Language Overflow

StoneyB

00:01

My next computer, however, had a horrid keyboard.

and an even horrider monitor.

Anonymous

00:17

Wow!

Anonymous

I haven't seen one of those before.

Anonymous

Is that a four-inch monitor?

Anonymous

My first computer with a four-inch monitor was an Nokia n800 tablet computer:

Anonymous

It's kind of crazy how computers have changed over the span of a few dozen years.

Anonymous

00:24

These days, my brother is one of the only people I know who really knows how a computer works inside and out at every layer.

Anonymous

I know lots of "computer people", but computers are just too complicated these days . . .

Anonymous

I used to always be able to keep up with discussions about that stuff, but lately sometimes I can't follow him anymore.

Anonymous

I guess there aren't a huge number of people in businesses that require that sort of systemsy knowledge these days.

Anonymous

Used to be, you had to have low-level and high-level knowledge to get anything done.

Anonymous

I haven't kept up because I haven't needed to, I guess . . .

Anonymous

00:31

I was always one of those people who just figured out how to do stuff because it was part of making the computer do things I wanted it to do :-)

Anonymous

04:32

This is an insightful blog post: languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=21548

Anonymous

I feel some pressure to try to end sentences with periods in chat, so I've been doing it more lately (though not consistently), but it feels really . . . I dunno, not great?

Anonymous

I mean, in non-SE chat, of course I don't end every message with a period. That would just be weird.

Anonymous

Here in the SE chat for language sites, it feels a little different . . .

CopperKettle

05:42

The opposite is clearly "her age looks twice her!" — ErikE 4 hours ago

Damkerng T.

07:59

I wonder if "a young woodland patch" works. — Damkerng T. 1 min ago

Damkerng T.

09:16

2

A: How can I understand such an odd sentence?

Another way of saying "were I to refer to" could be "If I referred to...". In this case, the second sentence (which is the most difficult part and is most likely what's causing you trouble) could be rephrased as: "If I referred to the reader as a he or a she, she or he could be offended by it - ...

Though the other answer appears to be better, this answer is "just right".

Sometimes it's not easy to gauge the level of the OP, but I think this OP has no other problem but "were I to". -- "I could not figure out the sentence grammatically. For example "were I to refer to" is a very strange structure."

CopperKettle

09:42

1

Q: What is "the drop" in music?

This word appear in the comment of a video of Bach in YouTube: A: Which minute is the drop? B: When he and Mozart have the rap battle Clearly this is a pun, but I don't understand the meaning of the drop. I have looked up in Oxford Dictionary, but all the meaning only point to the drop of...

meaning-in-context

CopperKettle

09:54

(in Russian) "Tinsel ribbons. Must eat tinsel ribbons"

I'm not sure how exactly you call those xmas tree decorations made of tinsel and foil, especially the long-stranded ones.

In Russian we call the long-stranded type "дождик", hypocoristic for "rain"

CopperKettle

10:32

@snailboat My first computer was a ZX Spectrum clone called "Magic 05"

48 kb RAM, 16 kb ROM... (0:

Damkerng T.

1

A: Recipe example / Example recipe

What looks natural to me is saying- An example of recipe But then you want other options especially these two recipe example and example recipe. I'd say that both will work. It'd be then just a matter of style. None of them can serve as an adjective so the order won't matter. We often s...

Hmm... "An example of recipe" -- natural?

<--- 64 bytes RAM :D

Damkerng T.

11:39

0

A: What is the diference between "foe" and "enemy"

Dictionary says that foe = enemy. But then if I recall all the instances, 'foe' is the word used in journalism, news or more politically where 'enemy' would be considered rude or offensive. So, 'foe' is a polite way to say 'enemy'! Note that the dictionary mentions 'foe' as an old-fashioned or ...

> So, 'foe' is a polite way to say 'enemy'!

"..."

Damkerng T.

12:08

2 hours ago, by Damkerng T.

Hmm... "An example of recipe" -- natural?

I don't think "An example of recipe" is good, grammatically; but nobody comments anything, so maybe it's acceptable?

Damkerng T.

13:15

@Bora only (A), or (E) is possible to me, and it's obvious to me that the exercise wants (A). (B) or (C) may be possible in some dialects but neither makes much sense to me (I still can't come up with a good context for them). (D) is just odd. Note that I'm a non-native speaker, by the way. — Damkerng T. 3 mins ago

I wonder if all of them are possible. I'm thinking that perhaps all of them are possible if we allow contexts found in time-travel novels.

Hmm... maybe not.

Hmm... maybe.

(C) may be possible in a normal timeline as well, I think.

1

A: I finished my studies and then I have become/became a teacher

It's perfectly OK to follow the past tense, finished with either past or present perfect in speaking of your subsequently becoming a teacher; but you have to make up your mind whether you are talking about what happened in the past or about where you are now. If you use the adverb then (or next...

"Since then, I've become a [teacher/programmer/businessman/etc.]"

I think it sounds fine. It should sound fine. But then again, why doesn't "I've joined X" really work, whereas "I've become X" does?

Damkerng T.

13:46

@TOOGAM - Yes, "overpass" is definitely more specific. All overpasses are bridges, but not all bridges are overpasses. — AndyT 4 hours ago

Huh?

"All overpasses are bridges"

That's just weird.

(In Thai, we call an overpass "bridge" colloquially, too, but I don't think that we really think that it's a good word choice. It's just like we call "tea" and "coffee", "water", which some of us call them that sometimes.)

> "Can I have some water, please?"
[a couple minutes passed; a coke can was served]
"Um.. sorry, this is not a water!"
"Of course, it is. It's coke water."

0

A: Which one should I use who or whom?

This car should be used sparingly by xxx [who is concerned with efficiency]. This car should be used sparingly by [wh--- is concerned with efficiency]. The Original Poster is attempting a grammatically sophisticated sentence. They are trying to use who a bit like the pronoun what. C...

Yay! Whoever is mentioned!

Damkerng T.

14:07

0

A: "If you ____ to me, you ____ what I was trying to say."

A) Correct. Note that it puts the misunderstanding in the past B) Incorrect. Corrected: were listening / understand (if you [past tense], then you [present tense]) C) Correct. Note that its misunderstanding continues into the present D) Incorrect. Corrected: listened / understand E) Correct. ...

A-ha! She confirmed my guess that (C) is possible! -- reading...

Hmm...

Ohhh

Damkerng T.

14:19

Finally, I can make sense of all choices, (A) - (E)!

I must've watched Edge of Tomorrow too many times! :P

> "Who said you can talk to me?"
[silence]
"Do I have something on my face, soldier?"
"You did. You did, tomorrow. At the beach. Tomorrow, at the beach. We met. You said to find you when I wake up."

CopperKettle

What is this PA, I wonder..

"WHAT MYSTERY DO YOU FIND MOST INTRIGUING, AND WHY?
HAWKING: Women. My PA reminds me that although I have a PhD in physics, women should remain a mystery."

From a Hawking interview

Damkerng T.

Physician Assistant?

Oh, Stephen Hawking!

CopperKettle

"Personal Assistant"?

Damkerng T.

14:34

Could be. I don't know when he said that.

I think he must've had a PA at some point in his life.

CopperKettle

acronymfinder.com/PA.html

"Pakistan Army"?

Damkerng T.

LOL

Production Assistant?

:P

CopperKettle

Well, if the Pakistan Army requires women to remain a mystery, it's fine with me.

(0:

Damkerng T.

Whoever the PA was, we should take their opinion seriously. :P

StoneyB

14:51

@snailboat 5-inch, 52 character × 24 line monochrome CRT display, mapped as a window on 128 × 32 character display memory. It's an Osborne 1 from 1981.

Damkerng T.

A classic!

StoneyB

15:04

You pretty much had to print a document out to find out what you'd written.

Damkerng T.

Those good old days of debugging code on paper.

CopperKettle

@DamkerngT. When the proof of coding was in the printing.

I always confuse "then" with "when" in speedy writing

Damkerng T.

@CopperKettle Indeed. We had to print out all the code we developed and deliver it in our projects sometimes. I think that kind of thing is rather pointless.

But it was required in most projects.

CopperKettle

@DamkerngT. Maybe it was done for some administrative reasons.. I hope there was not a lot of code. (0:

Damkerng T.

15:19

We always had to try to make it look thick. :P

CopperKettle

Thick, meaning, that each line had to be filled to the highest possible extent?

Damkerng T.

Sometimes we added more pointless documents into our final deliverables. :-)

CopperKettle

(0:

Damkerng T.

We wrote comments in our code. We copied those comments out and put them together and called it another document. :D

CopperKettle

weird

Damkerng T.

15:23

Oh, and people love dumped screens (aka screenshots), so we would add as many of them as we could.

(I think we still do love screenshots.)

CopperKettle

nods

Damkerng T.

@CopperKettle I remember that one of our clients (who was going to sell our code to another customer) didn't care at all about our code ('cause she knew we could handle it), but she cared a lot about the CD cover.

She told me, couldn't you make the cover of the CD look more professional?

And I was like "Umm..." :-)

CopperKettle

(0:

Damkerng T.

I figured out how to make it look a little more professional somehow anyway. :D

CopperKettle

(0:

Damkerng T.

15:33

The usual "Miss" should be fine. — Victor Bazarov 1 min ago

If it's not a military setting, I think I may use Miss. — Damkerng T. 48 secs ago

Argh! 17 seconds!

It has a little more information than VB's, so maybe I'll just leave it there, for now.

CopperKettle

15:55

0

Q: Our eyes have remained the same size

Our eyes have remained the same size. In this sentence, I can't think what is the role of 'the same size' ? is it object of remained or is it a complement ? Please explain this to me briefly.

grammar grammaticality

Damkerng T.

Ah, I posted my answer!

CopperKettle

@DamkerngT. - nice! I forgot the subtleties.

Huddleston and Pullum call object a complement, as far as I can recall, but that would probably be heaping too much upon the learner.

Damkerng T.

nods -- I still can't wrap my head around their prepositions firmly, and quite reluctant to call it a prep. sometimes.

(i.e. when traditional grammar would consider the preposition an adverb.)

CopperKettle

nods

I haven't read that deep into H&P...

Damkerng T.

I'm still waiting for my CGEL!

CopperKettle

16:01

(0:

BBL!

Damkerng T.

TTYL!

0

Q: the meaning of 21 guns in Greenday's song

I have heard a song of Greenday . It is 21 guns; their best song . I really don't know the meaning of 21 guns. Please explain this meaning to me.

word-meaning

Ah, a cultural questions.

2

Q: QGIS atlas, add picture with path from attribute

I love working with the atlas generator and I came up with a new case to use it for. I want to add a picture to my map from URL. I am allowed to add a picture if I type in the full url path. eg. http://my.url.service.no/pics/img_001.jpg But I want to add the picture based on the filename from my ...

qgis atlas expression

Oh, QGIS has become a de facto standard for GIS, I suppose!

^Ugh! 'a cultural questions'

CopperKettle

She can remain herself. If you are "Being John Malkovich", you can remain him. — Jasper 2 mins ago

would herself count as object of remain, I wonder

Damkerng T.

16:18

I think it's similar to "I'm him".

> (on phone) "Hello, may I speak to Damkerng?" "I'm him."

It's a little forced, but I think it should work.

A more common response would be "(This is) Damkerng speaking."

CopperKettle

So remain does take direct objects after all, if only reflexive pronouns.

Damkerng T.

In "I'm him", I consider "him" a complement.

CopperKettle

So "she remained her stubborn self" is also a complement?

Damkerng T.

nods -- I think so.

A paraphrase (in the present simple): She still is her stubborn self.

CopperKettle

nods

Damkerng T.

16:24

0

A: Term for a song without instruments

Actually, "karaoke" is the term for the act of singing badly over an instruments-only track, commonly inebriated...not for the track itself. In the media world, especially in the world of music mixing, it's common to be asked to do a "music-minus" track, which is understood to be the backing tra...

Hmm... I edited it because of the comment.

Now I'm wondering if it really is an answer!

It definitely is good related information.

Damkerng T.

17:09

Hmm... "overpass and flyover have the same meaning: bridge that carries a road or railway over another road."

Dictionaries say so.

I wonder if people will call elevated highways bridges too.

Elevated highway

An elevated highway is a controlled-access highway that is raised above grade for its entire length. Elevation is usually constructed as viaducts, typically a long pier bridge. Technically, the entire highway is a single bridge. == Reason to construct == Elevated highways are more expensive to build than at-grade highways, and are usually only used where there is some combination of the following on the desired route: difficulty controlling access at grade, for example where it would be very disruptive or expensive to eliminate existing crossings at grade at grade construction would not allow for...

> Technically, the entire highway is a single bridge.

So, a bridge it is.

CopperKettle

Women's Preferences for Penis Size: A New Research Method Using Selection among 3D Models - browsing PLoS articles... science is indeed a great thing.

Damkerng T.

17:25

We have all kinds of research!

Damkerng T.

18:07

0

Q: "Was he not doing his homework" vs " Wasn't he doing his homework"

What is the difference between them.It is in a test so I have no context. Was he not doing his homework Wasn't he doing his homework

negation

sigh

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

19:53

@DamkerngT. Cheer up!

41

Q: How can I keep my cat off my keyboard?

This is a common scenario when typing: When the family assembled for Sunday dinner, With their minds made up that they wouldn't get thinner On Argentine joint, potato^DR&FTGYB`kuhadrggoy867rt98wouth4bfgdhjlkhdsfghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhf This happens beca...

technology pets

Damkerng T.

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M Tanks!

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M LOL

Hmm... his solution is quite a good idea!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@DamkerngT. I think sofgdshjfhhdjhfghjdhfgjdfhgfjhhhhhhhhhhhh

Damkerng T.

Oh! I wanna have one of that!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Hmm, how loud would Hagu scream if he sees your code? :P

Damkerng T.

Pretty loud. :P

Oh! This one is pure genius!

Damkerng T.

20:24

@KaranGandhi Interesting. Should I understand that "issues are resting" is really used in US English? — Damkerng T. 13 secs ago

...

There is going to come a ... is probably a set phrase.

There is going to come a thing that ... is a little odd, isn't it?

0

A: Why is "many a man" singular while "many men" plural?

In my view, different from the traditional view, "many" in "many a man" and "many men" are different words, i.e. they have different origin. "Many" in "many men" is related to German Menge (multitude). "many" in "many a man" is related to "mancher Mann/manch ein Mann". The meaning of "manch" i...

^An interesting answer.

From Online Etymology Dictionary:

> many (adj.) Look up many at Dictionary.com
Old English monig, manig "many, many a, much," from Proto-Germanic *managaz (cognates: Old Saxon manag, Swedish m?ngen, Old Frisian manich, Dutch menig, Old High German manag, German manch, Gothic manags), from PIE *menegh- "copious" (cognates: Old Church Slavonic munogu "much, many," Old Irish menicc, Welsh mynych "frequent," Old Irish magham "gift"). Pronunciation altered by influence of any (see manifold).

Damkerng T.

21:31

...

A sign that a learner is learning English the wrong.

They may begin with "someone's standing on their feet", then try to replace "feet" with something else.

"He's standing on his head."

Somehow that makes sense. Now try,

"He's standing on his elbow."

or "He's standing on his pinky."

or how about: "He's standing on his ear."

or "He's standing on his eye."

One eye doesn't sound good? How about two: "He's standing on his eyes."

And this can keep going on forever.

StoneyB

21:46

May this be closed as blatant equivocation?

0

Q: A maine coon is a type of cat.

I am confused about the usage of the word "type". Take the following for example: A maine coon is a type of cat. , which most people believe is correct standard English. But, dictionary definitions define "type" as a group with similar qualities. So, a "type" is really plural, ...

grammar meaning usage

Damkerng T.

I think "So, a "type" is really plural" is obviously incorrect, but it's a common type of argument used by this OP.

Ah, we've gotten two answers to the question!

I think "a member of a type of something" only makes sense in math (set theory) or related subjects.

Let I = { ..., -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, ... }; An integer -2 is a member of I, where I is a set.

Let E = a type of integer, i.e. positive even number, we can write E = { 2, 4, 6, ... }

E is a member of types of integer

I think this is where the syntax of natural language can be ambiguous.

Is 2 a member of a type of integer?

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@DamkerngT. I've always seen 'let X be Y' not 'let X = Y'.

Damkerng T.

Interesting.

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M Haven't you seen "Let X equal <something>" before?

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@DamkerngT. Not on anything chem.

Damkerng T.

Chem?

I thought we were talking in math

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

22:01

Math is the basic version of chem. :P

Damkerng T.

I think "Let X be something" is likelier when that something is not a numerical value.

(e.g. Let S be a surface ...)

StoneyB

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M Try this.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@StoneyB Horrible typesetting, not the worst math book typesetting I've seen.

Damkerng T.

Don't forget that TeX exists because of math. :-)

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Knuth ≠ Math, though the pronunciations are related.

@Dam @Stoney @Jim quick, gimme some reasons why 'grammar' isn't a good tag.

Damkerng T.

22:20

According to some, it's too generic.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Next.

jimsug

It's far too broad as it is being used.

StoneyB

A) Because 'grammar' is used in such a wide sense that virtually every question may be described as having to do with grammar. B) Because people can't agree on what narrower sense it should be understood as having.

jimsug

Let me look at the grammar questions

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

I've covered those . . .

jimsug

22:21

31

Q: IS or ARE? "The only thing that I want you to hit right now IS/ARE the books"

In this sentence, which is the right word? The only thing that I want you to hit right now is/are the books.

grammar

27

Q: Why do people, incorrectly, begin a sentence with the word "But"?

I find myself editing a good number of people's questions on Stack Exchange sites in order to correct grammatical errors. A large number of these edits include fixing, what appears to be a common mistake of, beginning a sentence with "But". A hypothetical example would be I have set my route...

grammar conjunctions

27

Q: Is it "I" or "me" in "Keep Tom and I/me updated"?

In this case what is correct? Keep Tom and I updated. or Keep Tom and me updated. I understand that me is an object pronoun. And therefore I feel the second option is correct. Especially, because I would say "Keep him updated" and also "Keep me updated". Instead of "Keep...

grammar coordination personal-pronouns case

22

Q: Why there are two 'were's in one sentence?

But, as time went on, it became increasingly obvious that many of the programs were not available, and the ones that were were written in a particularly obscure form of BASIC. (Probability Theory: The Logic of Science by E. T. Jaynes) What is the effect of the first were in that were we...

grammar ellipsis

StoneyB

C) Because nobody looks for questions or answers about 'grammar': they look for questions or answers touching some specific point of grammar.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Context: I'm making a short test on how to find out if a tag is a good one.

jimsug

Those are the four top-voted questions on grammar

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@StoneyB Good one.

StoneyB

D) Because the tag doesn't tell you what the question is about.

E) Because it is impossible to distinguish between grammar and meaning.

jimsug

22:23

The second question is some relic of prescriptivism that doesn't really apply, and it's a loaded question.

The fourth is a matter of comprehension and parsing.

There's possibly a case that can be made for the first one.

StoneyB

F) Because if you tag a question 'grammar' I can close it all by myself as a duplicate.

3

jimsug

@StoneyB And only you :P

StoneyB

@jimsug Only me and the mods. But nobody elected me.

Damkerng T.

I think F) is a reason why 'grammar' is a good tag. :P

jimsug

@StoneyB Yes, that's true.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

22:26

-5

Q: PHP not working in javascript function

TOPLOL TOPLOL TOPLOL TOPLOL TOPLOL TOPLOL TOPLOL

php javascript html

jimsug

ell.stackexchange.com/help/interesting-topics

> How do I find topics I'm interested in?
Browse by tag
Search tags
Add favorite and ignored tags

This information does not apply to [grammar]

If you browse, search, favorite, or ignore it, you may as well do it to all/most of the site :/

StoneyB

4,425 QQ

jimsug

Okay, so perhaps I exaggerate, but still.

Damkerng T.

On the other hand, grammar can be useful.

StoneyB

If we restricted the tag to specific schools or categories of grammar it might be useful.

jimsug

22:32

ell.stackexchange.com/help/tagging

> Tags are a means of connecting experts with questions they will be able to answer by sorting questions into specific, well-defined categories.

[grammar] is neither specific, nor well-defined.

Damkerng T.

I mean, it can be used as a rough indicator how reliable a user's answers to grammar-related questions are.

jimsug

Ah, but you see, that's not what it does.

It indicates how reliable a user's answers to grammar questions are, not grammar questions.

2

Wait I want to make that look a bit more ambiguous in the star board.

damn.

Oh well.

@StoneyB Do you feel like your duplicate close-voting behaviour has changed as a result of this?

StoneyB

And what does it matter that a user gives reliable answers to questions about nothing in particular?

@jimsug Nope.

jimsug

Hmm.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

> Does 'experts on X' make sense?
Does 'I'm studying X' make sense?
Would you leave and not retag a question with only X as its tag?
Will 'because it's related to X' be the only reason a question is tagged with X?
Does X have a universally unambiguous meaning?
Will X not be misinterpreted, just judging by its name?
Are there many (>15) but not too many ^2 questions on the site with the search keyword "X"?
Will people search using X to find questions to answer?

Gimme moar queschenz!

jimsug

22:38

I'd be more interested in the effect of blacklisting [grammar] as a tag.

Many questions have multiple tags. I wonder what the residue would look like?

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@jimsug The whole world will burn.

jimsug

I mean, the tags have to be a lot more specific than [grammar].

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@jimsug We'd have 1700 untagged questions.

jimsug

That's fine.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

That's a fine.

jimsug

22:39

They can be retagged as appropriate, and more appropriately.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Are we talking about a retagging event?

jimsug

Nah.

Just a retag-as-you-go type of thing.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

StoneyB

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M I've been making (much more of) a point of editing and retagging since you started activating -- specifically, I always kill grammar and meaning and put in something actually relevant.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

> A single hand has no sound.

FWIW, the chem's TRE was a success:

StoneyB

22:47

I think a tree just fell in a forest somewhere.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

7

A: The Great Retagging Event - Episode 1: The one-taggers

TRE stats: Episode 1 - scene 1 (Friday 2015/10/02, 15:30 - 17:00 UTC): 187 edits No more nonclosed questions with only the homework tag. 120 questions tagged only with organic-chemistry were retagged. 8 people participated 88 edit reviews $\color{red}{\text{To be continued}\ldots}$

StoneyB

How come you guys get red? And why do you have that particularly loathsome shade of red?

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@StoneyB It's the power of LaTeX, and we abuse it to do many things.

But the default colors are loathsome, yeah.

StoneyB

You get LaTeX, and we can't get underscores or small caps?

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

YES! >:)

StoneyB

22:55

Life is bitter.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Actually, I find the fact that our tables look way more awesome bitterer.

StoneyB

@jimsug I see now that you in fact succeeded in getting the tag onto the star board

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M I think I will now go tend to my bitter table by putting a bitter meal on it.

Y'all have a good time now ya hear?

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@StoneyB Don't forget some bitter sauce!

StoneyB

And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.

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