Language Overflow

CowperKettle

04:12

1

A: "Improve the disease outcomes" vs. "improve disease outcomes" (article usage)

It's not wrong to leave out the article, but "the outcomes" is just fine. Sometimes professional journals have their own vernacular, and a phrase like "the disease outcomes" might be common and even expected in things like medical journals, even though in ordinary conversation you might say the ...

This was unexpected. I thought that "the" was out of place there

CowperKettle

04:27

Again: for unknown reasons (but in explanation of which I have proposed a theory elsewhere), it is idiomatic in scientific and medical writing that the article is omitted before anything which could be even remotely construed as a mass noun. Thus, in your last sentence, this is idiomatic: "It will improve disease outcomes." — P. E. Dant 6 mins ago

user62015

05:29

Hi

economics is or are

The economics of industrial development
______ complex.
(A) has (B) is
(C) are (D) have

Pandya

07:05

2

V.V.

08:56

@user62015 is

AliRıza Adıyahşi

09:06

economics is a singular noun in that sentence. more information : quora.com/Is-economics-singular-or-plural

Rubisco

@Pandya -1 not enough blinking

V.V.

09:54

1

Q: Can "apple" be a uncountable noun?

teachers which one is correct in the following phrases? a piece of apple a piece of apples a part of an apple a part of apple Besides, I saw apple is defined as N-VAR in Collins Dictionary. And one sentence given is: His ongoing search for the finest varieties of apple. Can I use apples...

Rubisco

nobelprize.org/educational/chemistry/chiral/game/game.html CC @Snail @Dam

2

Who knew snails would be so educational.

@V.V. "a uncountable"? A UNCOUNTABLE?!

CowperKettle

11:34

> Importance of the issue from a clinical practice standpoint

Should it be "the"?

"the clinical practice standpoint"?

Rubisco

@CowperKettle This is fine. Don't change any articles.

CowperKettle

@Rubisco thank you!

> Determination of the molecular weight of the glycosylated protein by mass-spectrometry

I like to write "by", but I'm unsure. Maybe "using" is better

Rubisco

@CowperKettle Yeah, it works

"using" is better

CowperKettle

Thanks, Mamad!

Rubisco

No probs, [weird nickname]

CowperKettle

11:47

(0:

Rubisco

What did they call you? Tyoma?

Anonymous

11:59

languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=28814

CowperKettle

@Rubisco yes

@snailplane yay!

Anonymous

greensdictofslang.com

Anonymous

@CowperKettle I like using. You could use via.

CowperKettle

my favorite expression is there

(0:

Anonymous

And I don't think you need to hyphenate mass spectrometry.

CowperKettle

12:06

@snailplane Thank you, Snails!

oops, I should remove that hyphen

I probably started writing "mass-spectrometric" and then remodeled the sentence

Масс-спектрометрия

Масс-спектрометрия (масс-спектроскопия, масс-спектрография, масс-спектральный анализ, масс-спектрометрический анализ) — метод исследования вещества, основанный на определении отношения массы к заряду ионов, образующихся при ионизации представляющих интерес компонентов пробы. Один из мощнейших способов качественной идентификации веществ, допускающий также и количественное определение. Можно сказать, что масс-спектрометрия — это «взвешивание» молекул, находящихся в пробе. История масс-спектрометрии ведётся с основополагающих опытов Дж. Дж. Томсона в начале XX века. Окончание «-метрия» в названии…

It is hyphenated in Russian, that's why (0:

I've just fixed about a dozen mass-spectrometries

Anonymous

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18173219

CowperKettle

> Ng J, Pevzner PA.

But I'll remember the via, thank you!

Damkerng T.

13:14

-1

A: When to begin a sentence with "Therefore"

It is a question of style, and the use of therefore at the start of an indipendenti clause is correct: The adverb therefore should be used with caution, as it is often at the center of run-on sentences. Therefore is not conventionally considered a conjunction, so it cannot fuse two independe...

That's not my -1, but it looks like someone else also thinks the same thing I was thinking.

Except for "It is a question of style, and the use of therefore at the start of an indipendenti clause is correct:" [sic], the whole answer is copied over from grammarist.com/grammar/therefore, and there's just "The Grammarist" at the bottom of the answer, no link whatsoever.

And the copied text is missing the last paragraph (when therefore is used as an adverb), even.

I haven't read the question, but the answer makes me think that it's a not very good question asking "When to use 'Therefore'".

(The way that page explains it makes it sound like therefore can be used as something else, even!)

Marc Dingena

13:36

Hello. Is it redundant to say advisory report or would advisory suffice?

Damkerng T.

@MarcDingena It probably depends on your intended usage and your circle, mostly. But FWIW, advisory report is fine with me.

Man_From_India

0

Q: Understanding of the sentence structure

It is unbelievable that such conditions could have existed so short a time ago Could anyone help me understand the structure of this sentence in particular the highlighted area?

sentence-structure

We have similar questions in ELL, I mean there are questions dealing with so small a number type of structure/usage.

But probably the use of preposition ago as a post-position is new.

New means, the question dealing with it is new :-)

Marc Dingena

13:55

@DamkerngT. Cheers :)

Damkerng T.

:D

Rubisco

14:13

Welcome to LO @Marc

Man_From_India

14:40

1

Q: "This is very worrying" vs "This is very worried"?

An English teacher has told us today that "this is very worrying" is the correct form but "this is very worried" is the incorrect one. I think that the first one is the best way to tell about a situation or something, which could be the cause of concern or anxiety. Which is correct?

grammar grammaticality phrases

worrying vs worried

Rubisco

@Man_From_India What do they think of the second one?

Man_From_India

Neither of them sounds good.

If the OP asked about he is worrying vs he is worried, I would have said both are grammatically fine, but you would rarely hear the first one.

Rubisco

Nah. "This is worrying." is fine.

What use is there in migration, when ELU edits and answers the question?

What difference would it make for the question to be here, or there?

Especially considering that the OP is lost for good.

Man_From_India

@Rubisco I have no idea.

Rubisco

They won't ever find their question again. They won't ever respond to any comments.

There are no problems with editing. That's good.

That means they have the smallest appreciation for the quality of questions on ELL.

But an answer, and an accepted one, leaves no room for anything to be added.

Man_From_India

14:46

@Rubisco if that is the case, it is "worrying".

Rubisco

And don't give me that Google argument -- ELU ranks better on Google than ELL, if visits ever matter.

Man_From_India

Well, somehow the way I used worrying there does not seem very bad. What do you think?

Anonymous

@Rubisco ELL's existence is more or less a consequence of ELU not being willing to keep those questions.

Rubisco

Yup, a trash can, IOW.

In more blunt words.

Man_From_India

@snailplane that is very distressing.

Rubisco

14:49

But we can make our site cleaner, and make those frigging ELU'ians jealous

But No~, we have to argue about etymology's on-topicness. Over and over and over and over,

and be inconsistent with it while closing.

(Tell me when to finish my rant)

And there's this proofreading close reason.

Man_From_India

If they differentiated these two sites based on the level of learners, and not on the questions asked and didn't get the "migration" facility, it would have been better.

Anonymous

No, please feel free to continue your rant.

Rubisco

It's really easy to DEFLECT it

> Ooh, look at me, close voters. I'm laughing at you and asking about that "about".

So there, you can't close my question. BURN

And we combust and produce carbon dioxide and cause global warming.

And sea levels rise.

Then there's this 'unclear' VTC, which is not different from the context one at all.

Or the context one the unclear one.

I said they're interchangeable.

And we keep not doing things and catching butterflies in the meta while [grammar] is roaming on our lands.

Anonymous

I haven't noticed much deflecting, myself. If anything, I think the bigger problem is people closing questions as proofreading when they have nothing to do with proofreading.

Rubisco

And it took me three months. THREE MONTHS. to persuade A MOD that the worst tag the world has ever seen is the worst tag the world has ever seen.

Man_From_India

14:54

@snailplane ELL questions ever get migrated to ELU?

Rubisco

@Man_From_India They do when they're too 'high level' for us.

I was gonna get to that.

Man_From_India

@Rubisco Anyway we too deal with high level stuffs.

Rubisco

And then there's this ColleenV mod who want to ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING.

She want to do something. On ELL's meta!

Blasphemy.

She is about to blacklist a tag with a zillion questions.

Man_From_India

I appreciate her effort.

Rubisco

But everyday, people are tagging more stuff with nonsense and the editors aren't touching them.

And I wanted to write up a chat retagging event meta post asking people to help.

HELP. What a terrible word.

Rant over.

I might rant a bit more at episode two.

Oh man I feel better.

Anonymous

15:00

@Rubisco Is she?

Rubisco

It could get better. I might rant like a biologist.

Anonymous

I've been handling a bunch of the minor tag-related tasks.

Rubisco

@snailplane [sentences]

Anonymous

@Man_From_India Yes, but only rarely.

Anonymous

Ah, I see. Yeah, that one is bad.

Anonymous

15:01

SE doesn't want to actually burninate a tag for us until we've retagged all the questions it's on.

Rubisco

Unless someone has been mass-editing the questions with that . . . tag . . . under the radar it had a lot of randomization and questions last I checked.

Anonymous

I would personally like to axe exam-question, too.

Rubisco

@snailplane Or make up a policy for it.

Explicitly stating that if you're gonna throw your exam paper at us, at least do your homework.

Anonymous

But it's a meta tag.

Anonymous

And it's only used on low quality questions.

Anonymous

15:02

(Or almost only?)

Rubisco

Well, [homework] is such a tag on chem, but it helps people categorize things.

Anonymous

Homework tags are bad.

Rubisco

ELL has never gotten as many homework questions, but it might in the future.

Anonymous

We get them all the time.

Anonymous

They just don't get labeled as such.

Rubisco

15:03

BTW, what CAN mods do to a tag that mortals can't @Snail?

Without any CM or dev intervention, I mean.

Anonymous

I can quite easily merge / rename / synonymize tags.

Anonymous

I made a bunch of tags plural a few days ago.

Anonymous

And I merged some tags, too.

Anonymous

Just minor stuff.

Anonymous

There's more to do.

Rubisco

15:04

0

Q: does any change in the meaning of the context?

Before considering the latest advances in mass spectroscopy, it could be helpful for the readers not accustomed with this field to briefly define what mass spectroscopy is. Does the above sentence give the same meaning as that given below: Before considering the latest advances in mass spectros...

discourse-context

The title threw me into an infinite loop.

Man_From_India

@Rubisco Are you becoming a robot like DT :D

Damkerng T.

15:21

@Man_From_India :D

Tiffany

4

accent

Aww... Tiffany still doesn't have enough rep points.

(to chat)

Man_From_India

Is she old enough? :-)

Rubisco

Tiffany? That name sounds familiar, but, hmm

Who's Tiffany @Dam?

Damkerng T.

I think I posted her clips here a couple days ago. Now I can't find it.

2 days ago, by Damkerng T.

In any case, I'm gonna post Tiffany's question here in chat, so any native speaker could see her question and give her some feedback if they wanted to.

> ell.stackexchange.com/questions/106354/…

2 days ago, by Damkerng T.

Here are the links to her videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5CJXzED7lM, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7Tu8b1MUCs

Found it!

Man_From_India

@snailplane probably can add her to chat, I think.

Rubisco

@DamkerngT. Do native PerE speakers count?

Damkerng T.

15:28

@Rubisco :D -- Dunno!

whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/10/13/…

His letter is well-crafted.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Anonymous

@Man_From_India Added

Damkerng T.

@snailplane Yay!

Man_From_India

@snailplane thank you :-)

CowperKettle

15:47

Good evening! I'll lurk some

Abcd

17:13

A car drew _________ in front of the gate.

Rubisco

17:28

@Abcd graffiti

Oh wait, I thought it said a 'cat'.

CowperKettle

17:39

> A Russian joke from the 1990s. Mother asks her son: "Who do you want to be when you grow up"
- "A gardener"
-"Maybe you'd want to be someone else?"
-"Well, maybe a pool cleaner, or a TV repair man, or a plumber"
Mother says to the husband: "Sergey, our son must have found that video cassette".

Damkerng T.

LOL

@Rubisco A car drew a cat in front of the gate?

Rubisco

@DamkerngT. Abcd knows

Damkerng T.

Perhaps it's Lightning McQueen. (^_^)

Aww... Abcd was gone.

It'd've been better if the choices were given.

Abcd

You guys love ridiculing me

Damkerng T.

I'm not sure if it has to be one word, and even if it's one word, I think there are several possibilities.

Rubisco

17:44

@Abcd We never did.

Abcd

One word.

Damkerng T.

@Abcd Please don't take it the wrong way.

Rubisco

Perhaps you're reading too much into chat messages.

Damkerng T.

If I ridiculed anything, it was the test itself.

Abcd

Okay. Only one word has to be filled

Rubisco

17:45

@Abcd And the choices are?

Damkerng T.

What kind of word does the question want?

Abcd

They give no choices

Preposition

Rubisco

So it must be from one of your lessons . . . Oh.

Abcd

Could it be put in and drew away

Rubisco

Shouldn't it be "A car drove by"?

Cars don't draw things last I checked.

Damkerng T.

17:46

Hmm... in makes sense. Sounds like what they want.

Rubisco

Maybe I'm getting too old . . . oh, that 'draw'.

Abcd

I dont ask my entire work here only the questions where i experienced difficulty

Damkerng T.

By would definitely be possible in real English.

Abcd

Okay. But i just asked Members of ELU they said in is not possible

Damkerng T.

FWIW, the first word(s) I thought of when I read it was "to a halt".

@Abcd What's not possible? Drew by in front of the gate?

Abcd

17:49

No put in

Damkerng T.

I thought you meant just in.

Abcd

Sorry i didnt post the question here : I have put________ for my daughter's education

Can it be in

Damkerng T.

Hmm... odd.

Abcd

Sorry i have put _________ some money for my daughter 's education

This one

Can it be in

Damkerng T.

in is odd.

Abcd

17:54

Okay so it will be aside

That's what they said.

Rubisco

"put aside"

Oh yeah.

Damkerng T.

aside makes sense.

Rubisco

That's the only possible option I can think of.

Abcd

But they always sigh if i ask some question there therefore i come here and ask

Thank you . Bye.

Damkerng T.

See you later!

Hi, @TRomano! Welcome to the room!

Rubisco

17:56

I should call him @TRom.

Not TRomp, since that's taboo.

TRomano

Hi. I'm just spelunking ... or spelurking. I can't even follow the conversation :)

Damkerng T.

@TRomano Our conversation is sometimes sporadic, sometimes multithreading, sometimes incomprehensible,

so, no wonder it's not easy to follow. :-)

Rubisco

I'm to blame for the sporadic part

TRomano

It's like being at a bar at happy hour where you can't hear yourself think.

Damkerng T.

:D

Rubisco

18:06

Anything I type on meta.chem these days gets upvoted.

I'm jealous of myself.

0

Q: Can "What should I do when someone answers my question?" be improved etc.?

Full question: Can What should I do when someone answers my question? be improved by suggesting the OP provide clarification and guidance when the existing answers are not satisfactory? In an answer to a recent Meta question (Why are users not being more actively guided to accept?), I proposed ...

discussion feature-request

What is it with meta.ELL that everyone wants to revamp or rewrite [help] but no one ends up doing it?

No magic links in chat. :\

Damkerng T.

Oh, that one is on ELL, not Chem.

Rubisco

@DamkerngT. For a bureaucratically zealous community, Chem people rarely even mention Help.

Anonymous

@Rubisco We can't edit that portion.

Anonymous

And there's no consensus that we should.

Rubisco

@snailplane See? Lost cause.

Anonymous

18:09

We can edit this one:

Anonymous

ell.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic

Anonymous

And that's it, as far as I'm aware.

Rubisco

clickhole.com/video/…

Very inspiring.

I'm overflowing with inspiration right now.

Please try again later.

CowperKettle

18:21

0

Q: Is there a difference between "cell line" and "cell strain"?

I'm translating one Russian text where a cell line is transfected to produce a drug. I wonder if I can sometimes use "cell strain" or simply "strain" instead of "cell line" or instead of "producer" (продуцент, meaning "the producer of the drug"). I googled and found this answer on Yahoo answers...

terminology cell-culture

On a second proofreading, I start to doubt a lot of things.

Rubisco

@CowperKettle I look at the English I wrote two years ago, and say bad things to myself

CowperKettle

@Rubisco I hope you say them in good English

Rubisco

Well, they sound more like Arabic, since I don't understand what I'm saying

Seriously, have you seen those guys pronounce things?

CowperKettle

who?

Rubisco

Arabs. Native speakers of Arabic.

CowperKettle

18:32

No, I only heard them in movies, and these are hardly representative

Rubisco

Welp, never hear them in real life.

CowperKettle

Караоке по-русски "Две мохнатые бляди"

►

An Arabian song about Motherland that sounds obscene in Russian.

Some guy came up with highly obscene but funny subtitles, and it became famous in 2009

Biladi means "country" in Arabic

Like in Hindi vilayati

But in Russian blyadi means, well, whores

But abstracting from the obscenely sounding word, it's a nice song

Good night

Rubisco

@CowperKettle Yeah, it's actually two words.

"My country".

CowperKettle

ah!

where is "my"?

Rubisco

"i"

CowperKettle

18:37

nice!

During WWI, or earlier during the Raj, the Brit soldiers started calling Britain "Blighty"

A derivation from "vilayati"

In WWI, soldiers called an easy wound "a blighty one" - meaning, it will get you home.

Or they called thus a soldier who has an easy wound

Vesta Tilley singing "I've a Bit of a Blighty One"

►

Rubisco

Language is fun. History is fun. Language with history makes me yawn.

CowperKettle

I like such histories

> I've a bit of a blighty one, but nothing to speak of,
A bit of a blighty one, that's all.
All through a splinter from a four-point-two,
I'm in blue, but I'm never feeling blue.
I'm having a cootchie time but nothing to speak of.
I'm treated like a long-lost son.
When the saucy little nursie
Tucks me in and calls me Percy,
Oh, I'm glad I've got this bit of a blighty one.

Rubisco

Just noticed my last message rhymes. All my chat messages are unsung works of art.

Like Van Dough or whatever the name was, I will only be rewarded with recognition after I die.

Oh, it was prolly Van Gough.

I gave up on the spelling.

CowperKettle

> Homework. Problem no. 57. Loading

Rubisco

18:53

The only loading thingy you wanted to spin for eternity.

Damkerng T.

21:28

1

A: Particle or preposition

I am looking forward to getting a good job. In this sentence looking forward to is a Phrasal Verb. In looking forward to getting a good job, the verb - look - takes two complements - one, an intransitive preposition, forward and two, a Preposition Phrase (PP) - to getting a good job. In...

> In looking forward to getting a good job, the verb - look - takes two complements - one, an intransitive preposition, forward and two, a Preposition Phrase (PP) - to getting a good job.

It's an interesting analysis. Not sure about the framework, but it reminds me of the idea that the complement of the verb phrase in a phrasal verb must come after the verb phrase.

> We had been looking forward for all of us to have a nice vacation, but I agreed with him this was a golden opportunity for advancement, besides my friend Allen had made sure Roy would be selected.

Damkerng T.

21:40

I'm not sure how it works in the framework Man_From_India uses, but judging from the sound of it, I don't think that frame work would consider look forward to a phrasal verb. (Because it raises itself to another level of syntax/grammar.)

Damkerng T.

23:44

After thinking it over, I think looking forward to is just a verb phrase, an idiom, not a constituent.

And to my own surprise, I think I prefer to think of it as just a verb + an adverb (or a preposition, if you like), and + a preposition.

Hint: look(ing) to selling something is possible.

Hint 2: look(ing) for all of us to something is also possible.

Hint 3: attend to is also just an idiom. It's not a constituent. It's similar to rely on.

Anonymous

It's definitely a preposition and not an adverb.

Anonymous

It's transitive :-)

Anonymous

Or at the very least, we can say it takes a complement.

Anonymous

At least, forward doesn't exhibit particle shift.

Anonymous

And forward and to X can't be separated or put in reverse order.

Anonymous

23:57

Anyway, I don't think phrasal verbs are usually constituents.

Anonymous

That's why I don't call them phrasal verbs :-)

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