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Anonymous
9:01 PM
Maybe you could call number one an appositive phrase
 
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
:-O I came in here to get away from numbers for awhile.
 
Anonymous
Room number 2B is similar to a proper noun in typically not taking a determiner.
 
Anonymous
But also similar to a proper noun in not wholly excluding one: "Is this the room number 2B where the suspect was killed?"
 
Anonymous
That puts a dent in the "determiner" idea, along with the fact that it's a postmodifier of some sort, and determiners generally aren't (never?)
 
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
@skullpatrol LOL
 
Anonymous
9:05 PM
Anyway, it must be a postmodifier of some sort. I don't know what you call it.
 
Anonymous
Anyone else care to analyze room number 2B? :-)
 
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
Or flight number TG911
 
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
There are soooo many questions on MSE about what the word "number" means.
 
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
I bet!
By the way, anyone knows how to use pic?
(looking for pic for Windows...)
 
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
Not me, but I don't think you should put an "s" on the end of "know" :-)
 
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
9:12 PM
Ahh... Thanks!
 
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
But I can't explain why :(
 
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
9:24 PM
@skullpatrol I guess we can drop the helping verb "(Do) you want to ...?", or "(Does) anyone know ...?" but we should avoid *"Anyone knows ...?"
 
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
"Anybody knows that." Sounds ok to me.
Everybody knows
No one knows
Maybe it's an idiom. But there seems to be some sort of underlying pattern.
 
Anonymous
9:54 PM
@skullpatrol "Anybody knows that" is non-standard, I think. "Everybody/one knows that" would be the standard version
 
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. Yes, that's right. The finite verb has been omitted: "Does anyone know how to use pic?"
 
Anonymous
In informal speech, sometimes words can be omitted from the beginning of the sentence if they can be understood from context
 
Anonymous
Or reduced:
 
Anonymous
"z'anyone know how to use pic?" (I'm not sure how to represent this in non-IPA writing, but it's the end of does)
 
Anonymous
We could consider this a matter of pronunciation rather than grammar, if we wanted
 
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
10:10 PM
@snailboat Taking it from the pronunciation point of view makes sense for me.
 
Anonymous
(You can look up conversational deletion if you want to know more of what other people say about it)
 
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
Hmm... I think I can't see how to do that from the transcript page. Maybe only here, I guess.
 
Anonymous
Oh, I meant look up in general. I'm not sure if we've talked about it here in ELL chat before
 
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
Oh, we can do that?
 
Anonymous
Do what?
 
Anonymous
10:14 PM
I wasn't referring to Stack Exchange
 
Anonymous
I was suggesting looking up the term "conversational deletion" with the method of your choice
 
Anonymous
I believe the term comes from the 1974 paper Shouldn't Ignore These Strings: A Study of Conversational Deletion
 
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
Oh! I misunderstood you, sorry!
 
Anonymous
I just tried to clarify :-)
 
Anonymous
I should do what John Lawler does and Capitalize Stuff :-)
 
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
10:16 PM
I guess he has a very good reason. :)
 
Anonymous
If you Capitalize and Bold stuff, it seems important.
 
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
Either of them could make things seem important enough. Hehe.
 
Anonymous
Ideally, you'd capitalize, bold, italic, underline, overline, reverse video, increased font size, crazy font, bubble letter, and drop shadow everything you have to say
 
Anonymous
That way people would know it was important.
 
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
Scare quotes can also be handy. :)
 
Anonymous
10:34 PM
Now, why didn't I "think" of that!?
 
StoneyB
StoneyB
11:44 PM
@snailboat I think "proper name" nails it. "Room number 2B" is the name of a particular room, like "Love Potion Number 9" or "Chapter VIII: I Forego Traditional Grammar". And "number 2b" is a title, like "First Lord of the Admiralty".
 
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