Conversation started Aug 2, 2015 at 10:46.
jimsug
jimsug
Aug 2, 2015 10:46
Quick straw poll: How do you read the following sentence aloud?
> I want to be an actor/choreographer
Specifically, the / character, I suppose.
Anonymous
Actor slash choreographer.
Anonymous
In my vocabulary slash is a coordinator.
Anonymous
I tend to read / that way.
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
@snailboat 猫は私が好きです。
@jimsug I read it the same way snailboat does.
I think I got it from The Producers.
jimsug
jimsug
Hmm. I've heard it stroke before, which is interesting.
Anonymous
Aug 2, 2015 10:48
@jimsug In BrE?
jimsug
jimsug
@snailboat Quite possibly. It's hard to tell where Australians get their vocabulary from, these days.
Also, somewhat related: npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/04/24/178892759/…
Anonymous
Do AuE/NZE use stroke rather than slash?
jimsug
jimsug
I know it's old news, but still.
Anonymous
In my experience stroke is a British thing and slash an American thing. My experience doesn't extend to other regions.
jimsug
jimsug
@snailboat Anecdotally, I've heard slash more often than stroke.
Anonymous
Aug 2, 2015 10:50
I think slash is also used in BrE, though.
Anonymous
A BrE speaker might know more (is slash specifically a BrE computing thing?)
Anonymous
@jimsug Oh, yes! Though slash-as-coordinator was proposed before that: languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2584
Anonymous
Sorry, I linked to the wrong message.
Anonymous
Another thing I'd wonder is if slash has been replacing stroke in BrE.
jimsug
jimsug
@snailboat It's not just its function as a coordinator, but the logical relation has extended to include elaboration, as well as alternation.
Hmm. is alternation the right word? In any case…
Anonymous
Aug 2, 2015 10:55
I've always taken the semantic relationship between lists of things joined with / to be rather vague, actually . . .
jimsug
jimsug
is it just an alternative to the comma?
Anonymous
It doesn't seem like it. You can't do stuff like "A/B/C/D and E", can you?
jimsug
jimsug
Well, without the and, I guess.
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
Except for the last element in the list, it does sound like a comma.
jimsug
jimsug
So rather than A, B, C, and D it's A/B/C/D
Also, this is where the word slash clearly couldn't be replaced by the punctuation:
> I spent all day in the UgLi [library] yesterday writing my French paper slash posting pictures of cats on my sister’s Facebook wall.
could it? Maybe.
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
Aug 2, 2015 10:58
I think I can think of it like and.
jimsug
jimsug
Ah, here:
> I really love that hot dog place on Liberty Street. Slash can we go there tomorrow?
Damkerng T.
Damkerng T.
@jimsug Hah! People really say that?
jimsug
jimsug
I mean... wherever else you can use it, / does not go there, even if it were to replace . Slash
Curzan's blog: chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2013/04/24/…
 
Conversation ended Aug 2, 2015 at 10:59.