses, etc. in the law; sometimes these rules
lead to unexpected interpretations of seemingly ordinary sentences (please
don't ask for examples).  However, a specific statement of intent within
the regulation or law can override those rules.

In this case, they seem to be throwing the net as widely as possible, to
ensure that a passage isn't too specific and therefore frustrates the
intent of the law or regulation.  Think of it as caulking to keep the
lawyers out.

Doug                            "All business activity is a struggle
ENGSTROMDD -at- phibred -dot- com           between Greed and Fear.  Incorporation
                                 means that, in this organization, Fear
                                 has won."