English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

> "The first cat looked at me but was clearly more interested in Zeus," Loveman said. "The mother was clearly leery of me. I didn't do anything to shoo them away."

I have no idea how she thinks she would have “shooed” the two lions away.

tchrist

8:25 PM

Anybody wanna put this one out of its misery and give it its 5th closevote?

-5

Q: "They live [at] 18 Victoria Street"

What is the more common way to specify an address, with or without the preposition at? They live 18 Victoria Street. They live at 18 Victoria Street.

prepositions

’Twould be a mercy-killing. :)

Spam:

-2

A: Is "my wife and I's" correct, or should it be "my wife's and my"?

I met this spell through a friends description and he told me that he help him to get his wife back when another man took her from him and then i decided to try him out and i discover that he is the best and he is very powerful and just yesterday my husband whom i thought will never come back ...

user19161

8:41 PM

6

Q: Is there a word or expression for a small crush on someone?

I am not very sure if the word crush ("an intense and usually passing infatuation") can be used between two strangers. For example, a man sees a beautiful woman for the first time in his life. Could he have a crush on the woman? It seems to me that the word crush is too strong. If I want to e...

word-choice single-word-requests nouns

user19161

I think this question will become very hot.

user19161

Anyway after reading all the answers, I thought I would contribute one too.

tchrist

More spam:

-1

A: "Me and my wife" or "my wife and me"

I met this spell through a friends description and he told me that he help him to get his wife back when another man took her from him and then i decided to try him out and i discover that he is the best and he is very powerful and just yesterday my husband whom i thought will never come back ...

user19161

9:38 PM

It's quiet in chat.

tchrist

10:18 PM

0

Q: Should the genitive tag be merged with the possessive tag?

Currently, exactly two questions are tagged with the genitive tag, compared with many that are tagged with the possessive tag. Furthermore, genitive has no tag wiki, whereas possessive does. I propose that one of two different things be done: either ❶ merge genitive into possessive and make it a...

discussion feature-request tag-synonyms retag-request

Or you could try to answer this:

6

Q: Whose tense is it, anyway?

I have questions which perhaps should be posted to Linguistics.SE; but since my primary concern is to discover what terminology in discussing English grammar and usage on ELU (and in similar contexts), I hope I may be allowed to post them here. Back in the early ‘60s, when I was learning to dist...

terminology tense aspect mood

Happy Easter, everyone!

RegDwighт

Bah, why oh why do people keep teaching me basic grammar like I'm a six-year old child.

tchrist

@RegDwighт Eh?

Maybe because they have six-year-old children?

RegDwighт

I know that "my wife's and my" is the usual way; I say so in the third line of the question, for crying out loud.

tchrist

Oh that.

RegDwighт

The question is not about "my wife's and my".

Yeah that.

tchrist

10:27 PM

I actually really like that question.

RegDwighт

This answer misses the point. The handy rule you've been taught — we've all been taught that handy rule. We all know that "my wife's and my" is Standard English; we all know that a stanalone "I's" is not; but this question is about neither. It's about a peculiar construction produced by a native speaker (who himself is well aware that it's non-standard) and an attempt by another native speaker at an explanation of why it was possible for it to be produced in the first place. This question is all about putting that explanation to test, and the top and accepted answer adequately does just that. — RegDwighт 2 mins ago

Really, you'd think people would stop for a second to gaze in awe at that Kosmic beauty.

tchrist

They don’t understand that the apostrophe-s applies to a phrase, not just to a noun.

That’s what prompted me to chase down the so-called Norman-vs-Saxon genitive, and spawned my meta-question.

I was thinking that it was nohat who had the canonical answer, not kosmo, so it took me a bit of sifting.

RegDwighт

I do have to blame Lauren, in part.

For changing the title.

Which is why I rolled it back, at last.

Should have done it earlier, I guess.

user19161

I saw you edited your question and I gave you +1. So now you owe me a coffee.

RegDwighт

You mean beer?

Before you whoosh yourself,

Jun 8 '11 at 14:38, by RegDwight

►

tchrist

10:34 PM

I originally commented with the crossrefs the one that kit deleted, so it took me a sec to find the other one.

RegDwighт

@tchrist so what's with the tags?

tchrist

Which part?

RegDwighт

The part that it just looks funny and does nothing beyond that.

tchrist

The featured link is hot, oddly enough.

RegDwighт

It doesn't tag your question thus, it just sits there.

tchrist

10:34 PM

That I do not understand.

Yes, I know.

RegDwighт

How you mean that?

I mean, hot.

tchrist

It’s a proper link, with a pop-up.

RegDwighт

Fcourse.

tchrist

Why?

Because it is meta?

RegDwighт

Oh wait, with a pop-up?

Hm.

tchrist

10:35 PM

Yes!

RegDwighт

Das ist komisch.

tchrist

Funny odd, too.

RegDwighт

The link part is expected behavior. That's what the tag tag is there for. Why it expands, no idea. The other tags behave normally.

Go post a bug or sumtin.

Meanwhile, I have Boogie Nights on hold.

tchrist

is very afraid

RegDwighт

Funny, I just misspole it Boobie Nights.

How very fitting.

tchrist

10:39 PM

Bootie Nights.

RegDwighт

That, too.

tchrist

Go and watch it.

First time through?

RegDwighт

I've seen it a couple times, but never in English. Well, not the whole thing anyway.

user19161

Did I hear boobs?

user19161

Puts on glasses

tchrist

10:40 PM

Glasses on your ears?

RegDwighт

Did I hear glasses? puts on boobs

Anyway, some 40 minutes to go. Guess I'll drop by later. Or not. We'll see, we'll see.

tchrist

See ya.

user19161

Hmm, I now have 7 questions with a thousand views each.

tchrist

Sure this one is on its way to a gold badge:

0

A: The word describing being in a steady & boring situation for long time

boring or tedious or raylay or retarded or slow or not fun

Because nobody but nobody knows what raylay means.

Wow, I’ve cast 43 votes today.

tchrist

11:43 PM

I swear, we should block “grammatically correct” from question titles!

@Mahnax How can it be too yucky out for raining? You mean it’s sleeting?

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…