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09:48
0
Q: How to Discern an Asyndetic Coordinate Subject Complement?

saySay ". . .to let fall is absolute indifference, absolute contempt;" I think this got maybe discerned an asyndetic coordinate subject complement. May something like He was a moody man, his temper was never equable seem maybe something like an asyndetic coordinate subject complement?

> I think this got maybe discerned an asyndetic coordinate subject complement.
It makes me wonder if that maybe is kosher.
Also an interesting use of discern.
Something like I discern him a man... Mmm
10:04
To write about: Why language hacking and such is probably not good for language Q&A websites
(Thinking of that while reading ell.stackexchange.com/questions/60983/adhere-to-follow-obey. Basically, my idea is those sentences don't mean anything because there is no mind behind the sentences.)
(Oh, found another related post: ell.stackexchange.com/a/61062/3281. 'Devoid of context, there are several potential meanings here.' -- Yep.)
10:24
> A world in which there are monsters, and ghosts, and things that want to steal your heart is a world in which there are angels, and dreams and a world in which there is hope. ― Neil Gaiman
I think once we started to use commas, we'd probably end up with exactly that version.
It's not a comma-friendly sentence anyway, imho.
(But it led me to a good writer.)
 
2 hours later…
12:03
0
Q: Open Up Outcomes

meatieI have some question about this: Despite the Greek government's assertion that a "no" vote will not lead to a euro exit, most people agree it would open up more uncertain outcomes, especially if the ECB halts its life-support measures to Greece's banks. Dictionaries suggest that only "...

> Dictionaries suggest that only "open up opportunities/possibilities" is correct, and "open up outcomes" might be nonstandard. So, is the example poorly written?
Eh?
Apparently, I've never run into those dictionaries.
Anonymous
meatie is well aware that that's not how dictionaries work
Anonymous
It's been explained many times
Anonymous
I do like that sentence without commas
nods
Good morning!
Anonymous
There are many problems with saySay's sentences, but that use of maybe strikes me as fine
Anonymous
12:16
Morning!
Anonymous
After updating to iOS 8.4, I noticed the diamonds on this room being red
Anonymous
The diamond in my profile is still black
It seemed to me like saySay was trying to say maybe this: I think this can be discerned as maybe an asyndetic coordinate subject complement.
@snailboat Oh! Is the name of the room red too?
Anonymous
No
Anonymous
Just the diamond
Anonymous
12:19
That use of discern strikes me as odd
I wish I could buy a lot of those one-cent books on Amazon.com.
@snailboat nods
Anonymous
How about: I think this might be a ...
That would sound natural, but I guess saySay's mind works differently. :D
Anonymous
You can stick maybe all sorts of places conversationally
nods -- It's quite a handy word, though I wonder how often people insert maybe between got and a verb after it.
Anonymous
12:23
I think this might be a subject complement that has the form of an asyndetic coordination of noun phrases.
Perfect!
Anonymous
I do think the adverb maybe is odd following the passive use of get
Anonymous
I guess when I first read the sentence, it sounded more like get discerned was the problem :-)
I mentioned one-cent books because I want to buy this book:
I think a lot of nima's and meatie's questions have already been answered in the book.
At the moment, I used Google to access some parts of the book, e.g. discern: books.google.com/…
Funny how my 'at the moment' and 'used' clashed. -- I think I used 'used' because, of course, I was thinking of the time when I 'used' that page; I used 'At the moment' because that page is still open! -- Silly me.
Anonymous
People shorten things like native speaker all the time. People say things like "I'm not a native, but..."
Anonymous
12:37
I'm not comfortable with that sort of shortening
Anonymous
A native already has another meaning. It seems imprecise
nods -- Not sure if I've seen "I'm a native" here on ELL.
Anonymous
Last night around midnight some kids set off fireworks across the street. Very loud!
Oh, yes! The 4th of July!
Anonymous
There are always some illegal fireworks in the days around the 4th
12:40
Oh! Is it illegal?
Anonymous
Some fireworks are legal
Small ones, I guess.
Anonymous
There's usually a big (legal) show on the 4th
Anonymous
But people get their own and set them off, too
Anonymous
They set off a few big ones last night, then jumped in their car and drove off as fast as they could
12:43
Last night, my neighbor enjoyed their music very loudly, too. :P
I'm not sure which house, so I can't complain anything.
Anonymous
Snails can't hear, but I think the vibrations might have scared them a little
I think I know how they would feel. :D
Anonymous
One of them dug a hole!
I mean, I knew it was music, but all I heard was only the bass.
@snailboat Hah!
I didn't know that snails can dig a hole!
Anonymous
Walls act as high pass filters
Anonymous
12:45
I mean low pass
Anonymous
The higher the frequency, the more likely it's reflected off the wall rather than passing through
nods -- And all that was left wasn't quite pleasant.
Was it around midnight, the fireworks?
Anonymous
Yes
Anonymous
The morning of the 6th
Eh? Not the morning of the 5th?
Anonymous
12:50
That is, a few hours ago
Oh, was it an expergefactor for you?
Anonymous
No, on the night of the 4th there was a big legal fireworks show
Anonymous
I still don't know that word!
I misspelled the word!
Anonymous
Like I said, there are usually illegal fireworks set off on the days around the 4th
Anonymous
12:51
On the 4th too, but it's hard to tell which ones are legal since people are setting off lots of legit ones :-)
Hehe! -- I like fireworks in general. But it's better not too close.
13:10
1
Q: How to identify if the word in the sentence is used as adjective or verb?

user4084Is there any logic/ Trick to identify if the word was used as adjective or verb? e.g. Level has been reduced to one. My pen has been broken. Gold had been stolen. In above sentence the word reduced, Broken, Stolen, can be use and verb if we use agent. e.g Level has been reduced ...

I think I should read more about Halliday's ideas.
But I think he probably thinks the same as me: no context, no meaning; no meaning, no point to assign PoS to words in a sentence.
Anonymous
Sometimes you can tell things about syntax without looking at semantics.
Anonymous
Sometimes you have no clues from syntax and you have to look at semantics.
13:37
@snailboat I think it works well only when function words (or morphemes) make it clear.
(Which can probably tell us a lot about the structure of a sentence already!)
I still can't read Japanese fluently because I don't know enough function words/phrases.
14:27
@mcalex yeah, but I can write that way to emphasize the 'already emphasized' thing! ;) mag4all.com/…Maulik V Jun 5 '14 at 8:46
> But this raptor is still pretty much fast than humans.
Oops! That's ungrammatical! (Probably a typo.)
@DamkerngT. Faster!
14:47
0
Q: Are the 4 sentences interchangeable enough that I can use whatever I want? - in which / when / in which to / to

jihoonI like to go singing at karaoke with my friends. 1 It's a perfect time to let my hair down. 2 It's a perfect time in which to let my hair down. 3.It's a perfect time where I can let my hair down. 4.It's a perfect time in which I can let my hair down. Are the 4 sentences interchangeable en...

5 hours ago, by Damkerng T.
To write about: Why language hacking and such is probably not good for language Q&A websites
@DamkerngT. IMO option 1 and four make sense. The others, not so much.
Anonymous
Four makes sense, but it sure is strange.
Anonymous
They should stick with the original, which is presumably #1.
@snailboat Agreed.
Anonymous
15:00
Lots of crossposting between WR and SE
It's like an street vendor presenting a lecture to university students.
I wonder what percent of those are deliberate.
@snailboat Ahh
 
1 hour later…
16:22
Ah, just spotted a typo of my own in ELU chat room. Too late. Never mind.
Anonymous
I don't see it!
in English Language & Usage, 6 mins ago, by Damkerng T.
@Robusto Drive (or whatever mean you do) home safely.
Oh.
I didn't see it too.
I get dizzy when I see Japanese.
I hadn't seen it in the first two minutes, either!
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. Ah, you accidentally typed an extra mean!
16:37
I meant means.
Anonymous
Hmm, whatever means you do seems a little off
Anonymous
Though I understand it
Indeed. I couldn't think of anything better. (Still can't)
Anonymous
It sounds okay to me with or whatever you do :-)
Maybe you use.
nods
Anonymous
16:38
Whatever you do could be drive, walk, bike, hitchhike, dance, trundle, ...
ride, run, and such.
I hope it's not crawling. :D
Anonymous
Inching would take a while, I s'pose.
@snailboat Oh, a funny thought: in Thai, we can [sit-boat-back-home]. :D
Bit coat sit what?
@MaulikV - I will bow to your superior English skills and concede you must be right. From now on I will say 'Speak in (language)'. I only have 48 years as a native English speaker so thanks for correcting me and marking down my post. — Steve Ives 6 hours ago
Gonna ask Man_From_India some day.
Anonymous
16:46
This question is unfortunate because I think people are making different assumptions about what it's asking.
True that, kindly mention the same in this answer. And, I retract the vote.... :) — Maulik V 6 hours ago
Anonymous
"Speak English." is clearly the correct answer if we're considered these strings as complete sentences.
So Steve Ives' answer had gotten a downvote earlier, I think.
Anonymous
And since they're capitalized and have trailing punctuation, my initial assumption is that they are intended as complete sentences.
@snailboat Yes. That was my first thought, too.
@snailboat I doubt that, though.
Anonymous
16:48
@DamkerngT. Yes, I do question the assumption
Anonymous
They did also write "which sentence", which is another hint in that direction
Anonymous
But someone could ask to make sure.
Anonymous
Of course, speak in English is a perfectly fine string of English.
Anonymous
I think it's significantly less likely to occur as a complete imperative, though.
Anonymous
16:49
For that matter, it's less common in other contexts, too.
@DamkerngT. This is a smart one.
Still, it shows that ELL has a serious voting problem.
Anonymous
9
Q: Is any difference between "speak English" and "speak in English"?

AprilIs any difference between "speak English" and "speak in English"?

Anonymous
@DamkerngT. I'd already voted on the answers before you linked the question :-)
@snailboat Oh!
16:53
@DamkerngT. Yessss.
Hmm... maybe we should close it as duplicate.
Anonymous
To be honest, I'm not really happy with any of the answers, since native speakers do say speak in English, and you might think from Steve Ives' answer and comments that this is not the case or that it always sounds non-native
I think 200_success's answer is pretty good.
Another reason I should learn Lojban.
Anonymous
16:54
200_success's answer doesn't really address the complete sentence "Speak English!"
Anonymous
The imperative doesn't refer to an ability.
Mmm... true.
Hmm. . . I've heard that a couple o' times before. . .
Oh, like when Steve Rogers told Tony Stark: Speak English! when he (Tony) was talking in a very jargonic way.
But that's maybe an idiom.
Anonymous
I think it's a fairly natural extension of referring to the language you're speaking
Anonymous
In Japanese, there's a similar slang expression on the net, 日本語でおk
16:57
@M.A.Ramezani Ah, I remember that scene!
Anonymous
Which is asking them to explain in Japanese
I forgot Captain America's name though.
Anonymous
(possibly after using Tony Stark-like jargon ;-)
@DamkerngT. Avengers 1?
@M.A.Ramezani Yes. The only The Avengers of this franchise I've watched.
Anonymous
16:58
I don't know how many languages use an expression like that, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it's fairly widespread
Hmm. . . I wonder how many languages are alive now.
Anonymous
〜7000
Last time I checked, there were 6000 non-dead languages in the world.
About a couple of thousand?
Oh!
Anonymous
Depends on how you count.
17:01
That's a bunch of thousand!
Note that non-dead != alive.
There could be zombies.
Anonymous
They currently count 7102.
@M.A.Ramezani lol -- That makes me think of Latin. :P
I also read that in Papua Guinea there are 800 existing languages.
Anonymous
17:02
@DamkerngT. Latin is definitely a zombie language.
Anonymous
It's more than moribund. It's mostibund.
Ah, will the learners of Latin turn?!
Anonymous
Or have they already?
scared...
And sunder?
Turn, how? Left? Right?
17:05
An imaginary movie title: Zombies: The Turning
Sounds like a boring movie.
Well, boring until Shakespeare suddenly rises from the grave.
Anonymous
Pride and Prejudice and Zombie Shakespeare?
He'll go all
> O thy brainzzz. . .
-1, sorry. It's true that "to speak English" can mean "to be able to communicate in English", but that is certainly not its only meaning. I see no problem with the OP's "You must speak English in class". And whereas "who speak English at home" is normal and well-attested, "who speak in English at home" is bizarre and gets only two Google-hits. — ruakh Jan 5 at 0:04
I wonder if the number of hits would be different if Google included Indian English in the corpus.
Anonymous
ruakh makes a good point, as ruakh often does
17:14
The phrase "who speak in English at home" is indeed bizarre.
Interesting.
0
Q: In the way / in a way / the way / as

jihoonHere's a context. A: I ordered a product and it was delivered two days ago. But the design of the product was not what I had in mind. I asked for the restaurant's name to be printed larger than this and the restaurant's phone number was supposed to be written on the bottom, so customers could se...

Man_From_India must like this question.
Not sure if it will get an ideal answer.
@Man likes every question.
(in) the way is one of his unresolved questions.
17:46
@DamkerngT. hehe
Hehe! Hello!
Just a bit busy, so will check that out later ;-)
Good evening Damke
Good evening!
@Man_From_India Hullo and bye, I guess.
@M.A.Ramezani Sorry, will come back tomorrow...:-)
See you guys....good night...
17:49
L8r!
Good night!
 
2 hours later…
20:13
0
Q: Here, is 'for' optional? and 'so' is exactly the same as 'so that' and 'in such a way that'?

jihoonHere's a context. I ordered a product and it was delivered two days ago. But the design of the product was not what I had in mind. I asked for the restaurant's name to be printed larger than this and the restaurant's phone number was supposed to be written on the bottom, so customers could se...

Preposition of the Day: [T]he restaurant's phone number was supposed to be written ___ the bottom. a) on; b) at
> I would say:
At the top of the page.
On the bottom of the page.
Probably it's a different dialect from mine.
Or he meant something else, which I think is not what jihoon was thinking of.
Anonymous
I think at sounds better in both cases
Persian English dialect agrees with @snail.
Anonymous
But it depends on the shape of the thing you're talking about and what you mean by bottom
Anonymous
jihoon's question doesn't appear to specify that the object is flat like a sheet of paper
Here it's 'bout an internet page.
20:28
If I heard that the phone number is printed on the bottom (of the page), I'd imagine that it's printed on the back, and I'd have to flip it over to see the phone number!
Anonymous
If I imagine it as something like a manekineko, then I could imagine both at the bottom and on the bottom depending on what was meant. It seems a little fuzzy to me.
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. Yeah, me too, but I don't think I'd phrase it that way to begin with for a sheet of paper
Anonymous
@M.A.Ramezani It doesn't seem to be. It seem to be about "a product"
I'd look on the floor.
lol -- The cat is cute!
20:30
Huh? Oh!
A-ha! Beckoning cat probably works in English.
Catzilla!
Yep. Japan has an obsession for large stuff.
Anonymous
Would you say the same of the US?
Anonymous
This is a list of verifiable roadside attractions. Items can claim to be the largest, longest, highest, or anything that makes them notable. == Notable roadside attractions == == To be sorted == == United States of America == === Alabama === World's Largest Office Chair, 625 Noble St, Anniston, Alabama 36201, USA World's Largest Hog, Dothan, Alabama, USA World's Largest Boll Weevil, Enterprise, Alabama, USA World's Largest Brick, Montgomery, Alabama, USA World's Largest Catfish, Troy, Alabama, USA World's Largest Soda Bottle (Destroyed), The Bottle, Alabama, USA === Alaska === Wo...
Pineapplizilla!
20:33
Well, the US people are obsessed with breaking Guiness records.
Anonymous
And twine. Balls of twine.
Anonymous
There are multiple claims to the world's biggest ball of twine record in the United States. As of 2014, the ball of twine with the largest circumference is located in Cawker City, Kansas. == Largest ball of sisal twine built by a community == In Cawker City, Kansas, Frank Stoeber saw the Darwin ball as a challenge and started his own. Stoeber had 1.6 million feet (490,000 m) of twine on his 11-foot-diameter (3.4 m) ball when he died in 1974. Cawker City built an open-air gazebo over Stoeber's ball where every August a "Twine-a-thon" is held and more twine is added to the ball. By 2006, the twine...
It happens in Kansas!
My point still stands.
And Tabrizians are obsessed with Baklava.
I'm sure it's delicious!
Ahh... I haven't tried making that puff.
Strange, I thought 'haven't' but typed ''ve'...
20:42
We're also obsessed with carpets; traditional carpets; called Farsh.
Oh, yes! Carpets!
[carpet] and [Turkey] are collocates in Thai.
 
1 hour later…
21:47
Hah!
Word of the Day: egocentric stance
22:20
The first time I read it, I thought will would be acceptable because I read it as If we're informed (or if we know) that the lava will come down as far as this, we will evacuate these houses. Why? Because in my opinion, by the time the lava comes down this far, you won't have any houses left to evacuate. But then again, this depends on the context and the intended meaning. It's unclear without context what as far as this means. (In other words, where is this?) — Damkerng T. 16 mins ago
I risked posting it.

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