Cave Story's Globally Diverse Audience?

Mar 18, 2015 at 9:36 PM
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Mar 19, 2015 at 1:29 PM
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Oslo, Norway, Europe, Earth, Our Solarsystem, The Milky Way, The Universe, Existence.
 
Mar 20, 2015 at 10:44 AM
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TheDoctor said:
Our Solarsystem
There's only one "Solar System". The "Solar System" is the name of the "planetary system" that we live in.

Same as the "Moon" is the name of our planet's only "natural satellite" and the "Sun" is our planet's "star".

People tend to forget this. Either that or they never learnt.
 
Mar 20, 2015 at 3:13 PM
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andwhyisit said:
There's only one "Solar System". The "Solar System" is the name of the "planetary system" that we live in.
I am an amateur astronomer, so I have to jump in :p This is how I get it:
A solar system refers to a star and all the objects that travel in orbit around it. Our solar system consists of the sun - our star - eight planets and their natural satellites. Of course, in casual talk, we usually refer to our solar system. Here is a NASA article "How many solar systems are in our galaxy?" http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/review/dr-marc-space/solar-systems-in-galaxy.html

Quoted from dictionary:
"1.
the sun together with all the planets and other bodies that revolve around it.
2.
a similar system with celestial bodies revolving around a star other than the sun."
 
Mar 21, 2015 at 2:58 AM
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Yes. That's how modern English has made it out to be. But the use of the phrase when talking about other planetary systems is "comparative". Note the words "a similar system" in the definition. This means that "a solar system" means something like "a system like the Solar System".

The phrase "our solar system" is completely unnecessary. It's like saying "a system like the Solar System that is actually the Solar System" (of course it would be fair use if you were a resident of some other planetary system and you wanted to refer to that system). Of course if TheDoctor said "our Solar System" it would refer to it directly by name and indicate possessiveness or association (association in this case) which would be more correct, but in this case simply "Solar System" would have sufficed.

Of course I just think that modern English is wrong on this count and that "Solar System" should only have ever been a proper noun because it only confuses people. But when referring to the Solar System it should always be as a proper noun, and otherwise for other planetary systems when referring to them in a general sense.

In casual talk I would personally prefix it with "the" instead of "our" though. Mostly because the word "the" has the unique trait of forcing a common noun to act like a proper noun, so it is unmistakable as to what you are talking about.
 
Mar 21, 2015 at 7:23 AM
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Um, could we please not get worked up about something that doesn't really matter? Whether you say 'the' or 'our' or whatever, it's clear what is being referred to, right? It's not really worth writing so much about. Let's try to keep peace, pretty please? (Wow, three Ps in a row there.)
This was just a little suggestion from my side. If you think it doesn't make sense, then by all means, go ahead and continue.
Thank you.
 
Mar 21, 2015 at 7:42 AM
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Don't worry, andwhyisit and trickybilly are both generally reasonable men and they aren't getting worked up. Some back and forth expounding spices things up every now and then. ^_^
 
Mar 21, 2015 at 12:21 PM
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It's not really a matter of "our" or "the" at all. "Solar System" is the name of our planetary system while "solar system" is a generic term that refers to planetary systems that bear similarity to the "Solar System". As in it refers to planetary systems other than ours. The phrase "our solar system" makes no sense in the way TheDoctor used it, while "Solar System" does. Hell, even "our Solar System" would work. It's the same as the difference between the words "Earth" and "earth".

Although my point wasn't that of grammar, but rather that the way TheDoctor wrote his post implied that he didn't realise that "Solar System" was the name of our planetary system, and that's something of a pet peeve of mine. That's all.
 
Mar 21, 2015 at 4:45 PM
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No arguments happening, I hope, right? It seems to be all okay, I guess. Thank you. All's well that ends well.
 
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