Charlie, while you assert that
Charlie B said:
A railing does not "provide space." All it does is to "occupy space."
I submit all you are doing is focusing on the wrong definition of "afforded by".
Charlie B said:
Go find a really big dictionary and look up the word "afford" and any of its derivative forms (such as "afforded"). Then tell me in what way space is "afforded by" a railing.
OK.
From
Webster's Third New International Dictionary the entire definition of
afford follows (minus pronounciation guides):
af∙ford
vt -ED/-ING/-S [ME aforthen, fr. OE geforthian to carry out, accomplish, further, fr. ge- (perfective prefix) + forthian to carry out, fr. forth forth, forward ? more at CO-, FORTH]
1 a : to manage to bear without serious detriment ? used with infinitve <a dictionary of an ancient language can ~ to embrace everything that can be called a word ? R. W. Chapman> <you can't ~ to get out of balance ? Lou Smyth> <most of us, however, can well ~ to look critically at our writing ? Milton Hall> <she could ? to be generous with Irene ? Louis Auchincloss>
1 b : to manage to pay for or incur the cost of ,no country, however rich, can ~ the waste of its juman resources ? F. D. Roosevelt> <people who can ~ leisure sit in cafes by the hour ? W. P. Webb> <our failure to recognize and foster promising students who cannot ~ college ? Douglas Bush> <we can ~ only those threats that we are ready to carry out ? New Republic>
2 a :GIVE, FURNISH <history ~s us a wealth of examples ? John Strachey> <an old building with grillwork elevators ~ing passengers a view of the cable ? J. F. Powers> ? sometimes used with to <their business is not to praise their age, but to ~ to the men who live in it the highest pleasure they are capable of feeling ? Matthew arnold> <the bill was a measure necessary to ~ protection to labor as well as industry ? Current Biog.>
2 b : to furnish or offer typically or as an essential concomitant <apartments are small and ~ very little living space ? D. P. O'Mahonn> <by the great distribution ~ed by the printing press ? R. A. Hall b. 1911>
3 archaic : to sell at a particular price
A printing press is a heavy stationary object without wheels (commonly) and all it does is print copies. A printing press, in no way
distributes the copies. . .the press is physically incapable of distribution. The press does not
allow, bear, incur, manage, spare, stand, support, sustain, bestow, furnish, grant, impart, offer, provide, render, supply, yield
distribution, in the sense that you have phrased it earlier . . .but there is distribution afforded by the printing press using definition
2 b : above.
While this use of
afford is not common, it is still in the dictionary, and, in my experience, understandable and clear. . .and a far cry from your label of "meaningless".
Admittedly, a railing takes up space. In so doing, we are (by the CMPs assumed intent) directed to see this as a boundary line in a single space separating the former single space into space which is on THIS SIDE and space which is on THAT SIDE of the railing.
The railing does not have a predetermined length for the purposes of the Code passage, nor can it have. So, whether the railing length completely surrounds the space, bisects the space, or is some length less than that, its existence in the former single space, changes the boundary of the space, just as the existence of the printing press changes the distribution of printed material.