"Remember", always be polite?

[Rolf N]

Something that puzzles me about many pieces of text written in English nowadays is the completely runaway use of the word "remember". I was wondering ... -- and I'm assuming it's some US phenomenon -- is there some policy in schools in place that basically forbids the use of "Perhaps you didn't know that [...]"/"Keep in mind that [...]" etc in favor of the more polite "Remember [...]", to not hurt pupils' feelings while they're being educated on a subject?

"Remember" implies that the addressee already knew something, at one point. It's the benefit of the doubt turned into a phrase. In many cases I've seen it confuses the hell out of me. When some informational text starts explaining some issue I really have no chance of knowing -- because it didn't get to explaining it yet, and I went there to learn about it in the first place -- by ~"Remember that the golden kafoozle only fits on the recepticles when fully extended in the l-spun orientation" ... I mean ... it always sounds to me like the whole thing was written for babies. Babies who just cannot stand the notion of not knowing something and, worse, being told so. It's brown-nosing. It's totally disgusting. It's also semantical nonsense IMO because if you already know there'd be no need to write whatver sentence that starts with "remember".

Choice quotes from some .wav docs that aren't totally strange but pushed me over the edge:
"Remember that the bit resolution, and other information is gotten from the Format chunk."
Well I appreciate the hint but I really can't remember that.

"Remember that an IFF list header has 3 fields:"
I have never seen an IFF list header in my life. Thanks for explaining though.

"... remember that the chunk should be padded out to an even number of bytes."
Can't. This is the first time I've been told that.

Remember that this the subtitle of this section is "Whatever's one your mind" so I feel totally entitled to post crazy linguistics nitpickery.
<=>
I feel totally entitled to post crazy linguistics nitpickery because this section's subtitle is "Whatever's one your mind" after all.

Right?

 

[DudeMiester]

In North America, "remember" means "know", and they are used interchangably.

 

[rabidrabbit]

Maybe it's used in sense that on future you should remember what you are being told now.
"In future" meaning the minute adter you've been told to "remember".
I think it's not just in english language, in my language "remember" is usually used in place of "keep in mind..." "you should know that..."
It's shorter, so that's why it's used more in common conversations.

 

[Rolf N]

In North America, "remember" means "know", and they are used interchangably.

Sorry, but I don't think it's that simple.

Sure, you could replace all occurences of "know" with remember and still capture most of the meaning, but then you also lose the subtle distinction that "remember" is not exactly "know" but rather "still know". Closing with "... but of course you already knew that" is IMO a true equivalent to starting a statement with "Remember". That's one of the sin of the writers I talk about in my opening post.

The other way around is much more obvious. If you replace all occurences of "remember" and replace them with "know", in cases where "remember" is used in its imperative form, you'll end up with, err, biblical English and lots of interesting facial expressions.
"Know that the chunk should be padded out to an even number of bytes."
"The number of bytes in a chunk shalt be even and thou mustest pads it to adhere hereto evermore."
Or try it in real life for a day, perhaps.

Anyway, if you're right and I am wrong, it still leaves the question why any of these two options is necessary in informational text.
"The chunk should be padded out to an even number of bytes."
If anything, it's shorter and carries the same amount of information. It's just more efficient.

IMO it really just has to be a politeness issue. It's a social thing, not an informational thing.

Maybe it's used in sense that on future you should remember what you are being told now.
"In future" meaning the minute adter you've been told to "remember".

Yay! If it's meant that way, wouldn't you find it ... strange? An imperative "memorize" would do (and sound just as silly in English).

I think it's not just in english language, in my language "remember" is usually used in place of "keep in mind..." "you should know that..."
It's shorter, so that's why it's used more in common conversations.

It is certainly shorter than saying "Pay attention now, the next bit is fairly important". But it's not shorter than saying "Keep in mind". Three syllables each ...

In my language all of these options are too long for "salt" and aren't used much. The only thing that's really short is the imperative form of "know", but that's absolutely biblical, as I believe it to be in English, and nobody would want to use it.

 

[John Reynolds]

Remember, the Force will be with you. . .always.

 

[digitalwanderer]

/me turns off nav computer.

 

[DudeMiester]

I'm sure that differentiating "remember" and "know" would lead to more meaningful English. Unfortunitly, most people here don't take the time to really appreciate Her Majesty's English. Then again, I usually try to.

 

[Crisidelm]

I always thought it's meant to sound like an Imperative: "(From now on) Remember! (what I'm about to tell you)...". In fact, it's usually translated as an Imperative (which is "Ricorda" btw)in Italian when found in English sentences...Yes, we use the same sort of expression in Italian:"Ricorda (or "Ricordate") che...etc etc", often used with "sempre" (which means "always" in English).

 

[PenguinJim]

Sorry, zeckensack, but rabidrabbit and Crisidelm have it right. It's simply shorthand for 'Remember in future...'. As it's something you haven't known in the past, then it can be argued that the 'in future' is implied as the only logical interpretation.

Or to put it another way, it's roughly interchangeable with "don't forget".

 

[Althornin]

I always thought it's meant to sound like an Imperative: "(From now on) Remember! (what I'm about to tell you)...". In fact, it's usually translated as an Imperative (which is "Ricorda" btw)in Italian when found in English sentences...Yes, we use the same sort of expression in Italian:"Ricorda (or "Ricordate") che...etc etc", often used with "sempre" (which means "always" in English).

same here.

 

[Reverend]

In North America, "remember" means "know", and they are used interchangably.

Remember, it pays to know.

Know that it pays to remember.