Date:    Thu, 25 Jun 1998 11:18:25 -0500
<br>From:    Mark Mandel <Mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]DRAGONSYS.COM>
<br>Subject: the incendiary "incent"
<br>
<br>About a year ago, as the company linguist, I received a call from some people
<br> having a meeting over in the Sales
<br>Department. Someone had proposed using this word in a memo, someone else had
<br> objected, and they decided to seek
<br>an expert judgement. (This sort of thing happens to me here with some
<br> regularity.)
<br>
<br>I shuddered at the word, but the context really called for something more
<br> concise than the VERB + "incentive" + "to" [+
<br>Ind.Obj.] constructions. After a few moments' thought I suggested "incentivize",
<br> which I felt and said was acceptable
<br>only in comparison with (for me, *)"incent": at least it is derived by an
<br> existing and widespread process.
<br>
<br>       Mark A. Mandel : Senior Linguist : mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]dragonsys.com
<br>    Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 796-0267
<br> 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02160, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com/
<br>