this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
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Programming

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[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So, if I said "I'd like a burger, but not too much ketchup or mustard," would you put a little mustard on it, or no mustard at all? When I see "no excessive capitalization or grammatical errors", I assume they don't want excessive amounts of either, while you're saying they don't want excessive capitalization and no grammatical errors at all. Seems an odd interpretation, linguistically.

[–] valaramech@fedia.io 2 points 1 week ago

In situations like this, the answer isn't to argue over the interpretation of the words: it's to fix the words.

If the writers intended "no excessive capitalization or excessive grammatical errors", then it should be changed to that.

If the writers intended "no excessive capitalization and no grammatical errors", then it should be changed to that.

Both situations remove the ambiguity and prevent pedantic internet arguments about language interpretation.