Metrical Stress, Feet, Syllables, Genders, Personified Computers etc.

I hear it nearly every day, from common final users.
Ex: 'je comprends pas ce qu'il me raconte' (I can't
understand what he/it is telling me), 'il est pas
content' (he/it is not happy), 'il veut pas faire ce
que je lui dis" (he/it doesn't want to do what I tell
him), 'il me sort des insultes' (he/it is uttering
insults at me), 'je sais pas ce qu'il fabrique' (dunno
what he/it is at), 'alors, il roupille ou quoi ?' (now
is he/it sleeping or whatever ?), 'il commence a
m'emmerder' (translation censured), etc, etc. This is
pure speech observation, not ideology. Even people
programming computers (and supposed to know that
computers are not human !) say so. The 'ca' (c cedille
a) seems much less used, except in phrases like 'ca
marche pas' (it doesn't work) (or even, but very
seldom: 'ca MAAAAAAAAAARCHE !!!!' = 'it
WOOOOOOOOOOORKS !!!!'). But then it refers to 'what
I'm trying to do' and not to the computer, or the
program.

It would be quite interesting to analyse command
languages too, regarding processes. Commands like KILL
(a process; not the programmer neither the user,
usually), or ABORT, or INVOKE, or IGNORE, are very
evocative.

As to the computer's name, AFAIR, I was requested to
give him, sorry, IT, a name, the first time I used it,
just after unpacking. It is stored somewhere in the
system and used by the Observator of Events for ex. I
use XP Personal. I can't remember I had to do so with
my earlier systems.

--- Christophe Grandsire >
>
> I actually never heard someone say "l'ordinateur m'a
> dit...". It's always
> something like: "quand je fais ça, ça fait...":
> "when I do that, it
> does...". Note the extremely neutral "ça".
>
> >As to my personal computer's name (Microsoft
> requested
> >one when I registered !) I of course called it HAL,
> >like at least 30% of PC users I think. Cruel lack
> of
> >imagination.
>
> Funny, never had to give a name to mine. Are you
> using Windows XP?
> Microsoft is really stealing everything from
> UNIX/Linux :))) .
>
> Christophe Grandsire.

=====
Philippe Caquant

"Le langage est source de malentendus."
(Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

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