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Hi! Today, I came across a use of the word "text" that I find puzzling. I was reading a long article on a cooking blog. In the comments, someone who was complimenting the article said "what a thoughtful text" and "this is such an insightful text". It seems to me that they are using the word "text" where I would say "story" or "article". I've encountered this once before, and the person was Swedish. English was their second language.
Has anyone else encountered this? Do you know where it comes from?
Alice, using text in a similar way is common in academia, particularly in the historical disciplines, where a "text" is often the words from any artifact. So it wouldn't be the parchment, but the words from the parchment. Not vase, but the words from the vase. Not the clay tablet, but the words form the tablet.
But for a blog post? I've never seen that. I wonder if the "text" remark in question was indeed written by someone who does not speak English as a first language. Do you have a link?
You know, it also sounds like the language that spammers use, the real spammers who live abroad and post in not-quite-perfect-English to the comment sections of popular sites, usually with a link in their account profile, in order to increase traffic to some dubious site.
Definitely familiar with "text" in the academic sense. That's part of what made this feel so "off", if you will. Since it's such a non-academic venue.
I don't think it's a bot. I've seen a few of those myself, and boy are the funny!
I do have link:
http://www.thekitchn.com/the-cotton-wooly-method-of-making-jam-weekend-meditation-174794
There are actually a few language grumbles in the comments as well. I must admit that I'm responsible for one slightly tongue in cheek comment 🙂
For those who might not want to clink the link, here is the comment in full:
Great text! It's so true that life gets better if you can forgive your past self for mistakes that seem glaringly obvious in hindsight. It's always a comfort to know that I made the best decisions I could with the abilities and information that were available to me *at the time*.
As a side note, I feel bad that someone could read such a thoughtful text and focus on such a minor detail as grammar. And I admit to being one of those people who still cringes when someone says "begs the question", (the grammarians obviously lost that battle 🙂 Don't even get me started on the prescriptive vs. descriptive debate.
Why is it that sincere & thoughtful texts seem to attract the trolls?
That's pretty good English for a non native speaker. But I'm guessing the author has spent a lot of time using English on-line, where "text" is much more likely to refer to written communication of any kind, and came away with the idea that it's the right word for a blog post.
Come to think of it, that's a notion that native Anglophones could come up with, too, if they're young and spend a lot of time in discussion groups.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
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