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05:45

0

Q: List of retold classic books by credible authors, and a list of British/American authors who write "re told" books

Currently I am reading the book "Tale of Two Cities" retold by an Indian author. I am not much satisfied by the text quality of the new author. I request a list of British/American authors who write "retold" books. I also request a list of classic books which have been retold by credible source...

discussion

Mamta D

09:00

A good list can be found here: goodreads.com/shelf/show/classic-retellings

Damkerng T.

09:41

@MamtaD I upvoted the comment, but when I checked the list, I found that the books were not what I thought.

For example, I don't think Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a retelling Pride and Prejudice!

I think it sounds like the OP wants something like CliffNotes or SparkNotes, but longer.

Mamta D

09:59

I agree that not all in the list are retellings. The OP will have to go through the list to find good ones that are to his liking.

Damkerng T.

nods -- I haven't checked all the books; perhaps some of them are indeed retelling classic novels.

BTW, good evening!

Mamta D

Good evening! Are you from the same time zone as I am?

Damkerng T.

I live in the UTC+7 zone.

Mamta D

Mine is UTC + 5.30.

Damkerng T.

Got it! On the main land?

Mamta D

10:08

Yes. Have you heard of Bombay?

Damkerng T.

Yes. Not sure, but I think the name's changed, perhaps?

Mamta D

Yes, it's Mumbai now. But internationally, many folks still remember it as Bombay hence asked about that.

Damkerng T.

I see! A bunch of cities and even countries(!) changed their names in the past decade, so I try to remember the new names. I don't get the name right every time, though. :D

Mamta D

10:32

Does ELL have a blog? If not, why not? I know that ELU has one. But don't you think we should have a more basic one for beginners and new learners?

Damkerng T.

@MamtaD We could or should have one. I think there had been such an attempt even before I joined ELL. As it turned out, it never took off.

Mamta D

Yay! Let's.

Damkerng T.

I remember that we were already struggling just to cope with new questions.

@MamtaD Not sure if there already is a meta post on that. But if there isn't one, we could use a new one!

Mamta D

I understand..let's first see if we are short of hands. And then we can take a decision.

Anonymous

11:33

@MamtaD Individual site blogs on Stack Exchange haven't really been very successful . . . ELL's blog is mostly stagnant.

Anonymous

I think most things that we can post about in a blog format could also work in the Q&A format.

Anonymous

And in the Q&A format, we can focus on specific problems that learners actually face.

Anonymous

Right now, some people are trying to get us to put together Canonical Posts. Those are kind of like blog posts in a way, except that they're posted as questions and answers instead.

Anonymous

But if someone makes a canonical post that has a few problems, it can be edited and fixed up by other users.

Anonymous

If someone makes a blog post that has a few problems, I don't think it's as easy to fix.

Anonymous

11:37

So I don't know. I don't think a blog is a bad idea, but I think maybe just posting questions and answers could work a little better :-)

Anonymous

We just have to focus on improving the quality of our posts overall.

Mamta D

11:58

@snailboat Agree with you. Got it.

Damkerng T.

12:24

A very fine argument!

tchrist

12:42

@MaulikV Come hither, por favor.

Maulik V

Hi!

tchrist

Hi.

What I was thinking is that the directional opposition of coming/going words is important to learners, even though it is not always perfectly rigorous in application by native speakers.

Maulik V

So, I was concerned about creating that tag

tchrist

ELU has 7 questions with a bring-take tag, for example.

Maulik V

yes, but than such contrasting words are many

Damkerng T.

12:44

Hi

Oh, this is about the tag.

tchrist

Well, there are a few pairs, yes. I'm not completely certain they are many. But can you think of some classification that would characterize all of them?

Maulik V

Yes, tchrist created the 'come-go' tag

2

Q: Is "I'm going with you" similar to "I'm coming with you"?

For my English listening practice I am using "Audio Books". Most of them are in British English (UK audio books). In a conversation, John said, "I'm going with you" (to a music festival). Usually we use "I'm coming with you", but here John used "I'm going with you". Is this okay?

word-usage

Anonymous

It's a very important pair, though.

Maulik V

And tags are meant for an easy search. Now that easy search should come to users' mind naturally. While I can think of 'verb' or any such tag, 'come-go' is very less likely

tchrist

The difference between coming and going is a fundamental one.

Anonymous

12:47

Most languages have a pair of deictic motion verbs corresponding to come and go, but the difference between the two is often different from language to language, so it's a common problem facing learners.

Maulik V

I'd then think of 'lay-lie' as well

than-then!

Anonymous

And a deictic-motion-verbs tag would be too technical sounding.

Maulik V

but tag 'difference' or 'word-usage' may take care of it!

tchrist

@MaulikV english.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/lie-lay-lain-laid

Damkerng T.

Than-then, lay-lie, rise-raise are relatively easy.

They can be solved at the vocabulary level.

Come-go is more challenging.

Like get-be-become.

tchrist

12:48

@MaulikV May I suggest that word-usage is too general to be useful for this case on its own?

Anonymous

The difference between come and go is actually surprisingly hard to nail down. It seems like it should be easy, but it's not. An awful lot of papers have been published on the topic.

Maulik V

I don't think so. A straight question could be 'What should I use when I want to accompany my colleague' - coming or going? - Word Choice/Usage

Or maybe... May I use 'coming' instead of going here? Tag - Word-usage

Anonymous

Wow, we have 1650 questions tagged word-usage.

Maulik V

Cleaning up 'tags' is also very important it seems

tchrist

Again, this is an important enough difference that papers have been written on it. No one will find it amongst the sixteen hundred and forty-nine others.

Maulik V

12:53

Each tag has it's own merit but then why are they here, on this site is from the users' view

tchrist

*its :)

Maulik V

I don't put come-go totally down

hhm

My only concern was bringing up the tags that can be under 'differences'

not dividing it further...

tchrist

> Come and go reconsidered: Children's use of deictic verbs in contrived situations
Is he coming or going? On the acquisition of deictic verbs
On the deictic use of verbs of motion come and go in Thai
Pragmatic account of the distribution of come and go in English, Japanese and Korean
When "go" means "come": Questioning the basicness of basic motion verbs
Get, come and go; some aspects of situational grammar: a study based on a corpus drawn from Agatha Christie's writings
Deictic categories in the semantics of 'come'

Maulik V

hhmm I see

tchrist

Lots more where those come from.

Damkerng T.

12:59

My 2nd maxim: the most basic ones are the hardest

On the deictic use of verbs of motion come and go in Thai, by J Gandour (1978).

I wonder whether I would agree with the paper or how much of it I would agree with!

tchrist

If you can think of something that encompasses both come–go and bring–take besides directional-deixis, than feel free.

Damkerng T.

Still, it was from 1978, language can change.

tchrist

@DamkerngT. There was one about Thai fiction, too.

@DamkerngT. In that amount of time??

Damkerng T.

@tchrist in the usage.

tchrist

Directional modification in Thai fiction: The use of “come” and “go” in text building; RJ Bickner - Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (SEALS), 1989 - sealang.net

Damkerng T.

13:04

Ah, I can see the whole PDF of this one!

tchrist

Yup.

Come and go can also be used as chain verbs, although that’s not the topic of that particular question.

Maulik V

I agree..but then keeping up this invites other such pair as well!

tchrist

Yes, and?

Maulik V

Don't you think they all can be classified as 'difference'

tchrist

Well, or words.

Difference is little better than words.

Maulik V

13:06

of course...words is already merged!

but again word-usage or word-choice marks it as well

Anonymous

What tools are you all using to search? Google Scholar is a good tool which is freely available. You can search for deictic motion verbs or deictic come go or deictic come go thai or whatnot. When one of the results is freely accessible, a link appears on the right.

Maulik V

Then what about keeping a tag 'deictic word'

Anonymous

Deixis is actually an important topic.

Maulik V

See, my only concern is think from a learner's view

tchrist

I feel that the hither-thither deictic distinction is substantial enough to merit its own tag, although that wouldn’t be one I would choose. :)

Maulik V

13:09

what about the tag deictic word

?

Damkerng T.

Deixis is indeed important to learners, though most learners wouldn't know about the word.

Anonymous

But from a learner's point of view, come-go is a lot easier to understand and use than deictic-verbs-of-motion.

Maulik V

@snailboat hhmm I agree on this

Anonymous

Yeah, deixis-and-anaphora is rather technical sounding.

Maulik V

but then the list of deictic word would be endless if we keep on specifying each by creating different tags

what say?

tchrist

13:11

6

Q: If you go, bring/take your lunch

If you go, bring your lunch. If you go, take your lunch. Which sentence is correct?

grammar word-choice verb

There are others.

Both verb and grammar are miserable.

And should not be there.

But some deictic tag probably should be. On ELU, we use bring-take.

Maulik V

I have a different take on that. There are thousands of (non-natives who are unaware of 'specific verb' tag such as 'transitive/intransitive' they'd CERTAINLY search/put tag 'verb'

tchrist

Even if you choose to keep verb, and I don't think you should, it really needs to be renamed to verbs in the plural.

Maulik V

and for 'grammar' tag, I already answered it

tchrist

Were you planning on editing every grammar question to fix it?

Maulik V

@tchrist agreed

Anonymous

13:14

Yeah, we've got to pluralize all our concrete noun tag names so they have general reference.

tchrist

That can be done without disturbing the front page.

Maulik V

likewise, the tag 'sentences' and then classifying it further

quite similar to the case of 'words' as an umbrella tag

word -> word-usage, word-choice etc

sentences -> sentence-structure, sentence-construction etct

tchrist

The thing is, come-go has nothing to do with syntax or morphology.

Maulik V

but it has to do with 'differences' and it's very well understood by the newest to English

I don't mind keeping it...anyway

just thought from a user's view

another tag - sentence-starts!

And many more

tchrist

You know, @MaulikV, it is a shame that it requires a mod superping to get the attention of an ELL moderator in their own main chat room. What if it had been a regular user? You guys need to come by here more often. In my estimable opinion.

I am reconciled to the position that every question needs editing.

But that’s ok: one does not build up an encyclopedia of questions and answers using post-it notes stuck on refrigerators.

Maulik V

13:21

@tchrist shame?

Anonymous

It's a shame that . . . ≈ It would be better if it were not the case that . . .

Maulik V

I'm always available when it comes to ELL or anything in the interest of this site

tchrist

But a normal user could not have pinged you from the main chat room. That’s all I’m saying.

Maulik V

I'm not sure how can I make myself available to every user here...

tchrist

Simply visit the main chat room weekly.

Anonymous

13:27

You can only ping a user if they've been in chat recently.

Maulik V

0

Q: How to contact moderators

Is there a way to communicate with the moderators on ELL?

support

tchrist

And?

Let’s not discuss individual users, ok?

Maulik V

I wonder if any user comes in chat and mentions me, do I get notification?

even if I'm offline?

I think it does

tchrist

If they ping you with an at sign, and you have been here within the last week, then yes, it goes to your inbox if you do not respond within fifteen minutes.

Anonymous

So if you don't come here very often, pings won't work.

Maulik V

13:29

I see... so you suggested a week!

tchrist

I did.

Maulik V

Fine

Roger that!

:)

tchrist

I figured you just didn’t know it worked this way.

Maulik V

Yes, I did not. I've been busy cleaning up comments/deleting/flagging and all that stuff

tchrist

Deleting? Really? I didn’t know anything ever got deleted around here. :)

j/k

Maulik V

13:31

:)

Okay, leaving now

Thanks for the suggestion

Anonymous

What will we do about the tag?

tchrist

We will ping you if we need you, or are just feeling pingy. :)

Maulik V

Keeping!

Damkerng T.

@snailboat That's what I was about to ask!

Maulik V

done!

bye, take care!

Anonymous

13:33

Thanks for stopping by!

Damkerng T.

I wish we had a tagging manual. Would be nice to have.

tchrist

It really works much better on SO than here.

StoneyB

14:39

@tchrist I'm coming to think we need to overhaul all our tags, not just the meaningless monsters. But it should be done systematically, after some discussion, not just ad hoc.

Anonymous

14:58

Help me flag/delete this spam?

Anonymous

→ ell.stackexchange.com/a/70966/230

tchrist

@snailboat gone

Anonymous

Thanks! :-)

barznjy

18:22

hi

Damkerng T.

Hi!

barznjy

@DamkerngT. how are you

Damkerng T.

Good, thanks! How are you?

barznjy

I am fine. Thanks.

I have a question please.

Damkerng T.

Yes?

barznjy

18:25

can I use "contribute" for negative meaning

Damkerng T.

Hmm... could you give me an example?

barznjy

or "impact"
which one do you think is better

Damkerng T.

I can't think of one.

My 1st maxim: There's no standalone sentence.

barznjy

The results show that several factors have impacted on the degradation of the

The results show that several factors have contributed to the degradation of the

Damkerng T.

The same goes to words.

Both are acceptable imho.

tchrist

18:27

Don’t use on.

Damkerng T.

It sounds like it's in a study.

Oh, right!

barznjy

Yes. which one is more academic

Damkerng T.

They're equally good to me. Just my idea, though.

barznjy

Thank you.

Damkerng T.

No problem.

Maybe I should rearrange my maxims and put "Meaning always comes first" first.

jimsug

22:08

Re: The [Grammar] Meta-Question

Personally, I'd be happy to find a middle ground between burninating and doing nothing. There is a strong argument for doing nothing, and that is the fact that in all this time, no-one has complained about it. The slightly weaker argument is that there's so many questions tagged solely with it.

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