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Conference thebay::joyoflex

Title:	The Joy of Lex
Notice:	A Notes File even your grammar could love
Moderator:	THEBAY::SYSTEM

Created:	Fri Feb 28 1986
Last Modified:	Mon Jun 02 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1192
Total number of notes:	42769

894.0. "The exception proves the rule." by SSDEVO::EGGERS (Anybody can fly with an engine.) Tue Jun 25 1991 01:22

    Re: 892.24 and starting a new digression

    		"The exception proves the rule."

    I take exception to the common use of this expression as it is almost
    always misused.  The meaning of "proves" is taken to be "confirms", so
    it says:

    		The exception confirms the rule.

    which is ridiculous on the face of it.

    The correct meaning of "proves" in this case is "tests", so that the
    expression says:

    		The exception tests the rule.

    and this does make sense: we apply rules to specific cases, and if the
    rule doesn't work, then we either throw the rule out or change it in
    some way, sometimes by adding an exception.


                <<< VISA::USER:[NOTES$LIBRARY]JOYOFLEX.NOTE;1 >>>
                              -< The Joy of Lex >-
================================================================================
Note 892.24              Provides you or Provides to you                24 of 24
SHALOT::ANDERSON "Not Sold in Stores"                10 lines  24-JUN-1991 22:39
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	Re .12 -- The exception proves the rule.  I hope you realize the
	process is usually reversed.  I do this sort of thing every day.
	It programmers wrote like you, I may not have a job.

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
894.1	as in Proving Grounds	REGENT::BROOMHEAD	Don't panic -- yet.	`Tue Jun 25 1991 18:37`	0
894.2	Hey, it's a joke -- get it?	SHALOT::ANDERSON	Not Sold in Stores	`Wed Jun 26 1991 22:24`	6
	Hey, who said English (or language in general) makes perfect logical sense all the time. Richard Lederer has a list of stuff like this -- I'll see if I can find it. In the meantime, though, "I could care less" springs to mind. -- C
894.3		JIT081::DIAMOND	This note is illegal tender.	`Thu Jun 27 1991 04:35`	1
	So, does a rolling ACCVIO test the test or prove the proof?
894.4	Nice job!	SSDEVO::GOLDSTEIN		`Fri Jun 28 1991 00:46`	8
	Re: .0 Thanks for the lucid analysis. I always thought the expression "the exception proves the rule" to be glib, but I could never express my reasons very clearly. It made more sense to me to say that the exception _disproves_ the rule; thanks to your analysis I know why. Bernie
894.5	As an ex-mathematician...	PAOIS::HILL	Another migrant worker!	`Fri Jun 28 1991 09:05`	14
	My first encounter with "the exception proves the rule" came in solving mathematical problems. When trying to establish, for example, the co-ordinate geometry formula to describe a curve we would be told, "the formula is correct if it accomodates all the exceptional circumstances." This generally meant testing validity for things like: x = 0 x = infinity y = 0 y = infinity If the exceptions worked then we could safely conclude with "the exceptions prove the rule".
894.6	stretching the rules	CPDW::GOFF		`Thu Jun 18 1992 15:37`	4
	I've never been comfortable with this expression either. I guessed that it was related to the expression "there's an exception to every rule". If you found an exception then you met a necessary condition for the existance of a rule.
894.7		PAOIS::HILL	An immigrant in Paris	`Fri Jun 19 1992 01:59`	6
	Re .6 If you'd left another 10 days before making your entry you could have wished .5 a Happy 1st Birthday :-)