Spelling error for command: `Deassign`

[andrefoo]

Based on the feature's explanation, I deduce that the purpose of this command is to unassign the assignment.

The use of deassign which is not an actual word may be misleading - especially to users who are not proficient in english, they may be unable to make the deduction that deassign actually means unassign.

[nus-se-bot]

Team's Response

Okay, this is a great one. Love this bug report.

As a linguistics major, this is quite an interesting choice we had to make.

Assign does not have a real antonym, contrary to what you believe. *Unassign is not a real word, and neither is deassign.

Unassign comes from a backformation of the word unassigned, which is an adjective as being a state of having no assignment (and not to remove one). In fact, unassign is a chiefly computing term - jargon that only coders and people familiar with computers will use, so even proficient natives of English will not have seen this word. Deassign and unassign have roughly the same analysis, having the negative prefixes of de- and un-, attached to assign, making it obvious to natives that this is the opposite of assign, and there should be no confusion over the meaning here.

The antonym of assign is actually remove. However, we have decided to not use this word as it is too verbose and is not self-explanatory. We have opted for a strictly grammatically wrong word, to clarify our intentions and obviously mark it as the opposite of the command assign.

Hence, this is a matter of grammar and stylistic choice of English, so we have decided to classify it as not in scope.

Items for the Tester to Verify

:question: Issue response

Team chose [response.NotInScope]

• [x] I disagree

Reason for disagreement: That was a very interesting dive into linguistics. I see your point, and I didn't know that unassign was a term colloquialized to the computing world. However, I believe my point still stands - users not proficient in english would resort to a dictionary to understand the term unassign or deassign, and only unassign can be found in a dictionary from a simple google search. From their perspective, both terms are unfamiliar, whether grammatically correct or whatever the etymology of the term is, and the only source of reference is a dictionary.

For reference, here's a google search of deassign:

And here's a google search of unassign:

Additionally, you bring up the point that unassign and deassign are both not words, and there is an assumption that deassign is self-explanatory, and is obviously marked as the opposite of assign. This may not necessarily be the case - the prefix de does not always imply removal or reversal. Here are its other definitions:

from Latin, from dē (prep) from, away from, out of, etc. In compound words of Latin origin, de- also means away, away from (decease); down (degrade); and is used intensively (devote) and pejoratively (detest)

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## :question: Issue severity Team chose [`severity.VeryLow`] Originally [`severity.Low`] - [x] I disagree **Reason for disagreement:** If this is a bug, then this is not a cosmetic issue as it poses a potential inconvenience (when trying to understand the command) to some users (non-English).

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