[Rd] Spelling (PR#6570)

[Latchezar Dimitrov]

Oxford English Dictionary (online)

Subset, v.

  trans. To underlet, sublet.
 
  1681 STAIR Inst. Law Scot. I. xiii. 253 As the half may be sub-sett, so any other right less then the value of the half, is sustained as an Infeftment of warrandice. 1752 Scots Mag. Nov. 551/2 A small farm.., which he had subset at about 6 l. Sterling per annum. 1801 Farmer's Mag. Nov. 381 A missive of tack,..which made no mention of assignees,..was..found, neither capable of being assigned, nor subset. 1806 SCOTT Fam. Lett. (1894) I. 35, I have subset the whole of the sheep farm. 1838 W. BELL Dict. Law Scot. 582 To assign or subset a lease of the ordinary endurance of nineteen years.
 

    b. absol. or intr.
 
  1801 Farmer's Mag. Nov. 379 A tack of lands does not imply a power, either to assign, or even to subset. 1838 W. BELL Dict. Law Scot. 582 In such leases..an express authority to assign or subset must be given.
 

    Hence subsetting vbl. n.; subsettable a., capable of being subset.
 
  a1722 FOUNTAINHALL Decis. I. 454 The axiom against sub-setting is only against an assignment... But a sub-set is lawful, and was so found 12 March 1686. 1765-8 ERSKINE Inst. Law Scot. II. vi. §33 (1773) 265 It remains a doubt, whether the power of subsetting is implied in the nature of a tack, without a special clause. Ibid., By a subset the principal tacksman is not changed. 1801 Farmer's Mag. Nov. 379 All tacks, likewise, that are to subsist for a great length of time, are also assignable, as well as subsettable.
 
Latchezar Dimitrov

PS. So you better ask non-native English speakers :-)



> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-devel-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch 
> [mailto:r-devel-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of 
> MSchwartz at medanalytics.com
> Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2004 10:48 PM
> To: r-devel at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Cc: R-bugs at biostat.ku.dk
> Subject: Re: [Rd] Spelling (PR#6570)
> 
> 
> On Tue, 2004-02-10 at 21:14, Deepayan Sarkar wrote: 
> > On Tuesday 10 February 2004 20:25, Roger D. Peng wrote:
> > > Unfortunately, with English it's conceivable that they're both 
> > > correct.  But the double 't' sounds/looks *more* correct 
> to me. Of 
> > > course, this is coming from a native English speaker who is 
> > > generally unfamiliar with the rules of English.
> > >
> > > On the other hand:
> > >
> > > test --> testable?
> > > arrest --> arrestable?
> > > contest --> contestable?
> > > detest --> detestable?
> > > ...
> > >
> > > So maybe the single 't' is correct.  Did that clear things up?
> > 
> > This is probably not a valid comparison, since test->testing whereas
> > set->setting.
> > 
> > Oxford (OED) lists the word 'settable' but not 'setable'. 
> subsettable 
> > (or
> > subsetable) is obviously an artificial word (we use subset 
> as a verb), but 
> > presumably invented derivatives of 'subset' should behave 
> in a manner similar 
> > to those of 'set'.
> > 
> > Deepayan
> 
> 
> OK...wait a minute.  I just found the following at:
> 
> http://grammar.uoregon.edu/spelling1.html
> 
> [Go Ducks!]
> 
> To Wit:
> 
> DOUBLING A FINAL CONSONANT WHEN ADDING A SUFFIX: from 
> "Correct Spelling Made Easy" (p. 69)
> 
> 
> 1) The word must end in just one consonant.
>         
> Compel (l + ed or ing) = Compelled; Compelling
> 
> But Not : Resist (+ ed or ing) = Resisted; Resisting
>         
>         
> 2) There must be only one vowel before the final single consonant.
>         
> Refer (r + ed or ing) = Referred; Referring
> 
> But Not: Appear = Appeared; Appearing
>         
> 
> 3) The last syllable of the verb must receive the accent.
>         
> Commit (accent on mit) = Committed; Committing
>         
> But Not: Profit = Profited; Profiting
>         
>         
> 4) The suffix to be added must start with a vowel--in order 
> to double the final consonant.
>         
> Defer (r + ed) = Deferred
> 
> But Not: Defer + ment) Deferment
> 
> 
> So, if these rules are correct, it should be "subsetable", as 
> 'subset' meets 1, 2 and 4, but fails 3, as the accented 
> syllable according to various dictionaries is 'sub' and not 'set'.
> 
> Is it too late to change my vote?
> 
> Thus, 'testing' fails due to rule 1 ('st'), whereas it is 
> 'setting' due to 'et'.
> 
> HTH,
> 
> Marc
> 
> <I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming 
> of...well...programming...>
> 
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