Language Overflow

CowperKettle

04:26

Sawasdee khrap!

johnchae

04:45

Morning :)

V.V.

Morning

johnchae

04:57

Low Roar - "I'll Keep Coming"

►

Can't get this song out of my head ^^

CowperKettle

11:14

0

A: A meeting of an administrative body far from its usual meeting place (headquarters etc.)

I'm not sure if "visitatorial" (or "visitorial") may be regarded as the best alternative to how it was translated on the Russian Presidential website", but the exact meaning of the two which I'm suggesting is "of or relating to an official visitor or visit". "Vladimir Putin chaired a visitatori...

My compatriot's desire to help is laudable, but "visitatorial" sounds funny.

TIPS

My compatriot's desire to help is funny, but "visitatorial" sounds laudable.

My desire's help to compatriot is sound, but "laudable" funnies visitatorial.

My laudable visitatorial to sound is compatriot, but "funny" helps desire.

My sound compatriot is funny to desire, but "visitatorial" laudables help.

Anonymous

I'm going with B. Definitely B.

Araucaria

14:01

@snailplane, @DamkerngT. any chance of some reopen vote help here, please?

1

Q: Part of speech in a sentence

In the sentence: " I let him take the pen ... are the mentioned functions correct? I = subject let = main verb him = indirect Object take = the second verb (bare infinitive) the pen = Direct Object Of particular interest is whether him is a subject of take or an object of let. Also wh...

Damkerng T.

@RegDwigнt Actually Reg, this question is one of considerable interest to synracticians. Lots of verbs that end up in sentences looking very similar actually have very different behaviours.. NPs that come directly after the verb are difficult to analyse in terms of whether they are subjects of subordinate clauses or direct objects of matrix clauses. Chomsky and Postal had what was described at the time as a "monumental battle" over this very issue. — Araucaria 4 hours ago

excited

(because they both could be right!)

Damkerng T.

14:27

4

Q: A question about "but not" as coordinating conjunction

So I was reading an article or something, and there was a sentence that quite intrigued me. a. You can turn everybody against you, but never your boss. "But never" is used as a coordinating conjunction, and it appears one adverbial phrase (against you). Even though I think it is idiomatic,...

meaning grammaticality idioms

Judging from the language used in the question, I can't see why OP has such a problem!

Sometimes I wonder how many different ways people learn their languages.

Man_From_India

15:30

@Araucaria is the who-clause a fused relative construction or an open interrogative clause?

> I'm really content with who you really are.

I think it's an open interrogative clause.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Araucaria

@Man_From_India yes, i think so

Man_From_India

Thanks my reading again and again of that short discussion in CGEL is finally paying off :)

Damkerng T.

0

A: One single English word for

Thai has a similar word, อุดมคติ (read "udomkati"), which seems to have the same meaning, judging from the meaning you give in the question. The best English word for it for all intents and purposes is ideal. Here is its definition by Oxford Dictionaries: ideal Pronunciation: /ʌɪˈdɪəl/, /...

The OP is my neighbor!

I guess it probably has the same meaning in India (at least in Sanskrit).

Man_From_India

@DamkerngT. no idea :(

Damkerng T.

Hah!

Does उत्तम look familiar?

Oh, but "kati" is Pali!

Man_From_India

15:51

@DamkerngT. yes it does :-) if I read it correctly, it means "good". I'm not that good with reading hindi :(

Damkerng T.

16:06

@Man_From_India Don't worry. Me either! :P

Man_From_India

Hehe

> "You are the one who I want to be with."

Can we rewrite it like this?

> You are who I want to be with.

TIPS

@Man_From_India Thanks!

Damkerng T.

I guess you can, in today's English.

Man_From_India

It's ambiguous, as far as I can think of. I mean it can be either a fused relative or an open interrogative. But that sentence is wrong.

TIPS

@Man_From_India This one?

It's grammatical.

And it isn't ambiguous.

Ambiguity is only spoken in the context of semantics, and no meta-reference.

Man_From_India

16:13

I really don't know. I don't know whether it's fused construction or interrogative clause.

@TIPS btw thanks for what?

TIPS

For telling me that

3 mins ago, by Man_From_India

> You are who I want to be with.

Man_From_India

@TIPS i was not telling, I was actually asking. :-)

TIPS

@Man_From_India This is not a dating service. ಠ_ಠ

Damkerng T.

LOL

Man_From_India

:-/

:O

TIPS

16:21

Argh

Since when did meta.ELL become boring?!

I want someone to come and rant about close votes, to be smited by J.R.'s logic.

Remember the Elvis incident @Dam?

Holy damn, it also happened during elections.

That was so much epinephrine.

EVEN Stoney engaged.

Damkerng T.

@TIPS Elvis?

TIPS

@DamkerngT. Elvis Jagger whatever

Damkerng T.

I guess I've already forgotten that. (Which is one of my special skills. :-)

TIPS

Yay!

Forgetting is awesome.

People who forget live longer.

Damkerng T.

Hee

TIPS

16:25

I found this screenshot from long time ago

Damkerng T.

Pineapple thingy!

TIPS

Mar 15 at 15:03, by IͶΔ

> it's a fruit that is delicious Zeppelin

Back when I wasn't pingable from mobile chat

Good times good times

Damkerng T.

:D

TIPS

Hey, somebody @stang.

Anonymous

@TIPS Do you like epinephrine or adrenaline better?

TIPS

16:35

@snailplane I had gotten used to "adrenaline", but when they deprecate something and you spell it out loud, they look at you in a funny way as if you're 120 years old.

CowperKettle

Hi, Snails, Muhammad!

I like Dehidroepyandrosterone-sulfate

Anonymous

In the U.S., it's still very common to hear adrenaline, not so much epinephrine.

Anonymous

Good morning! :-)

CowperKettle

In Russian, "adrenaline" is used 99% of the time

TIPS

@CowperKettle \o

Anonymous

16:37

@CowperKettle And noradrenaline as well?

CowperKettle

@snailplane yes

TIPS

@CowperKettle OK, mister "like Dehidroepyandrosterone-sulfate", first, your name is wrong and dee shouldn't be capitalized. And second, will you type that every time you're talking about that name?

Double rimshot

Anonymous

I think adrenaline sounds cooler.

CowperKettle

No, I'll use DHEA-S

TIPS

@CowperKettle Other countries than US are usually behind naming conventions.

In a 30-year gap.

Anonymous

16:39

I don't like words containing nephros. It sounds creepy.

Anonymous

But adrenal doesn't sound creepy.

CowperKettle

@TIPS In Russian vernacular, you can use the preposition "behind" as "for" in some constructions. Like "How much [elided: do you ask] for this car?"

There is a joke about two Russians walking in New York.

They walk into a black part of the city.

And one asks another: "Misha, what is the English word for "behind"?

Misha says: "behind. But why do you need it?"

He says: "I want to ask that black guy ''How much behind your Caddilac""

It's a linguistic joke, a bit dirty.

He wants to ask "How much do you want for your Caddilac" in vernacular Russian.

But he will not be understood by the black guy.

@snailplane because it sounds like "necrosis"

stangdon

Hi all.

TIPS

\o

CowperKettle

Hey, if the joke I told is bad, burn it with fire. I'm a bit busy..

Anonymous

16:54

Yes, it sounds like nekros :-(

TIPS

@CowperKettle It was great.

Jokes that make me laugh are very rare.

Jokes that make me smile are great.

Anonymous

I'm okay with renal, though.

TIPS

Jokes that make me do nothing and stare are good.

Damkerng T.

Hi, @stangdon!

1

A: A meeting of an administrative body far from its usual meeting place (headquarters etc.)

Some further suggestions: A traveling Council meeting When it visits more than one place away from its base. A peripatetic Council meeting A remote Council meeting A provincial meeting of the Council A regional meeting of the council As well as the previously mentioned ...

TIPS

Jokes that I -1 are bad.

Damkerng T.

16:56

@CowperKettle I told you, it's a mobile meeting!

(I guess, mobile and traveling aren't that different. :-)

TIPS

@DamkerngT. What am I missing out?

Damkerng T.

@TIPS His question, probably. :D

TIPS

18 mins ago, by CowperKettle

And one asks another: "Misha, what is the English word for "behind"?

Great question @Cowp. +1!

Anonymous

The little words are the hardest ones to translate sometimes!

Damkerng T.

17:31

Word of the Day: doppelgänger

I misspelled the word all these years!

(as dopple-)

Sina

Nice word!

:)

0

Q: Baby Talk on warning toddlers against touching, say, objects too hot to touch

I am curious about baby talk people use to warn toddlers not to touch dangerous things such as objects too hot to touch. Think of a coffee cup, too hot for them to touch, what would you say? Would you say, for example: Noooo?

phrase-request

We say: gzza /jzʌ/

This is a fun question!:-)

OMG, I meant jzza /ʤzʌ/. Why I wrote ^?

Damkerng T.

18:08

I'm pretty sure Homer Simpson will say (or rather, yell), "D'oh!" :-)

lekon chekon

@DamkerngT.
Could you look at a question for me?

0

Q: The day before/ yesterday...were/had been -- forming sentences, trying to convey things concerning the past and the past before past

We were all afraid thinking what might happen to us. What increased the fear was how it had been on the paper yesterday/the day before.. that the killer had killed all the people that were/had been there at the party. In the first case, can I use the day before instead of yesterday ? And in the ...

past-tense past-perfect

Damkerng T.

What question?

Oh!

I wouldn't say (or write) "that the killer had killed all the people that were/had been there at the party", I think.

lekon chekon

why so?

Damkerng T.

"there at the party" sounds a bit cumbersome to me.

lekon chekon

other than that.

let's focus on the were/had been part.

:p

that's been confusing the hell out of me

Damkerng T.

18:12

Well, there are several things that sound a little off in that clause, but if I had to choose, I'd choose had been.

lekon chekon

does it make a difference meaning wise?

Damkerng T.

Probably not, but personally I think it's embedded too deep to use were.

lekon chekon

is there a way to describe two-three events that have occurred at different times before some event in the past?

Damkerng T.

@lekonchekon Sure, but probably not just by using tenses.

lekon chekon

give me a sentence that does just that.

suppose event A has taken place before B, and C before D.
D is the most recent event.

which is also in the past.

Damkerng T.

18:18

It could be as simple as a list. Detective, four incidents happened. The first, last month. The second, last week. You're standing in the crime scene of the third, and I don't have to tell you about the fourth, I believe.

TIPS

@lekonchekon Yes. With multiple sentences.

Sometimes you stretch the language so hard, it doesn't stretch anymore.

Don't put yourself in hypothetical situations without boundaries.

Damkerng T.

Otherwise, you'll get one of my seven wonders soon!

Sina

@DamkerngT. :D What do you say in Thai?

Damkerng T.

(E.g., The rat the cat the dog chased killed ate the malt is grammatical, but who would say that!)

TIPS

@DamkerngT. I wanna I wanna I wanna

Damkerng T.

18:27

@Sina There are several ways. One common way is sort of like "Ah-ah".

TIPS

@Sina "อย่างชัดเจน"

According to GM

Sina

@DamkerngT. like what is in English !

Damkerng T.

อย่างชัดเจน means something like "clearly"!

@Sina Sort of. :D

Sina

@DamkerngT. In Persian we use Ah-Ah! But in Azery we say jzza.:-)

Damkerng T.

Interesting!

Good morning, @StoneyB!

TIPS

18:30

@Sina J-what?

Hullo @Stoney

Sina

@TIPS جز زا

You don't say that?

TIPS

What

Sina

جز زا

TIPS

Obviously, I don't say that.

StoneyB

Hullo, DT. I got a few minutes free at work and dropped in to see what folks are talking about.

Sina

18:32

Oh! Never had babies around!

TIPS

@StoneyB About jzza

Sina

Hi! Uncle @StoneyB!

Damkerng T.

@StoneyB @lekonchekon is curious about ways to describe an event that had happened before an event that had happened before an event that was happening.

:D

Sina

@DamkerngT. what!

StoneyB

@DamkerngT. Great Mother English would really prefer he get his act together and just tell his story in the right order.

TIPS

18:35

@DamkerngT. "The first event happened in the Jurassic era."

@StoneyB This. THIS!

StoneyB

@Sina Hullo, Sina!

TIPS

CC @Lekon

Damkerng T.

BTW, I'm watching 'Westworld'. According to some sources in Korea, we all will have a robot in our homes by 2020.

(which is pretty soon; IIRC, Gates said by 2025)

StoneyB

Most of us do already. I've had a robot checking my email for decades.

Damkerng T.

Hah! :D

Sina

18:39

@DamkerngT. by that time I may be old enough to need one:D

Damkerng T.

LOL

StoneyB

My father got a robot to turn the central heating on and off in 1954.

Damkerng T.

Ah, but I bet that one couldn't talk. :D

StoneyB

Its range of intellectual interests was pretty narrow, but it told us what the current temperature was.

Damkerng T.

That's nice enough. :D

StoneyB

18:52

Is anybody betting on what the Brits are gonna do today? Does anybody care?

TIPS

I slightly care.

Damkerng T.

I guess they'll stay, but things won't change much either way, I think. (But what do I know?!)

CowperKettle

I don't care much

TIPS

Why were they opting out, again?

StoneyB

They've always been sort of dubious about being Europeans. Right now they seem to be mostly exercised about the number of furriners trying to get in and corrupt the language. They had a bad experience last time, when a bunch of French-speaking Vikings wrecked it.

But that may be my own very narrow view of what's involved.

CowperKettle

19:00

The British Isle will not steam away anyway, so no problem for me

TIPS

If they aren't Europeans, what are they?

Africans?

Polar bears?

I wonder how @Arau feels about all this.

"Political junk"

@DamkerngT. Was the horizontal double dot always there?

I thought it's just "doppelganger".

Damkerng T.

@TIPS I guess so.

StoneyB

Yah. That's an umlaut, indicating morphological change of the vowel.

Sina

Let me see! I bet they stay!

TIPS

@StoneyB Wow, always?

Looking for the Wikipedia page for omelete

Sina

19:06

@TIPS :D

StoneyB

CORRECTION: the sign is an Umlaut, but it may indicate change deriving from either Umlaut or Ablaut.

TIPS

Metal umlaut

A metal umlaut is a diacritic that is sometimes used gratuitously or decoratively over letters in the names of hard rock or heavy metal bands—for example those of Blue Öyster Cult, Queensrÿche, Motörhead, The Accüsed, Mötley Crüe and Spın̈al Tap. Among English speakers, the use of umlaut marks and other diacritics with a blackletter style typeface is a form of foreign branding intended to give a band's logo a Teutonic quality—denoting stereotypes of boldness and strength commonly attributed to ancient northern European peoples, such as the Vikings and Goths. Its use has also been attributed to...

Pretty sure metal isn't the only context these are being used wrongly or superfluously.

Sina

19:40

Bye uncle @StoneyB:-)

TIPS

Oh, so the cause of the referendum was the conservative parties.

Everything conservative is sometimes good, but gets very heavily on my nerves the other times.

There's a Persian idiom, "stomping on my nerves with shoes with nails", and it applies here.

Araucaria

19:57

@StoneyB That's the bit that's exercising some people for sure. It's the bit being played on by the press. But there's aso the self-determination thing, the fact that the EU is a bit humanitarian and lefty. The question's been framed in the wrong way. Our right wing government spent ages bad-mouthing the EU to the public to gain votes, bad-mouthing the EU to the press to gain votes. So now, given that they actually want to sty in they're being kaiboshed by their own propoganda.

TIPS

Interesting

I love it when governments see the results of their own lies.

Hmm, the continuous aspect made me uneasy there

Araucaria

@StoneyB That evil ****, Borris Johnson, the UK's answer to your Trump decided to comit treason on his country (I'm not using that lightly as you'll see) as well as betraying London. He has always been pro the EU. He knows full well why being in the EU is so important for Britain and for Europe. He has always argued for being in Europe. ...

@StoneyB ... But he's seen an opportunity to become a "leader" and an avenue to the prime ministership and a glorious career, so he's dumped what he knows to be the best interests of the country he pretends to support to further his political career. He doesn't give a shit about the people he is pretending to 'look after'. I would prosecute him, if I could.

@StoneyB Very old people (who were around in the war) and younger people tend to be more pro EU, wrinklies who weren't tend to be anti. So the wrinklies may get to determine the future of the youngsters when they won't even be around to have to live through it. I hope the sprogs got out to vote today ....

CowperKettle

20:14

Word of the night: sprog

TIPS

OH GAWD LOOK AT THAT ONEBOX

> 5 more not shown…

Oh please do

CowperKettle

Night!

Glad you're pro-EU, @Araucaria!

Araucaria

@TIPS Yes, but it's not good this time because they've damaged the country and misinformed people, and now it's difficult to get the facts out ...

@CowperKettle Night CK :)

TIPS

42

A: The Many Memes of Meta

Meme: Oscillation Originator: asdf_enel_hak First Heard: February 3rd, 2013 (Deleted. >10k only. Screenshot for mortals) Cultural Height: Oscillates between then and now Definition: The repetitive variation, typically in time, of some measure about a central value (often a point of equilibriu...

Damkerng T.

20:30

Varies doesn't mean continuous quantitative variation. For example, "pronunciation varies from speaker to speaker" (bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/changing-voices/…) Also Opinions varied from 'funereal'... — ColleenV 1 hour ago

Frankly, I don't think from X to Y when X is not Y is discrete more often than continuous.

But I won't go out and start to collect data!

Also, discrete or continuous, it wouldn't be a big deal for real people (read "human beings"), I suppose.

It could be for machines, though.

"Getting out of her bed, she decided to close the door of her room and left the room."

^Most people would feel that something is suspicious about that sentence.

Machines don't.

TIPS

@DamkerngT. Something is conspicuous about that sentence.

Damkerng T.

Hee

A possible title of a work of fiction in the near future: 'How to Confuse Your Robot'

> Prologue ...
Born in 2019, Alice learned to talk with her phone before saying her first word to her parents. Her childhood memory was vague, but one thing she still remembered well was that she spent more of her time with her phone and Nancy, her nandroid, than with her parents.
And that made her an expert in confusing robots and all kinds of machines.

StoneyB

21:23

@Araucaria I take a longer view. I am convinced that today's Euroanxiety is prompted by the recognition that Britain's brilliant hedge, the course of linguistic "evolution" laid down by the rump Witenagemot when they gemet in 1067 as a defense against any future invasion, has at last been circumvented by a massive invasion of Elves who not only have mastered our "impenetrable" tongue but actually speak it better than any Englishman (or American) does.

Araucaria

21:56

@StoneyB You may be right : ( Or it might equally just be that it has become de rigeur to have an opinion about everything without any recourse to reason or facts beyond a sub-primary school level. It is fashionable to have a football team mentality about anything to do with politics. Some people are proud here to know nothing about the facts and still to be on a particular "side".

It's tribal

StoneyB

@Araucaria G'wiss. I've no axe to grind or ox to be gored in this context; but I would have done if Leave had argued that immigration was undermining ancient British dialects or Remain had argued that immigration was greatly increasing the range of modern British dialects!

Araucaria

22:29

@StoneyB There were no such discussions, you'll be glad to know :)

@StoneyB Before I retire, completely stressed out, erm, what's "G'wiss"?

StoneyB

23:49

@Araucaria Sorry, hangover from my childhood year in Innsbruck: gewiss, certainly.

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