Complete and Finished

by Prefect 10 Replies latest social humour

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  Prefect

  Complete and Finished.

  
  

  No dictionary has ever been able to satisfactorily define the difference between "complete" and "finished."  However, during a recent linguistic conference, held in London , England , and attended by some of the best linguists in the world. Samsundar Balgobin, a Guyanese linguist, was the presenter when he was asked to make that very distinction.  The question put to him by a colleague in the erudite audience was this: “Some say there is no difference between ‘complete’ and ‘finished.’  Please explain the difference in a way that is easy to understand.”

  
  

  Mr. Balgobin’s response:

   “When you marry the right woman, you are ‘complete.’  If you marry the wrong woman, you are ‘finished.’  And, if the right one catches you with the wrong one, you are ‘completely finished.”
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  prologos

  reminds me of a sign on a messerschmitt that crash-landed on a beach in Britain:

  "made [completed] in germany, - Finished in England" -perfect. prefect.
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  Vidiot

  “When you marry the right woman, you are ‘complete’. If you marry the wrong woman, you are ‘finished’. And if the right one catches you with the wrong one, you are ‘completely finished'.”

  F**king brilliant.
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  AndDontCallMeShirley

  Awesome answer.

  It reminds me of when Einstein was asked to explain his Theory of Relativity as simply as possible. Here was his reply:

   

  "Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity."
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  TerryWalstrom

  Dictionaries don't really tell you anything, but how words are currently being employed. Lexicographers monitor publications for usage. Language is never "finished" in terms of that use because it is driven by culture.

  Great works of literature have, in the past, temporarily provided a 'freeze-frame' for a culture long enough to create an Ad Hoc standard. The King James Bible in England, Les Miserables in France, Don Quixote in Spain, the Koran in Arabia, etc. imposed a template over subsequent literary venues.

  
  

  In any nearly absolute sense, only finite things can be regarded as complete.

  Whereas, processes which involve 1. start 2. change 3. stop are more properly addressed as "finished" at the end of the 3rd cycle.

  One of the chief contributing factors to widely divergent religious beliefs (i.e. interpretations) is the imprecision of grammar in holy texts.

  Look at the so-called Bible canon.

  Protestants number the O.T. books as 39 while the Jews (originators of the texts!) say it is 24.

  Which is the 'complete' canon?

  You see, as long as any opinion divides agreement a firm and absolute standard is impossible. Without a standard of 'completeness' the question is moot.

  Words are approximations of conceptual sets of 'meaning.'

  We would avoid controversies if we could get society to come to the understanding: written 'truth' isn't truth at all and cannot be used as a standard. Written words are totally at the mercy of INTERPRETATION.

  
  
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  wannabefree

  Terry ... I think you may have missed that this was posted under the jokes and humor category.  ;)
  
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  Tater-T

  You have a compete set of instructions and parts, but the project won't be finished till everything is assembled ..

  everything finished is complete ... everything complete is not always finished ..

  
  just like every sugar is a carbohydrate .. but every Carb is not always a sugar..
  
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  LisaRose

  In a ham and egg breakfast the chicken is involved, the pig is committed. 
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  TerryWalstrom

  Old Terry never misses muc--except the point :)

  
  
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  steve2

  I'm am completely over this linguistic puffery. Please finish it immediately. Thank you. :)