English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

12:18 PM

Hi folks,

Where do the terms finite and non-finite (when applied to verbs/clauses) come from? Why were they first used? What do infinity/finiteness have to do with verbs/clauses?

@absconditus finite, non-finite (c.f. infinite)

etymonline.com is a good place to start with etymology queries

12:35 PM

Thanks Matt. I see you are a teach-a-man-to-fish kind of guy :)

I should have, but I was just dismayed. If I were explaining it, it'd be the first thing I introduce. It certainly isn't obvious. Even this (quasi?)-academic paper plunges right into functional distinctions, instead of explaining why the terms were introduced in the first place (http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~cowper/Cowper.finiteness.pdf). Same goes for the Cambridge Grammar (the student edition).

12:56 PM

@absconditus I guess since her paper is about defining it, saving that for the conclusion is natural. Although it would have been god of her to define phi-feature agreement so I didn't have to look it up

Robusto

@MattЭллен That is god to hear.

1:13 PM

I guess you don't need to clean your ears out

@MattЭллен Since there's no abstract, this

"I [will show] that the traditional understanding of finiteness, namely that it consists
of the ability to assign structural (nominative) case to a subject, and the possibility of having [phi]-feature agreement encoded on the verb, is essentially correct."

could have easily been fitted into the introduction. It's an academic paper, not a a joke with a punchline to be saved for the end.

If it were an SE answer, you could suggest an edit ;) as it is, maybe email her with your suggestion

:D I'll probably end up getting my ass kicked - judo? style.

http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~cowper/

1:28 PM

hi

“Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.”

I think this is not right...coz believe something of someone is often negative...

she shoulda used expect of them...

what do ya think?

1:54 PM

@absconditus Nice painting.

@MattЭллен Boo! It's already December!

@user4215 No, I don't think believe is negative. There can be miracles when you believe.

@WillHunting Thanks Will. Here's some reading on it, if you're interested

http://books.google.bg/books?id=h2ZlchNHb3MC&pg=PA346&dq=edvard+munch+the+scream+inauthor:fredric+inauthor:jameson&hl=en&sa=X&ei=WHR8VNKwN4TQygP5-oGQCg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=edvard%20munch%20the%20scream%20inauthor%3Afredric%20inauthor%3Ajameson&f=false

Pages 82-83

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Postmodernism-Cultural-Capitalism-Poetics-Social/dp/0860915379/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417442695&sr=8-1&keywords=postmodernism+or+the+cultural+logic+of+late+capitalism

@absconditus I like van Gogh's works. Too bad he was mentally ill.

2:10 PM

@WillHunting Yes it is!

@MattЭллен I should try to save myself first before trying to save others. I am so bothered by the problems in this world.

you should.

It's scary to think of how I would be able to live life if I were born in, say, Iran or North Korea. Very scary. I already cannot take it well here.

2:51 PM

@Will Hunting

No

Examples are all negative

If you say "eat your heart" out followed by the name of a famous person, you are joking that you are even better than that person:...this is from CDO but "out" is not parenthesized. Even big sites make typos?

3:07 PM

yes

is that to what question?

> Even big sites make typos?

oh i see. Am I right in thinking that it should instead be "eat your heart out"?

yes