diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/ddl.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/ddl.sgml
index f3a0129778e6d74552b940e667acec5932163ed3..e43630f25b1393af879d79d2e85eb417074ef667 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/ddl.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/ddl.sgml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-<!-- $PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ddl.sgml,v 1.44 2005/08/13 01:55:41 momjian Exp $ -->
+<!-- $PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ddl.sgml,v 1.45 2005/10/23 19:29:49 tgl Exp $ -->
 
 <chapter id="ddl">
  <title>Data Definition</title>
@@ -240,7 +240,7 @@ CREATE TABLE products (
    in a table.  For many applications, however, the constraint they
    provide is too coarse.  For example, a column containing a product
    price should probably only accept positive values.  But there is no
-   data type that accepts only positive numbers.  Another issue is
+   standard data type that accepts only positive numbers.  Another issue is
    that you might want to constrain column data with respect to other
    columns or rows.  For example, in a table containing product
    information, there should only be one row for each product number.
@@ -431,7 +431,7 @@ CREATE TABLE products (
     IS NOT NULL)</literal>, but in
     <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> creating an explicit
     not-null constraint is more efficient.  The drawback is that you
-    cannot give explicit names to not-null constraints created that
+    cannot give explicit names to not-null constraints created this
     way.
    </para>
 
@@ -551,7 +551,7 @@ CREATE TABLE products (
     columns included in the constraint are equal.
     However, null values are not considered equal in this
     comparison.  That means even in the presence of a
-    unique constraint it is possible to store an unlimited number of
+    unique constraint it is possible to store duplicate
     rows that contain a null value in at least one of the constrained
     columns.  This behavior conforms to the SQL standard, but we have
     heard that other SQL databases may not follow this rule.  So be
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/syntax.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/syntax.sgml
index ae6ae9468dd2fa7c22017a4805b188be3d62471b..135fe7aca895807c7d160157eabc6c1b4c91bc9f 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/syntax.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/syntax.sgml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 <!--
-$PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/syntax.sgml,v 1.103 2005/08/14 22:19:50 petere Exp $
+$PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/syntax.sgml,v 1.104 2005/10/23 19:29:49 tgl Exp $
 -->
 
 <chapter id="sql-syntax">
@@ -260,7 +260,7 @@ UPDATE "my_table" SET "a" = 5;
      <literal>\n</literal> is a newline, <literal>\r</literal> is a
      carriage return, <literal>\t</literal> is a tab. Also supported is
      <literal>\<replaceable>digits</replaceable></literal>, where
-     <replaceable>ddd</replaceable> represents an octal byte value, and
+     <replaceable>digits</replaceable> represents an octal byte value, and
      <literal>\x<replaceable>hexdigits</replaceable></literal>, where
      <replaceable>hexdigits</replaceable> represents a hexadecimal byte value.
      (It is your responsibility that the byte sequences you create are
@@ -544,6 +544,16 @@ CAST ( '<replaceable>string</replaceable>' AS <replaceable>type</replaceable> )
      is that it does not work for array types; use <literal>::</literal>
      or <literal>CAST()</literal> to specify the type of an array constant.
     </para>
+
+    <para>
+     The <literal>CAST()</> syntax conforms to SQL.  The
+     <literal><replaceable>type</replaceable> '<replaceable>string</replaceable>'</literal>
+     syntax is a generalization of the standard: SQL specifies this syntax only
+     for a few datatypes, but <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> allows it
+     for all types.  The syntax with
+     <literal>::</literal> is historical <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
+     usage, as is the function-call syntax.
+    </para>
    </sect3>
   </sect2>
 
@@ -1105,8 +1115,8 @@ CREATE FUNCTION dept(text) RETURNS dept
     LANGUAGE SQL;
 </programlisting>
 
-    Here the <literal>$1</literal> will be replaced by the first
-    function argument when the function is invoked.
+    Here the <literal>$1</literal> references the value of the first
+    function argument whenever the function is invoked.
    </para>
   </sect2>