Language Overflow - 2016-02-03 (page 1 of 3)

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12:03 AM

-1

Q: Observe os seguintes segmentos textuais

"Tu dissestes que ias ao inzame (por exame), mas não fostes. Na vez disso foste tarde. Escusas de estrabuchar (por estrebuchar) porque e gente vamos-se embora". 1. Identifique cinco factos linguísticos que representam desvio ema relação à consiste cada um deles. 2. Explique que o tipo sociolingui...

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

sociolinguistico?

Anonymous

Okay, now I'm using the new mobile interface. I'm not a big fan of icons. Is the send message icon a picture of a paper airplane?

Anonymous

I'm not sure where the menu thing that was in the corner went.

Anonymous

If the little thing at the top actually showed up, it would mean I could do things like starring messages. Improved functionality! That'd be nice. It doesn't show up, though, so all I can do is chat and marvel at the weird margins on this text.

@snailboat I think it is!

Anonymous

12:16 AM

Ah, I got it to appear by tapping above the URL bar! Now it really feels like using an iPhone. Using an iPhone means constantly guessing at bizarre UI decisions. It's like you're constantly on a treasure hunt to figure out where the features have been hidden.

That sounds about right! Sometimes I feel a bit like that using these devices.

Anonymous

So I tap once above the URL bar to make the menu visible, but that makes the text input at the bottom disappear. If I double tap near the bottom, it comes back, unless a message is currently selected, in which case I have to unselect it to turn the blank at the bottom back into a text box.

Anonymous

Unfortunately, double tapping near the bottom tends to select a message.

Anonymous

So if I want to star something, I tap a message to select it, tap above the URL bar to make the menu appear, tap the star at the top, then double tap the bottom, check to see if it selected a message, and tap that message to unselect if so, then tap the text of again.

Anonymous

It seems that it's not actually broken like I thought it was, it's just treasure hunt style UI.

12:23 AM

I have to fight with the soft keyboard several times to bring the message input box back.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Now I can reply to a message! :-)

Yay!

That's a good thing!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. It mostly works!

(Though I think on iPad, using the full desktop interface is somewhat more convenient.)

Anonymous

Sometimes I seem to have to tap multiple times.

12:24 AM

@snailboat I think the new mobile interface is quite promising, though it still needs some tuning here and there.

Anonymous

The whole tapping at the top and bottom is kind of awful, to be honest.

Anonymous

When the menu was visible at the top just now, I couldn't read your message because it was off the bottom of the chat and it wouldn't scroll any further. I had to double tap to swap out the menu for the input box to see it.

A problem with responsive web design is that most of them don't allow the user to pinch and zoom into the page, which sometimes is a big help.

Anonymous

The old UI was a lot better, except it didn't let you do stuff like starting or replying.

Anonymous

So basically, 0/5 for usability, 5/5 for added functionality.

12:27 AM

LOL

Anonymous

I'll take the functionality since I can learn and adapt to the UI, but I can easily imagine people failing to guess what they need to do to make the menu or input box appear.

The menu is easier to guess, I think. More and more websites make over their UI to include that thumbdrop(TM) menu. (I don't know what it's called exactly, so I call it "thumbdrop". :-)

I don't actually like it much, but it's not that bad.

Anonymous

@snailboat Hey, it supports the super ping thingy.

I mean, the "thumbdrop" interface in general.

@snailboat Oh, neat!

Anonymous

If the menu were like on the mobile version of the main site, it'd be fine.

Anonymous

12:32 AM

Sure, it uses an icon, and icons are bad, but it's relatively simple to figure out and use. You just have to be able to guess that there's a hidden menu you need to expose.

Anonymous

Icons are at least language-neutral, which is a positive thing.

nods -- It could be confusing sometimes, too. :D

Anonymous

No matter what languages you speak, you can be equally mystified by the paper airplane icon.

3

LOL

Hmm... this line is interesting: The representation is effected as follows

Anonymous

It'd be nice if I could make the text input box appear without selecting a message. Sometimes I can, and sometimes I can't.

Anonymous

12:36 AM

I think I'd need more context to understand that.

It's from the paper Spectral transformations for digital filters.

Anonymous

A-ha! A different kind of representation than I'd first guessed.

> The representation is effected as follows. If z^-1 is replaced by cos \omega T - j sin \omega T in a given pulse-transfer function, the amplitude characteristic can be earily evaluated.

(I think the "earily" is a typo!)

Anonymous

I'll have to upload a picture of these mystery icons later.

Oh, I didn't try to upload any picture via the new interface.

But I guess that the feature is included.

Anonymous

12:39 AM

When you click the dot dot dot next to a room on the chat room listing, you get three icons.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Any idea where that feature is hidden?

I'll need to grab my iPad. :D

Anonymous

Wow, they really went icon crazy on this UI.

Anonymous

I can do any of seven icons to your message.

Oh, I think there is no way to upload an image in this UI!

Anonymous

12:45 AM

Oh, I see. That's too bad! It'd be handy.

nods

Anonymous

Any idea what those three icons are on the chat room list?

I guess we'd have to switch to the full site interface to upload it.

Anonymous

When you click the dot dot dot, I mean.

I can guess two out of three.

2nd ~ transcript; 3rd ~ mark as favorite

Anonymous

12:46 AM

user image

Anonymous

And join room?

Ah, yes!

Anonymous

user image

Anonymous

Reply, permalink, star, edit, delete, flag, pin, I assume.

nods -- the pin and star icons confused me for a while.

Anonymous

12:51 AM

I'm not sure why they don't use a push pin as an icon for pinning.

Anonymous

I think I can get used to this interface.

nods -- I wish I wouldn't have to switch the soft keyboard on and off too often to access the input box.

Anonymous

Though I can't use tapping above the URL bar for its normal function, moving to the top of the page. I could do that with the old UI.

Anonymous

If there were an option to keep the menu visible at all times, or maybe both the menu and input box, I'd definitely use it.

1:10 AM

Me too!

Or something that works in my old browser.

Hi, I´m a novice in this stackExchange. I'm learning english mainly because I´m studying software development at College in Argentina.
I´m going to accumulate questions and tomorrow I will write it here
I don´t know if It understood
Bye.

Anonymous

Hello, @DanielRch.! Welcome to ELL chat! :-)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I've been pretty harsh on this new UI, but I think it's probably usable once you get used to it. I'm still trying to figure out how to avoid accidentally selecting messages when double tapping the bottom of the screen.

Anonymous

Of course, I only have the software keyboard.

@DanielRch. Welcome to the room! See you again soon!

Anonymous

1:21 AM

@DamkerngT. So I don't have to figure out the same set of problems you do, I suppose.

@snailboat I can imagine that it may work well on real (smart)phones.

Anonymous

It clearly does have some issues at this point, though.

nods -- It looks promising, though.

Anonymous

I'm going to keep using it :-)

Yay!

Oh, we have exactly 999 starred messages. What a number!

1:35 AM

can you think of some words that lack rhymes?

just for fun

I can think of breakfast, iron, cupboard, gridiron, bulb, wolf

orange too

2 hours later…

4:00 AM

@IͶΔ, MAR, is that new you?

4:40 AM

user image

("now we need to make this flag wave in the breeze somehow")

5:11 AM

I wrote an answer to @Cop 's question.

1

A: Using indefinite articles before adjective: "Let's have a good breakfast"

Breakfast is both countable and uncountable, concrete and abstract. As a meal, it's countable just like meal. As the idea of a meal, the general notion, it's uncountable (just like "mealness"). noun A meal eaten in the morning, the first of the day: a breakfast of bacon and eggs ...

But suddenly I.feel I said nothing. I don't know why we

Say eat/have some breakfast but not some meal.

Because the noun sometimes presents it as countable and sometimes as mass seems circular.

Oh. Someone's upvoted it. So it IS a good answer. Thanks, Mom!

5:38 AM

@CopperKettle, why didn't you ask about using articles with meals? A breakfast for two. Breakfast is an important meal. The breakfast is on the table.etc.

5:53 AM

It's a difficult question.

BTW, have breakfast and eat breakfast has different meanings of the word "breakfast "(meal and food)IMHO.

Have, I meant.

1 hour later…

7:16 AM

Hey. :p
Anyone there?

1 hour later…

8:19 AM

Good afternoon from another dot in the Globe :)

9:02 AM

@V.V. Good idea! You might ask such question yourself! BTW, "The breakfast is on the table" elicits only 25 google-hits.

9:39 AM

Hullo @Colleen! Welcome to LO!

@Student Afternoon

9:53 AM

@V.V. Interesting! I can't see a difference between eat breakfast and have breakfast.

@V.V. Yes, no, yes, no, yes

It's so strange. I thought the breakfast question was both asked and answered by @Cop until just a few minutes ago. Brilliant minds are so engaged with high ideas, we often miss the mist obvious of mundane matters (like the existence of @IͶΔ).

@Nihilist_Frost Palytoxin, benzene, electrophilicity, conjugation

@JimReynolds I'm not mundane. I'm redundant.

I forgot to ping @Cop here:

Not necessarily, as with breakfast. Consider I love long hair. You can't hold that hair in your hands. — Jim Reynolds 12 mins ago

@Cop he forgot to ping @Cop.

9:58 AM

I can rhyme with them:

There once was a chemist named INA

Get real

Who eloped with a benzene ballerina

"Where is my breakfast?" doesn't have a lot of hits in Google Books, but the first hit is a cat!

Haha. Garfield?

@DamkerngT. I wonder what percent of the hits is cats.

10:01 AM

@JimReynolds A cute cat!

@JimReynolds I guess any noun can be construed as an abstract noun, maybe.

Hey, I'm a double Marshal now.

I can't hear, you Dam. I've rendered you into a mere concept of yourself.

Let's have a party for @IͶΔ! Or two parties.

A concrete one, and an abstract one.

@JimReynolds I'm abstracted!

@IͶΔ Oh!

I just got it on meta.SE.

May @JimR be jealous of my Marshality.

O.O

Is it a marshality?

10:07 AM

Dunno. Ask him.

We can say, Let's breakfast and Let's lunch, but no Let's dinner.

Let us sup now.

Fine. Wassup with you?

Fallen. Can gets up.

Broccoli. Lettuce see.

10:14 AM

Bazaar. I'm looking for aragulike.

Caint spell. 's 3:17am.

The language overflowed just right now.

I've a sesquifoot of new snow; may I send you half of it?

Your're in East Burumbria?

The yellow half.

White as the driven.

@Cop The feeling may pass with time. As they say, Hair today, gone tomorrow. — Jim Reynolds 1 min ago

Haha.

The tagline for alopecia.

10:25 AM

@CopperKettle So will @Jim be bald tomorrow?

It's a losing battle. I keep forgetting to update my photo.

@cop lol

@JimReynolds Dinner is odd man out, but why?

Maybe it doesn't need any real reason.

I guess we can brunch, too.

@DamkerngT. Because dine is already a verb.

A-ha! That makes sense. Thanks!

10:30 AM

This pic is only two years old, but it makes me look better preserved than I really was, thanks to chickenwire and putty.

Actually, it was about a year ago that my head swelled up alarmingly as it was being dyed. As if nature had been stretched past her breaking point and her vengeance nearly landed me in the emergency room.

Tastes like chicken?

^

It'a a good day today, though. Only hurts in 14 places.

o_O

O.o

@JimReynolds I sure will lose count after 5, or 6.

13

Q: "Jump into the bridge" is troll?

During a one-to-one technical chat with my client, he sent me a meeting link and texted me: Jump into the bridge. Is he trolling me (as there was particular issue that had been left unresolved for a long time) ? or is it a normal phrase that is used to ask a person to join a meeting?

sentence-meaning

I guess the answers are more or less correct, but "is it a normal phrase"?

10:38 AM

@DamkerngT. Would someone get rid of that effing title already?

Actually it's prolly the title that made it so famous.

@CopperKettle I wonder if I could ever really get my mind around this. @Cop , if you could only read it in Russian and nit read Russian. The added level of ... levels. Most sublime!

At least it's not "Is this trollatically correct?"

lol

The OP seems to genuinely think it was trolling.

The most bizarre coincidence (?) is that, long before the internet, trolls of fables and fairy tales lived under bridges.

Lived in wait of "innocent" MAR/INA's to pass by.

THEN GOBBLED THEM UP!

O.O

10:56 AM

If I comment on an answer, is the OP (of the question) notified?

11:22 AM

@JimReynolds Yes

@DamkerngT. thanks

No problem. :D

What does "OP"stand for?@DamkerngT.,I believe only you, one serious person among those jokers

@V.V. LOL -- It's used for either "original post" or "original poster".

Thanks, one can imagine various combinations

11:29 AM

No problem :D

My best invention was "optimistic person"

11:51 AM

@V.V. I would say "best guess"

I mean expecting a good answer,

user image

"Have you got adhesive tape, mate?" - "No" - "Here's some"

trying to get the joke...

@DamkerngT. In the first slide, the penguin is asking in a way that is supposed to mean "could you give me some adhesive tape".

"Haven't you got some adhesive tape by chance, mate?" is probably a better translation.

Shall I try @DamkerngT.?

12:01 PM

So, the penguin(?) was asking for something it already has? :D

@V.V. Please! :D

No,the man was thinking somebody wants something from him, but it wasn't so.The penguin wanted to give something to him.The OP was misunderstood.

@DamkerngT. Yes, the pengin was asking for some adhesive tape, at least so it seemed to the bloke.

Wanted, I meant.

The penguin's next sentence reframed his first sentence from a request to a simple request of information.

To that is added the overall bizarreness of the situation (a penguin asks for some adhesive tape), and the lexical features ("Muzhik" is the colloquial Russian word for "bloke", but literally it means "peasant"; it's as if the penguin is just a regular bloke addressing a regular bloke)

Oh, I see. The penguin didn't ask for anything. It just wanted to give him some tape!

12:09 PM

hey, all. :3

Hi!

@DamkerngT. Yes, but the bloke thought that he asked for some tape. I dunno how to translate this properly in English so that the humor remains.

i come here with a problem or two. .-.

@lekonchekon Nice! Welcome!

We're a regular United Nations here, everyone comes in with problems.

Hi

12:11 PM

@CopperKettle I think your translation is good. It was me who didn't get it. :D

@DamkerngT. (0:

But you did it!

With your help, both of you! @V.V., @CopperKettle

My first question is about comparatives.
I was scrolling through my facebook news feed today when i came across this quote "Nothing makes a woman beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful.", and i've since been wondering whether the construction is correct the way it is, or whether it'd be better if it was "Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful.".

1

Q: Grammar more than / than

So I came across this quote by someone on some website, and it kinda intrigued me. Nothing makes a woman beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful. I was wondering whether there should be a "more" following the "beautiful": "more beautiful than the belief." Am I wrong here?

sentence-construction comparative-constructions

Yes, it needs something.

There are two options, and they have different meanings.

12:14 PM

i wasn't satisfied with the answer i got.

1) Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful.

Nothing makes a woman beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful doesn't sound quite right to me.

exactly.

2) Nothing makes a woman beautiful more than the belief that she is beautiful.

Perhaps it's a joke.

12:15 PM

I'm not all jokes, V.V.!

Maybe 99.3%, though. Sigh.

I think the intended meaning is likely 1).

Yes that would be by far the most likely.

._.) And since i'm very pedantic about certain things, i just had to make sure i wasn't the only one who found the construction weird.

yes, the person who put it up was going for 1.

We think you are a more beautiful kind of pedant. :D

blushes awkwardly

There's more.

12:18 PM

Nothing makes a robot more happy than a free firmware upgrade.

exactly.
Nothing could make me happier than you're buying me a pizza right now, for i'm hungry as hell. ._.

^ that's pretty much what i'm going to say to my fictional wife 20 years from now.

your*

You may cut it down to "Nothing makes a woman beautiful if she isn't".

xD

You want to marry someone for her pizza money. Brilliant!

(0:

12:20 PM

One has been solved

:D

Beauty is only skin deep. If you don't believe me, look at the inside of your cheek.

okay, here's the next one.

What is the first thing that will come to your mind when he asks you that?
What will be the first thing that comes to your mind when he asks you that?
what will be the first thing will come to your mind when he asks you that?

Which of the above are correct?

Are you asking about an expected future event?

Or an event that is repeated?

the former.

I think when needs a right context.

If is probably more natural.

An expected future event known by both sides would be a good context, I suppose.

12:25 PM

I think it's a strange question. If the listener thinks about it now, he or she will not have a first thought about it in the future.

I'm sure the person will get asked a certain something, i just want to know what the first will be that comes to their mind.

Slaps lekon chekon.

._.)

falls off the chair

You want to ask about a hypothetical situation.

Maybe "What do you think would be the first thing that would come into your mind if he asks you that?"

AH!!

12:28 PM

Maybe we would more typically get at that idea with: What would you think if he asked you that right now?

What do you think would be first thing to come to your mind when/if they ask you that?

could i use when instead of if there?

it would still remain hypothetical, right?

Or Present Simple everywhere to ask for general opinion.

No, then it's an assumption that he will ask, not hypothetical.

okay.

i get it now.

What do you think will pop into your mind when he asks you that?

What do you think is the first thing you will think when he asks you that?

What do you mean, V.V.?

12:32 PM

Ah. :3

thanks. :3

@JimReynolds Robo-translate: What would be your first thought when he asks you that?

Sings to self, What do you think when you think about thinking, if you think you think about thinking about thinking. La-la-la-laaaaa."

@DamkerngT. ^

I actually could've gone for "What do you think will come to your mind when he asks you that?"

._.) It's just that, at times, i think about how i could convey the same meaning using different constructions. .-.
And that's what gets me to come up with such doubts. :3

Or what will be ...

thanks. :3

12:34 PM

@JimReynolds I think I'll think I think I thought about your thought about thinking.

STOP THINKING

It's dangerous.

shoots self

I already know what she's going to say when you ask her that.

Buy your own damn pizza!

@DamkerngT. haha

:P

._.) and my response to that would be "I'm homeless. Remember how i would say to you "you're all that i have?"... I kinda actually meant that."

how i used to say to you*

.-.

sounds better this way.

12:37 PM

hahaha.

@lekon's wedding: Do you, my wife, promise to stay with me in poorer, and poorer, and even more poor, and desperately poor?

Chances are things'll actually turn out that way. ._.

x3

Well, at least you'll have your wife and a little bit of pizza.

Do people create such long costructions in everyday life?

@JimReynolds "You're a nice guy. Let's be friends." she said, and walked away. -- THE END

lol

12:40 PM

i do. ._.)
I even send people real long texts. ._.
THE SIZE OF A NOVEL IS WHAT WE'RE TALKING HERE!
JUST ASK MY IMAGINARY GIRLFRIEND, SHE'LL TELL YA!

Hahaha

that actually happened once.

.-.

i asked this girl out on a date over text on facebook. ._.

Well, does she live in the same part of the world as you?

Hah!

she said, and i quote " You're too nice."
"We want people like you to make us fee secure."

She lives where santa lives. ._.

12:42 PM

Oh ... That's not good maybe. She didn't understand that you are a dangerous man. Mysterious and .... YOU ASKED A POLAR BEAR OUT???

LOL

._.) most females just go for jerks.

it doesn't even come to me as a surprise anymore.

No. It's not true.

You keep reaching out to people. It takes some of us a lot of time and effort to connect with the right one.

i know.
I finally got me in a relationship in august last year. :3

How old are you, do you want to say?

12:45 PM

.-. i'm 19.

Oh. How was the relationship? Did you enjoy it?

Probably a wild mix of experiences, I suppose!

i'm still in it. xD
Yes, it's good. :3

O.O

Does she have pizza money?

SHE DOES. :')

Oh, we're so happy for you!!!

I'm just so happy she didn't find some user!

12:48 PM

thanks. :')

I''m weird as hell, and knowing that someone wants me for the weird being that i am is good for my self esteem, which is pretty much non existent. ._.

It's really amazing for some of us to be wanted by someone. I certainly understand that feeling. Self-esteem can grow for our whole lives. I'm still learning to try to appreciate myself more.

To be honest, i loathe myself.
I don't have an aim in life.
I don't care much for anything.
I don't socialize much.
I don't study as often as i should.

And having someone in your life who appreciates you, and longs for you, it feels great. :')

._.) I'll be stuck in this mediocrity forever.

I thought that when I was your age, too. It got a lot better. But I know it doesn't feel that way when you are in it.

Finally, self-esteem comes from being worth something to others. That's technically a very easy thing to be.

1:21 PM

2

Q: backshifting in the context of one clause

The other [feature] was Schmitt's characterization of all legal norms as resting, explicitly or implicitly, on a sovereign decision, which either applied rules generally to people's actions or announced an exception to them. I would like to ask you why the past tense is used in the two bold ve...

past-tense backshifting

2 days ago, by Damkerng T.

user image

I think it's easier if learners know how to look at (i.e., think of) it.

I'd say they'll get it right 95% of the time.

I don't know much about backshifting, but my intuituon says this is cast in the past tense because the writer is describing things considered finished.

When a learner first heard about "backshift", they may try to understand it with some sort of rules, which may or may not be helpful.

It's harder for most people to articulate the rules than to use them. People who are highly interested in grammar differ in that respect.

nods

1:31 PM

Yes. Like I can talk to you, but I don't know how binary systems work.

IMHO, it looks to me like the OP is trying to understand the language rather than the technical side of the language, but he tries to understand it from a technicality point of view.

Maybe.

I think he understands that the writer is referring to a theorist's ideas about how political power.

So he expects the equivalent to, Freud sees people as animated by aggressive impulses.

nods -- He seems to conceptualize the ideas as something timeless.

So Freud no longer sees, right? Ha. So...

BTW, I was a little confused why a question with 5 views got 33 upvotes!

> ell.stackexchange.com/q/80542/3281

(It was migrated from EL&U.)

1:36 PM

O.o

@JimReynolds It's almost like when someone talks about a movie or a book they've watched or read. "I liked it." -- It doesn't mean that they don't like it.

(I should read more about "implicate" vs. "entail".)

Anonymous

Look up implicatures.

Hmm... does it reset views on migration?

Oh! It was coined by Grice!

@JimReynolds I think so.

Ok. You were confused. Got it.

Ha. Same issue!

1:41 PM

Yes!

Someone who was confused might still be.

True!

1

Q: IBM Tree Huggers Commercial

I'm trying to write down this IBM TV commercial. Would you please help me complete it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSNFE6eUjfY ------------ your green proposal. Great. It's fine, just fine. I'm sure it'll make people feel real good about the company, should go over --- with the tree hugger...

Now I wonder what she said exactly in her last line.

"Just sign here..." or "Just sign right..."

Also, I think he probably said "Where will I sign?" rather than "Where do I sign?", but it's really unclear.

Why would I sign this?

@JimReynolds After that.

When birds and animals show up with the cute jingle. :D

Where do I sign?

Just sign there.

1:56 PM

Ahh... so it's really "do".

Hah! There? That's actually my second choice.

My choices: Just sign here / there / right

I am aware that I rely on expectations. It's not clear.

Especially her "sign there"

At first I thought she said Just sign it.

@JimReynolds I can imagine that with my eyes closed!

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Feb '163

Language Overflow

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