Originally posted by j_lee:
I sometimes wonder, before the days of messageboards, email, and BBS systems, were there as many arguments about semantics?
interesting question ... this is completely baseless when it comes to fact, just some thoughts ...
i would venture to guess that semantics were much more important in the era of formal communication by post (i.e., before the telephone, telegram, etc.) than they are in the era of internet communication ... when the only way to communicate with someone was via a letter that could take a month to reach the person, you would have to be very careful in what you wrote, and be very cognizant of semantics and tone ... using the wrong tone with someone could be very offensive, and trigger a (real, bloody) feud, unlike the petty bickering we see today online ...
i would guess that arguments over semantics declined as communication became easier and more personal, and then rose again with the internet era ...
of course, all of this assumes that you were literate in the pre-telephone era, which is certainly not a given
