ELL's Cabin

Pandya

07:01

There are two meaning of mythology as mentioned in this answer.

Is there any more suitable word that doesn't lead such confusion:

> we're not saying that the story is false or fictional. We're simply saying that the question concerns one of the "stories that are part of Hindu religious beliefs"

Anonymous

14:05

@Cardinal In English, relative clauses generally have something called a "gap".

3

Anonymous

> I don't know the name of these files.

Anonymous

> the files [ that I don't know the name of ＿＿ ]

Anonymous

In the relative clause "that I don't know the name of", there's a gap at the end. Something's missing.

Anonymous

The head noun files, outside the relative clause, fills in that gap semantically.

Anonymous

In your sentence:

Anonymous

14:07

> I can't ignore the files [ that I don't know its name ]

Anonymous

You don't have a gap.

Anonymous

Instead, you have a special kind of pronoun called a "resumptive" pronoun. Although English speakers occasionally use these, most speakers think they don't sound very good, and many would agree that your example is ungrammatical or non-standard. (At the very least, it would be their rather than its.)

Anonymous

You should avoid resumptive pronouns in English whenever you can. Instead, rewrite it so that the relative clause has a gap:

Anonymous

> I can't ignore the files [ that I don't know the name of ＿＿ ]

Anonymous

Or, depending on what exactly you wanted to express, this might be more natural:

Anonymous

14:10

> I can't ignore the files if I don't know what they're called.

Anonymous

This sidesteps the question of grammar, of course, so I wanted to cover that first :-)

Anonymous

> I can't ignore the files if you don't tell me what their names are.

Anonymous

If I had a little bit of context for the sentence I might be able to come up with a natural sounding paraphrase :-)

Anonymous

But it's hard to tell what would sound most natural without context.

CowperKettle

I finally decided to start to use Anki. Gosh, it's so cryptic.

Good evening, @snailplane!

Cardinal

14:25

Thank you Snail

Do you mean Anki flash cards ? What is that ! :)

@CowperKettle

CowperKettle

@Cardinal Yes. It's hard to understand how they work though. Too many settings.

Cardinal

:))

CowperKettle

But I set up two sets of records, and started learning new words.

Cardinal

Did you try Memrise ?

It is awesome !

CowperKettle

@Cardinal Does it have an offline application?

Cardinal

14:30

I am not sure

CowperKettle

It's basically a flashcard thing too?

I'll try Anki for a while.

Cardinal

I have it on my android phone

Yeah, It is something more than a flashcards

CowperKettle

My phone is Nokia Lumia, a windows phone

Cardinal

It has writing excercize

You can try the web-based application

wait a sec

memrise.com

CowperKettle

Can I add my own glossary?

Cardinal

14:32

you can join with your google account

yeah

you can create courses

CowperKettle

I want to study, say GMP Practices words, and pipe manufacturing. I doubt there are such courses. (0:

Cardinal

then, it will generates questions

:)))

In fact, Memrise is not dedicated to English learning

there are a lot of courses

Languages and science

:))

CowperKettle

I added a new term in my course titled GMP, but it did not appear in it.

Found it

CTRL + Enter did it

Cardinal

But I am not sure there be many specialized words although you can create a course on your own

CowperKettle

I pushed "Learn", and it showed me both the original word and the translation!

Cardinal

14:38

I mean a course which had been created by someone else

CowperKettle

What's the matter..

Cardinal

It is teaching you new words ! :))

CowperKettle

?!

Cardinal

I mean

CowperKettle

I thought it should ask me to recall the word

Cardinal

14:39

it firstly teach

and then asks questions

CowperKettle

Now it asks me the question: select the proper translation from 4 options. And all the 4 options are the correct translation.

D'oh

Quite moronic.

Cardinal

:))

CowperKettle

Where should I enter the incorrect 3 options?

(As the creator of the course, I mean)

Cardinal

I did create any course so far

CowperKettle

ah, okay

Cardinal

14:41

I see your points

CowperKettle

I'm not Omid

Cardinal

It is one my course, if you click on the review, then it provides you with excellent questions which include writing and pronounciation

It is me !

CowperKettle

Ah, glad to know you!

Cardinal

I just want to show you how its work

working

CowperKettle

nods

BBL!

Cardinal

14:44

BBL

Nihilist_Frost

14:57

Thank you all for your compliment. I am from Nepal. My native languages is Nepalese." /ʤ/, /ð/, /ʃ/, /ju/" so at least help in these sounds to improve better. — Subham K 19 hours ago

Nepali phonology

Nepali is the national language of Nepal. Besides being spoken as a mother tongue by more than 48% of the population of Nepal, it is also spoken in Bhutan and India. The language is recognized in the Nepali constitution as an official language of Nepal. The variety presented here is standard Nepali as spoken in Nepal. There are three major dialects: eastern, central, and western. Though many dialects can be distinguished in Nepal and other South Asian countries, there is reported to be little variation in phonology from one to another. == Vowels == Nepali has 11 phonologically distinctive vowels...

Færd

15:47

Can you look to a dictionary/encyclopedia/etc to find something? I've seen it a couple times around here: 1, 2.

Cardinal

15:59

@snailplane Where can I read more about this "gap". I want to exercise. Is there a general term or jargon for such clauses? Many Thanks

CowperKettle

16:13

What I hate about the Anki website manual, is that nothing is explained.

It just burrows down into technical details.

There is no simple explanation of how it works

Cardinal

@CowperKettle Do you use it on the PC ?

CowperKettle

Yes, it's a PC program

Cardinal

Yes, it bothered me too

but, it is a powerful software

CowperKettle

How it decides what cards to show? Why I can't repeat the study? What do the numbers mean above the buttons? Some strange three numbers.

Cardinal

I think, after you answered you can assess the word

CowperKettle

16:20

I have only three buttons at the bottom

Again, Good, Easy

Cardinal

lol

CowperKettle

And a set of three differently colored numbers

Cardinal

colors, I think, mean how many words did you miss or pass

The green shows how many words left

I totally agree with you :))

CowperKettle

?

Cardinal

It is complicated

I do not use it

CowperKettle

16:25

I'm just trying to read the manual. I'll just try to use it and maybe some knowledge will percolate into my brain.

Cardinal

I created some cards long time ago

CowperKettle

Maybe it's just a fad and is not really helpful

Cardinal

maybe

I knew another flashcard software

jmemorize.en.softonic.com

have a look

maybe it helps you

CowperKettle

Thank you! I'll check it out!

Cardinal

YW

CowperKettle

16:41

0

Q: Meaning of "the bents were jealous else" in Browning's Childe Roland

From Browning's Childe Roland: If there push’d any ragged thistle-stalk Above its mates, the head was chopp’d; the bents Were jealous else. What made those holes and rents In the dock’s harsh swarth leaves, bruis’d as to baulk All hope of greenness? ’T is a brute must walk Pas...

From G K Chesterton

Damkerng T.

@CowperKettle Repetition, repetition, repetition. (I suppose)

(I learned that from Avatar, BTW.)

CowperKettle

(0:

Damkerng T.

According to the movie, language skills are less important than those skills of controlling flying dragons, though, apparently. :P

CowperKettle

16:57

"Otherwise the bents would be jealous" -- the low grasses would be jealous of the taller thistles. This were is another irrealis. — StoneyB 2 mins ago

Another weird irrealis.

Damkerng T.

Because poetic! I guess.

Damkerng T.

17:14

@Pandya I agree with the Keshav Srinivasan -- mythology should be fine. I'm not sure about Hinduism, but in Buddhism, the stories in Jataka are usually referred to as tales. Personally, I wouldn't associate the truthfulness of any English word choice in translation with it. It is what it is, and translation is only a "proxy". (What I mean is that, if we really want to be accurate, we can't translate the idea.)

Damkerng T.

18:12

^funny that I forgot to delete "the" when I pasted Keshav Srinivasan's name over "the OP". :-)

Hi, @Cardinal!

"Gap" is nothing complicated if you know how to combine sentences (aka clauses) well.

I share the same problem (resumptive pronouns) because my first language allows all possibilities.

Cardinal

18:51

Hi bro

I want to avoid making a mistake again and again

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal It's actually quite straightforward if you think of simple clauses before the combination. If you keep doing it for a while, you'll likely be able to figure the pattern out, naturally.

StoneyB

22:17

@CowperKettle It's not at all weird that that clause is cast as an irrealis: it's dictated by the counterfactual situation. The only departure from ordinary PDE is the use of the past form of be where PDE demands a construction with a modal auxiliary; but Browning was sitting about halfway between EModE and PDE and his model was the Elizabethans, for whom such head-clause "subjunctives" were still common.

Anonymous

22:37

@Cardinal Look up relative clauses.

Anonymous

@Færd In the English I speak, that's ungrammatical.

Anonymous

@CowperKettle Anki is a SuperMemo clone.

Anonymous

If you want to learn more about the algorithm and how it's supposed to work, look up SuperMemo.

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