Language Overflow

TIPS

14:06

i.imgur.com/vgkYv8o.png .

That text is actually from a SO question.

Obviously now deleted.

Sina

Is there a way to create several lines in chat, except for shift enter?

TIPS

@Sina Type several messages.

But there's also the problem that I'm faster.

And @Snail is even faster.

I hope @Dam's internet is okay.

Sina

Better than that?

Damkerng T.

@TIPS I remember that Hemingway's works don't pass this Hemingway checker well.

TIPS

Heh

Damkerng T.

14:11

In other words, the style the program seems to favor is not a real Hemingway. :-)

@Sina Copy-and-paste is another solution.

Sina

@TIPS It's paradoxical! @snailplane should be slower:-)

@DamkerngT. so it works!

Thank u.

TIPS

Modern snail vehicles have jet motors apparently.

@Snail on mobile hanging from the ceiling typing with one toe in 3 a.m. is faster than me in my full potential.

@Dam is also crazy fast when he's philosophical.

Damkerng T.

Heh!

Yay! The rain stopped!

Go where the rice fields are, Rain!

But don't forget to drop by from time to time.

TIPS

He has a point.

Damkerng T.

:D

TIPS

14:26

Damkerng T.

It looks authentic!

Damkerng T.

14:39

0

Q: What is meant by a certain Point of view

Look at the following conversation Luke: Ben! Why didn't you tell me? You told me that Darth Vader betrayed and murdered my father. Obi-Wan: Your father... was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force. He ceased to be the Jedi Anakin Skywalker and "became" Darth Vader. When that happened, the good...

grammar

Hmm...

15 hours ago, by Damkerng T.

Our learners seem to unable to guess the meaning of a figurative expression either!

It's related. I'd say it's a related problem.

Which makes me wonder how well our learners do in their first languages.

TIPS

Damkerng T.

To put it another way, I think several questions on our site are not really about language, but rather, it's about some sort of metalinguistic related skill.

@TIPS LOL

S.R.I

14:53

@snailplane congratulations!

TIPS

15:21

CowperKettle

16:34

@Sina They are as cute as pencils!

TIPS

@snailplane BTW, any pictures, or are we left hanging in the air?

CowperKettle

16:59

@snailplane Congratulations!

Sina

@CowperKettle I'm mad of stationaries! Whenever I go to a stationary store, I just love to buy everything I see! I should not go there alone or I would come out broke!

Man_From_India

"mad" or "crazy"? :D

"mad" sounds completely different thing, and sounds negative :-)

TIPS

It would sound crazy to go mad on stationary @Man.

Sina

17:16

@Man_From_India Of course u r kidding! But anyways I defend my word: liking someone or something very much : very fond of or enthusiastic about someone or something

That's one of the meanings of mad

TIPS

Dictionary definitions are rarely covering all nuances of connotations @Sina.

Sina

Oh, my mistake! I meant I am mad about stationaries:)

Damkerng T.

She left the room angry is ambiguous, as it could be the room that was left angry, as in 'the people who stayed in the room'. @DamkerngT. Also, angry could be used as a flat adverb here, and thus equivalent to angrily. So maybe Cardinal's comment asking about the two sentences is best covered as a new question and answer. — AlanCarmack 6 mins ago

TIPS

"The Bob Ross peel"

Zis guy was a legend.

Damkerng T.

Several things are tangled in that comments. I'm not sure which part got the upvotes. (I hope not every part of it.)

TIPS

17:28

@DamkerngT. common d00d. de comment iz frm a usr dat sounds liek a nativ and iz bad-ass. let's upvotez

Damkerng T.

> English Grammar: A Resource Book for Students By Roger Berry, page 169

I suppose that the comment doesn't agree with Roger Berry.

@TIPS Another inconvenient truth!

Man_From_India

@DamkerngT. I was commenting about this guy earlier today. His analysis makes not much sense to me. I have seen a couple of his answers/comments, and I couldn't agree with anything except one answer. In this particular comment of his, the ambiguity he mentioned in the first sentence is really unlikely.

TIPS

@Man_From_India But the room is angry at you right now.

Man_From_India

:O

why?

His another comment -

Because it is not impossible that it is a verb, strictly speaking. — AlanCarmack Jun 19 at 19:50

TIPS

Every inch of space in it.

@Man_From_India @Alan your name is ambiguous.

Damkerng T.

17:36

@Man_From_India I guess some comments had already been deleted.

Man_From_India

@Sina Once when I was in school, one teacher put a cross on such usage in my answer sheet and correct it with "crazy". He left a comment - "stop using direct translation from your mother tongue to English"

Damkerng T.

That part of the discussion in comments doesn't make sense to me.

Man_From_India

@DamkerngT. No in this question no comments are deleted.

Damkerng T.

Hah! But why did a comment address V.V. before V.V.'s first comment?!

Man_From_India

Actually his opinion is that "poor" can be a verb in "poor them".

Damkerng T.

17:38

Hah!

Oh, right! I missed that not!

Man_From_India

@DamkerngT. May be our MAR stated in his question that sentence is not his own :P speaker is V.V. May be I am not sure.

Damkerng T.

(Sometimes I invert the truth value of a clause inadvertently when it doesn't make sense. I guess I did it again this time!)

"Good cat!" -- I don't think this "good" can be a verb!

Sina

@Man_From_India But it's British English and I like it more than be crazy about.

Man_From_India

Most irritating is the fact that he doesn't reply back with his thoughts behind coming to such conclusions.

Damkerng T.

@Man_From_India You could ask about it in a comment, but it could stray the question off its course.

Man_From_India

17:42

@Sina You probably are correct. But the thing is it reminded me of that lesson. You see how attentive learner I once was :D

@DamkerngT. I did, but he didn't reply back. It happened some other time as well. May be he is a native speaker. Is he an ELU user?

Damkerng T.

I don't know whether he is or not.

Man_From_India

It doesn't look like he is unless he uses some other handle in ELU.

Sina

@Man_From_India :D

Damkerng T.

@DamkerngT. This part of book seems to be focused on linking verb and transitive verbs, but I am a bit inclined to Tromano's interpretation. — Cardinal 2 mins ago

sigh

Well, if a book can't help, what chances do I have?

Man_From_India

A long discussion, let me read it :-)

Sina

17:50

Oh! I didn't know. It is used in American English too, but mainly in British!

Man_From_India

An excellent answer in a nutshell -

@Cardinal Because they didn't mean to talk about how she left the room, but rather what she was like when/after she left the room. (BTW, the first question of this question is pretty similar to this question: ell.stackexchange.com/questions/6275/…) — Damkerng T. 36 mins ago

Damkerng T.

@Sina FWIW, crazy sounds more American to me.

Man_From_India

Missed the meaning of the room

She left the room angry (with angry applying to room) is the same form as Her departure left the room speechless. @DamkerngT. — AlanCarmack 24 mins ago

Damkerng T.

I think I misread that comment the first time.

(Because Her departure left the room speechless sounds unrelated.)

(Her departure left everyone in the room angry would be a better choice, as it's a paraphrase.)

I also got into the same trap as when most learners read most grammar books: when they say is or are, they really meant "can be".

Man_From_India

I am sure that is. But I'm stuck there. What is so special about speechless that can be licensed there?

Damkerng T.

17:58

@Man_From_India Instead of giving a paraphrase, the comment abstracted it and talked about "form".

Man_From_India

Yes I got it. I am not talking about that comment. Those are not going to be helpful.

But it is very interesting

Damkerng T.

That the adjunct is about the object rather than the subject?

Man_From_India

Oh I too fell in that trap :D got it.

Those comments are a bit misleading too.

Damkerng T.

Ahh... Yay! You got it!

It's bad writing in those grammar books, IMNSHO.

No wonder it's so hard to learn the grammar of a language by reading these books!

Man_From_India

You have to read and speak the language the way people really do.

Or else it's really hard to learn it.

Such a misleading comment -

She left the room angry is ambiguous, as it could be the room that was left angry, as in 'the people who stayed in the room'. @DamkerngT. Also, angry could be used as a flat adverb here, and thus equivalent to angrily. So maybe Cardinal's comment asking about the two sentences is best covered as a new question and answer. — AlanCarmack 46 mins ago

comments like these make OP more confused :D

Damkerng T.

18:05

nods -- That comment is incorrect, IMO.

Man_From_India

@DamkerngT. yes that is.

Damkerng T.

And because it's got 2 upvotes, it'll be the first thing the reader will see.

Man_From_India

@DamkerngT. who upvoted that? :D

Damkerng T.

I don't know. Sometimes our votes are beyond me!

Man_From_India

And here what is the logic?

She left the room angry (with angry applying to room) is the same form as Her departure left the room speechless. @DamkerngT. — AlanCarmack 38 mins ago

Damkerng T.

18:08

It could be so when the context allows it. E.g., She left him mad.

Man_From_India

Ah I think it solves some mystery. He stresses on "form" and that's probably why he thinks "poor" can be a verb in "poor them", just like "punch them" :-) (my guessing)

Damkerng T.

No idea!

Man_From_India

@DamkerngT. nods

Sina

@DamkerngT. Too bad if I cannot use it in American English:( it gives me a better feeling to say I'm mad about this/that..

Damkerng T.

@Sina That's strange. "I'm crazy about something" sounds perfectly natural to me.

Sina

18:14

Let's ask @snailplane. If I use I'm mad about sth, would you as an American have difficaulty understanding it?

Damkerng T.

@Sina It's markedly BrE for me, unless it's about someone rather than something.

Sina

@DamkerngT. I sometimes become picky about words!

Damkerng T.

I don't. :-)

Man_From_India

MW dictionary says mad in that liking sense is BrE

Damkerng T.

What I care the most is only meaning.

Sina

18:18

U know. The way u pronounce some words is way better than theothers. I mainly switch between Azery and Persian. Some words are better in Azery and some in Persian!

Like municipal! Lovely word to pronounce!

Damkerng T.

Hmm... I can't say I feel the same. But I can see some people like this kinda thing.

Sina

Like me:-)

Damkerng T.

I think so!

TIPS

Like what kinda thing?

Damkerng T.

Like, like words that are lovely to utter, I suppose.

TIPS

18:23

Like Damkerng.

It's the loveliest word in the world to pronounce.

I feel like I'm CRUSHING the letters <r> and <n> with that schwa.

Damkerng T.

LOL

TIPS

It's like doing a perfect hit to a walnut, so it breaks in a way that the contents remain intact, yet far more reachable.

Damkerng T.

Nice metaphor!

TIPS

'cause been there done that.

It was so magnificent, it felt like a life achievement.

Like observing a new planet by an amateur photographer.

Damkerng T.

Or letting your cat lick your chin. :P

TIPS

18:28

Haven't tried it.

Sina

@DamkerngT. Yuck! How can you!

Damkerng T.

He loves doing it!

Sina

@DamkerngT. and sure u enjoy the same way!

Damkerng T.

Well, it hurts less than other places. :-)

Sina

OMG!

I never let my cat approach me! Poor her. She was poisened and died. Because she hunted a crazy person's doves!

Damkerng T.

18:38

Oh, no!

I hope your cat is happy, anywhere she is now.

Sina

Yes! For a couple of days she didn't come back home.

I was all worried and waiting!

Damkerng T.

sad

Sina

Suddenly I saw her coming. I got truely happy. But then I found out she is not well.

Damkerng T.

My cat went outside a few times.

Every time he got into a fight!

Sina

My mom and brother tried to help her by pouring milk in her mouth but it was late!

@DamkerngT. funny!

After all that's a he! So natural:D

TIPS

18:43

@DamkerngT. Is he big?

Damkerng T.

@Sina At least she was with her family in the end.

@TIPS By his diameter, yes. :P

TIPS

Haha so like a moon.

Damkerng T.

A moon?

Sina

@DamkerngT. yes. I'm always grateful of her to come back. I feel she knew I was worried and waiting 4 her

Damkerng T.

@TIPS Ah! He is still longer than his width, though.

TIPS

18:46

So like one of Mars's moons.

Damkerng T.

:D

BTW, I never went this far ...

Licki Brush for your kitty!

►

Sina

@DamkerngT. I'd rather not say anything!

Damkerng T.

:D

Potentially a good neck exercise, though. :P

TIPS

19:14

The last 6 newest questions on Chem are closed. This typically happens when I'm trying to answer something.

Should I also go to ELL to find out that today's posts are pure horse crap?

Anonymous

@Sina Americans will most likely understand mad about X in the 'like X' sense, but I think most of us only say it in the 'angry about X' sense.

Sina

@snailplane So I can't use it in American English! Too bad:(

Thank u:)

TIPS

19:38

@Sina Really, I first thought you meant you're angry at stationary when I first read your sentence.

The thought "angry at stationary, goes to shop and buys everything. Might be a woman thing".

Sina

19:54

@TIPS But when I want to state my anger, I more like to use crazy than mad. Like it drives me crazy. It's way better than saying it drives me mad

TIPS

Nah, why?

Sina

Maybe the sounds of crazy give such a feeling!

TIPS

I'd just say "it drives me insane".

Sina

It's a feeling. I thought everyone has such feelings about words. But tonight I knew, I was wrong!

Never mind! I still can use it with British people! :-)

Damkerng T.

21:38

-3

Q: What does 'we are bid to' mean?

Source: p 116, Introducing Philosophy for Canadians: A Text with Integrated Readings (2011 1 ed) by Solomon, McDermid. Primary Source: p 110, Method in Theology, Volume 12 (1972) by Bernard J. F. Lonergan Religious development is not simply the unfolding in all its consequences of a dynamic...

ambiguity

Argh! Isn't this just a dictionary question?!

> macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/bid_1

> [transitive] literary to order someone to do something

Strange!

What happened to our site?!

Oh, I see. Maybe I didn't have a problem because I hadn't studied word roots.

Damkerng T.

21:51

You can find lists of which verbs take "to+infinitive" and which take gerunds. For example, this website—although there are likely more comprehensive lists online. — Peter Shor 2 days ago

Probably true, about the "online" part.

TIPS

22:16

@DamkerngT. So this guy's still kicking.

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