Language Overflow

SinNombre SinApellido

01:58

Hi!

Anonymous

Hello!

SinNombre SinApellido

What's the difference between "look" and "see"?

Example: Look me

And see me

Anonymous

You can't say *look me. It has to be look at me.

SinNombre SinApellido

In spanish those are "mirar"; "Mirame" (Look me)

at?

Anonymous

In terms of meaning, the basic difference between look and see is that look is volitional.

Anonymous

02:07

That is also the difference between listen and hear.

Anonymous

Grammatically, look is usually intransitive, so it needs a preposition: look at

Anonymous

You look at things on purpose. You see things without trying.

Anonymous

You listen to things on purpose. You hear things without trying.

SinNombre SinApellido

Interesting, thanks @snailplane

ColleenV

04:37

@SinNombreSinApellido There's a related question on ELL that might help:

17

Q: What is the difference between "look", "see", and "watch"?

When should I use "look", "see", and "watch"? I'm watching "Star Trek". Have you seen "Star Trek"? Are the examples above correct?

CowperKettle

05:42

27

Q: Hanging a hammer from a table and a stick so that its midpoint is outside of the support of the table

I came across this pic on the internet today. At beginning I thought it is just not possible because the centre of mass is way off so gravity will generate torque making the stick and hammer fall. Later I thought that the heaviest part of hammer could've balanced the centre of mass and so it co...

newtonian-mechanics newtonian-gravity torque free-body-diagram statics

Damkerng T.

06:10

The FBD in the second-most-voted answer is more correct, but I guess the one in the most-voted answer is easier to understand.

This stuff always looks cool!

CowperKettle

Word of the day: FBD

Damkerng T.

06:27

LOL

M.A.R.

08:13

@DamkerngT. Fragile Bonding Distribution?

M.A.R.

08:29

Moderating ELL and ELU is tiring.

You have to argue with a lot of incorrect decisions.

I wonder if it's also the case for other language sites.

There's a reason I'm scared of clicking ''review'' on ELL.

CowperKettle

08:53

> Make America Great Britain Again!

EngFan

09:38

Hello!

M.A.R.

Hello

EngFan

I have send an E-mail to a company , so can I start it with hello

because hello seems to be informal

M.A.R.

Usually you start letters with ''dear''

EngFan

ok, thanks

M.A.R.

11:31

in The Periodic Table, 40 secs ago, by M.A.R.

Lead by example. This is it.

Once again, Shog proves he's awesome.

Damkerng T.

11:59

@M.A.R. Free (Angry) Birds Day, maybe. :P

Man_From_India

12:20

> For the first time in what anyone can remember the door of the castle was open and unguarded.

Pullum K says this one is ungrammatical. He gave a brief reason behind its ungrammaticality.

The complement of the in-PP should denote a time interval in sentences like this. The fused relative clause - what anyone can remember - doesn't express a time interval.

Now I want to know if generally fused relative clause doesn't express time interval. Or is it just the case only here?

@snailplane @DamkerngT. @Araucaria

I thought fused relative clause should express a time interval, not embedded interrogative clause. Anyway can anyone give some explanation regarding this?

Man_From_India

12:45

Mouse pancreatic islets, grown in rats & transplanted into diabetic mice, function for prolonged periods of time… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/824482115416948737

Tweeted by nature on January 26, 2017 at 5:00 AM

The future of stem cell research may be here in the form of a hybrid human-pig embryo. http://bit.ly/1UDISvB via @Mic

Tweeted by StormyVNV on June 7, 2016 at 9:44 PM

These two news just WOW

M.A.R.

in Tavern on the Meta on Meta Stack Exchange Chat, 20 mins ago, by Telkitty

user2684291

Hm.

Real-time Face Capture and Reenactment Have you seen this?

@M.A.R. What's the baby waiting for? Haha.

They see me slither, they wither.

Damkerng T.

13:40

@Man_From_India I wonder where Pullum discussed this, but IMO the sentence is quite contrived.

Man_From_India

@DamkerngT. over email conversation :-)

"contrived" is still okay but he went as far as saying it "ungrammatical".

Damkerng T.

Let's see. If we try to side with the sentence, what would be a good word for this gap: Anyone can remember that in ___

It also has two gaps in one. Let's see if two gaps work in other sentences ...

> I met her in the garden.

user2684291

@Man_From_India "News" is an uncountable noun.

Damkerng T.

> In what I met her.

Doesn't quite work, I think.

(If it works, it's not in the way Pullum's example seems to be intended to mean.)

Man_From_India

13:58

The gap to be filled by time, no doubt as Snail had mentioned earlier. But still doesn't feel okay.

Damkerng T.

Hmm... but we already have time before in.

I don't think it'll work if we try to read it that way.

Man_From_India

Well it can still be fine but I can't understand that "time interval" explanation.

Damkerng T.

> For the first time in what anyone can remember the door of the castle was open and unguarded.

> Anyone can remember the door of the castle was open and unguarded for the first time in what.

???

Man_From_India

Well this might make sense.

> For the first time in (the time) [anyone can remember __], the door of the castle was open.

Damkerng T.

It seems like you try to put two gaps into one.

> They remember what in what.

> In what they remember, what.

Man_From_India

14:03

@DamkerngT. no no :O

Damkerng T.

> For the first time anyone can remember, the door of the castle was open.

I think there is one gap in there.

Man_From_India

Say, anyone can remember A, B, C and D. A,B,C and D are time frame. Now the door was open for the first time in A, B ,C and D.

Damkerng T.

Maybe two, but not in the same place.

They remember A-D or remember in A-D?

Man_From_India

@DamkerngT. right. Better phrasing.

From A to D

I think that's what Pullum K meant by time interval.

Damkerng T.

So, A-D is what they remember, not in what they remember, right?

Man_From_India

14:06

@DamkerngT. right

Damkerng T.

If you try to read it that way, "For the first time in what [...]" wouldn't work.

Man_From_India

@DamkerngT. i think it is making sense.

Damkerng T.

Anything can make some sense, whether it's grammatical or not.

Man_From_India

Well I think this is why Pullum K said the time interval is not expressed by that fused relative clause.

Damkerng T.

Probably. I don't know the context, though. Maybe he had his reason to give that sentence as an example.

Man_From_India

14:11

@DamkerngT. I asked about that sentence. And he said no more than what I wrote earlier.

Damkerng T.

nods

Man_From_India

15:18

Just learned the word : INNOCUOUS.

2

Example: I'm an innocuous Indian :-)

Man_From_India

15:59

Hello @Catija

How are you doing? How is baby?

Catija

Doing great :D

Man_From_India

Yay 👍

Man_From_India

17:26

@user2684291 nice catch. Thanks. I should've written two news stories.

Willow Rex

19:54

@ColleenV I edited and I understand, thanks for the help.

ColleenV

@WillowRex No problem - it takes a while to get the hang of SE sites and get a feel for what the community likes

Comments are pretty loosey-goosey but we have some folks that like to see answers be more like, um, an entry in a reference book and less like a forum post to help one other person.

Willow Rex

@ColleenV I tend to be more on the chatty side, so I'll try to be less so.

ColleenV

@WillowRex It's fine to be chatty - just keep it in the comments :)

or in here

There's nothing wrong with using your own voice in your answers either - just avoid asking questions or responding to questions in your answer

and don't use greetings or signatures (the folks browsing on mobile really hate "fluff" (: )

M.A.R.

20:31

@ColleenV Ah, the good ol' smiley-before-parenthesis issue

ColleenV

Well I was going to do it the other way and I had some vague memory of someone complaining about the :)

so I changed it up - it will take some getting used to. I don't know how to do :P in reverse hrm

d: ?

M.A.R.

@ColleenV It looks like a guy with a cap

ColleenV

Yeah, oh well I should stick to vanilla :)

M.A.R.

@ColleenV It was probably me making a lame joke about a guy having two mouths

user2684291

@ColleenV My eyes.

I also don't know how to deal with this problem.

M.A.R.

20:43

@user2684291 Browsing SE on mobile?

Or the fluff problem?

user2684291

The smiley.

However, this abomination "(blah blah :)" is never a solution.

M.A.R.

GAAAAAAA

Now I won't be able to sleep tonight

Double-mouth is the sanest solution.

user2684291

I don't know about that either.

M.A.R.

You could do some use-smiley distinction voodoo, like emboldening the smiley

user2684291

It looks like "his/her" in text.

M.A.R.

20:49

Not as bad as ''his\her''

user2684291

@M.A.R. I also never use :) or :(, which is another issue, I suppose.

Anonymous

My smileys have noses.

Anonymous

:-)

user2684291

@M.A.R. I think eschewing smileys in these situations is the way to go.

Anonymous

@user2684291 Yabbut, writing :-) ) seems so weird.

user2684291

21:05

@snailplane The only version I would okay is "(blah blah :))".

Anonymous

@user2684291 There's no consensus about it. For some people the smiley absorbs the parenthesis, and for others it doesn't.

Anonymous

Someday there may be a consensus, who knows? :-)

user2684291

I hope so.

@snailplane Some of mine are enschnozened as well, e.g., (^:. I've always perceived this smiley as sassy.

Anonymous

Love that word :-)

Nagendra

23:13

Hai! Can you please tell me whether we have to use the word "unnecessary pressure" with an article or without an article?

user2684291

@Nagendra It depends on the context.

Nagendra

@user2684291 Can you please explain?

user2684291

@Nagendra What exactly? Absent context, it can be used with an article or anarthrously.

Give us the full sentence.

Nagendra

23:37

@user2684291 I have no context. I want to know when to use an article and when to omit it. Could you explain to me with your own examples?

user2684291

@Nagendra en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-marking_in_English#Zero_article Maybe this will help.

Transcript for