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From: David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no>
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Keeping other stuff with addresses
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2025 08:30:21 +0100
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On 28/01/2025 02:05, Tim Rentsch wrote:
> Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de> writes:
> 

>> And I find no insult in what I wrote, but as you are a native
>> speaker, you may find something in there that I didn't put in.
> 
> I think most native speakers of English would read the statement
> "If it walks like a duck..." as an indirect way of calling me
> a liar.  In polite society I think most people would take
> being called a liar as an insult.

I haven't been following this thread well - and in Tim's traditional 
manner, the long time delay between his replies means it would take a 
lot of effort to figure it all out.  So this is not a commentary on 
anything in the thread - it's just what I hope will be a little 
clarification for Thomas about the duck phrase.

However, as a native speaker of English, I'd like to correct Tim - or at 
least add more nuance.  "If it walks like a duck..." simply means "I 
think it is what it appears to be".  It does /not/ have any specific 
implication of calling someone a liar, unless it /appears/ that the 
person has been lying.  It is, however, a phrase unlikely to be used in 
a positive manner - it could be used when someone has clearly been 
hypocritical to call them a hypocrite, or other such things.

Is it an insult?  If the phrase is used appropriately, then it is just 
putting emphasis on something that other people - but perhaps not the 
poster in question - can see.  When someone uses that phrase about 
something you have written, it is time for reflection on what you have 
posted and how it might have appeared to others.  You don't take it as a 
personal insult - you think carefully about why others might see your 
writings as something warranting the response.  And you might ask for 
clarification.


It may also be that Thomas, as a non-native English speaker, has 
slightly misunderstood the idiom or its implications.  This happens 
sometimes, even to those like Thomas that write better English than the 
solid majority of native speakers.  Idioms can be tricky.  A classic one 
that I have seen a number of times is the phrase "thanks a bunch" used 
as genuine gratitude.  In English, it is invariably used sarcastically.