Re: [Patch, Fortran, committed] Fix some comment typos

[Tobias SchlÃter <Tobias dot Schlueter at physik dot uni-muenchen dot de>]

On 05/30/2012 11:17 AM, Tobias Burnus wrote:
> Dear Dominique,
> 
> On 05/30/2012 10:37 AM, Dominique Dhumieres wrote:
>> While being at fixing typos in comment, could some native English
>> speakers
>> check the use of "can not" versus "cannot" in error messages and
>> comments?
>> ...
>> If what I have retained from my learning of English at school is correct,
>> I think all the above "can not" should be "cannot" ("peut ne pas"
>> versus "ne peut pas" in French).
> 
> I think either is correct, though for a consistent style, one probably
> should change them to "cannot"; maybe we should do so for the
> documentation (intrinsic.texi, gfc-internals.texi).
> 
> From the linguists:
> 
> While Marriam-Webster just states "cannot : can not", "Pocket Fowler's
> Modern English Usage" has:
> 
> "cannot is usually written as one word, although can not occurs from
> time to time in letters, examination scripts, etc. The contraction can't
> is fairly recent (around 1800) and does not occur (for example) in
> Shakespeare. Can't is often articulated even when cannot is written."
> 
> And the Oxford Dictionary of English (not to confuse with the O.E.D.) has:
> 
> "cannot /'kant, ka'nt/
> âcontraction
> can not.
> (USAGE: Both the one-word form cannot and the two-word form can not are
> acceptable, but cannot is more common (in the Oxford English Corpus,
> three times as common). The two-word form is better only in a
> construction in which not is part of a set phrase, such as ânot only â
> but (also)â: Paul can not only sing well, he also paints brilliantly.)"

That misses one part though: there are uses of "can not" where it cannot
be contracted.  Namely, when the thing that can be done is in the
negative.  Say, "things can show up or they can not show up".  The
phrase, while not beautiful, no longer makes sense if you write it with
the contraction "things can show up or they cannot show up".  This is
the same distinction Dominique pointed out in French grammar.

Cehers,
- Tobi


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Tobias SchlÃter
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