Sunday, October 14, 2007

Untenable double standards

Look at the statements below:
The experiment was conducted during three seasons viz., summer, rainy and winter.
Mr. Smith was allowed to use the living space, table, chair etc.
He reported to his office, i.e., Meteorological station.
It was a discovery by Darwin et al.
He is overtly superstitious. E.g., he doesn’t see towards west in first 10 minutes after getting up in the morning.

There is an interesting point to note in the above statements. If some one wants to read these sentences, many would read:
viz. as namely
etc.
as et cetera,
i.e.,
as that is,
et al
as et al,
e.g,
as example or at the most for example.

Why is this double standard? Some expressions are read as written while some others are read in altogether different way probably their meanings
Can we write a word and read it in a different way?
Let us examine.
1. When viz is written why do some of us read it as namely? Of course, this abbreviation means namely. But viz. stands for videlicet and it means namely. It is better we read it videlicet.
2. Etc. stands for et cetera and it means and so on, and so forth, and that, and all that, and the like and and the rest. We read it as et cetera.
3. i.e. stands for id est and it means that is. (id = that; est= is). Better we read it as id est.
4. et al means and others or and the rest. We read it as et al.
5. E.g., is usually mis-read as example or for example. E.g actually stands for exempli gratia and it means for example.