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Attainable vs Achievable

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Attainable vs Achievable
Post by ericth   » Fri May 23, 2014 4:11 pm

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One little detail of ART nags at me whenever I read it. In Ch 31, when Kolotsokov asks Kingsford if he thinks raiding is an "attainable" strategy and Kingsford replies that it's an "achievable" (italicized) strategy. Dictionaries list them as synomyms, and I'm a bit puzzled why RFC would specifically draw a distinction between the two in the dialog.
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Re: Attainable vs Achievable
Post by munroburton   » Fri May 23, 2014 6:27 pm

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A subtler use of 'attain' simply means 'to reach.' I think it's meant to paint Kolokoltsev as being rather pessimistic about the League's prospects, while Kingsford's 'achieve' sounds more optimistic.

Kingsford may even have been trying to remind Kolokoltsev of the necessity for projecting a confident attitude - discreetly, of course.
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Re: Attainable vs Achievable
Post by MaxxQ   » Fri May 23, 2014 6:37 pm

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munroburton wrote:A subtler use of 'attain' simply means 'to reach.' I think it's meant to paint Kolokoltsev as being rather pessimistic about the League's prospects, while Kingsford's 'achieve' sounds more optimistic.

Kingsford may even have been trying to remind Kolokoltsev of the necessity for projecting a confident attitude - discreetly, of course.


That's how I read it.
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Re: Attainable vs Achievable
Post by J6P   » Fri May 23, 2014 6:45 pm

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Usage of any language is all about connotation. I suggest taking an English 100 class at your local community college.

Better yet, save your money, open a paper based, LARGE dictionary and start reading. Use flash cards for memorization. Then actively use new words and connotations several times a day. If you do not use it, you lose it.

Be amazed at how your vocabulary will expand and likewise your ability to read comprehensively instead of remaining in a befuddled state on any discussion containing words longer than 2 consonants.
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Re: Attainable vs Achievable
Post by roseandheather   » Fri May 23, 2014 7:04 pm

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J6P wrote:Usage of any language is all about connotation. I suggest taking an English 100 class at your local community college.

Better yet, save your money, open a paper based, LARGE dictionary and start reading. Use flash cards for memorization. Then actively use new words and connotations several times a day. If you do not use it, you lose it.

Be amazed at how your vocabulary will expand and likewise your ability to read comprehensively instead of remaining in a befuddled state on any discussion containing words longer than 2 consonants.


Bah. Dictionaries are crap. They have denotation, but not connotation. No, you want to widen your vocabulary? Read. Read everything. Romance novels, SF, biographies, popular science books, historical nonfiction, crime novels, fantasy, young adult, textbooks, magazines, plays. That's what is going to widen your vocabulary, because you'll see the words in-context and used to create a specific mood.

Source: Been reading constantly for twenty years. Affectionately known as "the talking dictionary".
~*~


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"You'll remember me when the west wind moves upon the fields of barley..."
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Re: Attainable vs Achievable
Post by Crown Loyalist   » Fri May 23, 2014 7:08 pm

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roseandheather wrote:Bah. Dictionaries are crap. They have denotation, but not connotation. No, you want to widen your vocabulary? Read. Read everything. Romance novels, SF, biographies, popular science books, historical nonfiction, crime novels, fantasy, young adult, textbooks, magazines, plays. That's what is going to widen your vocabulary, because you'll see the words in-context and used to create a specific mood.

Source: Been reading constantly for twenty years. Affectionately known as "the talking dictionary".


I could not agree more. I tutored high school English a few years back, and the difference between the students who were proficient and those who were behind came down to which ones read for pleasure.
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Re: Attainable vs Achievable
Post by J6P   » Fri May 23, 2014 7:12 pm

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roseandheather wrote:
J6P wrote:Usage of any language is all about connotation. I suggest taking an English 100 class at your local community college.

Better yet, save your money, open a paper based, LARGE dictionary and start reading. Use flash cards for memorization. Then actively use new words and connotations several times a day. If you do not use it, you lose it.

Be amazed at how your vocabulary will expand and likewise your ability to read comprehensively instead of remaining in a befuddled state on any discussion containing words longer than 2 consonants.


Bah. Dictionaries are crap. They have denotation, but not connotation. No, you want to widen your vocabulary? Read. Read everything. SNIP


You cannot get one without the other. If you just read, one gets the wrong meaning of the word quite often. Then you go take a test finding out your "idea", since you do not really know, what the word really means is complete crap.

Been there, done that with egg all over my face. Requires a dictionary. What is worse, the author is full of crap and mis-used the word.
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Re: Attainable vs Achievable
Post by Reader Bob   » Fri May 23, 2014 7:28 pm

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I have read everything from one end of the genre to the other but also keep a paper dictionary right behind my desk just so I am sure that what I think that word means is what it does mean, at least in common usage. So many words show up in both fiction and non-fiction that I have never encountered before so, rather than guess, I look it up. Oh, I do guess before I look it up and 99% of the time I'm wrong. Keep the dictionary handy!
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Re: Attainable vs Achievable
Post by Duckk   » Fri May 23, 2014 7:47 pm

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J6P, I've noticed for a while now that you are constantly belittling other posters. Please knock it off.

J6P wrote:Usage of any language is all about connotation. I suggest taking an English 100 class at your local community college.

Better yet, save your money, open a paper based, LARGE dictionary and start reading. Use flash cards for memorization. Then actively use new words and connotations several times a day. If you do not use it, you lose it.

Be amazed at how your vocabulary will expand and likewise your ability to read comprehensively instead of remaining in a befuddled state on any discussion containing words longer than 2 consonants.
-------------------------
Shields at 50%, taunting at 100%! - Tom Pope
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Re: Attainable vs Achievable
Post by cthia   » Sat May 24, 2014 2:30 pm

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When I was a snotty nosed little kid, I was fascinated by my Aunt's medical encylopedias. Among her other items was a dictionary that I literally couldn't lift! I spent more time in that dictionary than any kid had the right to. She handed that dictionary down to me, along with the swivel stand. My niece has long since had her own designs on it, and flashes her pretty little eyes right before she begs for it. Nu uh! Mine!

What is so enthralling about this dictionary, besides its obesity, is all the other wealth of information.

For any word you get an exhaustive list of synonyms, antonyms, etc.

But the part I always found fascinating is word etymology. Incredible. For instance...
The word berserk came into English in the early 19th century, as a noun used to describe an ancient Norse warrior who fought with uncontrolled ferocity (also known as a berserker).

The English word derives from the Old Norse berserkr (noun), itself probably from combining bjorn (bear) and serkr (coat). It could also possibly from berr 'bare' (i.e. without armour) and serkr.

It is now mostly used in the expression ‘to go berserk’.


So, dictionaries can be great as a standalone, just make sure you go all the way. Then read read read. RIF (reading is fundamental)

Aside:
Please allow people to be able to inquire about the meaning of a word. I salute him! One, there is absolutely nothing wrong or unnatural to not know the meaning or the existence of every single word. It was God's intention, if you believe in the Bible, that all of man not be mutually familiar with the human language. Babel.

I just wish everyone would not come to the forum without their personal recommended dosages of caffeine and nicotine.

Again, I applaud you for asking such an innocent question.

And for all of you who are nice, I am pulling the string and patting you on the back. Feel it?

I'm upset because I have been trying to get nearly a dozen of my foreign friends to join the forums. They have read appalling attacks on others that is alien to them. This will be yet another. In Romania, if that question was asked, several hours later you'd be talking about similar words in other languages, etymology, or something else interesting spawned from that question. Here we lose that opportunity because of some personal vendetta it seems. I not too long ago sent over three thousand dollars of Honorverse books to Romania. Books that very nice people in the forums have kindly informed me were missing in my HV starmap, therefore missing in theirs. These are professionals that would make incredible additions to this forum. Please don't hinder my likelyhood of recruiting them.

You know what they do? They send me snippets of conversations in threads. It puts them off. One girl, Mira says to me "I'm not putting my head in the chopping box." Ok, she didn't quite get the idiom right, but it's sweet. The point is, we should be ashamed of ourselves. I am.

Son, your mother says I have to hang you. Personally I don't think this is a capital offense. But if I don't hang you, she's gonna hang me and frankly, I'm not the one in trouble. —cthia's father. Incident in ? Axiom of Common Sense
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