Typhoons are not sentient.
"A powerful typhoon targeted China’s booming eastern province...".
Targeted:
1) To make a target of.
2) To aim at or for.
3) To establish as a target or goal.
Typhoons do not "target". Typhoons are not sentient. Typhoons do not posess the rational facilities necessary to "target" something. Typhoons are not active agents; typhoons do not perform actions. Typhoons are not "beings". Typhoons are not things. Typhoons do not decide. Nor do typhoons choose or plot or plan.
Typhoons are a state of being for weather, a non-thing. The Typhoon is not "targeting" China's booming eastern province. It merely exists in a state such that it will pass over China's booming eastern province.
15 comments:
umm. im going to go out on a limb here and suggest that maybe one could classify a typhoon as a thing.
Really, the issue here is the Active voice. It needs to be passive.
I don't think a typhoon is a thing. I think it's a state of being. Same with a tornado or a cloud.
Even if it said "City was targeted by a typhoon" it still wouldn't make sense. Typhoons do not target.
Do you think the writter thought hat the typhoon was sentient?
and clouds and tornadoes are things
I think it is written in a way that suggests typhoon thought.
Clouds and Tornados are not things. Clouds and tornados are states of being for water and air. Which are states of being for molecules.
I'm going to call bullshit on that.
You can be targeted for something, by something inanimate, even intangible or incorporeal.
the active voicing implies a guiding will or intellegence, but the act of targeting is context sensitive, and doesn't require these things.
So there are no things>? only states of being of molecules?
you loose. i win.
K. Typhoons are both sentient and things.
If that's the world you want to live in then by all means go have tea with a Typhoon.
Typhoons are things. They are not Thing, despite the tales of Japanese fishermen hearing a pronouncement of "a time of clobbering" in the lulls before the storms.
They're things because you can point to them and because they exert affective force.
Also -- you're a state of being for molecules.
Active voice necessitates the disclosure of agent. Agency generally entails some form of discretion or discernment.
For a thing
1) To make a target of.
2) To aim at or for.
or
3) To establish as a target or goal.
and not be cognizant, does not make sense.
Typhoons can seem to target. In this case, we are not making a statment about the intentions of the typhoon but merely representing our observation that "this typhoon is heading straight for us."
To call the targeting computer in Luke Skywalker's X-Wing a targeting computer is to apply a misnomer on account that this computer does not target. It performs specific calculations in order that a projectile or set of projectiles travel to a certain location. The computer has no intention for the projectile itself, it simply performs the computations which it is forced to perform on account of its circutry and programming. The intention in such a situation is a function within the people involved.
Unless to target has nothing to say about the intentions of the thing performing an act, there is no targeting done by typhoons unless, naturally, I happen to be unaware the concious mind of typhoons.
That being stated, unless the author of the aforementioned article does, indeed, believe himself to possess knowledge of the concious mind of typhoons, he certainly deserves a demerit on account of his diction.
I'm sayin'.
totally disagree. One can be a target of unfocused rage or indirect fire, or even a series of unfortunate interrelated events. At issue is not the Typhoon's ability to designate a target, but the city's ability to act as a target. If the city can act as a target for the typhoon, then the typhoon has targeted the town.
"totally disagree. One can be a target of unfocused rage or indirect fire, or even a series of unfortunate interrelated events. At issue is not the Typhoon's ability to designate a target, but the city's ability to act as a target. If the city can act as a target for the typhoon, then the typhoon has targeted the town."
No, the issue is whether or not a Typhoon can target. Typhoons cannot target. They are not sentient.
If one can act as a target for something, then the thing is, by default, targeting.
Sentience is not necessary for the ability to target. Plants grow towards sunlight. They target the warmer, open lighted areas.
You're assuming intent, because of the usual contextual inference of such. It's not a prerequisite, though.
Only the Sith deal with active voice.
"If one can act as a target for something, then the thing is, by default, targeting."
But Y cannot be a target for X if X cannot target.
You're arguing that since China can be the target of the Typhoon it must be the case that the Typhoon can target. But the problem is that China ISN'T the target of the Typhoon because the Typhoon cannot target.
The entire use of the word "target" is inappropriate.
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