English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

It might scare me off, if I thought it was inappropriate or if I came to unfavourable conclusions about the other person. eg. if she doesn't know me at all and makes really forward comments, then she could be toying with me, or rushing things, or just too tactless. It would really depend on a lot of things.

Matt Эллен

make that an OSI standard

I'd use it

KitFox

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Well, true. Timing is important.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Are there two or more reference implementations of KFL?

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Something like this. Except times two for me.

KitFox

But I also didn't want to waste my time batting my eyes at someone who wasn't interested.

Cerberus

6:27 PM

@KitFox Yes, that is the down-side.

And yet you bat your eyes so lovelily!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox Or batting your eyes at someone who doesn't respond because they are too afraid to go too fast.

KitFox

I tend to make my interest very clear. Like "You are really funny." and "I find you attractive and I'd like to spend more time with you." and "I am really whiskey-drunk and I want to get laid, so are you interested?"

Cerberus

The first is by all means good.

KitFox

You'd think people would appreciate that more.

Cerberus

The second is forward, but can be nice after you have spent some time with someone, say a long conversation at a party. With some drinks. And some definite flirting must have taken place first.

The third sounds a bit...incongruous? If you are that interested, why not just grab the other person?

KitFox

6:29 PM

Because it was a long stumble back to my place.

And I wasn't going back for someone else if they weren't interested.

Cerberus

Why not just grab him/her inappropriately?

I mean, lean in too close, touch arms/hands/chest.

Maybe not chest if it is a woman.

Stomach, then.

KitFox

I prefer to make my meaning clear.

Cerberus

Unless she might be insecure about that.

Isn't touching clear?

KitFox

Is it?

Cerberus

Yes?

After some touching, you can say, "let's go to my place".

No need to mention sex explicitly.

KitFox

6:32 PM

Yes, there is a need to mention sex explicitly.

Because I want to make sure that's what I'm getting.

Cerberus

I don't know, it might scare me off, even at that stage.

Robusto

Have you all seen Google flu trends yet?

Cerberus

I don't want to sign a contract there and then.

@Robusto I posted those last night.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus no

Cerberus

@Robusto But have you considered that Google flu trends might be a self-fulfilling prophecy?

@MattЭллен No?

Matt Эллен

6:34 PM

if someone brushes against me I'm likely to assume it's an accident

Cerberus

If everyone is Google for "Google fly trends"...

@MattЭллен Yes.

It needs to be obvious enough.

Repeated.

Deliberate.

KitFox

Obvious like "I want to have sex with you"?

Cerberus

Yes.

Robusto

@Cerberus I'm not sure how that would work.

Cerberus

@Robusto You search for Google flu, because Google flu is becoming more well known, and hence this search term reinforces its own stats.

Matt Эллен

6:38 PM

I think they're monitoring search terms, not the number of times people search for "google flu"

so the number of times people search for "what is my temperature when I have flu?" for example

Cerberus

They might count all references to flu...

Matt Эллен

I think they're a bit smarter than that

Cerberus

And looking at G. f. might cause people to research flu more. It might pique their interest.

It sure did mine.

Social sciences are the most complicated thing eva!

Matt Эллен

but that's predictable - it probably follows a simple distribution that peaks whenever they mention google flu in the media, so that's easy to discount

Cerberus

How do you know how high the extra peak should be? And what if Google flu is mentioned more in the media this year than last?

I have to run, tea-foraging. Later!

Robusto

6:43 PM

@Cerberus Yeah. I see the self-fulfilling prophecy part now. I didn't fully read the explanation, thought it was reported cases of flu.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus because of all the time that google flu is not in the media

I'm gonna go forage for @Cerberus

bbl

Robusto

6:59 PM

0

Q: On the usage of epitomized

"Epitomized by right captainship, the ship reached safely". I'm emphasizing the capabilities of the captain here. Is this correct usage?

Oh, FFS.

"Right captainship"—is a right captain like a right whale in any way?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Robusto They prefer to be called "Starbord captains"

Robusto

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I prefer port.

Cerberus

@MattЭллен But the times that it is in the media will coincide with the flu season.

@Robusto Sissy landlubber!

You can stay in port whenever you want.

But the seven seas! They call you!

> And that's exactly the problem with a less permissible garden like Apple's app store. Sure, in Google's garden (or the wider open internet, for that matter) you will occasionally have to ignore a few weeds, but you get the full spectrum of flowers to enjoy. Apple's garden may have less weeds, but they have less flowers, and the choice over which flowers you see isn't up to you. That's not the system I want to embrace.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Don't you agree?

Robusto

Port wine

Port wine (also known as Vinho do Porto, , Porto, and often simply port) is a Portuguese fortified wine produced exclusively in the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal. It is typically a sweet, red wine, often served as a dessert wine though it also comes in dry, semi-dry, and white varieties. Fortified wines in the style of port are also produced outside Portugal, most notably in Australia, South Africa, Canada, India, Argentina, and the United States. Under European Union Protected Designation of Origin guidelines, only the product from Portugal may be labelled as port ...

This kind of port.

Cerberus

Ah the port one can have at sea.

Better!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

7:10 PM

@Cerberus Don't I agree what? that they should be starbord? Depends on which way I'm facing.

Cerberus

With that quotation, I meant.

The arrow was my laziness, I apologize.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

oh, right. Yeah, I do agree. And Google not only has a bigger garden, but they also don't enforce a monopoly on their garden. They allow other gardens.

KitFox

I can't believe I can't get this to work.

I can type it into the console, but the script acts like nothing is happening.

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Exactly! I mean, French gardens are neat and pretty, but I also like to walk the romantic English gardens from time to time.

@KitFox Build in diagnostic messages in between the steps in your script?

KitFox

I don't know well enough to know how.

Cerberus

7:24 PM

Then you can tell where it goes wrong.

Hmm.

KitFox

It's only two steps anyway.

Cerberus

Hmm that's not a lot.

KitFox

get-content, then write-host

Cerberus

Replace one step with some other step, to test whether it is one or the other that's the problem?

Get-content, pop up message box displaying content?

Or set variable, write-host with content of variable?

tchrist

⅋ is the closest match I could find in the unicode index. I believe asking one's opinions is an answerable question. — Albert Renshaw 5 mins ago

Perhaps, but not on SE.

Cerberus

7:29 PM

@tchrist. As David Crystal says, it's because we're all prisoners of the Latinate tradition, and none are more so than the French. — Barrie England yesterday

@BarrieEngland: Guests. We prefer to call the inmates guests. In any case, synchronic and diachronic compatibility with other (phases of) languages should be pro-arguments. — Cerberus 54 secs ago

tchrist

This is just some dumb heresy that wants to banish compound tenses. It is nonsense.

Cerberus

The model itself is not nonsense. Trying to enforce it as the Truth is.

Robusto

Will never happen.

tchrist

For example, the present perfect is often used in a way that means the near past. This is an important practical distinction for language instruction, one that would be obliterated by being obstinate about what a “tense” is. “Tense” exists to serve a particular purpose. That purpose must still be served no matter whateverthefuck you call it.

I wonder whether Barrie has ever taught a language other than English, or how long since he received instruction in one.

Cerberus

@Robusto Yeah, but they keep trying and pretending there is consensus, even.

@tchrist Well, you could simply give what we call tense a different name. I bet they have one.

tchrist

7:36 PM

It is inflection.

Cerberus

I just don't see the point of doing so, instead of just using a new term for inflectional tense, like, uh, "inflectional tense".

tchrist

The problem is that -ing is also an inflection, and they want to call it an inflection only if it relates to present-vs-past time, not if it relates to aspect or mood.

RegDwighт

@Cerberus how boring! Call it Bronxbdingnag!

Cerberus

@tchrist No, that's not true.

@RegDwighт Yay!

tchrist

Romance speakers normally refer to the conditional and the subjunctive as tenses, you know.

Good luck talking them out of it, in fact.

Cerberus

7:37 PM

In fact, linguists are fond of unnecessarily intransparent terms, like VC and PIT_uC.

You know what I think of abbreviations.

tchrist

Sure, NP.

Cerberus

@tchrist Now I would hesitate to go that far. What then of moods?

tchrist

“I speak, I spoke, I have spoken” are a three-fold system, not a two-fold one.

Cerberus

@tchrist I elect to read that as No Problem.

tchrist

So you think conditional is a mood, is it?

Cerberus

7:39 PM

I might call it a mood.

Or a future subjunctive?

tchrist

What future subjunctive?

It is very rare.

Cerberus

We simply learned it as "conditionnel".

tchrist

Amongst the common Romance tongues, it exists in Portuguese and (Old) Spanish alone.

It’s the -ere forms.

Cerberus

What is?

RegDwighт

@tchrist well, technically, they refer to them not as tenses but by some weird Romance names, like um. Le temps. Or il pajarito. Or il pajerito. Wevs, the point being they don't make sense anyway so who cares.

tchrist

7:41 PM

The future subjunctive. As I said, it is quite rare.

Cerberus

I was talking about what to call the conditionnel.

tchrist

I’m going to assume you are referring to the bird-paja not to the jerking-off–paja. But perhaps that would be wrong.

The conditional is not the future subjunctive.

Cerberus

I was just thinking out loud.

RegDwighт

The former is the former, and the latter is the latter. What's not to understand.

Cerberus

Because I wouldn't know how to categorize it.

By the way, do you agree that Swiss sounds a bit like Austrian/Bavarian?

RegDwighт

7:43 PM

Only tchrist can make a complete mystery out of a little wanker.

tchrist

All normal speakers care about is that there are different conjugation sets. What they get called, nobody cares.

Cerberus

The Swiss radio pronounces names very well by the way, despite their slight Swiss accent in German.

They did the proper g in Concertgebouw.

RegDwighт

They didn't take three minutes for the -cert- alone, inserting schwas everywhere?

Cerberus

@tchrist That's not entirely true. People care about categories and what to call them.

tchrist

No really, they don’t.

Cerberus

7:45 PM

@RegDwighт Nope! It was all correct, that is, the vowels were only very slightly off, in an indescribable way.

RegDwighт

Connecerretgebouw.

Cerberus

Nope.

RegDwighт

Then they were no real Swiss. Probably Mossad agents.

Cerberus

It was not an Arabic g, like the Israelians.

Moroccans in Holland are imitated mainly by their ultra-hard gggg.

tchrist

Oye, ¿te parecen tiempos distinctos digo y que yo diga? ¿O son el mismo tiempo?

Go ahead. Ask any Spanish speaker. Make my day. You know what they will say.

Cerberus

7:47 PM

Now I need groceries.

Lator!

RegDwighт

@tchrist tiempo primo.

tchrist

Only in your zeitzone. Here it’s munchtime. In fact. . . .

RegDwighт

@tchrist that's not an argument anyway. Go ask any English speaker if there's a difference between a hyphen and a dash. Go ahead, make my day.

3

"Any X speaker" is not an authority on X.

Cerberus

@RegDwighт It is an argument.

RegDwighт

What was our tag for plurals in parentheses, again?

Cerberus

7:52 PM

The question is, for how much should it count?

RegDwighт

-1

Q: I'm trying to show ownership to a plural noun in parentheses

I' drafting a lease document and have to state the following provision. " The Lessee(s) holds the Lessor and the United States harmless from any loss, liability or damages resulting from the Lessee(s) use of occupation of the premises or the Lessee(s)s' personal property." Should Lessee(s)s' be L...

grammar

@Cerberus seven. Eight at most. But usually seven.

Cerberus

See, you don't have the answer either. It's not zero.

RegDwighт

How about "enables you to identify problems quickly and easily"? Sound most natural to me. — Robusto 49 secs ago

Robusto

Yes?

RegDwighт

@Robusto I actually started editing that in (and other stuff as well such as dependent clauses hanging on the problems etc.), but quickly realized I entered a world of pain, and with every letter I added the OP would only understand less.

Robusto

7:57 PM

So often true.

RegDwighт

I mean, they should frigging provide the full context, then we can talk.

I actually wanted to comment, but seemed to run out of space, which is why it's an answer at all.

Robusto

They should all not have stupid problems that are beneath the level of dignity we should enjoy as masters of the English language.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…