Language Overflow

Anonymous

20:01

@lekonchekon Whichever you like.

Damkerng T.

Anonymous

A child was standing on/at/near/by/upon the corner of Broad and Main.

CopperKettle

Another child was standing kitty-corner.

Anonymous

@CopperKettle Ooh, in my dialect it's kitty corner.

CopperKettle

Oh. (0:

Anonymous

20:05

dare.wisc.edu/words/100-entries/kitty-corner

lekon chekon

I see.
Thanks.
I had just started to read "A Dark Brown Dog" by Stephen Crane, and the first line was the sentence that hat "On" in it,
Ah, how the little things bother me. :P

Thanks, once again. :)

Anonymous

@lekonchekon If you forced me to pick one, on is what I'd pick.

Anonymous

But that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with at.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat What a dictionary!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. There's a fundraising campaign: gofundme.com/qjfsgs

2

lekon chekon

20:07

I probably would've gone with At if i had to choose one.

CopperKettle

@DamkerngT. Yes, it is cool.

Hanaa

at the street corner is better for me too

Anonymous

Do you just like the sound of it better, or do you detect a difference in meaning and feel at is more appropriate? (I don't see any context for the sentence, so I'm not sure how I'd pick an alternative preposition.)

Hanaa

@snailboat No idea

Anonymous

Oh, well, that's okay :-)

CopperKettle

20:13

acknowledge the corn (0:

> Sure enough it was his own house. . . He ‘owned the corn,’ flung Cæsar a dollar to pay for the information, and passed the remainder of the night at home with his guests.

"toad-strangler" = a very heavy rain

Reminded me of "gully-washer".

It's a larruping good dictionary.

X-Y-Z: Initialism for “eXamine Your Zipper”

Damkerng T.

Haha!

CopperKettle

READ ONE'S PLATE: to say grace before a meal.

I've added this dictionary to my browser favorites. It's a gem.

TURD HEARSE: a jocular name for a manure spreader.

Damkerng T.

Hehe!

CopperKettle

> CRAMBERRY: a pronunciation of 'cranberry' resulting from the assimilation of the nasal with the labial /b/.

> THE SMALLER STATES: The states of the US other than Alaska, especially the contiguous states. [Alaska]

Damkerng T.

LOL

CopperKettle

20:27

In remote towns of Siberia, the rest of Russia is called "The Big Land".

Damkerng T.

Quite logical. :-)

CopperKettle

> "When is Sergey going to the Big Land? In June?"

> BUBBLE AND SQUEAK: a dish consisting of some combination of cabbage, potatoes, onions, and meat. [chiefly Northeast]

Damkerng T.

Hmm... don't get the name. But it's a name.

CopperKettle

What name?

Damkerng T.

Bubble and squeak.

CopperKettle

20:32

Well, the onions look like "bubbles", and the meat may "squeak" if it's not done enough

> TAR: black or very strong coffee. [especially North]

> LINE STORM: severe weather associated with the spring and autumn equinoxes; an equinoctial storm. [chiefly New England]

> If you live in Pennsylvania, you might say someone who is snoring is COOKING TURNIPS (or cabbage or coffee).

This is brilliant:

> SHUNPIKE: a road used to avoid payment of tolls on a toll road. [esp Northeast]

> FINIFY is an old-fashioned word meaning "to make fine, adorn."

Shall I finify my answer at ELL SE?

Damkerng T.

:-)

CopperKettle

> SNIVVER is an old-fashioned way of saying "immediately after," as in "I'll be over snivver dinner." [evidence from Nantucket, MA]

> LOADED FOR BEAR: fully prepared for a situation; especially, ready and eager for a confrontation.

Damkerng T.

The last one makes a lot of sense.

CopperKettle

nods

> In the South and South Midland, some folks refer to toilet paper as STRIKING PAPER or STRIKING TICKETS.

> TO BE IN TALL COTTON: to be prosperous, do well, e.g 'Frank K—now that's a (tall) man in tall cotton!'

"I'm in tall cotton and I need me some striking tickets"

Anonymous

@CopperKettle I know loaded for bear!

CopperKettle

20:44

@snailboat nice expression!

> While folks from the NE might celebrate #NationalRunningDay by hitting the pavement in SNEAKERS, Southerners might do so in TENNIE-PUMPS.

> If something is extraordinary or powerful, you might describe it as REVEREND, as in, "He's a right reverend scoundrel."

> lower: of the weather or sky: to be or become dark or threatening. [chiefly New England, Upstate New York]

> ramstugious: violent and reckless in behavior; outrageous, quarrelsome, passionate. [especially Midland]

It's Scottish in origin.

"What waes poor cotter boddies feel,
In this their humble station,
Whan dearth ramstugious stern e'ed chiel,
Wraiks on them sad vexation."

(I don't get it at all)

Damkerng T.

22:10

0

Q: Is Jessica Lang's southern accent natural in the movie "Cat on a hot tin roof"?

She was born and brought up in Minnesota. It seems to me that her southern accent in the movie is a bit too exaggerated(read overacted) compared to that of Tommy Lee Jones. Am I mistaken? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL1Nmc7woxM Edit Of course, I'm asking whether her accent is authentic or n...

accent

If an actor is overacting in a movie or a drama, does that make his or her accent overly exaggerated?

It's quite common that Thai actors/actresses (esp. actresses) would overact in soap operas on TV.

(Not to mention if their performance is natural or not.)

Now, to discuss whether some actor's accent is natural/overly exaggerated/overacted or not, I don't know if it's really on-topic on a language learning site.

(English or not)

It's sure fun playing detective, though.

Anonymous

22:57

@DamkerngT. I don't know. I guess they might be separate variables, but not entirely independent of one another.

Anonymous

What a hard question! :-)

Anonymous

I think that it's fairly normal for people to speak differently when acting, whether they're attempting a different accent or not.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat It's quite common here that some characters will talk in a manner that nobody would talk in real life.

Anonymous

It's not hard to imagine someone exaggerating traits of their own accent, is it?

Damkerng T.

(Just to make their jealousy so obvious. :-)

(Hmm... maybe 'envy' is a better word.)

Anonymous

22:59

@DamkerngT. The Japanese linguist Satoshi Kinsui has developed a research area he calls "role language" (yakuwari-go), the language of fictional Japanese.

Anonymous

It's called "role language" because it corresponds so often to specific stereotyped roles that characters play, like "the samurai" or "the old man", and these roles have associated language patterns that may be rarely or never used in real life.

Anonymous

But there are all sorts of interesting patterns in fictional language that differ from those of spontaneous speech.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat I guess dramas in any language would more or less share this trait. :D

Anonymous

Although Kinsui focuses on Japanese, we might ask what sorts of role language we can find in English or in Thai. I think the conventions differ in different languages.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. It's different, though.

Anonymous

23:01

I can imagine fictional speech being different in any language.

Damkerng T.

nods -- I guess the details are different, but the concept should exist.

Anonymous

But there are differing conventions in different languages.

Anonymous

Sometimes people talk about characters in English film or television being "straight out of central casting" :-)

Anonymous

idioms.thefreedictionary.com/straight+out+of+central+casting

Anonymous

→ en.wiktionary.org/wiki/out_of_central_casting

Damkerng T.

23:03

Nice term!

Anonymous

I suspect that lots of conventions exist in English fiction that are invisible to me.

Damkerng T.

I think the majority of contemporary Hollywood movies seem to aim at realistic performance.

Anonymous

A lot of learners of Japanese draw on fiction heavily (many people start learning Japanese because they think Japanese comics, cartoons, and dramas are neat!) and many pick up bits of role language, not realizing they're doing so!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. That's my impression, too.

Anonymous

Although of course it's not actually realistic, it just gives the impression of realism.

Damkerng T.

23:06

nods -- A very small but important difference!

@snailboat Japanese anime and dorama seem to make it idealistic, like they want to make it obvious that this is role playing.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. A lot of my friends don't like the conventions of Japanese dramas. It's too, well, dramatized! It doesn't aim for realism, and they aren't used to that.

Damkerng T.

I like both English (well, American :) movies and Japanese dorama. :D

Anonymous

Me too!

Anonymous

Oh, I caught up with Heroes.

Damkerng T.

Yay!

Anonymous

23:10

I feel like I must have missed some important plot points, though.

Damkerng T.

I haven't seen the last episode of the first half of the season. I somehow missed it!

Anonymous

Ah!

Damkerng T.

Waiting for another rerun here. :D

Anonymous

I suppose you probably can't watch them on nbc.com due to region restrictions?

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Did you feel that before or after the last episode?

@snailboat Definitely not! :D

I can't watch any American or Australian channels online, last I checked.

Anonymous

23:12

@DamkerngT. After. I don't want to spoil it!

Damkerng T.

Okay! Thanks for not spoiling the plot. :D

0

Q: "Stay on it" meaning in the context

In one of American Dad's episodes (cartoon), there's a closing scene where Dad commands to his CIA colleagues to follow his daughter (who used to be a strip dancer) and then responds to one of them: Yes, I know she's got a great ass. Stay on it. Stay on means to remain doing something, but ...

meaning idioms

American Dad is labeled "Adult Only" over here. :P

So, the gag is perhaps below the belt. :D

Haha! I was reading StoneyB's answer and for some reason synecdochic made me laugh! (Not that I don't know synecdoche :-)

ʇolɐǝz ǝɥʇ qoq

Hai!

Damkerng T.

Hi!

ʇolɐǝz ǝɥʇ qoq

Sup!

Damkerng T.

American Dad and The Simpsons, where words get twisted every couple seconds!

@ʇolɐǝzǝɥʇqoq Stay on it, perhaps! :D

ʇolɐǝz ǝɥʇ qoq

23:18

XD

Saw that question

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