Discussion History VideoGame / Halo4

The point is, it is not, outside the academic literature, an \\\'\\\'error\\\'\\\' to call a snake poisonous. Because snakes \\\'\\\'are\\\'\\\' poisonous. If it in any way, shape, or form, involves a toxin, it is poisonous—by the rules of actual language as actually used outside the special made-up conventions of scientists. It is no more \\\"wrong\\\" to say \\\"that snake is poisonous\\\" than it is to say \\\"\\\'\\\'sono hebi wa doku ga aru\\\'\\\'\\\"—in both cases, the person asserting the statement is wrong has to assume that their form of language is correct and that another, though equally capable of conveying the \\\'\\\'precise\\\'\\\' same information, is incorrect—merely because it conforms to a different set of conventions.

If you let biologists tell people they\\\'re using a word wrong, and biologists didn\\\'t coin it, why don\\\'t you just go ahead and get your opinions on vaccination from Jenny [=McCarthy=]? She\\\'s just as qualified an epidemiologist as biologists are linguists.