Re: [Groff] new automake system

[Robert Thorsby]

On 04/10/14 12:17:48, Denis M. Wilson wrote:
> This expands on what Clarke says --- it's not just in the USA, but  
> other English speaking dialects.  What have other Western language  
> authors have to say about this decline?

Good afternoon Denis,

I assume English as she is spoke & writ in Australia counts as another  
Western language.  Here, we have almost lost the art of verbal  
communication -- both written and oral.  Even sports commentators (who  
hitherto had elevated nonsensical spoken English to an art form) have  
lost the ability to speak in hyperbole.

Only the politicians, who speak a language unknown to the rest of  
mankind, have kept the faith -- but no one listens to pollies in Oz.

Perhaps the worst example I can provide is the captioning used on TV  
news reporting -- not foreign languages (which are usually adequately  
translated) but the local news which requires captions because it is  
shot with toy cameras and no sound crew.  Our commercial TV stations  
use captions to cover bad sound quality but their captions have  
*random* pointsize increases.  I kid you not.  Any word that is not a  
conjunction may have a size increase -- and it is *not* done for  
emphasis, it is done solely for visual effect (affect?).

I rest my case.

Robert Thorsby