Language Overflow

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

07:30

@jimsug Haha

10 hours and no chat in LO?

What is wrong with you people?

Anonymous

07:47

Sorry, I've been busy lately!

CopperKettle

2

Anonymous

08:55

Aww! :-)

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

09:43

@CopperKettle Interesting phenomena referred to as Frusnailization. In relatively small systems such as the solar system, it happens every 100 million years.

Araucaria

10:22

@StoneyB Exactly, that would seem to be the key issue, methinks ...

Damkerng T.

11:38

1

Q: why don't we use "-'s" for some nouns that belong to other nouns?

I was wondering why we do not use 's for some nouns that belong to other nouns? For example: book cover or book's cover and house's door or house door Which one is right ?

apostrophe

I'm pretty sure it's a duplicate but of a different question, I think.

Damkerng T.

12:12

@MaulikV We don't say 'instructed lessons' outside India, either: corpus.byu.edu/glowbe/?c=glowbe&q=44721376 — snailboat 1 min ago

@snailboat But it's used in some books!

Hmm... what's DE? A state?

Delaware?

> Planned and instructed lessons and activities in Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. Teacher's Aide: YMCA Day Care Center, Wilmington, DE June–August 2004 Teaching Intern: Freud Laboratory School, Newark, DE January–May ...

> The Only Resume and Cover Letter Book You'll Ever Need: ...

(It's true that it's extremely rare.)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Well, it's not like it's impossible to say it, it's just that people usually don't.

Anonymous

I don't think it's helpful to present it as the proper term for what the OP is asking about.

Anonymous

I see 23 results on Google Books, generally false positives.

Anonymous

I didn't upvote or downvote, mind you.

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

12:19

I just wanted to point out that it's not something people tend to say.

Damkerng T.

Me either!

I think the question is rather unclear.

How do the teachers "teach"? What media? Computerized? and so on.

Anonymous

I think the most likely answer is just lesson.

Anonymous

Lessons usually involve a teacher teaching students.

Damkerng T.

But they want to divide lessons into two groups, I think. Taught and not-taught-yet.

Anonymous

Right, you're right.

Anonymous

12:22

I was distracted by the question implicit in Peter's answer.

Anonymous

After all, he hasn't answered what the OP asked.

Anonymous

The OP wants to know about lessons that have been "carried out". So, lessons that are finished?

Damkerng T.

I wonder if the OP is developing a MOOC platform.

Anonymous

Finished / completed.

Anonymous

Completed lessons.

Anonymous

12:23

How's that sound?

Damkerng T.

nods -- It could work, assuming that our assumption is correct.

Anonymous

Covered seems weird.

Damkerng T.

I think covered is a bad choice.

Anonymous

When I think of the word covered, I imagine talking about what material we've covered so far and what material we have yet to get to.

Damkerng T.

It could also mean lessons on the covered parts (as tailored by the teacher) according to the standardized course.

Which may or may not have been taught or learned yet.

Anonymous

12:27

When I was in high school, I had an AP physics class (second year of physics), and we were supposed to cover mechanics as well as E&M (electricity and magnetism). But when it came time for the AP exam, near the end of the course, we'd still only covered mechanics! The only people who had a hope of passing the E&M AP were those who'd studied on their own.

Damkerng T.

nods

A lot of students over here are sent to tutor schools to learn something ahead of their courses, so they can have their edges. It happens all the time over here.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Covered could work, depending on the surrounding context.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Ah, like juku?

Anonymous

Juku

Gakushū juku (Japanese: 学習塾; see cram school) are special private schools (primarily in Japan) that offer lessons conducted after regular school hours, on weekends, and during school vacations. == History == Juku attendance rose from the 1970s through the mid-1980s; participation rates increased at every grade level throughout the compulsory education years. This phenomenon is a source of great concern to the Ministry, which issued directives to the regular schools that it hoped would reduce the need for after-school lessons, but these directives have had little practical effect. Some juku even...

Damkerng T.

@snailboat It may work but definitely not my first choice.

Juku?

A-ha! Yes! (I think)

Anonymous

12:30

@DamkerngT. It's not what I'd go with, either.

Anonymous

Often translated 'cram school'. It sounded like what you were describing.

Damkerng T.

nods -- They're mostly known as "tutor" over here.

Anonymous

I see!

Anonymous

That makes sense too.

Damkerng T.

One of the most profitable businesses. :D

Anonymous

12:32

Oh, is it? I used to do tutoring, but I never made much money :-)

Damkerng T.

@snailboat You could make a lot of money if you lived here. :D

(Well, maybe not as much as over there, dollars per dollars, but there are several ways to cut down your expenses over here. And the cost of living is lower, relatively, I think.)

> The intellectual perusing “Foucault's Pendulum” and the amateur absorbed in a pulp detective novel – both would be surprised to know how similar they are.

> ell.stackexchange.com/q/79951/3281

That sentence reminds me of something Ceasar (the Ape) said in Dawn of Planet of the Apes.

"I see now how much like them we are."

Damkerng T.

12:57

1

Q: Choice of tense and meaning in "My friend considered going to an event where X came (had come?)"

My friend considered going to an event to see X. Now if I wanted to convey a similar meaning, which of the sentences below would you suggest I use? And what's the difference between the two? My friend considered going to an event where X had come. My friend considered going to an event where X ...

tense backshifting past-vs-past-perfect

I think something like "He goes to (or attend) whatever event X goes" would be better.

Anonymous

13:16

Maybe: He goes to (or attends) whatever event X goes to.

Damkerng T.

13:52

Ah, I forgot the last to.

In any case, I think come is a little strange.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

14:15

Finally. This is so cool. Kudos to Paweł and Chris and everyone else that made this happen. Here's a Unicode face: (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ — Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. 2 mins ago

Damkerng T.

Wait, what? Is that a smartphone?!

:D

CopperKettle

@DamkerngT. A 3D thingie!

Good evening, Dam!

Damkerng T.

Good evening!

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

Evening @Cop @Dam

Damkerng T.

I want this: thinkgeek.com/images/products/additional/large/… -- Beam me up, Scotty!

CopperKettle

14:20

A memorial plaque: "In this building, Professor Zelilov was experimenting with time travel from 2028 to 2034"

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. Top of the evening!

Damkerng T.

Waiting for iPin, the next step after iWatch...

@CopperKettle Neat-o!

CopperKettle

@DamkerngT. There is also a memorial plaque in St Petersburg that says "In this building, on the evening of 4th of May 1833, nothing happened"

Damkerng T.

LOL

CopperKettle

(0:

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@CopperKettle O_o

CopperKettle

14:24

@DamkerngT. I should watch at least one series(?) (or "serium"?) sometimes.

Ah. One episode, probably.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@CopperKettle seriae

Damkerng T.

@CopperKettle The recent remakes are quite good, and you could save some time watching the movies instead of the series.

CopperKettle

Okay, I'll mark it in my IMDB account.

Damkerng T.

The 2009 reboot was quite good, imo. Also the next one after that. I haven't seen the latest one yet.

CopperKettle

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. St. Petersburg is considered "an intellectual capital", and they like smart humor.

Like this notice, where the municipality says that hot water in the building will be shut off for a week due to pipeline repairs, and invites the citizens to Ice Bucket Challenge.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

14:31

I don't even wanna know what's . . . Oh.

#ICEBUCKETCHALLENGE

Damkerng T.

Brrr!

CopperKettle

(0:

This demotivator is called "thugs in St Petersburg".

One thug uses speech in the style peculiar to early 19th century. (0:

"Young gentleman, in this hard hour and in this strange place, where do you hark from? Could you place lend us some support in the financial sense of the word?"

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

Oh I get it

CopperKettle

Because people in St Pete are supposed to be intellectual, even the thugs.

This is the famous Russian poet Pushkin, who lived in St Petersburg.

(0:

And some cat. O_o

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

Russia is creepy.

Damkerng T.

14:39

The cat goes fishing, I think! :D

CopperKettle

Yes. Pushkin has some lines about a learned cat in one poem, but that learned cat was definitely not fishing there.

> By the sea stands a green oak tree;
A golden chain strung round it:
And on the chain a learned cat
Day and night circles round it;
Walking right, he sings a song,
Walking left, he tells a tale.

Damkerng T.

Reminds me of that parrot in a popular joke.

CopperKettle

> In 2002, scientists decided to clone the “old oak” in Taganrog, said to have inspired the famous opening lines of Pushkin’s “Ruslan and Ludmila"

@DamkerngT. What joke?

Damkerng T.

Hmm... let's see if I can find that joke...

unijokes.com/joke-4927

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

0

Q: Canonical post on articles?

Considering how many learners – especially more advanced ones – like to find out why the definite article has or hasn't been included, shouldn't we have a canonical post about articles or determiners in general? Ideally the post would be about what meaning differences indefinite, definite and ze...

discussion canonical-posts

Damkerng T.

14:43

@CopperKettle It was only recently that I learned that cloned cats are real.

CopperKettle

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. Basically one would need to retell a chapter from Quirk et al using other words. (0:

Damkerng T.

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. We need a book on that.

CopperKettle

@DamkerngT. China plans to launch a large cloning factory this year, where 100 000 animals would be cloned for meat.. I remember reading this somewhere.

Damkerng T.

Hah! For meat!

That's ...

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

I'm not expecting it to answer everything.

CopperKettle

14:45

> BoyaLife initially hopes to produce 100,000 “top quality” cow embryos a year and to eventually be responsible for 5% of the premium cattle slaughtered in China.

(source)

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

I'm expecting people gather together to write something like what @Stoney wrote about perfect stuff.

Damkerng T.

nods -- Then again, I think there are probably too many exception cases.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

So is about tense.

I agree that we can't summarize language into one post.

But we can summarize 90% of what learners are confused about in a post.

CopperKettle

@DamkerngT. Nice joke!

Damkerng T.

:D

Damkerng T.

15:10

@CopperKettle Obviously, they haven't read a Japanese manga titled "Bio-Meat" (aka BM).

Araucaria

16:19

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. But articles are so booooooorrrrrriiiiinnnnngg!

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@Araucaria And at the same time, interesting.

Damkerng T.

@Araucaria It's probably the best way to gauge someone's proficiency level quickly (though it's very roughly). :D

Nihilist_Frost

How common is "draught" in modern use?

I used to mispronounce it without an F sound until I found out it was an old form of "draft".

basically the only other "augh" word with /f/.

Damkerng T.

17:33

> an article has no more meaning than a washer on a screw.

> meta.ell.stackexchange.com/a/2893/3281

That's quite succinct!

Jim Reynolds

17:46

@Dam There remains housekeeping business here:

1

Q: How to understand the "blessed" of "new things that have yet to be blessed" here?

The whole context (from Learning OpenCV Computer Vision in C++ with the OpenCV Library (Early Release)): Here are the current modules: ... contrib: This module contains new things that have yet to be blessed into the whole of the library. legacy: This module contains old th...

word-meaning

I think it's on-topic, and you've pointed to the answer in your comment.

But it's untidy at present. What must be done?

Damkerng T.

@JimReynolds I don't know. I left it for someone who can answer the direct questions better than me.

I was surprised a little that my first comment didn't work as I expected. (It turned out that yet was another problem!)

When someone said bless and banish in the context of programming, I'd guess that they've worked with Perl before. I think the author of the excerpt used that kind of lingo. I could be wrong in details, but I don't think I was very far off. — Damkerng T. 3 hours ago

^That's as far as I can go, I think.

Jim Reynolds

Blessed associates a referent with a library, or whatever it said on SO.

Damkerng T.

But what if this bless is commonly used in English outside the programming context?

Jim Reynolds

Clearly, it's used to mean the programming function

Damkerng T.

This message is the 88888th message of this room.

Jim Reynolds

17:53

In the context

Damkerng T.

^Isn't that number nice?! :D

Jim Reynolds

!

8 is a lucky number in Chinese culture.

Damkerng T.

nods :D

@JimReynolds I think so. What I don't know are a) whether or not it's used only in programming lingo, and b) whether or not it's originated from Perl.

Jim Reynolds

Because there's a "contrib" also

Damkerng T.

I guess I could turn my comments into an okay answer, too, and let someone else trump it later.

Jim Reynolds

17:56

Yaaaaay!

github.com/Yomguithereal/react-blessed/issues/30

Then I can sleep!

Damkerng T.

I'm not sure if the name of that Node library has anything to do with our bless.

@JimReynolds LOL

Jim Reynolds

Last time I wrote " @snailboat said blah, blah, blah" in a comment to an answer, I worried for 40 minutes first!

Damkerng T.

But the library looks interesting! (Never used it before)

Jim Reynolds

I think you can qualify your answer with "It appears" or such.

Anonymous

@JimReynolds If something I say in chat gives you an idea that helps you write a useful answer, please feel free to use whatever I said without attribution. The reader is interested in an answer and probably doesn't care about some snailboat person :-)

Jim Reynolds

18:00

Yaaaaaay!

Anonymous

The goal is to write the most useful answer you can.

Jim Reynolds

I might write that as an answer if someone asks the right question!

Sorry I didn't ping you a few minutes earlier. I trust all of us are hurting over Dam's getting the 88888th message.

I'm going to be on my toes for #88888888

Anonymous

ell.stackexchange.com/a/79903/230 and ell.stackexchange.com/questions/79875/… both say invariable tag.

Anonymous

But people also say invariant tag.

Anonymous

I guess invariant isn't invariable!

Anonymous

18:05

At least, no more than invariable is invariant.

Damkerng T.

Hmm... "invariant tag"!

Oh, it's that question.

I thought it would've been closed as duplicate 'cause I'm sure this is not the first time we have a question asking about the general idea of question tags!

Jim Reynolds

As to "who blessed the code?", it would be whoever responsible to the maintenance of the code base.

I think we need is after whoever, but I'm not positive.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@DamkerngT. Whoa

Jim Reynolds

Or was

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

Or wasn't

Jim Reynolds

18:16

Preferably was maybe.

Damkerng T.

@JimReynolds Ah, right! Thanks!

Jim Reynolds

And responsible *for. . . *

Certainly!

Damkerng T.

Ah, right again!

Jim Reynolds

All is well with the world now. G'night!

Damkerng T.

Good night! And thanks!

Jim Reynolds

18:18

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. I didn't see you there, Devil!

Anonymous

@JimReynolds Context?

Anonymous

Whoever went to bed, good night! :-)

Damkerng T.

:D

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@JimReynolds That's 'cause I'm too big.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat It was my answer. :D

1

A: How to understand the "blessed" of "new things that have yet to be blessed" here?

Because I've sort of answered in the comments (even though I didn't intend to at first), I think I should wrap those up as an answer. Judging from the context, which is a programming context, I believe that the author uses those words because they're understandable among programmers. (For more b...

Jim Reynolds

18:20

^

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

Dam wrote an answer? You've gotta be kidding me.

Jim Reynolds

Could be be left out there?

I made him

Damkerng T.

I wrote a couple zero-vote answers this week. :D

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@DamkerngT. LINK right now!

Jim Reynolds

To downvote?

Damkerng T.

18:22

Oh, one was semi-off-topic, and the other was, well, nobody's gotten any vote so far.

0

A: How to describe someone who strongly believes in caste system?

You could simply use caste believer, which sounds neutral enough in my humble opinion. And it's obvious that I'm the first who use this term. There are 7 results in Google Books (it's used as part of a longer phrase in some results) and a lot more in Google search results.

0

A: Passive voice to active voice with verb "to know"

Without going into grammatical issues such as what "known" is, whether it is in the passive voice or not, whether it is a verb or an adjective, and such, and without caring about the risk of information loss or change due to the difference in information delivery, which is the whole point of the ...

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@JimReynolds Yes.

Jim Reynolds

Ok. Me too.

Damkerng T.

I wrote one because I thought nobody would answer the OP, and the OP is new.

In another question, it was like, "Why wouldn't anyone post an obvious choice?"

Um, thanks!

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

I downvoted them all. >:)

Damkerng T.

:D

Jim Reynolds

18:25

And it's obvious that I'm the first who use this term.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

The downvotes feel like upvotes now. The poison will kick in . . . looks at watch . . . 30 minutes.

Jim Reynolds

Really? O.o

Damkerng T.

What? Shouldn't it be "I'm not the first"?!

LOL -- My not-dropping is my signature!

Jim Reynolds

Not the first to use this term.

:)

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@DamkerngT. One case where it's very important to signify use–mention distinction.

And I dunno why my en-dashes look small.

Damkerng T.

18:28

:D

Anonymous

It looks normal to me.

Damkerng T.

1

Q: Frequency of tenses

Out of pure curiosity, I wander what is the frequency of the tenses in the written English language. I only found a passing remark, that Present Simple, Past Simple and Present Perfect accounts for 98% of tensed verbs in published academic texts (http://www.cambridge.org/grammarandbeyond/newslett...

grammar tense

Not sure if it's on-topic, but it's interesting!

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

Very interesting.

Sadly, it's bloggish, not Q/A-ish.

Damkerng T.

I think in academic writing, the present simple and the simple past together make up about 80% of the texts.

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. nods

> cambridge.org/grammarandbeyond/newsletter/2014/04/…

> (How Many Tenses do Students Really Need to Learn?)

A: Two. Because English has only two tenses. QED

:P

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

Beautifully interesting; but sadly, I'm not sure if something like this could objectively be done in a Q/A. For one thing, people still can't agree on what to call tense. Most of them don't, anyway. — Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. 11 secs ago

CopperKettle

20:13

I was once anti-biotic. But lately I've been more pro-biotic after reading more about their culture.

Tweeted by neiltyson on December 11, 2015 at 1:35 AM

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@CopperKettle I'm waiting for the corresponding ELL question.

BTW my favorite pronunciation of the month, I now see, is James May's pronunciation of "same".

Damkerng T.

23:13

0

Q: "I hope you write that word thick." is correct?

I am not a native English speaker, but to me, the sentence below sounds natural. "I hope you write that word thick." But I also definitely know that the following sentence is correct. "I hope you write that word thickly." Is the former also correct?

grammar object-complement

Between write thickly and write in bold, I think write thickly possibly makes more sense. How can one write in bold, unless we use "write" for "type"?

Nihilist_Frost

23:24

prntscr.com/9vpy8b

lol

Damkerng T.

23:38

Ah, I skipped that question.

I wonder if their J sound means /j/ or /dʒ/.

(Though I guess it's probably the latter.)

But if it's the latter, I wonder why they have a problem with it. I think kimji or the Jeju island are pronounced with a phoneme that sounds pretty much like /dʒ/.

In my humble opinion, English J (I guess you meant /dʒ/, not /j/ as in "you" /ju/) is close enough to the "j" in 제주도 (Jeju Island) that you wouldn't have a real problem, but I admit I'm not that familiar with Korean phonology. — Damkerng T. 1 min ago

Nihilist_Frost

His R/L confusion too?

Damkerng T.

I think the r-l confusion makes sense for CJK learners.

I mean, their /r/s are quite different.

Nihilist_Frost

@DamkerngT. His is a flop between L and a flap.

Damkerng T.

nods

Sometimes I think most learners, especially Asian ones, could use some phonetic basics.

Nihilist_Frost

The English R is not pronounced with contact with the rest of the mouth.

Damkerng T.

23:50

Only American /r/, I think.

Nihilist_Frost

also, Korean "J" is not voiced.

Damkerng T.

That is what I wonder myself too, after posting my comment.

Nihilist_Frost

you're confusing him further.

Damkerng T.

Are you sure that Korean /j/ is unvoiced?

Oh, "aspirated" j and "tense" j!

Nihilist_Frost

@DamkerngT. I was talking about romanizations?

Damkerng T.

23:56

What do you mean?

I thought we were talking about the sound of Korean "j".

Nihilist_Frost

I'm getting myself lost.

Damkerng T.

Hmm... Google Translate makes the "j" in 제주도 sound like a voiced sound.

Nihilist_Frost

I think it depends on environment?

Damkerng T.

Probably.

Nihilist_Frost

I don't know two BS about any Korean.

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