Re: As Is (was: Re: Concurrency)

En réponse à Matthew Kehrt <matrix14@...>:

> Technically, I think they're all the same except for state.
Except that for me, they are all different :)) .

> >
> > {Aside: speaking of which, is there a real, significant (semantic?)
> > difference between how states/provinces/prefectures/cantons are
> governed, or
> > is it merely nuances in nomenclature?}
> >
>
State: sovereign entity. With exception of a few countries (like the US or
Australia), it's quite synonymous with nation or country. Compared to those
words, I tend (but that's because that's how it's taken in French) to take it
as meaning: all the administrations that rule the country, that's to say the
government, the parlement, the ministries, etc... all put together, while
nation refers more to the people and country to the physical area.

Province: subdivision of a state. Can take quite different forms depending on
the country. France used to have provinces until the Revolution, that's why I
tend to take the word as being use only for kingdoms, but I'm probably wrong.

Prefecture: to me, it means only: the administration of a subdivision of a
country (like state is the administration of a country), but Japanese people
would probably disagree (their Empire is divided into prefectures). In France,
the country is divided into regions themselves divided into departments (though
historically, the departments appeared quite fast after the Revolution, while
the regions appeared only when Mitterand became president, that's to say in
81 :) ), and regions and departments are headed by an administration called a
prefecture, so that we have "préfecture de département" and "préfecture de
région".

Canton: in France, the subdivision of a department, mainly there for purpose of
parlementary elections: each canton is represented by a Member of Parlement
(a "député" in French). Apart from that, I can't think of any power that the
canton has. I don't even know whether they have an administration or not.

So you see, I don't know for the English language, but to me, all these words
refer to different things. He he, that's not for nothing that we consider
France to be THE country of administration :))) .

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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