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12:40 AM
0
Q: throw up the red flag for someone -- meaning?

Cookie MonsterFrom the movie The Sacrament: — I'm trying to keep it together, so I can ask intelligent questions, but jet lag's kicked in and I am starting to melt. Jake, what do you think of all this so far? Give me your professional assessment. — I don't know. I mean, I'm naturally cynical, but... The ...

I wonder how precisely a native speaker can tell the meaning of this use of "throw up the red flag for me" without having seen the movie. (I have a rather good idea what "throw up the red flag" means.)
 
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. No idea.
 
Anonymous
Red flag has a couple common associations, but typically not with that exact wording ("throw up the red flag for me"), and they don't seem to make sense in context
 
Anonymous
What does it mean in that movie?
 
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. Well
 
Anonymous
The description Yukatan gives is not really a complete description of how it works
 
Anonymous
12:54 AM
But I disagree with the answer they're commenting on
 
Anonymous
(I find that I usually disagree with that user's answers)
 
@snailboat In NFL, if the coach doesn't agree with the referees, they can challenge the referees by throwing their red flag.
 
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. I think TRomano might be thinking of glottal reinforcement
 
Ahh
 
Anonymous
Although a syllable-final /t/ in AmE can be realized as [ʔ], sometimes there's a combination of a [t] and [ʔ]
 
Anonymous
1:00 AM
I can't tell from his description whether he means that or a glottal stop.
 
I think Wikipedia mentions the reinforcement, too, in different wording.
 
Anonymous
You can find it on the Wikipedia page for glottalization, though it's only covered briefly
 
> Standard English inserts a glottal stop before a tautosyllabic voiceless stop, e.g. sto’p, tha’t, kno’ck, wa’tch, also lea’p, soa’k, hel’p, pin’ch.
 
Ah, a lot of symbols that my browser can't render properly!
Foxit renders them just fine.
 
So, they use the terms glottal replacement and glottal reinforcement.
Thanks!
 
 
4 hours later…
4:42 AM
@Stephie abstract nouns uncountable? Whoa ...I am having a strange experience by reading this! :) — Maulik V 19 mins ago
Interesting language usage.
 
Surrounding such a concrete word as "noun" by such theoretical words such as "abstract" and "uncountable" will lead to strange experiences :-)
 
Maybe it's an out-of-body experience or a close encounter experience (not sure which kind). :-)
 
 
7 hours later…
12:10 PM
I expect plural tickets. The book answer is both ungrammatical and awkward, I'm afraid. — snailboat 1 hour ago
I doubt that book, too.
The book says, "Change the voice according the corresponding rules give above." Actually book states some rule to change voice of sentence before exercise. there is no alternative in book for example #2 but your answer could be the alternative. i found some sentences in my book which is changed into passive voice in the same way as you do. — starun008 5 hours ago
 
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. I think non-native speakers can write about language
 
Anonymous
But they should take care to base their examples on real usage
 
Anonymous
After all, the goal isn't to teach someone their own non-native dialect, but to show how the language is normally used
 
I can't imagine any good reasons behind their exercises, considering the answers. I guess it must be very mechanical, and very likely misleading.
@snailboat Agree.
 
Anonymous
That's the impression I get, too
 
Anonymous
12:14 PM
If passive exercises were instead based on real usage, then they could teach not only how to form passives correctly, but also when to use them and when not to
 
nods
 
Anonymous
Because it would quickly become apparent that many of these mechanically generated passives don't exist in actual usage
 
Anonymous
Unfortunately, it looks like the authors have some other problems in this case
 
I guess so.
Between "I expect the task to be finished by her" and "She was expected to finish the task", I think the latter is more likely.
(Or even "The task was expected to be finished by her.")
 
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. Of those alternatives, I definitely like "She was expected to finish the task" best
 
12:17 PM
I was so surprised when the OP told me that the book doesn't include this one ("She was expected ...").
 
Anonymous
The English passive is really quite different from the Japanese passive
 
Anonymous
I wonder if my memories of how the English passive have been a bit jumbled by studying Japanese :-)
 
Hehe! I hope not!
 
Anonymous
Well, I was thinking
 
Anonymous
In some languages like Japanese and Korean, there's broadly a preference for animate subjects
 
Anonymous
12:22 PM
Or rather, for the subject to be at least as animate as other entities in the sentence
 
Oh, really?
Wait, do they have something similar to "It was true that ..."?
(I think some anime said something like that, but in Thai translations.)
 
Anonymous
Japanese doesn't generally have dummy subjects
 
Oh! (Now I wonder how they got to that kind of lines in the translations.)
 
Anonymous
> It was true that [blah blah blah].
 
Anonymous
> That [blah blah blah] was true.
 
Anonymous
12:24 PM
Extraposition…
 
Anonymous
But the extraposed version is much more common
 
In Japanese and Korean?
 
Anonymous
In English.
 
Anonymous
Japanese and Korean don't have extraposition
 
Ahh
 
Anonymous
12:26 PM
The extraposition would leave behind a gap
 
Anonymous
But English doesn't permit a gap in subject position, so it's filled by a dummy subject
 
What if they wanted to say [true] before [blah blah blah]?
 
Anonymous
You can invert a Japanese sentence
 
Oh, yes, indeed
 
Anonymous
This is sometimes analyzed as right dislocation
 
Anonymous
12:27 PM
Taking part of the sentence and moving it past the end
 
Anonymous
> Sore wa nan da?Nan da, sore wa?
 
Anonymous
In English, left and right dislocation involve coreference between the dislocated element and a pronoun in the main clause:
 
Anonymous
> He doesn't like pizza. Me, I like pizza a lot.
 
Anonymous
Here, the left-dislocated me is coreferential with I in the main clause
 
Anonymous
But in Japanese, there's no need for a pronoun in the main clause, thanks to pro-drop
 
12:30 PM
Hee
 
Anonymous
Rhetorical 'gravity' (or some might say 'ponderousness') can allow the shift even if the subject isn't "heavy". — TRomano 5 mins ago
 
Anonymous
TRomano disagrees with Arnold Zwicky
 
Anonymous
And, as far as I can tell, with the actual evidence
 
Oh, that one.
 
Anonymous
But since heavy NP shift of subject NPs past not are rare to begin with, it might be hard to find supporting evidence for his position even if he was right
 
12:33 PM
It was 1892.
 
Anonymous
It's difficult to describe exactly what the criteria for "heavy" NPs are, though
 
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. Nonetheless
 
Anonymous
This is complicated by the fact that the contraction doesn't used to be written does not, if you go far enough back
 
That's what I guess.
 
Anonymous
So if you start going back far enough, say, into the 1700s
 
Anonymous
12:34 PM
You'll find plenty of does nots that are in fact doesn'ts
 
However, I think if the speaker wanted to emphasize not with such a long NP, the shift might be possible. I don't know.
 
Anonymous
Kinda like how we usually write gonna as going to and kinda as kind of
 
nods
 
Anonymous
That makes interpreting the historical evidence rather complicated
 
Anonymous
But odds are, 100 years ago, this grammar was pretty much the same
 
Anonymous
12:37 PM
Maybe I should have addressed the 1892 bit
 
Anonymous
But oh well―at this point, all I want is a hat for a +7 answer :-)
 
LOL
Which hat?
 
Anonymous
I forget its name.
 
Anonymous
But I've gotten two answers in a row to +6 and not +7, which is driving me crazy. :-)
 
Oh, Handegg!
 
Anonymous
12:38 PM
I may have to try harder to get that hat.
 
Anonymous
And write a better answer
 
Does it have to be a new answer?
 
Anonymous
-3
A: Can I say "I take my son to school by car everyday"?

ipulterimakais atas infongya mebel minimalis SPAM

 
Anonymous
Yeah, I think so. An old one of mine got voted up to +11 just now, and it didn't give me a hat.
 
Anonymous
Let's delete this spam.
 
12:40 PM
@snailboat Was it already above 7 before the Winterbash?
 
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. Good point. It was
 
@snailboat Looks good for the Crab hat!
I downvoted it!
 
Anonymous
@CopperKettle Honestly, I still have no idea what call in aid means.
 
I upvoted one of your old +6 answers. See if you will get the hat.
 
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. Hold in suspension is at least something of a mystery to me too, though I suppose you and bruised reed are probably correct
 
Anonymous
12:46 PM
A tad askew!
 
Hee!
 
Anonymous
My brain just blended airtight with ironclad and came up with irontight
 
LOL
That sounds very tight!
 
Anonymous
I was just thinking about how many of my answers aren't quite perfect―you could still poke holes in them or pick nits, if you wanted
 
Anonymous
It's really difficult to write answers that are 100% unassailable
 
Anonymous
12:50 PM
At least, I think it is
 
Anonymous
So a lot of the time, I end up not being wholly satisfied with my own answers
 
Sometimes I try to avoid reading my old answers. :-)
Yet sometimes I fail to avoid them.
 
Anonymous
I was given a more encouraging description once...
 
Anonymous
I was told that if you look back on your old work and you think it's great
 
Anonymous
Then it means you've stopped improving, and you should start worrying! :-)
 
Anonymous
12:52 PM
I don't know if that really makes sense, but it certainly makes me feel better :-)
 
That sounds really good!
 
Anonymous
This question appears to be off-topic because it is about transcription of audio, not about learning the English language. — starsplusplus yesterday
 
Anonymous
We have a number of similar questions, though, that remain open
 
I think I voted to reopen that one. Oh, I hadn't.
 
Anonymous
I put in a reopen vote, but it got 3 reviews to leave closed
 
Anonymous
12:56 PM
Though when it was up for closing, it got 3 leave open votes :-)
 
Anonymous
Actually, one of the Leave Open voters (ColleenV) apparently changed her mind, as she later voted Leave Closed!
 
Oh!
I think we can argue either for or against the question.
 
Anonymous
I think that's reasonable
 
Listening is useful for learners, yet the question might be too localized (specific to only this user).
 
Anonymous
It's definitely localized.
 
Anonymous
12:59 PM
Someone could start a meta discussion.
 
Anonymous
But I imagine that meta discussion would end up with all of our old transcription questions being closed, so I don't want to. :-)
 
Good point!
I wish the starred-message board were scrollable.
 
Anonymous
That'd be nice. You can always click 'show all', though
 
Thanks, Damkerng T. Is there a name given to the act of substituting a glottal stop for the dental? — TRomano 1 hour ago
TRomano just asked me that.
 
Anonymous
Glottalization, or more specifically glottal reinforcement (when it's partial), glottal replacement (when it's complete)
 
1:03 PM
(Good thing I checked my own comments. He forgot to add the @ mark.)
Ah, yes! They're the terms I was looking for.
 
Anonymous
Sometimes it's specifically called t-glottalization
 
I will steal your message. :D
 
Anonymous
And sometimes people use the form glottalling
 
Anonymous
So there's the range of terminology I'm familiar with for that
 
Anonymous
T-glottalisation is a process that occurs for many English speakers, that causes the phoneme /t/ to be pronounced as the glottal stop [ʔ] in certain positions. This is an instance of the more general phonetic phenomenon (also found in other, unrelated languages throughout the world) called glottalisation. Apparently, glottal reinforcement, which is quite common in English, is a stage preceding full replacement of the stop, and indeed, reinforcement and replacement can be in free variation. The earliest mentions of the process are in Scotland during the 19th century, when Henry Sweet commented on...
 
Anonymous
1:05 PM
You could link to that, too, if you wanted
 
I added the link!
@TRomano Glottalization (sometimes t-glottalization for the t sound), or more specifically glottal reinforcement (when it's partial), glottal replacement (when it's complete). See also: phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/glottals2-colour.pdf, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-glottalization (credits for the links and terms goes to snailboat). — Damkerng T. 4 mins ago
 
Anonymous
This comment is in response to the public beta of Stack Overflow in Japanese
 
Anonymous
I think that really trivializes how difficult it can be for someone to learn a language
 
I like the challenge! (Haven't read the comments yet.)
 
Anonymous
1:17 PM
I don't see any reason why a Japanese speaker who wants to learn to program should have to start by learning English
 
Anonymous
I mean, that's a pretty big first step :-)
 
Babelfish of your choice! I like that!
 
Anonymous
Sure, it's helpful for developers in non-English-speaking countries to learn English.
 
Anonymous
And it's great if more people can manage to get over that hurdle and get to the point where they can use English resources
 
I think it helps to know core English words. Naming variables and stuff is very important.
 
Anonymous
1:18 PM
@DamkerngT. Japanese-English machine translation is still very amusing :-)
 
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. Sure, stuff like if, for example
 
LOL
I remember that in my first few years, I had to use I, J, K, A, B, X, Y, Z, and so on. ANd it was like, a lot!
(Oh, and I used to use a lot of I1, I2, I3, ..., too!)
 
Anonymous
Oh, the days of two-letter variable names!
 
Anonymous
When I was still a tiny, tiny boat, my parents gave me a Commodore 64 to start learning to program on
 
Sometimes, CX, CY, DX, DY were rather helpful!
 
Anonymous
1:21 PM
Commodore 64s have Microsoft BASIC 2.0, which has variable names that are unique to two letters
 
Reading code those days could be a good exercise (for our brains).
Oh, I remember I used to use this one: ZZ, as my final result!
See how creative I was!
 
Anonymous
Ah!
 
Anonymous
Makes sense :-)
 
Anonymous
6
Q: なぜスレッド間の同期にvolatileを使ってはいけない?

パンダパジャマC言語で、2つのスレッドを同期するに、下記のようなプログラムを書きました。 volatile int hoge = 0; //... void fuga1() // スレッド1で動いている { while (1) { while (hoge == 0) // 値が変わるまで待つ sleep(1); puts("fuga1!"); hoge = 0; } } void fuga2() // スレッド2で動いている { while (1) { sleep(100...

 
Anonymous
fuga and hoge are Japanese for foo and bar :-)
 
1:26 PM
Hah!
 
Anonymous
Does Thai have its own foo and bar?
 
Probably not. I think we simply use foo and bar.
 
Anonymous
I don't know what fuga and hoge are from
 
Anonymous
fuga at least vaguely resembles foo... I don't know if that's a coincidence or not
 
Oh, I just noticed that it's ja.stackoverflow.com!
 
Anonymous
1:29 PM
Yes!
 
@snailboat Is fuga a Japanese word?
 
Anonymous
Not really
 
Anonymous
If we're a little creative, フーガ is fugue, from Italian fuga :-)
 
Anonymous
But that's not very likely to be related
 
Hmm... JASO stack doesn't show the stats.
 
Anonymous
1:30 PM
The Area 51 beta stats, you mean?
 
@snailboat Adding the ga sound is quite curious!
 
Anonymous
I think Portuguese SO is special, too
 
Anonymous
 
Nice! Probably there is a Spanish one, too.
Ahh, JA-SO has 232 questions.
 
Anonymous
1:32 PM
No
 
Anonymous
Portuguese was the first, and Japanese is the second
 
Anonymous
It only just went into public beta
 
Oh!
The first question was on 9月29日.
That's very new!
 
Anonymous
Well, if you look
 
Anonymous
You'll see that the first six weeks had hardly any questions at all
 
Anonymous
1:34 PM
I think they were just testing out the localization and such
 
Anonymous
I wasn't part of it (sob)
 
(Btw, have they sent you a new hat yet?)
 
Anonymous
No hat for me
 
Anonymous
I have to write a sevenworthy answer to be hatted.
 
Aww... It didn't work.
 
Anonymous
1:34 PM
And that is easier said than done.
 
Anonymous
I am doomed to a lifetime of sixes.
 
Too bad that I'm one of both those sixes.
 
Anonymous
Hah.
 
Anonymous
Agh
 
Anonymous
I'm stopping myself from downvoting wrong answers because I don't want to downvote the same users over and over
 
1:37 PM
Oh, I got the Spock hat!
 
Anonymous
Yay!
 
Still don't know how I got it.
 
Anonymous
Find a post that's +25 and upvote it
 
Anonymous
And I think you'll get the other Spock hat.
 
Oh!
 
1:39 PM
@snailboat Then I must've failed in my answer..
 
Wait, which hat did you mean? Fascinating hat or Red Shirt?
Hello @CopperKettle!
 
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. Fascinating is Spock #1, and Fascinating, Ma'am is Spock #2
 
What happened?
 
Anonymous
By my reckoning.
 
Good evening, @DamkerngT.!
 
1:39 PM
@snailboat Oh, neat!
 
Anonymous
So when I suggested voting a +25 post up, it was to get Spock #2.
 
And good evening, Snailboat (0:
 
Anonymous
Red Shirt is different. I don't remember the requirements, but you can go check on the Winter Bash site
 
Anonymous
Good evening, Kettle o' Copper!
 
Thanks for the tip!
Red Shirt: cast 5 downvotes on posts that are later deleted or closed
 
Anonymous
1:40 PM
@CopperKettle Well, I don't mean to say that your answer is a failure
 
"The deposit is called in aid by the advertiser as proof of his sincerity in the matter " --
 
Hey, I just did one!
 
Anonymous
I didn't read it very closely
 
Anonymous
I have a headache
 
Anonymous
But!
 
1:41 PM
I'm sorry!
 
Anonymous
Maybe if I did read it carefully, the original sentence would magically make sense to me. :-)
 
Finding the question of interest...
 
I thought it was some old expression.
 
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. Yeah! I flagged that spam and downvoted it
 
Anonymous
1:42 PM
@CopperKettle Could well be.
 
0
Q: What's the meaning of 'call in aid'?

Law Area 51 Proposal - Commit [Source:] We must first consider whether this was intended to be a promise at all, or whether it was a mere puff which meant nothing. Was it a mere puff? My answer to that question is No, and I base my answer upon this passage: “£1000. is deposited with the Alliance Bank, shewing our sinc...

 
Ah, thanks!
 
Meaning "with the aid of the (mention of the) deposit", the advertiser hoodwinked the public into thinking there's be 100 pounds at the end of the rainbow
 
My first glance: The deposit is called "in aid" by the advertiser as proof of his sincerity in the matter ...
 
@DamkerngT. Yes, "in aid" as a kind of adverbial
Bare your sword "in anger", call (mention) the deposit "in aid"
 
Anonymous
1:44 PM
"There is be" is ungrammatical―is that a typo, Copper Kettle?
 
@snailboat yes, I'm sleepy
 
Anonymous
I should bold stuff more often. When I bold stuff, people tend to star it.
2
 
(0:
Yes, you should call in aid the markdown more often to get your sentences starr'd (0:
 
See, it works!
 
Anonymous
Yay!
 
1:53 PM
1
Q: Should it be made or would make in the following sentence?

DC FosterI'm trying to figure out why this sentence (highlighted in bold) doesn't seem right? Could someone explain to my the reasons why it's not correct? Here's the sentence, it's talking about Anwar Sadat and the peace treaty he signed with Israel: "He had a major role in the Yom Kippur War of 1...

A conditional use of "would"?
 
Anonymous
Lessee.
 
Anonymous
Put a plan is quite strange
 
Anonymous
I left a comment.
 
Yes, and I find strange the use of the pronoun they (referring to Israel?)
I dont recall if "would" in the past would mean "the plan succeeded"
"the plan that would" = "the plan that eventually would" help vanquish Israel?
 
2:09 PM
I read it that way, too. (Don't know who wrote it, though.)
 
@DamkerngT. I'd bet that not an Israelite then (0:
 
I guess you're right!
 
2:26 PM
I wonder if we could use the before both passion and love in this poem:
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Is it that "love" is so unique for each person that it's better to use a, but with passion, a slight post-modification (put to use in my old griefs) will do.
 
Anonymous
2:56 PM
I left a comment with a mistake in it earlier on the two-year-old question
 
Anonymous
I removed that and left a better one :-)
 
You deserve a perfectionist hat!
Since you've edited a comment left in the Past, that should be a Past Perfect hat!
(0:
 
I think that's not very far from it.
> "The word hard, as used here, may refer to those whose situations arouse sympathy."
@CopperKettle I concur!
 
oh, intresting
 
Anonymous
3:25 PM
Here's an interesting example of Right Node Raising: "Using dichotic listening as a means to assess the role of each hemisphere in talker identification, we show that listeners’ right-, but not left-, ear (left-hemisphere) performance better predicts overall accuracy in their native than non-native language."
 
Heh! I like the content of the sentence better!
 
Anonymous
 
Thanks!
 
Anonymous
Words of the day: contralateral and ipsilateral
 
yes, these words get used in neurology a lot
collocating with damage
 
Anonymous
3:51 PM
@DamkerngT. I got the hat!!
 
Yay!
 
Anonymous
Now I have seventeen hats.
 
Anonymous
Although I think I'll keep this boat hat on for the rest of the event. :-)
 
Congrats!
Hehe!
 
Anonymous
It's the perfect hat for me.
 
Anonymous
3:54 PM
Everyone always says my snail icon should have a boat. Well, now it does!
 
What a perfect fit!
 
> She hoped that we would not be construed her decision to run for office as a thirst for power.
Wouldn't it be ungrammatical?
(The OP's version has no be. The answer fixes it by adding the be!)
 
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. That is indeed ungrammatical.
 
Oh, I misread the answer.
It was fixed as She hoped that her decision to run for office would not BE construed as a thirst for power.
 
Anonymous
4:00 PM
@DamkerngT. That seems somewhat better
 
Anonymous
The a thirst for power part sounds a little bit strange to me, but the sentence as a whole is pretty good
 
4:31 PM
Ah, my last comment to TRomano is ungrammatical. Nvm, not a big issue.
@skullpatrol Hey, look who has a new avatar!
@snailboat Very interesting!
(Not sure how many points they made and what the points are. Maybe later.)
 
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. Sometimes I write ungrammatical comments on ELL.
 
Anonymous
I try not to, y'know, but it happens :-)
 
Anonymous
Just like I try not to be wrong, but that happens, too!
 
Hehe!
 
Anonymous
It doesn't matter anymore, though, 'cause I got my +7 hat.
 
4:35 PM
LOL
I've already answered 6 questions (one deleted) this month. This is already beyond my quota. The hats must be the reason.
 
@DamkerngT. The chameleon hat transformed me :-)
 
Ahh... I see!
 
They are having a hat frenzy in the ELU room
 
 
1 hour later…
5:58 PM
Hello @learner!
 
6:30 PM
 
 
4 hours later…
10:54 PM
A nice video, I read of this approach some time ago.
 

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