English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

1:13 AM

Tonepoet coughs @tchrist

3:11 AM

Zun, you clever, clever Japanese son of a cynic. I never knew the word native had an etymological links to the word naive.

Cerberus

4:03 AM

0

A: Is there a well-known secular sentence that uses all three of the imperative, indicative, and subjunctive moods?

Well, subjunctive mood is a bit opaque to me, and it's more than one sentence, but perhaps Just sit right back And you'll hear a tale A tale of a fateful trip, That started from this tropic port, Aboard this tiny ship. ... The weather started getting rough,...

Who deleted Lawrence's comment here, and why?

I want to comment that there's no subjunctive in the answer, but I don't wan to repeat someone else.

I'd rather not have such informative comments removed, if it was what it appears to have been.

SmokeDetector

4:29 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive answer detected: Is there a word in-between "vegetarian" and "non-vegetarian"? by Not Jim on english.stackexchange.com

Cerberus

Who is the "community" here exactly?

The answer mentioned in the above link has been deleted.

suməlic

5:33 AM

I think it was possible to delete it with fewer flags because it had a "bad word" in it.

@Cerberus: whoops I forgot to ping with previous comment.

user227867

6:01 AM

I think Smoke Detector is too noisy.

NVZ

6:33 AM

Need to close two questions as dupes:

2

Q: One who loves science

Would I be off base if I suggested (or created) the word "sciophile"? Meaning "one who loves science".

3

Q: Lover of Science

What is the word that describes a lover of general science? A philomath is a lover of learning and a philonoist is one who seeks knowledge. I am looking for a word that ends in 'phile

single-word-requests

Tonepoet

8:23 AM

@Lawrence Okay, pinged back into the general chat are ye.

Lawrence

@Tonepoet Aye. I'm 'ere.

@Cerberus Takes 3 to delete. You sure they weren't just your other two heads? :P

Tonepoet

@Cerberus Community seems to be the name for the automated script processes, as well as anonymous posters in some circumstances. Checking the profile reveals that it's not a human being and some of its responsibilities.

Lawrence

@Cerberus I deleted my own comment because the answerer (1006a) pointed out that they'd already mentioned it in the first sentence (about the quote not being a single sentence).

I don't think I mentioned anything about the subjunctive in my deleted comment to that answer.

@Cerberus Related:

4

Q: In exactly what circumstances can a question be deleted by Community?

Questions can be deleted for a variety of reasons, and by a variety of agents, notably including moderators, 10k+ users, and automatic processes in the server. In most cases, the deletion notice makes it fairly clear to attribute which of those agents actually deleted the question. However, it s...

discussion support deleted-questions community-user

Since Ol' Smokey was said to be involved, community probably refers to flagged deletion.

If you're referring to an answer to that non-vegetarian non-vegetarian (yes, I intended to say it that way) question, then flagged deletion is very probable.

@JasperLoy Sometimes, I think I'm too noisy.

See you all around!

Tonepoet

8:56 AM

@Lawrence Although I'm in general agreement with the sentiment that ultimately anybody who eats meat isn't a vegetarian, it might be a little more complicated than a simple binary judgement. My mother adheres to a vegetarian diet most days of the month primarily for spiritual reasons, except on certain permitted holy days. It's difficult to fully categorize her as a "non-vegetarian" when on most occasions she behaves as if she is vegetarian, even if she's not in a strict sense.

Flexitarian was a somewhat interesting answer, given that it has some support from the American Heritage Dictionary, Collins and merriam-webster. I'm a little confounded by it though.

Lawrence

9:17 AM

@Tonepoet That wasn't the hair I was trying to split. I was just trying to find out what sense of between the OP was looking for. See my replies to Mitch (1), (2).

As you point out, one could be between the two in the sense of time - some days vegetarian, some days not. They could also be between in the sense of 'category' of food - e.g. ovo-lacto-vegetarian. Or of quantity - like some Asian diets, where meat is 'sprinkled' on top of a predominantly vegetarian meal. Or perhaps something else altogether. The OP doesn't say - that was my point.

Tonepoet

@Lawrence Would you mind meeting me in the reviewer's chatroom? =P

Lawrence

Maybe it was the term non-vegetarian for which we don't have a common understanding. It could be construed as a diet on exclusively-meat or not exclusively plants. (I'd consider the latter to be more idiomatic.)

@Tonepoet Rathony's room? I'll pop over now.

DEAD

10:02 AM

Where is Rathony anyway?

I thought he was unsuspended?

Tonepoet

10:22 AM

@DEAD No, he's not. He won't be until the 23rd of October. I saw him momentarily but he was unable to chat.

user227867

10:45 AM

Birds are chirping outside my windows.

Lawrence

12:54 PM

@Tonepoet Would you mind if I referenced your bookmark in the vegetarian question? I'd like to close the loop there.

Tonepoet

@Lawrence I don't mind at all.

Lawrence

@Tonepoet Ok, thanks.

Mitch

1:12 PM

@Lawrence There are some ethnicities that subsist almost entirely on animal products, mostly groups that live in fringe environments without much vegetation, like Inuit/Chukchi or Tierra del Fuegans.

Lawrence

@Mitch Indeed. It has also been said of the Mongols. I think they had livestock but were nomadic.

Cerberus

@suməlic Ahh interesting, I didn't know!

Mitch

Yes, the OP has not explained what they want, so the field is wide open for a huge interpretation.

Cerberus

@Lawrence Haha you found me out...

Mitch

@Lawrence I'm pretty sure they were big yogurt eaters

Cerberus

1:14 PM

@Tonepoet That I know, but I was wondering what it had been in this case.

Mitch

@Lawrence nomads like that tend to be foragers (in addition to livestock herders)

Cerberus

@Lawrence Ahh I see. I suppose the answer did contain a past subjunctive at any rate.

Lawrence

@Mitch Yup. Unfortunately, they haven't come back to answer my questions. Anyway, I'm satisfied with the outcome of the discussion linked in my comment.

@Mitch I noticed you leaving a few comments to mine. I hope my replies have been appropriate.

Mitch

My reading between the lines is that he really wants to know what the English word is for something he already knows in his own language.

Lawrence

@Cerberus Heh. :)

Mitch

1:16 PM

@Lawrence Yes, they were fine. Unfortunately tchrist moved them to chat.

Lawrence

@Mitch I wonder what they ate for, well, plant ... stuff.

tchrist

@Mitch Why unfortunately?

Lawrence

@Mitch That comes from the last sentence in the question. But the penultimate is a question - and from the rest of the question on closer reading, I now think that's the main question.

Mitch

@Lawrence nuts, berries, grass seeds, roots, herbs they found along the way...basically the same crops we have but just not selected for and managed.

Tonepoet

@Cerberus When you have enough rep. one user's vote can delete a question all on its own right? Maybe the community mod. is how that's scripted to work?

Mitch

1:24 PM

@tchrist I don't think comment chains are always so worthless. (I had one with links in them that I thought were useful for nuance to the OP, for the OP to see and comment on. Yes, that particular chain had some things that were irrelevant, but not all.

tchrist

@Mitch If they had been worthless, they'd have been deleted not moved. :)

Cerberus

@suməlic @Tonepoet "Users with reputation ≥ 20k (more precisely, the trusted-user privilege; 4k on beta sites) are not subject to the 48-hour waiting period for deleting closed questions with a score of −3 or lower. They may also delete answers of score −1 or lower, unless they are accepted. It takes three votes to delete an answer."

It still seems to require three votes, then.

Faheem Mitha

Hi guys. Help me out. Which is correct - "check in", "check-in" or "checkin"? The last of these looks wrong. Similarly, what is correct? "check out", "check-out", or "checkout"?

Lawrence

@Mitch I wonder why Mongolian food in Chinese restaurants don't feature much (anything?) that is green. Then again, I'm sure Mongolians cook more types of food at home than what gets served up in their name at restaurants.

Faheem Mitha

Hi @Cerberus.

Cerberus

1:26 PM

> The system will automatically delete any post flagged six times as offensive or spam.

Hmm.

tchrist

@Cerberus Questions can take more than three delete votes to dispatch. It takes one more for every 20 score that the question and all its answers together have.

Lawrence

@Cerberus When I looked at the quote of Gilligan's Island's theme song again, I wondered whether the last two line were in the subjunctive mood as claimed.

Mitch

@tchrist so there're degrees of worthlessness, sure, but I'm saying that that not all of that chain was above the 'move to chat threshold'. Can you move my comment (the one with links) back to the comment?

Tonepoet

@FaheemMitha The hyphen renders words semantically indivisible. We can't know without the full sentence for "check-in/check in".

tchrist

@Lawrence Yes, but elided.

@Mitch Yes.

Cerberus

1:27 PM

@tchrist It was an answer.

Faheem Mitha

@Tonepoet Oh.

Cerberus

@FaheemMitha Verb check in, noun check-in.

And hello.

Faheem Mitha

@Cerberus Oh. I see. Do you happen to have a reference for that?

Cerberus

@Lawrence Would is either simple past or past subjunctive. In the quotation, it was past subjunctive.

Faheem Mitha

What about "check out"?

Mitch

1:28 PM

@FaheemMitha It's complicated. Isn't there an ELU question about it? Did you search for that?

Faheem Mitha

"checkout" looks Ok.

@Mitch Search for check in/check out?

Cerberus

Same as check(-)in.

Lawrence

@FaheemMitha I think the hyphenated form is (currently) idiomatic for things like registration.

Cerberus

Maybe if you want to be "modern" you could drop the hyphen sometimes, but I prefer traditional styles.

You check out of the hotel. You get your passport back upon check-out.

Tonepoet

@Cerberus Actually, I think checkout is a valid noun for places where you check out of somewhere.

tchrist

1:30 PM

@Mitch done

Cerberus

"Valid"...

At some point, hyphens in compound nouns may be dropped, but I'm not quite ready for that in check-out.

Tonepoet

I'm talking about cases where you use noun adjuncts like the checkout desk of a hotel or the checkout line at a grocery store.

Cerberus

The aeroplane was ready for take-off. It was about to take off when a Cerberus stepped onto the runway.

Lawrence

When taken as part of "If not for the courage of the fearless crew
The Minnow would be lost.", because of the "If"?

Cerberus

The check-out line.

Mitch

1:33 PM

@Lawrence That also is complicated. Food in restaurants is far from native food (mostly 'intepreted'). Frankly, hot peppers (like potatoes and tomatoes for italian food) are 'New World' plants and didn't exist in Asia until trade eventually got them to Northern China/South Asia

@tchrist thanks.

Lawrence

@Cerberus Ok, thanks. I thought I had it on first reading, lost it on second, and I think I've got it again now. :)

Cerberus

@Lawrence If you have a main clause with past subjunctive would with an if clause, then the if clause is normally also in the past subjunctive.

Mitch

@Cerberus should get off the tarmac before he gets run over

Cerberus

Yay.

tchrist

Look what the cat drug in.

Cerberus