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05:21

3

Q: How to understand this sentence? (... "denied" the more intelligent and mature.)

Actually the grave digger conforms, for the most part, to a third role – that of the proletarian…believed to possess an intuitive wisdom…which could yield insights denied the more intelligent and mature” So "denied‘ in this case is passive? But why there isn't a "by" after it?

EmmaXL

05:54

Hi guys, long time no see

V.V.

07:18

motivatedgrammar.wordpress.com/tag/scalar-implicature. It's for @Lawrence

Lawrence

07:28

@V.V. That was a nice surprise to see something for me when I checked in :) . Thank you, I'll take a look at it.

In the mean time, I have a question for whoever's here.

I'm answering a question with a negative result. I'm not sure that the answer would be very satisfying because it's a negative result. It's basically acknowledging the ambiguity felt by the OP, analysing the sentence, and concluding that the ambiguity is real.

Should I post my answer?

Here's the original post I'm referring to:

0

Q: To whom does "he" refer here?

One day, Sonny sees a bruise on Connie's face and she tells him that Carlo hit her after she asked him if he was having an affair. if "he" means Sonny, why she diverting topic here ? Source

meaning

(My answer is fully typed out and ready to go. I'm just not sure whether to hit "Post Your Answer".)

Damkerng T.

@Lawrence Does it suggest any way to solve the ambiguity, why the last him should be Carlo instead of Sunny?

Lawrence

@DamkerngT. No, it shows exhaustively that the ambiguity cannot be resolved without more context.

Damkerng T.

Probably true, though it's very unlikely.

If a male hits a lady because she asks if another male is having an affair, it's a fair question to ask, what is the relation or relationship between the two males?, I suppose.

Lawrence

07:47

So, regarding whether to post or to delete - any thoughts? Here's the text of my answer: link to padfly.

Damkerng T.

@Lawrence I think your approach is useful, but I'd like to see some suggestions that might help solve the ambiguity. Personally, though we need more context to be 100% sure, I don't think we absolutely need it, practically.

I haven't read your text yet.

Ugh, it's long!

Lawrence

@DamkerngT. The suggestion is there: "More context would be needed."

@DamkerngT. That's why I'm asking for opinions on whether to post it.

(Post it here, that is. I've already posted it on padfly. :P)

Damkerng T.

Ah, I see your last line. I think it's a good answer!

Oh, it's actually the penultimate paragraph.

Lawrence

@DamkerngT. Post, it is. :)

Done.

Thanks for taking a look.

Damkerng T.

+1 Done, too! :-)

@Lawrence No problem!

Lawrence

07:57

@V.V. I think the view expounded in that article would be considered somewhat misleading, taking literalism too far, and possibly going against their site's tagline, "Prescriptivism Must Die!". I'd consider it more mainstream to consider "one of the only (plural noun)" to idiomatically mean "one of the few (plural noun)".

@DamkerngT. :)

Damkerng T.

:D

Lawrence

I'm heading out. Bye!

Damkerng T.

CU!

1

A: How to understand this sentence? (... "denied" the more intelligent and mature.)

The proletarian possesses an intuitive wisdom. By implication this is given to him by a higher power (God, Nature, Fate ...). The more intelligent person is not given that wisdom by the higher power, they have been denied the gift of wisdom. So here we are using deny is the sense of refuse to gi...

Even though the answer suggests that we should keep the preposition to, it makes it sound like omitting this to is fine!

The referenced article is not very apt, either, IMO. (grammarly.com/handbook/grammar/prepositions/11/…)

CowperKettle

08:24

Good afternoon!

> The pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles support once-weekly administration of DRUG (I'm not sure that profiles can "support")

Damkerng T.

Hmm... an extended meaning of a person's or an organization's profile, perhaps?

CowperKettle

No, the data collected during the testing of the drug

Basically, according to this pharmaco-data, it is best to use the drug once a week.

I'm proofreading an already translated text

I'm thinking of changing it to "Pharmacokinetic and .. data support once-weekly ..."

This way, I would not have to add "the" in the beginning

Damkerng T.

@CowperKettle That's what I meant by "extended meaning". I mean, this meaning is usually used with a person or an entity. I'm not sure if it's used for things.

CowperKettle

@DamkerngT. Yes, it's used for drugs; for instance, the acid-base profile of an active pharmaceutical substance (API)

BBL!

Damkerng T.

@CowperKettle If that's the case the profile (of a drug) supports ... makes sense to me.

Cardinal

09:38

Hans Zimmer is a genius

CowperKettle

11:08

Is there a difference between "marketed drug" and "drug present on the market"?

Could "marketed drug" mean "a drug that has not yet been approved, but is being proposed for market approval"?

Færd

"To market" also means to advertise for, but I guess this sense is out of the picture?

Damkerng T.

@CowperKettle I don't think it's allowed to market an approval-pending drug, but I don't really know!

CowperKettle

@DamkerngT. To be on the safe side, I'll cut "marketed" and insert "present on the market"

Good afternoon, @Færd!

Because.. who knows.

Damkerng T.

nods

Færd

Good afternoon to you all.

Damkerng T.

11:12

Then again, marketed and present in a market is more or less the same to me.

@Færd Good afternoon!

CowperKettle

Same here (0:

Færd

> This drug is marketed as safe, but it has consequential side effects.

Damkerng T.

@Færd Hmm... but it must've been approved first, right.

I mean, it's not something people vote, but we have some entities to decide and approve it.

I don't know. Maybe drugs are circulated without any regulation in some parts of the world.

Færd

Yes. It depends.

And there's the black market too.

Damkerng T.

12:08

0

A: Last or previous?

In this case, you have already read the message, so you don't want to use a present progressive tense. I have just now seen your message. or I just now saw your message. If you are reading a complaint ("Why didn't you respond to my message?") and responding to it, then you can use the...

^cc @Jim

Funny that in the last scenario, my first choice may be I can see your message now!

Lawrence

13:12

I've completely redrafted my answer to the "only one of five" question. Just wondering whether the preference is to submit it as an edit, as I've done, or to submit it as a new answer. The old answer had 7 up-votes, so there's a case to be made that they voted for something different to what's there now. On the other hand, both versions say similar things; the current version says it more simply and clearly.

Damkerng T.

@Lawrence I like the current version better. I think it's essentially the same answer, written differently.

And your comment that could give an impression that you support BillJ's idea that only one of the five is ungrammatical? (or unidiomatic? I can't remember now) is gone.

Lawrence

@DamkerngT. Yes, that was a red herring.

Damkerng T.

nods

Lawrence

@DamkerngT. Ok, thanks. I'll leave this version up.

Damkerng T.

@Lawrence Sure!

Frankly, I don't know why BillJ thinks it's ungrammatical/unidiomatic. I agree with most of BillJ's comments (on our site) except for perhaps one or two.

Hi, @StoneyB!

Lawrence

13:21

@DamkerngT. To be fair, it does sound a bit odd at first sight (so to speak :P). The "5-websites" example I pulled up previously might help, but it's a little awkward to work it into the (current) answer now.

StoneyB

Hullo, @DamkerngT.!

Lawrence

Hi @StoneyB.

Damkerng T.

@StoneyB We have new mods!

la-la-lulla :)

(Sorry if it's old news. :)

StoneyB

@DamkerngT. Again? I thought we had new mods yesterday.

Damkerng T.

@StoneyB Hehe! It's old news after all. :D

StoneyB

13:27

So Wednesday.

(Actually I've never gotten used to the fact that we have any mods beyond JR and Wendi.)

Damkerng T.

Hehe!

Are things on discount on Wednesday over there?

StoneyB

Not in the sense that Wednesday discounts are an established practice. Seems to me about the only folks who do specific-day discounts like that are restaurants and bars, who often use special promotions to fill up low-attendance nights.

Holy cow! I've just realized we have two folks from Texas as mods. It's a conspiracy!

Damkerng T.

@StoneyB It's mostly common among restaurants, and probably bars, too, over here.

@StoneyB Oh! :D

CowperKettle

14:48

> Absence of local irritation when administered at doses 0.3 and 4.25 mg/kg subcutaneously

Do we need "of", i.e., "at doses of"?

Or is it okay to drop the preposition if the sentence is inside a table cell?

@StoneyB Snails is from California, originally from the Great Lakes

I'm reluctant to edit the text too much, so maybe it's okay not to use "of" there..

The PDF file is already peppered with my marks.

books.google.com/ngrams/…

Nice, 50/50% distribution

Peaked in 1983, then down

"Completed, has results" >> "Completed, results ready" (about a study)

Still dozens of pages of such fixing ahead

> "Determination of parameters" >> "Studied parameters" (this one is the largest error thus far)

I've no idea how the Russian adjective "determined" became the English "determination of". O_o

> Drug-related adverse reactions were expected and specific to DRUG

This is tough.

The translator omitted "the" at the start.

So the sentence looks as if they expected some adverse reactions

The original means "the reactions that we observed were expected for this drug" (they did not surprise us)

"specific to the drug" or "specific for the drug" though?

Something strange with the electric power over here.

The lamps have been flickering for an hour, and the surge protector of the PC is clicking now and then.

I hope there will be no blackout

Little Alien

15:35

What does plan ahead mean? Isn

Isn't planning means that you do it beforehand?

CowperKettle

To plan for the future

Little Alien

When you ever plan for current time or the past?

CowperKettle

Yes, but in some contexts people feel the need to use "ahead"

Little Alien

Those who need the pregenetal situation to sound more important?

CowperKettle

> Kim's grandma told her she should always plan ahead. (Google Books)

Can you use this without "ahead"?

> Kim's grandma told her she should always plan.

This looks odd.

"Always plan, by dear girl, always plan!" (0:

Damkerng T.

15:40

@CowperKettle books.google.com/ngrams/…

It looks like it's 50/50, too!

CowperKettle

@DamkerngT. haha

Damkerng T.

:D

CowperKettle

"at doses of" will include "at doses"

Damkerng T.

Yes. I did an optical subtraction. :P (or visual, or something like that)

CowperKettle

@DamkerngT. ah, I see what you mean

I'm slow today

Damkerng T.

15:41

@CowperKettle Lots of work, perhaps?

CowperKettle

@DamkerngT. Yes, and I feel weak. Dunno why.

Damkerng T.

Have lots of rest

CowperKettle

Got to check my TSH level, just in case

Damkerng T.

nods -- Hope everything's fine.

CowperKettle

I had a 40 min jog, but that's a usual daily jog

@DamkerngT. I hope so too! I thought of taking part in the 17 Sept marathon

Damkerng T.

15:43

Oh! That's cool!

CowperKettle

The Night Run

Damkerng T.

Half-half-mini-marathon is probably the longest distance I've ever run. :)

CowperKettle

Ha, it's only 5 km

I did not know it's only 5 km.

@DamkerngT. (0:

There will be a winter half marathon in December, 21 km

europeasiamarathon.org/perviy_zmniy_polumarafon_europe_asia

That is a real distance, because 5 km is my daily jog distance. (0:

Damkerng T.

Wow, there are many marathons over there!

CowperKettle

@DamkerngT. They take money to register you, so it's a profitable business

Damkerng T.

15:47

Ahh

CowperKettle

But it's good for the people in the end, for health etc. I guess

Damkerng T.

I take it that the winners get some money, too.

nods

CowperKettle

I dunno about the prize.. Oh, you've got to loose time on visiting a doctor too. D'oh

A doctor should vet you for the run.

Damkerng T.

Makes sense.

CowperKettle

On 4 December, it might be quite warm. It's usually warm in December here.

Damkerng T.

15:49

@CowperKettle It's winter here. :D

CowperKettle

It strikes ass-cold at about January 20, and lasts until late February

(0:

Damkerng T.

Ah, maybe I should restart my browser. See you in a bit!

CowperKettle

See you!

Damkerng T.

I'm back!

CowperKettle

16:04

I'm off, to accompany my dad to the train station. He goes to St. Pete.

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, tr. Sankt-Peterburg; IPA: [ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk]) is Russia's second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject (a federal city). Situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 27 [O.S. 16] 1703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd (Russian: Петрогра́д; IPA: [pʲɪtrɐˈgrat]), in 1924 to Leningrad (Russian: Ленингра́д; IPA:...

also called "Piter" colloquialy

Damkerng T.

@CowperKettle Have a nice evening!

@LittleAlien Not sure what you mean. He was a great stand-up comedian, IIRC.

Little Alien

I asked if 'planning ahead' is an instance of prolixity. I wonder how can you regard him as a great comedian (btw, I know that, look at my profile) without being able to understand what is it about.

I have a word 'prolixity'. His speech was about prolixity.

Damkerng T.

@LittleAlien "You came here not to find the truth but to dictate."? -- Oh, I see. I'm gonna pass, then. :)

Damkerng T.

16:52

Strange. The variant All is not gold that glitters does exist!

V.V.

Sawasdee,kha Dam.

Damkerng T.

Privet and sawasdee khrap!

V.V.

Oh, I put a comma.

Damkerng T.

:)

V.V.

How was the day?

Damkerng T.

17:05

Good! Thanks!

Sabai dee mai khrap? (How are you? :)

(Literally, "Good?")

V.V.

Fine, thanks. What is each word?

Damkerng T.

A possible reply is "Sabai dee kha/khrap" ~ "I'm good."

V.V.

What is each word?

Damkerng T.

@V.V. Sabai ~ comfort, dee ~ good, mai ~ a particle to make it a question, khrap ~ a particle for politeness

The only core words are "sabai" and "dee".

(I think when they're used together, they'll sound more like one word than two.)

(See, it's the same "dee" in "sawasdee"!)

V.V.

Yes, that's why I asked.

Damkerng T.

17:13

A-ha! I didn't think of that. Sorry!

V.V.

Can we say "dee"

Damkerng T.

@V.V. Yes, we can. It means "good".

Like, A: dee rue mai dee [good-or-not-good?] -- B: dee [good].

V.V.

So I can answer like this? Or should I add something for politeness?

Damkerng T.

@V.V. Answering Sabaidee mai kha/khrap with dee is probably too terse.

But a little girl may say, a bit humorously, dee kha!

V.V.

Why you put mai?

Damkerng T.

17:17

To a very close friend, just dee is sometimes used, but more often we will add an impolite particle. :-)

@V.V. Hmm... using mai is a way to form a question in Thai.

V.V.

But to answer you don't do it,right?

Damkerng T.

English: Yes? Thai: ใช่ไหม "chai-mai" [yes-?].

@V.V. That's right!

V.V.

Sabaidee kha might be an answer.

Damkerng T.

@V.V. Exactly! -- You're very good at Thai!

V.V.

I am trying to find some logic and see the structure of the sentence.

Damkerng T.

17:28

@V.V. I think you'll find that it's usually easier than English. :-)

Only a few aspects are a bit complicated. I think using particles is one of them.

But missing or incorrectly using most particles wouldn't cause any understanding problems.

V.V.

Not now.I didn't see a simple sentence with a subject -verb etc. Greenings are usually special

Damkerng T.

The basic sentence structure is pretty much like English, S-V-O.

But no tenses, no aspects, no moods, no articles.

user62015

@DamkerngT. @V.V. Hi! Please help me in this question: For me, money is only a means to an end. only a means what does it mean?

V.V.

No articles? Great!

Can disappear any moment, bad connection.

Damkerng T.

@V.V. I know, right?! :)

@V.V. nods

@user62015 means (with s, a noun) is a different word from mean the verb.

user62015

17:36

Property

a

Why a?

V.V.

Tool

A noun singular

Damkerng T.

@user62015 It's a singular count noun.

Like series, species, and such.

user62015

Okay.

Thanks.

Damkerng T.

No problem :)

Man_From_India

Congratulation @snailplane

I'm little late to get the info :-)

DEAD

18:19

Hey all

Anonymous

@Man_From_India Thank you :-)

user227867

18:35

@snailplane Are you familiar with Chambers Dictionary?

Anonymous

@JasperLoy I'm not really.

user227867

I am just wondering about its origins. I have heard of Oxford, Cambridge, Collins, Longman, MW, and Macmillan, but Chambers I haven't really seen much of.

Damkerng T.

@JasperLoy I have its concise one. (but it's quite thick, though!)

(printed in 1988)

DEAD

It was necessary because the existing team felt the need for more hands to help. As the site grows busier and bigger, we need more moderators to handle things. The mod position is not a luxurious pendant or a medal, and people who have done enough for the community to be trusted with such chores are elected. — DEAD 11 mins ago

BTW, I wonder if this is grammatical:

> It's myself I want to save.

Damkerng T.

I think so.

DEAD

18:50

So are there no restrictions on what can go as the dummy 'it''s predicative?

Actually it's the sentence's predicate but you get what I mean. I hope.

Damkerng T.

Your logic serves you well. Singular agreement is usual, since "neither" cannot function as determiner to plural nouns. In your example "neither" is a 'fused' determiner-head, but with non-fused "neither", the requirement for singular agreement becomes clearer. Consider the impossibility of *"Neither objections were valid". See what I mean? — BillJ 5 hours ago

Hmm... somehow I found another comment I don't agree with!

> ... the impossibility of *"Neither objections were valid".

Impossible? That's strange. I didn't think any native speakers would hold this view, unless they're very strict teachers.

DEAD

@DamkerngT. Is that really impossible?

I'm excited about the proposal to add a "brontosaurus" emoji codepoint because it has the potential to bring together a half-dozen different groups of pedantic people into a single glorious internet argument.

Damkerng T.

@DEAD Hmm... I think it's similar to It was me/I who/that ...

DEAD

@DamkerngT. Are there any nouns or noun phrases for which that process doesn't work?

It was the shark that . . .

It was James who . . .

Damkerng T.

@DEAD I can't think of one.

DEAD

18:55

It was CowperKettle that . . .

Damkerng T.

LOL

Damkerng T.

19:30

FWIW, it's not really about finished vs. incomplete. It's more like a whole view vs. a zoomed view. — Damkerng T. 30 mins ago

@DamkerngT. I completely agree with you. I think there is no point in discussing different meanings of those examples in different situation since It's not the main concern of this question. — Cardinal 4 mins ago

DEAD

Damkerng T.

I'm not sure. Do you mean my comment's helpful? (I tried, but I'm not sure if it helps.)

DEAD

meteorites.wustl.edu/check-list.htm

@DamkerngT. Your comments are always helpful. (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ

Damkerng T.

@DEAD LOL

@DEAD Whoa! That's a very strict flow!

Cardinal

Hi guys

Please, do not talk generally. I didn't ask what is an infinitive and I know enough. I asked a very clear question about a very specific context. - Using bare infinitive with verbs such as see and watch not general things. And, this is not answer to my question, perhaps you didn't understand the question. — Cardinal 11 mins ago

Damkerng T.

19:34

I didn't upvote (or downvote) that answer.

DEAD

@Cardinal One of the many answers that are not answers on ELL.

I need to see something more interesting.

Damkerng T.

Anyway, it's probably better if you think of it as the whole scene vs. in a scene (i.e., in an act).

Cardinal

I truly believe that if it had a serious problem stoney and snails would mention that

I am saying that because I know both read the question

DEAD

@Cardinal Unfortunately Snail and Stoney are not 24/7 services.

Cardinal

@DEAD snails edited the question and stoney added a comment which was deleted.

Damkerng T.

19:38

> The bare infinitive doesn't imply a completed action, but rather a complete action without further structure or detail.

(in a new answer)

Cardinal

Oh, a new answer, I'm going read that

Damkerng T.

That's correct!

DEAD

@Cardinal They're not monitoring it.

I never do.

Damkerng T.

Me either.

Cardinal

@DEAD but, that shows they read the question

Damkerng T.

19:39

We can help what we can help and only what we can see.

DEAD

@Cardinal Oh, you meant your question by 'it'

Cardinal

Ok, I am going to read the new answer

Oh, god

I didn't ask about the difference between using PP and BI

How should I say that

?

:s :s :s

DEAD

Oh, god
I didn't ask about the difference between using PP and BI

Damkerng T.

PP? BI?

Present Perfect, perhaps? But what's BI?

Cardinal

present participle and bare infinitive

Damkerng T.

19:47

A-ha! :D

DEAD

@DamkerngT. Pondering Pedants and Bickering Immigrants

Damkerng T.

Heh!

V.V.

What's wrong with the bare infinitive?

DEAD

It starts with a bee.

V.V.

Fine, then it's safe.

Bees bring health

Damkerng T.

19:52

Some bees are fatal! :P

V.V.

And honey.

Cardinal

@V.V. Nothing

I was talking about tenses

Damkerng T.

Honey is healthy! I love it!

Cardinal

People think I am talking about the difference between PP and BI

V.V.

Silly of them

Cardinal

19:55

Ok, what do you think about an action which has completed? Isn't it finished ? — Cardinal 10 secs ago

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal I don't think you are, but you have to rethink the difference between the two over, to see why your reasoning is incorrect.

V.V.

You see the action from beginning to end, excuse my articles.

Cardinal

@DamkerngT. I still think that I am right

Damkerng T.

Let's say, we think of the bare infinitive after these sense verbs as a "whole" event. (There are several technical terms for this. I just like to use an informal, casual sounding one.) -- It makes sense to think of either "the whole thing then" or "the whole thing now".

Cardinal

I think an event that has been completed is finished and belongs to the past

Damkerng T.

19:58

Also, to understand your excerpt, it's probably better to learn about "narrative present".

@Cardinal Not really.

V.V.

Ah, what about present prfect then?

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal And that's why I think you should review your understanding of see/hear/etc. X INFINITIVE vs. see/hear/etc. X VERB-ING.

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