English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

3:59 AM

Maybe Kit should not change titles and stuff since it seems people feel their toes are being stepped on

(reading the transcript it almost feels like Kit is trolling)

Although now I have looked at all of the old subtitles, this is the most professional, so now I am lost.

@Cerberus Come back and teach me the ways.

the hoi polloi
the hoi polloi
the hoi polloi

user174558

10:17 AM

@I'mmostlyjustanidiot It feels as if you are trolling.

10:32 AM

@JasperLoy I don't troll.

@JasperLoy I'm just an almond.

user174558

11:09 AM

@I'mmostlyjustanidiot Hi. You are interesting.

@JasperLoy Why am I interesting?

user174558

@I'mmostlyjustanidiot You say interesting things all the time.

Or is it 'How am I interesting?'?

Also are two question marks acceptable in that case?

user174558

You only need the first one. The second should be omitted, according to a guide I read.

So I should say, "Or is it, 'How am I interesting?'"

user174558

11:11 AM

I don't know. I gave up on punctuation long ago, too many different guides.

Also you may notice, I omitted the second question mark above.(In and out of the double quotations)

user174558

Are you a math grad student?

I am just an almond and an idiot.

user174558

Be serious. I told you I was not.

I am not a student right now.

I will be when I am ready.

user174558

11:13 AM

Are you a mental patient, like me?

No, just not intelligent. I need to prepare for a year longer than the other students.

user174558

Prepare for undergrad or grad?

Why can't I find a definition of an Algebra over a field consistent with the definition given in the Commutative Algebra room?

I am preparing for the 4th year of an undergraduate degree, but don't try to hold me up to the standards of a 3rd year.

user174558

Oh I see. Sounds like part III of the Tripos, LOL.

What are the Tripos'?

user174558

11:16 AM

You don't know?

No.

user174558

Cambridge Mathematical Tripos is the name given to the math undergrad course.

Oh, sounds fascinating. I will search on google for it, thanks!

user174558

I consider the 3 year course the most comprehensive in the world.

user174558

However, for 4 year courses, I prefer the Warwick one.

user174558

11:18 AM

Not going to Cambridge is one of the biggest pains in my life.

user174558

I could have gone if I did not become a mental patient.

user174558

Ah, I think lots of folks have ignored me in the math room, because I don't talk much math, and I talk too much drama.

The math room doesn't have much talking anyway. At least not in the time I have been there. Although neither does this room. I hope it is because of Thanksgiving. Did you see Robusto's meta post before it was deleted?

user174558

No, it's nothing. He and Cerb were removed as room owners, that is all. They make a big fuss over nothing.

Do you think it is a big fuss over nothing? I think I would really like to be a room owner, it would make me feel good.

user174558

11:23 AM

Yes, it is a big fuss over nothing, they are nuts.

Do you not like them?

user174558

I do not dislike them.

user174558

I like a few people in this room, like Kit.

user174558

Also, a few people in this room have hurt me before.

user174558

I may also have hurt a few people in this room.

11:26 AM

Can I ask you which people in this room have hurt you before, and who you have hurt here before?

user174558

That is a top secret.

Okay.

Does typing with a full stop make me sound less friendly?

user174558

The history of this room goes back to four years ago.

user174558

I have been on SE for four years, but I deleted about ten accounts, so my current account is new.

user174558

I know about quite a lot of drama over the four years, and I was also part of some of them.

11:27 AM

Oh okay, I thought we could be relatively new together.

user174558

You are an interesting guy because your sentences sound as if I typed them.

@JasperLoy It might be the full stops.

user174558

It feels like we are twins or something, lol.

user174558

But you use okay and I like OK.

Maybe we knew each other in another life.

user174558

11:29 AM

Did you know that OK came before okay?

Is 'each other' two words?

user174558

Yes, it is.

@JasperLoy I didn't know this, no.

user174558

@I'mmostlyjustanidiot You can look up the origin of OK, pretty interesting.

@JasperLoy OK.

user174558

11:31 AM

@I'mmostlyjustanidiot There are two reasons I use OK and not okay. One, it came first. Two, it is shorter.

user174558

:25747886 Same thing, DJ came before deejay and MC came before emcee.

Where can I read about OK?

user174558

You are smart enough to figure out.

Oh I see. Google shows me a picture.

All correct $\mapsto$ orl korrect $\mapsto$ OK

user174558

Are you planning to be a mathematician?

11:33 AM

I don't know right now. I must become good at mathematics first.

user174558

I see. I have been a mental patient for too long. I might have won the Fields medal if I were sane.

If I were smart, maybe my motivation would have made me like Terry Tao.

user174558

My mum is back. I am going to eat dinner, bye.

Good bye, I'll think of you.

crl

12:36 PM

@JohanLarsson He left?

Johan Larsson

Think so, looks like Cerb lost interest also.

Hope it blows over.

crl

not coming too often too :)

user174558

I have no need to come either.

user174558

The French seem very polite. Every time I email this company, they reply very formally.

1:55 PM

@JasperLoy Perhaps they are Swiss.

@Cerberus You should ask some questions about Portuguese.

Hello.

How do you mean?

@I'mmostlyjustanidiot Noooo not that!!

facepaw

Who told you...

Q: Why the infinitive in Portuguese "Cartago tem que ser destruída"?

@Cerberus I remember you having questions about Portuguese that arose during your soap-opera addiction. :)

I also recall this, although I don’t by any means intend to imply that you should repeat this particular question:

6

Cartago tem que ser destruída. "Carthage must be destroyed." I'm wondering about the infinitive (ser): where does it come from? In what situations is the infinitive used after que: only with ter + que, or also with other verbs? It looks strange to me, because I don't know of any similar con...

Ah, that.

So you were talking about the Portuguese site.

I'll keep it in mind.

But my Portuguese phase seems to have been suspended.

Listened to too many fados.

@Cerberus Yes. We could use more questions, pretty much point blank, but I would like to see more linguisticky questions especially.

I should have gin-and-tonics with my Brazilian friend again.

Gins-and-tonics?

2:10 PM

No, the former.

Still, the incongruity...

Oddly, we say "gin tonics" in Dutch.

You inflect the entire noun phase at once, at if it were the Queen of England’s hat.

@Cerberus Doesn’t everybody?

@tchrist But I generally don't like that.

@tchrist But not even in writing.

I recommend against merries-go-round and apples-cart.

But merry is not a noun, is it?

And a compound with and inside is different from the standard noun-noun compound.

List of Portuguese telenovelas

2:18 PM

@Cerberus In Spain un gin-tonic comes out mostly like [ũʤĩˈt̪õ̞ni], or [ũʤĩˈt̪õ̞ni] if that renders better.

Nope: renders rather nastily here.

@Cerberus The thing is, a gin-and-tonic is like a ham-and-cheese.

It counts as one thing.

You don’t get two hams-and-cheeses.

We need six ham-and-cheeses and two peanut-butter-and-jellies.

Bit of a loose way to speak, but there it is.

This is a list of Portuguese telenovelas....

I think it is better argued that gin-and-tonic is short for gin-and-tonic cocktail or something, just like ham-and-cheese sandwich.

Meh, I've no desire to become addicted again...

I also stopped watching Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey long ago.

I’ve not watched the latter.

The former became very difficult to watch last series. First, it’s incredibly nasty. But second, I’m just too damned picky.

There are things that are cool enough, but it’s hard to pick and choose.

Aren't we all?

I suppose not.

There are scenes in the last series that I simply refuse ever to behold. They would forever fill my nightmares.

Can you eat peanut butter?

While it never gripped me like that, I agree the nastiness is annoying and detracts from it.

I can, but why?

Do you have nightmares of peanut butter?

2:28 PM

Do I sound French to you?

You'll have to try harder.

I rather like peanut butter, at least at times.

I wondered whether the distaste for peanut butter had spread to the Low Countries yet.

Is it a thing that spreads?

It has always been quite popular here.

It’s peanut butter: of course it spreads. :)

But I've never been a huge fan. I eat it occasionally.

In Dutch, it's pindakaas, not butter.

I believe that is owing to some trademark issue.

2:30 PM

Why do they French hate peanut butter? 589k results

@Cerberus Calling it cheese is interesting. I know various “butters” which derive from vegetable products, but not so many cheeses.

Nutmeats.

The thing is, I don't like peanuts.

Peanut butter is better, but still not great.

Some peanuts are better than others.

Not in my experience.

I learned recently that they're not even nuts, but beans.

I like nuts; not beans.

Well, I don't like grilled beans, it seems.

Well, there’s the unshelled kind, the oil-roasted kind, and the dry-roasted kind. Oh and the raw and unsalted kinds.

Meh they all taste like peanuts.

2:35 PM

I like edamame, but only chilled and salted.

Or, as the traditional Dutch word is, apenoten.

Ape nuts.

For peanuts, the dry-roasted kind are usually tastier to me.

Oh, the green Japanese bean-pods? Meh. They're all right, but not very interesting.

American bars put out salted but unshelled peanuts as Japanese ones put out salted but unshelled edamame.

This provides salt that the patrons might drink more beer.

They often put out shelled, grilled, salted peanuts here. Probably because they're cheap.

2:37 PM

And it takes them a while to go through the hulls.

@tchrist Yes, same reason.

Newcomers to unshelled peanuts and edamame seem to take a really long time prying out the tasty parts, whereas the experienced leguminavore downs them as fast as his hand-and-mouth coördination permits.

I imagine you enjoy dill pickles now and again.

That’s another food the taste for which we acquire as children, but those who do not may not ever come to appreciate or even tolerate it.

I do not know whether it is true, but allegedly you can gross out certain East Asians who’ve never been abroad with dill pickles. I guess they don’t have dill growing up.

The unsavory combination of peanut butter and dill pickles, however, is reserved to the gravid in the throes of madness.

We all have various notions about what flavors combine.

We just don't all have the same notions.

Dill pickles?

Dill does not appear to figure in Japanese dishes, although it is not uncommon in Subcontinental cooking.

Never heard of those.

2:45 PM

@Cerberus Fibber!

What do you make pickles out of in the land of holes, doughnuts?

I like dill well enough, especially with fish.

So you're talked about pickling dill itself?

I'm not a huge fan of vinegar, so I don't often eat pickles.

No, it’s me being silly. I mean pickling cucumbers with dill in the vinegar.

For some reason I imagined dill pickles as being German.

> There is no vinegar used in the brine of naturally fermented pickled cucumbers.

Hm.

> Typically, small cucumbers are placed in a glass or ceramic vessel or a wooden barrel, together with a variety of spices. Among those traditionally used in many recipes are garlic, horseradish, whole dill stems with umbels and green seeds, white mustard seeds, grape, oak, cherry, blackcurrant and bay laurel leaves, dried allspice fruits, and—most importantly—salt.

"Allspice"?

I hope they are kidding.

The only pickles we have here always taste the same: vinegary.

I generally like fermentation.

Although I've heard various kinds of fermentation in Asian pickles cause cancer.

Just like food that is too hot.

2:50 PM

Allspice is a sweet spice that you often get in sweet baked goods that have things like cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, ginger in them.

(Of course I mean temporal hot, not peppers.)

@tchrist That sounds like a brand?

We have some similar spice mixes, though none are known by brand names.

Speculaaskruiden, for example.

@Cerberus You’d think so, but it’s not.

Allspice

Allspice, also called Jamaica pepper, pepper, myrtle pepper, pimenta, Turkish Yenibahar, English pepper or newspice, is the dried unripe fruit (berries, used as a spice) of Pimenta dioica, a midcanopy tree native to the Greater Antilles, southern Mexico, and Central America, now cultivated in many warm parts of the world. The name 'allspice' was coined as early as 1621 by the English, who thought it combined the flavour of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Several unrelated fragrant shrubs are called "Carolina allspice" (Calycanthus floridus), "Japanese allspice" (Chimonanthus praecox), or "wild allspice...

Odd.

But I have to go.

Bye

Bake some nice spiced cookies.

2:52 PM

Better than summer pickles now.

It was 10 degrees again this morning.

Normal Rockwell was here.

@Cerberus Overnight crisp pickles for a summer picnic: thinly slice cucumbers along with a few very thinly sliced onions, perhaps with radishes or kohlrabi if you have any on hand, and layer these in a container with fresh dill umbels interspersed (I’ve also used fresh fennel umbels in addition to the critical dill). Add cider vinegar, water, and salt to your preferred taste and let sit overnight in the fridge, up to 48h. Serve very cold and crunchy.

The truly decadent mix in a bit of sour cream right before serving.

3:24 PM

@tchrist spanish has nasal vowels?

3:46 PM

@Mitch Phonetically yes, phonemically no.

SmokeDetector

4:02 PM

[ SmokeDetector ] Bad keyword in title: Semicolon usage: I've got the truck; now I need some muscle by slammins on english.stackexchange.com

SmokeDetector

7:55 PM

[ SmokeDetector ] Offensive answer detected: "Room" versus "space" (in the sense of unoccupied volume) by blackdick69 on english.stackexchange.com

user174558

8:38 PM

Hello @kit.

Kit Z. Fox

Hello @jasper.

user174558

How was your Thanksgiving? How are things with your mum?

user174558

I just had some wine.

user174558

It's terribly hot here.

user174558

I guess you are busy, bye.

Kit Z. Fox

8:50 PM

@JasperLoy My Thanksgiving was great, thank you. I still don't speak to my mum.

@JasperLoy Oh. Bye!

user174558

9:30 PM

@KitZ.Fox I see. My father is still not living with us. I still get nightmares almost every night.

10:18 PM

@Mitch TMD

user174558

@tchrist How was your Thanksgiving?

@JasperLoy Frigid.

10:58 PM

> How be on? It be a bit dimpsy, bain’t it? Gi’s a gurt big pint of thee best zider.

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector ] Offensive answer detected: Why is "q" followed by a "u"? by user149415 on english.stackexchange.com

@tchrist Truly Madly Deeply?

Too much drama.

I was going to reopen that really bad question, but the user’s abusive comments made me stay my hand.

I try to be rational.

I know.

11:08 PM

@tchrist But that dude is such a dick

I wasn't saying that you were the source.

@tchrist I'm the source of the drama? I thought I came after it.

No, you are not.

@tchrist Oh.

But I imagine somebody else will be coming after it soon enough.

Did you know that rustics used to pronounce mash as marsh?

11:11 PM

@tchrist Schade. I prefer 'Time Manipulation Device'

I went a-chasin' after that 'un.

@Mitch Oh, that's another TMD.

@tchrist sounds like it needs warshing

OED lists marsh as 18th century.

For mash.

and 'mush' for dogs is from 'marche' a la française

So the "intrusive r" that isn't "supposed" to occur in rhotic dialects does occur under certain circumstances. It's just not the linking version.

11:15 PM

weird

Garsh dern it.

I say 'durn'

actually 'dang', but when I want to mince that it's 'durn'

Hulk smarsh.

West Country English

West Country English refers collectively to the English language varieties and accents used by much of the native population of South West England, the area popularly known as the West Country. The West Country is often defined as encompassing the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, and the City of Bristol; Gloucestershire and even Herefordshire and Worcestershire are sometimes also included. However, the northern and eastern boundaries of the area are hard to define. In adjacent counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and Oxfordshire it is possible to encounter...

@tchrist do they do the w-v switch often? Maybe an answer for that guys question about his teacher's accent.

@Mitch I don't think so, no.

I dunno if that person’s teacher is a native speaker.