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Heroes Community > Tavern of the Rising Sun > Thread: A complaint on linguistic dissonance
Thread: A complaint on linguistic dissonance This thread is 4 pages long: 1 2 3 4 · NEXT»
Lord_Woock
Lord_Woock


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posted July 22, 2009 07:00 PM

A complaint on linguistic dissonance

I always understood the word "author" by its Merriam-Webster definition, which goes as follows:

Quote:
Main Entry:
1au·thor
Pronunciation:
\ˈȯ-thər\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English auctour, from Anglo-French auctor, autor, from Latin auctor promoter, originator, author, from augēre to increase — more at eke
Date:
14th century
1 a: one that originates or creates : source <software authors> <film authors> <the author of this crime> bcapitalized : god 1
2: the writer of a literary work (as a book)


So an author is someone who made something, usually wrote a book. Sounds straight-forward enough.
What can be derived from this definition is that the word is pretty much meaningless without specifying what the person in question has in fact created.

But if I go by what I see online, then the above has nothing do with reality. I'll go on a random forum and see a comment like
"He's a great author" - which should translate to "he made something great". What that is, though, I have no clue. Everyone else seems to be convinced that the something is a novel.
"That's a great story, you should become an author!" - which is the equivalent of "you made this great thing, you should become someone who's made something!", which doesn't really specify if the person spoken to should go on to make more stuff.

Basically, I get the feeling that I'm the only person in the world who's not actually a dictionary in disguise that is of the opinion that "author" is not synonymous with "writer".

Amusingly enough, I have never seen this issue come up in Polish.
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Geny
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posted July 22, 2009 07:08 PM

Quote:
Amusingly enough, I have never seen this issue come up in Polish.


Neither in Russian. An author is the creator of something, doesn't have to do something with literature either, although it's usually something artistic. A writer is someone who writes stuff.

So yeah, while I haven't given it much thought until now, I'm with Woock on this one.
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angelito
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posted July 22, 2009 07:20 PM

As far as I know, the word "author" in german really belongs to "writer".

You would never call someone who created a "painting" an author.

If someone creates a dance, or a musical or similar art work, he would normally be called "choreograph".
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TheDeath
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posted July 22, 2009 07:25 PM

Nah. Author means you created something. It also applies to software, and to music (copyright as it is in licenses, "artist" is just the common classification although "author" applies to ANY copyright not just music etc).
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Cepheus
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posted July 22, 2009 08:05 PM

Agreed, an author is a creator, but it only really works in certain contexts.  For example:

"I authored that door" - who'd say that?

or "We were the authors of that stereo system, dawg!" - nope, and ridiculous to boot.

but

"Ultimately, they were the authors of our destruction" - nothing wrong here.

"She authored the world at its creation" - same.
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TheDeath
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posted July 22, 2009 08:06 PM

Well usually it only applies to intellectual property, AFAIK.
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DagothGares
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posted July 22, 2009 08:07 PM

Quote:
As far as I know, the word "author" in german really belongs to "writer".

You would never call someone who created a "painting" an author.

If someone creates a dance, or a musical or similar art work, he would normally be called "choreograph".
Same in Dutch!
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angelito
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posted July 22, 2009 08:45 PM
Edited by angelito at 20:47, 22 Jul 2009.

So who has ever heard of the authors Beethoven, Mozart or Bach?
I always thought they are called composers....

I also have never heard of the author Eiffel.
I heard he was called architect...

I have also never heard of the author Bill Gates, except refering to books he wrote.


So could anyone tell me a person who was called "author" and it was NOT refered to anything he has written? (Keep in mind, software is also nothing else than written stuff!)
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blizzardboy
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posted July 22, 2009 08:48 PM

Author is conventionally used for writers. You could use it for any type of craft if you wanted to- it's not like people wouldn't know what you meant- it would just be unconventional.
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Geny
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posted July 22, 2009 09:01 PM

Quote:
I also have never heard of the author Eiffel.
I heard he was called architect...

He is, which means that he is an author of the Eiffel Tower.

Now that you mention it, author Tolkien doesn't sound quite right as well (to me). Writer Tolkien who is an author of the book Lord of the Rings sounds much better.

Somehow, somewhere the word "author" got a bit more affiliated with writers, but I don't think that it is its true meaning.
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TheDeath
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posted July 22, 2009 09:08 PM

Quote:
I also have never heard of the author Eiffel.
I heard he was called architect...
Don't confuse the two. The architect is what he is and what his skills are etc. "Author" usually means you designed something, doesn't matter what skills (you could just as easily do it out of luck messing around randomly, for instance).

Technically, as in your composers example, they ARE composers, they did compose stuff, and they are the authors of that work. One is what they did (composed), and another is what they are regarding that work: they are the authors, for instance.

Quote:
I have also never heard of the author Bill Gates, except refering to books he wrote.
Few examples I've seen A LOT:

"Contact the author of this software"
"The author of this [3D] model..."
"The author of this drawing [on deviantart]"

on youtube you usually say "I'm not the owner of this video" or "I'm not the author of this video" if you just uploaded it for someone else's request, the latter being more precise, since you can own the video but not made it, which is what you actually implied.

etc
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mvassilev
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posted July 22, 2009 09:15 PM

Author of software - yes, because software, like a book, is written. But I've never heard of anyone referring to the creator of a drawing or 3D model as an author.
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Lord_Woock
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posted July 22, 2009 09:36 PM

Quote:
So who has ever heard of the authors Beethoven, Mozart or Bach?
I always thought they are called composers....

I also have never heard of the author Eiffel.
I heard he was called architect...

I have also never heard of the author Bill Gates, except refering to books he wrote.


So could anyone tell me a person who was called "author" and it was NOT refered to anything he has written? (Keep in mind, software is also nothing else than written stuff!)


That's because in English the word "author" does not function without specifying what the person is the author of. Unlike writer, composer, architect or what have you, author is "creator of", not a job title.
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TheDeath
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posted July 22, 2009 09:47 PM

Quote:
That's because in English the word "author" does not function without specifying what the person is the author of. Unlike writer, composer, architect or what have you, author is "creator of", not a job title.
Exactly.
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blizzardboy
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posted July 22, 2009 09:50 PM

Author is a job title also.

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Binabik
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posted July 22, 2009 09:59 PM

Quote:
That's because in English the word "author" does not function without specifying what the person is the author of. Unlike writer, composer, architect or what have you, author is "creator of", not a job title.


No. Author stands on it's own just like writer, composer, etc.

In coversational (American) English, author always means a writer, and specifically a writer of long works like a book. A journalist is a writer, but would simply be called a journalist or writer, not an author. A poet might also be called a writer, but even if they published a lengthy 1000 page book of poetry they would still be called a poet, not an author.

In legal text, author may be used more broadly, but in conversational it's not (with some rare exceptions which would be somewhat awkward).


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Cepheus
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posted July 22, 2009 11:21 PM

Quote:
In coversational (American) English, author always means a writer, and specifically a writer of long works like a book.


British too, generally.

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DagothGares
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posted July 22, 2009 11:27 PM

And author sounds much weightier than writer...
If I said: "Hi, I'm dagoth."
"Hey, dagoth..."
*awkward pause*
"So what do you for a living?"
"I'm a writer!"
and images of a sleazy reporter that gets his money out of writing obituaries flash through your mind, but if I said author, you'd think I'd be some sort of John grishamn or something.
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TheDeath
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posted July 22, 2009 11:32 PM

author

Quote:
1. a person who writes a novel, poem, essay, etc.; the composer of a literary work, as distinguished from a compiler, translator, editor, or copyist.
2. the literary production or productions of a writer: to find a passage in an author.
3. the maker of anything; creator; originator: the author of a new tax plan.
4. Computers. the writer of a software program, esp. a hypertext or multimedia application.
so I guess it includes both, though I prefer 3, because 1 is redundant.
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mvassilev
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posted July 23, 2009 12:01 AM

Dagoth:
No, you'd say that you're a writer.

Death:
It only applies to creators of written works, though - books, tax plans, programmes, etc.
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