Language Overflow - 2015-10-05 (page 1 of 2)

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1:52 AM

2

A: Hungary 1956 or Czechoslovakia 1968 this is not

It is grammatically correct. While less common, this kind of inversion is not that unusual. It's typically used for emphasis. The semantic meaning of the bolded sentence is identical to: This is not Hungary 1956 or Czechoslovakia 1968. but with the inversion the implied disparity between "th...

That is not inversion.

VSO is inversion; OSV is not. And yes, I know it’s not an object with be.

2

7 hours later…

Anonymous

8:32 AM

> inversion (n.) A term used in grammatical analysis to refer to the process or result of syntactic change in which a specific sequence of constituents is seen as the reverse of another. In English, for example, one of the main ways of forming questions is by inverting the order of subject auxiliary, e.g. Is he going? (A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 6th ed.)

Anonymous

It's not limited to subject-auxiliary inversion or subject-verb inversion, although those are common uses of the term.

Anonymous

See for example how the term is defined in The Discourse Function of Inversion in English (Birner 1996)

Anonymous

But it's true that inversion in the context of Modern English is often short for subject-auxiliary inversion.

@snailboat H or C this is not wouldn't be an inversion by that definition, if I'm not mistaken.

(Thanks for the link to a nice book!)

1

Q: difference between won't and don't in "It is high time to visit xyz headquarters if the mail won't (doesn't) come within 2 days."

"It is high time to visit xyz headquarters if the mail won't come within 2 days." Please correct this sentence. Please explain the usage of won't and doesn't.

grammar sentence-construction indian-english spoken-english will-shall

It's an interesting sentence!

Anonymous

I just mean to point out that the range of constructions identified as 'inversion' varies, and the term isn't strictly limited to SAI/SVI.

8:42 AM

(I'm not sure how I should fix it, or even if it's really needed to be fixed, or if it makes any sense at all.)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. That's a difficult sentence to fix.

@snailboat Ah, got it!

"it's high time * if" returns only 5 results in Google Books. (I wonder if all of them are false positive results.)

Anonymous

It seems weird to put those two together.

Indeed. So fixing it is probably pointless.

Anonymous

Also, assuming you removed the if-constituent, I think you'd still want to change to visit, so I don't think that's the only problem.

Anonymous

8:54 AM

But the conditional there presumably has some meaning they don't just want to throw away, so it seems more likely they don't want to use it's high time at all.

Does to visit sound really bad in the sentence? (I couldn't figure it out.)

Anonymous

I dunno! It's hard sentence to fix.

(Though I don't think they really want to visit-visit. :P)

Perhaps, to visit with (someone at) the company?

Anonymous

It's high time is usually followed by a declarative content clause, not a to-infinitival clause.

Oh, I see! Hmm... I think PEU includes both.

Anonymous

8:57 AM

I think the to version is attested but much less common.

But iirc, PEU doesn't include the base form.

Anonymous

You mean the present form?

Yes. I wasn't sure what I should call it, present, subjunctive, or plain?!

Anonymous

Can't call it subjunctive or plain.

Anonymous

It inflects to agree with a third person singular subject.

9:00 AM

Perhaps I should look it up in PEU.

Anonymous

Those labels would incorrectly imply that it doesn't.

Oh, right!

It's confirmed. PEU mentions only the to-infinitive and the past form.

Anonymous

If you want to test for that sort of thing, there are two easy things you can try: ① Replace the subject with a third-person singular subject like he. ② Replace the verb with be.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. It's funny, 'cause in my dialect the to version is stranger than the present form.

Anonymous

But the past form is the one most people use.

Anonymous

9:02 AM

Also, I think the to version is less common than the present version.

nods -- So I thought it sounded really odd with the if-clause.

Anonymous

At least in AmE.

Anonymous

I've been going through corpus results.

Anonymous

Hmm, I can find a fair number of results for the to version, even though it's less common.

Anonymous

Most of them sound better than the OP's.

Anonymous

9:06 AM

I'm working on my queries so I can get more accurate numbers.

Anonymous

Hey, sometimes it's just "It's high time" without a complement :-)

@snailboat Neat! I think it's perfectly fine. Not sure how often people say it.

Anonymous

I have to do some counting by hand.

Anonymous

I think the to version is actually more common than the initial search results made it look like.

Anonymous

Yeah, this looks way different now.

Anonymous

9:18 AM

Ooh, fancy. A subjunctive!

Anonymous

I was wrong! People do use them. It just seems uncommon.

Hah!

Anonymous

Unfortunately, that means that there's overlap between the possible forms, so I can't necessarily classify all the results the way I wanted to. I'll have to do it slightly differently.

Anonymous

Really? It's high time that people in a position like myself [...]?

Anonymous

There are a few cases where I wonder if the plain form represents agreement with a notional plural

Anonymous

9:25 AM

Although I'm guessing not . . .

Anonymous

This one seems pretty odd to me: It's high time that the truth of Mary Magdalene finally has come out!

Anonymous

Really, a perfect construction?

Anonymous

Maybe it's just me.

@snailboat I think it's non-standard, but I can see why they used it.

Anonymous

Oh, it makes perfect sense to me.

Anonymous

9:31 AM

@DamkerngT. It turns out, my intuition didn't really match up with the data in this case.

Anonymous

So you can (sort of) disregard what I said about it earlier.

I still think using the past tense is safest, anyhow. :D

Anonymous

There are times when the verb inflects to agree with a third person singular subject, and times when it doesn't.

Another interesting question:

0

Q: Should I use "except one" or "except for one" in the following sentence?

All the articles were all about murder cases. Well, except (for) one: an article about ... Do I need the "for"? Why or why not?

sentence-construction

(It's except vs. except for.)

When they're used as prepositions, they both mean almost identical. The dictionary simply says (or makes me think) that they're identical.

But I wonder whether they're really identical.

> a) She was dressed all in black except for a white lace collar.

> b) She was dressed all in black except a white lace collar.

I think b) somehow sounds really odd.

But I can't tell why!

Oh, you wrote an answer about except (for)!

7

A: "Except for us" or "Except us"

In this case, you can use either one: 1a. No one calls us names except for us. 1b. No one calls us names except us. In this example "us" is the list of exceptions to the set of all people ("everyone"). When you have a discrete set like this, you can use either one with the same meaning...

Anonymous

It looks like I did!

Anonymous

9:44 AM

I think that the overlap in forms means that different speakers most likely analyze the it's (high) time construction differently.

I think there are much fewer people who conceptualize it as a real subjunctive.

@snailboat Oh! Your answer also answers my wondering! Thank you!

Anonymous

Yay!

Anonymous

I did something useful!

It can explain quite straightforwardly why She was dressed all in black except a white lace collar doesn't really work. (It's because we don't have a discrete set.)

(If it works, it would mean that other speakers conceptualize dress all in black differently from me.)

Anonymous

9   it [be] high time (no complement)
12  it [be] high time + for-PP
71  it [be] high time + to-infinitival clause (39% with for-subject)
190 it [be] high time + declarative content clause (31% with 'that')

The last category can be broken down by the form of the following verb:

        122 (18% that) (              PAST  form)
        39  (49% that) (PLAIN/PRESENT       form - ambiguous whether it would agree with 3rd sg)
        15  (87% that) (PLAIN               form - does not agree with 3rd sg)

Anonymous

9:55 AM

The ones that are ambiguous across all three subcategories are verbs where the past, present, and plain forms look the same and the subject is not third person, so there's no indication of which form it is.

I guess that most of the clauses after the PP in it [be] high time + for-PP are in the past tense.

Anonymous

No, there's no clause.

Oh!

Anonymous

Those are categorized under the it [be] high time + to-infinitival clause category, in the "39% with for-subject" subcategory.

Oh, right, it would be a to-infinitive at best.

Are all of the [be]s in the present tense?

Anonymous

9:58 AM

Specifically, there are 12 where the only complement is a for-PP, 43 where the only complement is a subjectless to-infinitival clause, and 28 where the complement is a to-infinitival clause with a subject in a for-PP

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. That covers all forms of be.

Anonymous

There were lots of forms.

Anonymous

But I started by removing everything before high time because I wasn't interested in that information.

Oh! I expected only is/was.

Anonymous

And it made it all line up.

Anonymous

9:59 AM

But specifically, the forms of be are 's (128) is (90) and was (66).

Anonymous

So about 77% were present and the rest were past.

A-ha!

Anonymous

Here's the data, poorly formatted: quarplet.com/hightime.txt

@snailboat That's awesome! Thanks!

No error. Just as a note, [sic] does not always indicate an error, although most often it does. Here, though, the [sic] might be an error on the part of the journalist. — sumelic 2 mins ago

Umm...

I think people use [sic] when they think there's an error.

Oh, right. I get him(?) now.

> "...crazy metal tool … specifically for extracting foreign objects from people’s [sic] nostrils,”

I think so. Peeple's nostrils should be fine in this context.

Anonymous

So it looks like it's (high) time (assuming I can generalize from the high time to time version) appears without a complement, with a for-PP, with a to-infinitival clause with a for-subject, and with an expandable declarative content clause. The content clause has a past verb form two thirds of the time, and the rest of the time it has either a present or plain verb form, often ambiguous between the two.

Anonymous

10:06 AM

This ambiguity may lead speakers to analyze it differently and expect either one or the other in the few cases where agreement would distinguish the forms.

Anonymous

Sticking to the past form should be 'safe', as you say!

Not sure if the minority could be considered errors. Maybe, maybe not.

@snailboat Yes!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. That's a good question!

Anonymous

In my opinion, they're not errors.

Anonymous

But I wouldn't be surprised if some speakers felt one group or another sounded strange.

Anonymous

10:09 AM

And I would expect some of those speakers to (instinctively) consider them errors.

Anonymous

The ones without a clausal complement are certainly standard.

nods

Anonymous

It's just the question of the verb form in the declarative content clause where things are less clear.

Ellipsis, I think.

Anonymous

I have no objections to saying something is ellipted.

Anonymous

10:12 AM

Since I was looking at corpus data, I was trying to catalogue the forms in a theory-neutral manner.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Oh no! It got closed.

It did!

The OP's sentence is fine either way, though, I think.

Anonymous

Yeah, you're right.

Ah, speaking of either...

Anonymous

They got the answer they needed, I guess :-)

Anonymous

10:14 AM

Either is exciting!

0

Q: How to phrase the following sentence of cause and effect relationship?

How to phrase the following sentence of cause and effect relationship? I tried to phrase sentence, but because I'm not English native speaker, and this is the first time that I build a sentence like this, so I would like to get a feedback about it. Here is the build sentence: Since it doesn...

The OP made up an interesting sentence!

> Since it doesn’t have nucleus, it also doesn’t have nucleolus.

I thought this flowed better:

> Since it doesn’t have a nucleus, it doesn’t have a nucleolus, either.

Then I paused and wasn't sure!

Do we really have to change also to either?

Also, is this advice in the answer correct? -- "and delete also if you want it more natural"

Anonymous

Also isn't really polarity-sensitive.

Anonymous

Clause-final additive either is a negative polarity item, but it's not exactly in opposition to also.

Anonymous

I do think the either version is a little more natural.

I think we now have three alternatives:

Anonymous

10:19 AM

So if you weakened "have to" to "should", I think I'd agree :-)

> a) Since it doesn’t have a nucleus, it also doesn’t have a nucleolus.

> b) Since it doesn’t have a nucleus, it doesn’t have a nucleolus, either.

> c) Since it doesn’t have a nucleus, it doesn’t have a nucleolus.

(And another 3 alternatives with Because instead of Since.)

(And maybe two more alternatives with the because and since-clause coming later.)

Ah, I think I'm hacking the sentence!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. If you do that, either is strange and because is preferable to since.

Anonymous

But I think your first six versions are okay.

@snailboat Oh, I meant the last two alternatives wouldn't have either or also.

(That's why it's only two, instead of another six!)

Anonymous

I ran out of brainspace.

Anonymous

10:27 AM

I seem to have a fever!

Oh, no!

I was AFK. I'm sorry.

How bad is it?

Anonymous

Oh, I'm okay for now.

Anonymous

Say, when you talk about fevers in Thai in Thailand, you presumably use Celsius, I think? Do you have a way of abbreviating the "thirty" part, so you just say a temperature is "seven"?

Maybe lukewarm water can help.

@snailboat We usually are just being vague about our fevers. :-)

Like, she's [hot] (as in because of having a fever). He's (or His body's) very [hot]; a little [hot], and so on.

I know it sounds odd in English. :-)

Anonymous

Oh, I see!

Anonymous

10:40 AM

Just saying the last digit is a thing you can do in Japanese. I was curious if it happened in other languages :-)

I think we only say the number (of a temperature) only when we use a thermometer, and that means something (or actually, someone) is needed to be taken care of.

@snailboat Interesting! The number of a temperature is always in full in Thai.

> ?It's high time to see a doctor if we need to use a thermometer.

:P

Anonymous

Oh, that if doesn't seem as bad! I suppose because it's a generalization.

0

Q: Which is correct "would be" or "will be"

Which one is correct? Please explain "It would be great if you could propone the session" "It will be great if you could propone the session"

grammar meaning

Anonymous

Is there a custom in Thailand of checking a family member for a fever by touching foreheads together?

Anonymous

Or would that be strange?

10:46 AM

^I think it's prepone, and Prasash would know best which choice is the best in that sentence.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Wow! propone, halfway between postpone and prepone!

@snailboat That's the norm! I think that's why we're usually vague about fevers.

Anonymous

Maybe it's a synonym for pone, v. "to leave something scheduled as normal"

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. A-ha! That custom exists in some other Asian countries too, I think!

Anonymous

I never saw it in the U.S., though.

Anonymous

10:47 AM

Although there might be people who do it.

Oh, would it look odd if someone does that?

Anonymous

I think if I saw someone do that when I was younger, before I knew that was a custom in some parts of Asia, that I would be confused.

Besides editing out the monospace, what should be done here?

0

Q: Which is correct "would be" or "will be"

Which one is correct? Please explain "It would be great if you could propone the session" "It will be great if you could propone the session"

grammar meaning

Tag it with indian-english, perhaps?

hah

Anonymous

10:49 AM

I don't know.

On ELU we close all "Which is correct?" questions as proofreading.

I think this one has a specific concern, so it should be okay on ELL.

It does, but there isn’t any explanation of what that concern actually is.

Frankly, I'm not sure what the answer would be, because it's obvious (to me) that they want the answer in another dialect.

Anonymous

(Or I'm not sure what the answer would be)

10:52 AM

Ah, thanks! That indeed flows better!

I think this is really a modal conditional question. But who knows, you know?

But I guess it would be would be, anyway.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. They might just not be aware that prepone is dialectal. They might not have given any thought to that subject, at any rate.

It’s about grammar and meaning, what is being able to have been made clearer than that?

In this case, I have to say grammar, but a modal tag would be better, I think.

@snailboat Hmm... maybe I took it the wrong way. It looked like something from an exercise to me at first.

Anonymous

10:55 AM

Yeah, I would have gone with that modal-verbs tag we've got.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Oh, would an exercise really include a word like prepone? I thought the textbooks used in India generally aimed at teaching an idealized version of British English from about 150 years ago.

@snailboat It was prepone that made me think so. I mean, it could be a relatively new book.

I think that if something has a tag like grammar, then the specific grammatical concerns should be stated; likewise with meaning.

Anonymous

I was under the impression that English language education in India generally didn't acknowledge Indian English as an actual thing.

Anonymous

But I'm not an exactly an expert on the topic!

Anonymous

10:58 AM

I think there's a tag called something like word-choice or difference or different or something.

I believe there are speakers who are diglossic in Singlish.

Anonymous

It's easy to forget since we have no standards for how tags are named.

Anonymous

@tchrist Oh, well, that's very common! I think it's more than just at two levels, though, more of shades of grey.

Sounds like AAVE.

Mostly I stumbled over the facile "WHICH IS CORRECT?" demand for a one-bit response to a nonsense question that with serious editing regarding intent and concern and context, might become a real question.

I learned a new word (diglossic)! I guess my home was diglossic, because we usually talked in two dialects at home (when I was still young).

11:02 AM

And I'm not even yet caffeinated to know how to gently prod the user into supplying those.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. You can look up diglossia on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diglossia

Ah, "a single language community".

So, it should be something larger, large enough to be called a community.

Anonymous

I thought the way you described your home sounded okay. Although I think people tend to say it more plainly, something like "We spoke two languages/dialects at home".

Anonymous

At least here in the U.S., it's very common to talk about what language is spoken at home when discussing the language status of a young speaker.

@snailboat What’s your longitude again? :)

11:07 AM

Some could use even three or four!

Anonymous

I live in Los Gatos, CA.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Here's an example: childstats.gov/americaschildren/family5.asp

Anonymous

It's still dark here . . . I woke up early. I'm not feeling well :-(

@snailboat Thanks! -- Interesting. Not all children who speak a language other than English at home have difficult speaking English.

Anonymous

Sunrise is in about three hours.

11:13 AM

@snailboat Ah, I see.

Mine is about two hours away.

Anonymous

I did get a flu shot, so whatever I have is probably not going to turn out to be the strains of the flu the vaccine protects against. I don't feel that bad, really.

Why are we awake? :(

Anonymous

I can just tell my body won't go back to sleep at this point.

Anonymous

The cortisol awakening response, or whatever it is.

Yeah. I have a gets-up-too-early curse. Have had it all my life long.

About 2–3 hours shifted.

Makes me very unsocial in the evenings.

I have not had a flu shot this season.

Anonymous

11:20 AM

I got mine about a week ago. It's still early.

Anonymous

I don't actually know what my temperature is. I'll have to ask my housemate where the thermometer is after she wakes up.

Anonymous

I just feel like I have a fever.

Anonymous

But it doesn't feel all that bad, so I'm sure I'll be fine waiting :-)

Anonymous

It's maybe a little harder than usual to think, though.

@snailboat Vitamin C is my placebo for that. :-)

Anonymous

11:24 AM

I'm getting enough vitamin C in my diet. I don't mega-dose on anything if I can avoid it. My housemate believes in that sort of thing, though, so we always have some Emergen-C around the house.

Anonymous

So I can get twenty times the recommended daily intake if I want! :-)

I don't know why, but it really seems to work for me (about 2500 mg would do).

But I haven't got any fever for a couple years already.

Could be longer than that if I don't count a bee sting incident.

Anonymous

I think that megadoses of vitamin C are harmless for most people, but not for everyone.

I still think that it's somewhat like a placebo for me, in any case.

But my body seems to be happy about it, so-- :-)

Anonymous

If you have hemochromatosis (note: this is one of those fun words where you can use 'æ'!), it might not be a good idea to take extra.

11:29 AM

Let's make it our word of the day!

Anonymous

I think for most people, the worst that'll happen is diarrhea (or other symptoms of GI irritation).

Word of the Day: hemochromatosis

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Oh boy!

Hee

Anonymous

Hemochromatosis (or haemochromatosis in BrE) is special.

Anonymous

11:31 AM

It's one of the few ailments you can have where doctors still regularly prescribe bloodletting as the cure.

Oh! I didn't know that bloodletting could cure anything!

The very top of the morning to you, @snailboat!

Anonymous

Looking at the word hemochromatosis, what do you suppose it might be?

@snailboat colored blood?

Blood color's change?

(mine was just a wild guess. :P)

Your quote is incomplete. I've just checked it on Gutenberg.org. Here is the full sentence: Ivan laughed and said: "Well, I will go and arrange matters so that Tarras may have his share," whereupon Tarras took the brown mare with the grain to town, leaving Ivan with one old horse to work on as before and support his father, mother, and sister. — Damkerng T. 2 mins ago

Anonymous

11:34 AM

Having excess iron in the blood does change its color.

I found that the OP misquoted it. Now I wonder if I should close it or answer it.

I don't wield whereupon that well, anyway.

Anonymous

And in extreme cases you can see it through the skin, at least in paler folks. People with loads of excess iron tend to have a bronze complexion.

Anonymous

Anemia causes the opposite.

Ahh

Vitamin C is pro-oxidant in doses above 1000 mg

Anonymous

11:36 AM

Lots of things interact with iron absorption, and vitamin C is one of those.

Anonymous

So if you have iron-deficiency anemia, getting more vitamin C can be helpful.

Anonymous

If you have hemochromatosis, getting more vitamin C can actually be harmful!

Anonymous

Although everyone needs some vitamin C.

user image

(indian TV)

Poor boy!

11:38 AM

Traditional society's attitudes..

One possible consequence of curiosity.

Anonymous

I think it's a good idea to be aware of things like that when you choose to take large doses of something. They aren't necessarily harmless for everybody . . .

nods -- I usually don't do that, but sometimes it really helped.

Anonymous

Oh, I'm not trying to tell you what you should or shouldn't take. That's up to you! :-)

I think the first time I thought to try it was when a friend who had a flu came to stay over.

And the time before that I caught a flu because of him!

Rather badly. So, on the second time, I gave vitamin C a try, and I survived the night!

(Imagine that we have to stay in a small, virtually closed, room with another person who keeps sneezing and coughing all night long.)

Could just be a placebo, in any case.

Anonymous

11:42 AM

I usually try my best to avoid getting anyone else sick when I'm sick.

Anonymous

A lot of people don't try very hard, though.

Anonymous

Sometimes you can't really help it.

Indeed.

Yep.

BBL. Get well, @Snails! I'd recommend cranberry tea!

(if you caught cold)

Anonymous

Thanks :-)

11:48 AM

But before vitamin C, I usually try some lukewarm water or tea first. Sometimes it works really well.

Cranberry tea sounds interesting! I've never tried it.

@DamkerngT. Worm drink + rest + protein (chicken soup etc)

(0:

Yep!

@DamkerngT. Crush cranberries and make a tea with them (0: They seem to have an effect due to bioflavonoids or whatever.

And it's yummy

A-ha! I'll keep that in mine, and give it a try when I have a chance.

Anonymous

@CopperKettle A worm drink sounds scarier than a warm drink! :-)

11:54 AM

That's where the protein comes in. (Sorry, couldn't resist that! :P)

@snailboat Yep, I noticed that! (0:

Anonymous

Oh, that's true, isn't it? Earthworms are mostly protein by weight!

The Diet of Worms 1521 (German: Reichstag zu Worms, [ˈʁaɪçstaːk tsuː ˈvɔɐms]) was an imperial diet of the Holy Roman Empire held at the Heylshof Garden in Worms, then an Imperial Free City of the Empire. An imperial diet was a formal deliberative assembly of the whole Empire. This one is most memorable for the Edict of Worms (Wormser Edikt), which addressed Martin Luther and the effects of the Protestant Reformation. It was conducted from 28 January to 25 May 1521, with the Emperor Charles V presiding. Other imperial diets took place at Worms in the years 829, 926, 1076, 1122, 1495, and 1545, but...

a much-vandalized page at (in? on?) Wikipedia. there is a list of hilarious vandalisms committed over it somewhere

Anonymous

I don't think I could eat an earthworm. Other kinds of worms would probably be scarier. Planarians are my least favorite.

Many of my friends can enjoy bugs and insects just fine. It's something I really can't bring myself to do!

Anonymous

11:56 AM

I don't like to eat animals.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@CopperKettle Um, eating lunch here.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Oh, they can be a good source of protein too!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Talk

So

It'd

Scroll

Off.

Anonymous

Grasshoppers, for example.

LOL

Poor MAR!

11:57 AM

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M Bon appetite!

@snailboat Very popular over here!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@Copper (•_•)=ε/̵͇̿̿/'̿'̿ ̿

Anonymous

But I don't like to eat anything that looks like an animal.

Anonymous

When I do eat meat, it's no longer animal-shaped.

Anonymous

These days I eat meat at least once a week.

11:58 AM

A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.

Ugh!

(0:

Anonymous

There's just a psychological component that keeps me from eating something that looks like an animal. It makes me really sad.

Anonymous

Not that there's anything wrong with eating animals like grasshoppers or worms.

Anonymous

It's just a cultural accident that I happened to be born somewhere that's uncommon.

11:59 AM

A rooster once pursued a worm
That lingered not to brave him,
To see his wretched victim squirm
A pleasant thrill it gave him;
He summoned all his kith and kin,
They hastened up by legions,
With quaint, expressive gurgles in
Their oesophageal regions.

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