Re:Wikipedia users edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”
by Macha on Saturday May 06, 2023 @12:23PM
(#35842813)
> This is better for everyone: native English speakers can read their Wikipedia, and English learners get exposed to actual English usage rather than a simplified version
Side note, there is an actual "simplified english" wikipedia. So even early learners who want a simplified resource have one aside from regular Wikipedia. https://simple.wikipedia.org/
Re:Wikipedia users edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”
by ttiurani on Sunday May 07, 2023 @04:39AM
(#35849242)
For the record, I agree with your criticism. I did generalize my experience without enough justification.
It was a 30 second runaway comment and the latter part clearly doesn't hold up against scrutiny.
> I find it just wild that people would object to better language.
They're either saying that their own sense of what is more legible is enough to define what is better, or they're buying into the pedantic arguments in TFA.
As to what is easier to read, I think the English Wikipedia should be written to be legible to native English speakers. This is better for everyone: native English speakers can read their Wikipedia, and English learners get exposed to actual English usage rather than a simplified version.
In this case, it's not obvious to me that any substantial portion of the English-speaking population sincerely gets confused by "comprised of". It feels much more like the insistence on not ending sentences in prepositions: a rule for the sake of having a rule.
EDIT: In fact, "comprised of" recently overtook "comprises" in published books:
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%22comprised+o...