RE: Definition of idiom 2

This is good. I've made a couple small suggestions below, marked JS.

John

"Good design is accessible design."

Dr. John M. Slatin, Director 
Accessibility Institute
University of Texas at Austin 
FAC 248C 
1 University Station G9600 
Austin, TX 78712 
ph 512-495-4288, fax 512-495-4524 
email jslatin@mail.utexas.edu 
Web http://www.utexas.edu/research/accessibility 



-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Gregg Vanderheiden
Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2006 4:11 PM
To: 'Gez Lemon'
Cc: w3c-wai-gl@w3.org
Subject: Definition of idiom 2



Good suggestion.
That makes the proposal


<proposal>
Idiom

phrase whose meaning cannot be deduced from the meaning of the individual words and where you can't change the wording very much without losing the intended meaning.
JS: change "you can't change the wording very much" to "the wording cannot be changed significantly" 

Example 1: "kicking the bucket" means dying. But you can't change it to "kicking the buckets"  or  "kicking the tub" or "booting the bucket" or "knocking over the bucket" without losing its meaning (unless someone converts it back into "kicking the bucket" in their head).

JS: delete the parenthetical phrase about someone converting it in their head...

 Example 2: "spilling the beans" means revealing a secret.  However "knocking  over the beans" or "spilling the vegetables" does not mean the same thing  (unless someone translates it back into "spilling the beans").

JS: delete the parenthetical

 Example 3: The phrase in Japanese <span lang="jp"> さじを投げる（どうするこ
 ともできなくなり、あきらめること</span>
 literally translates into "he threw a spoon". But it means that there was nothing he could do and finally he gave up.

 Example 4: The Dutch phrase
  <span lang="nl">Hij ging met de kippen op stok</span> literally translates into "He went to roost with the chickens".  But it means that he went to bed early.

</proposal>

Received on Sunday, 5 March 2006 22:45:09 UTC