Language Overflow

Foggy Finder

00:03

thanks

it seems that English is too hard

or, maybe, better use another word - difficult?

M.A.R.

00:20

@FoggyFinder nah, why?

@FoggyFinder both adjectives work

Pro tip: If something seems hard, you don't know how to do it.

userr2684291

01:01

"I don't have any – there's nothing that would conclude me – that anything different has changed with respect to that time period." In the previous sentence, which was uttered by a native speaker of English, the emboldened expression has stricken me as outlandish.

CowperKettle

04:26

Sawasdee khrap

Stack Exchange

07:16

1

Q: Definite article in "Where applicable, the containers for parenteral preparations comply with the requirements..."

From European Pharmacopoeia 8, Chapter 0520 "Parenteral Preparations" May we omit the here? I don't think that the previous mention of "containers for parenteral preparations" fully justifies the use of the, since it's not a particular set of containers.

articles

Stack Exchange

10:05

3

Q: "adopt a scenario where" or "adopt the scenario where"

In this sentence: We adopt a scenario where we have four machines. Is the sentence above correct ? or we should replace a by the ?

articles grammatical-number

Damkerng T.

12:37

Aww... nobody's here.

CowperKettle

> Preparation of 1.2 mL cryovials for depositing into storage

Sawasdee khrap, @DamkerngT.!

Damkerng T.

Sawasdee khrap!

@CowperKettle Interesting. I think I'd use storing in.

CowperKettle

I'm not sure about this phrase.. The Russian phrase is hard to translate.. "putting into storage"? "placement into storage"? The original is zakladka

@DamkerngT. but "in" what?

Damkerng T.

But storing in (a/the) storage could sound a bit redundant.

CowperKettle

Basically, these 1.2 mL cryovials will comprise a Master Cell Bank (MCB)

Once they are filled with cell culture and frozen, they will become the MCB

Damkerng T.

12:39

A possible workaround could be keeping in (a/the) storage.

CowperKettle

Maybe just.. "Preparation of cryovials for storage"

Damkerng T.

Hmm...

Maybe

CowperKettle

Frankly, I would write this, or "Preparation of cryovials for freezing", because that's what is done

Damkerng T.

Now that's way better!

CowperKettle

But some other translators might spurn it, so I'll use "placement/depositing"

BBL

Damkerng T.

12:41

How about preservation?

See you later! o/

@userr2684291 That's an interesting way to use conclude!

in Ellbot's Shack, 36 secs ago, by Damkerng T.

Feature request #11: Allow @ in greet command. For example, !!greet/@Foggy should produce Welcome to ELL's chat room @Foggy! Happy chatting! rather than @@Foggy.

Ticket opened!

CowperKettle

13:13

Полуголые екатеринбуржцы устроили ночной забег

►

Night jogging in Yekaterinburg, in underwear

Damkerng T.

0

A: "It may have been her brother" Why do we use IT instead of HE?

This "it" is not only an empty subject used to introduce the real subject -- it refers to a person mentioned in the context that was, up to that moment, unidentified. On page 349 of "A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language" by Quirk et al we find an interesting example with its explanati...

> That "it" refers to the person who rang the bell.

Now, I think this is an unsafe claim.

I think claiming just "that 'it' refers to 'who rang the bell'" is probably safer.

@CowperKettle Argh!

CowperKettle

It was about minus 20 °C on February 13 when they ran

The guy cries "argh! my dick turned small from the cold!"

Damkerng T.

LOL

CowperKettle

(0:

ColleenV

@userr2684291 They messed up - they were probably editing as they were speaking to try to say something more formally than they what they started to say. What was the context? Was the person who was speaking under a little bit of pressure?

Damkerng T.

13:24

-1

A: "I had better go now." or "I have better go now."

This is a kind of exhortation to oneself, which is a second-cousin to the irrealis form; it is the not-yet-realized, the not-yet-real, and it is marked by a backshift of tense: I had better go now.

I'm not sure why this one got a downvote.

It's rather insightful, IMO.

CowperKettle

1,000 drones glittering in sky for Chinese lantern festival set Guinness record

►

wow

Damkerng T.

Oh! They're all drones!

CowperKettle

quite nice

ColleenV

That's cool - I love seeing technology used for art

Damkerng T.

Hmm... contemplating running a business of aesthetic and entertainment drones...

CowperKettle

13:26

there was a large camera drone flying above the skating rink where I went this week.. took views of skaters.

ColleenV

America's Got Talent 2016 11 Play Japanese Drone Dance Troupe Full Audition Clip S11E02

►

Damkerng T.

If it wasn't successful, we could turn the company's direction to advanced warfare drone swarm. :P

@ColleenV Nice!

@ColleenV How far did this team go?

CowperKettle

A swashbuckling business plan.

ColleenV

@DamkerngT. I don't remember exactly

Damkerng T.

@CowperKettle Hehe!

ColleenV

13:31

I think their follow-on routines weren't exciting enough after the first one

Damkerng T.

Aww

ColleenV

Siro-A went further:

America's Got Talent 2015 S10E01 Siro-A Absolutely Incredible Special Effects Dance Act

►

Damkerng T.

Awecome!

Their timing was quite perfect!

ColleenV

The integration of the technology was flawless

Damkerng T.

Indeed!

ColleenV

13:49

We live in exciting times - 3D printing has made "indie" manufacturing possible:

2

mashable.com/2015/01/15/3d-printing-circuitry/#2pE12fu_kmqd

CowperKettle

Blood vessels are printed nowadays

I hope they learn to print corneas

15

Q: Do native speakers still use "ought to"?

Do native speakers still use "ought to" in daily conversation? I haven't seen "ought to" used on any social or news ... websites. I only read about it in English grammar books. Ngram: Trends: UPDATE: Is "ought to" still used by native speaker of American English? Is "ought to...

word-usage word-meaning

asked: today

ColleenV

It's amazing. I wonder if people felt the same way when the telegraph was invented

CowperKettle

Yes

A Russian writer wrote a book about how in the future telegraph units will be in each house, and was declared a madman

ColleenV

@CowperKettle sigh I would hope that we are getting more open minded about the possibilities but I have a feeling that some of the "crazy" stuff today is the amazing technology of the future

I was kind of curious about "Using It to a Costumer" - a costumer isn't someone you read about every day, but it was just a typo :(

0

Q: Is the use of "it" to refer to a customer correct in this sentence? Shouldn't it be "he"?

An application has the customer registry and there is a message that says: "This customer has outstanding transactions. It can't be made inactive." Is the use of "it" correct because the customer is being referred as an entity? Wasn't suppose to be "he"?

word-choice pronouns

CowperKettle

14:09

Ah! Costumer

(0:

I'm multitasking.. translating cell bank protocols

Damkerng T.

14:30

stackoverflow.blog/2017/02/How-Do-Students-Use-Stack-Oveflow/…

Interestingly, azure is at the bottom of the list, but asp.net-mvc and asp.net are right at the top (of another list)!

V.V.

@CowperKettle "put up" if you need a verb.

Man_From_India

14:56

@DamkerngT. Are u there?

I am facing a strange problem after my system update. I

Some wifi network is visible, but my own wifi network is not showing up.

Damkerng T.

15:12

@Man_From_India Do you have access to the router/access point?

userr2684291

@ColleenV It's actually from a transcript on this website: whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/02/14/…

Damkerng T.

@userr2684291 Ah! I just saw it on TV a moment ago!

I looked for examples in Google Books. I basically found nothing like his usage. ("conclude(s|d) me that")

userr2684291

They really said it here: youtu.be/DTJ3J88Ph4U?t=15m49s

Anyway...

Damkerng T.

Yeah, that's actually the first instance of "conclude me that" that I've ever heard.

userr2684291

I would explain it away as a lapsus linguae.

Man_From_India

15:23

@DamkerngT. i can access internet through ethernet connection. Yes i can.

userr2684291

D'you say "a school of fish" when referring to a group of them?

Damkerng T.

@Man_From_India Oh, okay! Good! I think you should check the ADSL router/AP if you allows your wifi network to be visible.

userr2684291

Apparently it's a real thing.

Damkerng T.

There must be a web interface at 192.168.0.1 or something.

@userr2684291 Yes!

Man_From_India

@DamkerngT. on my other devices it's visible.

Damkerng T.

15:29

Oh! That's strange. Did this device work fine with this router before?

Man_From_India

Yup

It screwed up after the update yesterday.

userr2684291

Have you tried turning it off and on again? :>

Damkerng T.

@userr2684291 Makes sense!

userr2684291

I know, right? When it happens to me, that's the first thing I do.

ColleenV

@userr2684291 Yes, Mr. Spicer was under considerable pressure to say exactly the right thing. He was worried about how the press would interpret what he was going to say, tried to fix it in mid-sentence, and ended up with something ungrammatical

He might have meant "cause me to conclude"

userr2684291

15:42

Yeah, I was going to say "lead me to conclude".
Does "snazzy" sounds like something a woman would use, rather than a man?

*sound

ColleenV

@userr2684291 I don't think it's gender specific, but it's kind of um, nerdy/goofy?

It might be said jokingly - "Wow, those are some snazzy shoes"

It would be for something unusual or eye-catching, and not just a "you look nice!" word

it depends on the context and tone a lot whether it is good-natured or sarcastic

userr2684291

A girl described her dress as "snazzy" – "I was wearing a snazzy dress".

ColleenV

Disclaimer: I'm old. If the kids have decided to make "snazzy" modern again I wouldn't know :)

Oh yeah, a guy could say "I was wearing a snazzy jacket" too

Damkerng T.

!!translate/ฉูดฉาด

Ellbot

th: ฉูดฉาด
en: showy

ColleenV

15:47

Snazzy is kind of an attitude

Eye-catching clothes, bold, brash confident

Damkerng T.

nods -- It's hard to find a word in a language that exactly matches a word in another.

FWIW, ฉูดฉาด doesn't mean "showy" to me at all.

CowperKettle

Ah, it's an attitude with aplomb

userr2684291

@ColleenV I totally get that vibe just from how the word sounds.

CowperKettle

onomatopoeia

ColleenV

Lookin' snazzy

userr2684291

15:50

Hahaha.

ColleenV

Also "One Snazzy Dobie":

userr2684291

Ah, doberman.

ColleenV

Yeah it was from some Etsy site that sells various doberman pinscher things.

userr2684291

@ColleenV They completely zhuzhed him up with that cane.

ColleenV

@userr2684291 I am going to start using zhuzhed - I like it! :) I reserve the right as an old Texan to completely mangle the pronunciation though

userr2684291

16:05

@ColleenV "Zh" is pronounced like the S in "usually".

ColleenV

Thanks! I found this: dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/zhuzh

16

Q: How to spell [ʒʊʒd] and what does it mean?

I heard this strange word in American Dad over a year ago and it's been bugging me ever since. Not only do I have no idea how it's spelt, I have no idea how it could possibly be spelt. My only guesses were zhoozhed and zhouzhed but there appear to be no such words. The script goes like this: ...

meaning single-word-requests verbs orthography slang

userr2684291

I actually had the same question about a year ago and that was the first answer that came up. I initially spelled it as "juj".

ColleenV

I'm still likely to mess it up because it reminds me of Zsa Zsa and she knew how to zhuzh up an outfit to make it snazzy :)

Damkerng T.

16:41

Tszuj looks almost like Japanese.

CowperKettle

CRAZY. VIKI ODINTCOVA. MAVRIN. DUBAI #1. ВИКА ОДИНЦОВА

►

Hangs on a single hand from a skyscraper's beam

I would never dare.

ColleenV

17:01

@CowperKettle My goal in life is to not die in such a way that people reading about my death will think "What a stupid way to die!"

userr2684291

Haha exactly.

ColleenV

I would never do such a dumb thing for no reason other than to film it

On the other hand at their age I was still convinced I was immortal, so...

CowperKettle

17:22

I'm divided on this count. Yes, it may be stupid. But not all stupid things are bad.

(0:

There are worse things in this world.

ColleenV

@CowperKettle Stupid things that are potentially fatal are almost universally bad :)

Unless by doing the dangerous thing, you do something worthwhile. Like reach out over a skyscraper to save someone's life

CowperKettle

People are programmed to do risky things in order to show that their genes are healthy to a potential mate. They may philosophize over it or they may get emotional over it: that's just two ways to justify the risky behavior that is programmed into you.

Damkerng T.

17:45

0

Q: Good writing books for Cambridge FCE and CAE candidates?

Well, I've just finished the Cambridge PET course (surprisingly, I was awarded with "pass with distinction") and now I'm studying for the Cambridge FCE course. I realised that the abilities required to write essays in PET is far lesser than FCE. In PET, we merely have a compulsory objective on wr...

writing

Judging from the OP's writing in the question, they're at the FCE level already.

At least.

V.V.

Good evening.

Damkerng T.

Good evening!

ColleenV

@DamkerngT. I moved that over to meta

Damkerng T.

Ah, okay!

ColleenV

but I didn't want to delete it outright.

It's really a request for resources, even though it is a very well written one

Damkerng T.

17:48

I think it's a real problem a lot of learners are facing.

nods

Stack Exchange

18:00

0

Q: Good writing books for Cambridge FCE and CAE candidates?

Well, I've just finished the Cambridge PET course (surprisingly, I was awarded with "pass with distinction") and now I'm studying for the Cambridge FCE course. I realised that the abilities required to write essays in PET is far lesser than FCE. In PET, we merely have a compulsory objective on wr...

discussion

V.V.

Cambridge English: First ( FCE) Writing
Difficulty level: B2 /Upper Intermediate
What is the First (FCE) Writing test like?
The test has two sections

Part 1 -write an essay based on prompts
Part 2 - write one from a choice of 4 questions: an article, an essay, a letter, a report, a review, a story

userr2684291

@CowperKettle Wow, that sounds like bullshit.

"Healthy" genes => taking risks. Wat.

CowperKettle

18:16

@userr2684291 Wow, that comment looks like bullshit

userr2684291

How?

ColleenV

@userr2684291 Be nice

We can talk about stuff without implying that someone is making stuff up

There is some research that links certain behaviors to mate-finding

Animals do sort of dangerous things for no other reason than to catch the eye of a female that will help them pass on their genes. It's fairly straight-forward darwinism I think

But, humans can rise above their nature through nurture :)

So, basically I'm saying "Where are those kids' parents and why didn't they teach them better?" :P

userr2684291

How does that correlate to nondefective genes? It correlates to "this is what I'm ready to do for you", and "look at me".

userr2684291

18:36

And honestly I can't think of any other stupid behavior which other animals engage in. Some animals fight, and there it's obvious what they're trying to show – strength and dominance over their competitor. D'you know of any examples, other than the ones shown on the video, where animals exhibit idiotic behavior to impress their (potential) mate?

ColleenV

Well the more capable and strong a male appears to be, the more likely he will breed and pass on his genes.

And no, I'm not a biologist or anthropologist so I don't have anything in my back pocket to convince you

but I think it's a little bit rude to not just take this as a friendly discussion. We're just talking, not trying to prove anything

If you don't believe it it's ok

V.V.

I wonder, I was wondering if...Any difference?

userr2684291

@ColleenV Yes, but that doesn't entail taking risks "just 'cause", does it?

ColleenV

@userr2684291 It's time to just let it go and get back to talking about English.

@V.V. "I wonder" is what I would use if I'm sort of thinking out loud" and "I was wondering if" would be something I would use to ask someone for a favor

There may be other differences based on the context

and in some cases they will be very close. Do you have a specific situation?

"I was wondering if you would go to the dance with me."

"I wonder if Joe will go to the dance with me"

CowperKettle

The hypothesis is called the handicap principle. I found a recent paper that criticizes it. But it's an interesting hypothesis. I've no time for reading more about genetics of behavior now

V.V.

18:49

@ColleenV thanks. Is "was wondering " more polite?

And can I use present tenses after it?

ColleenV

@V.V. I don't know if it's politeness exactly - "was wondering" is a little more deferential or nervous sounding than asking directly

"I was wondering if you would go to the dance with me." vs "Would you go to the dance with me?"

there's no difference in politeness

but the first one is a little more timid sounding

from an AmE perspective

I'm not sure about the present tense - do you have an example?

V.V.

I was wondering if you have ever flown the plane?

ColleenV

That's perfectly fine if you replace "the" with "a" - I was wondering if you have ever flown a plane?

or have ever flown this plane?

V.V.

Aha, then it's possible, right?

userr2684291

Yeah, I was just about to ask.

ColleenV

18:56

Yes

userr2684291

3

Q: I was wondering vs. I am wondering vs. I wonder

If I would like to make requests, should I use “I was wondering…” instead of “I am wondering…” and “I wonder…”? If yes, what’s the most appropriate situation to use “I am wondering…” and “I wonder…”?

past-tense present-tense

V.V.

I doubted it because of "sequence of tenses"

ColleenV

If you say "I wonder if you have ever flown a plane before." It sounds a bit sarcastic - like you're in the plane and someone is flying it badly.

userr2684291

I'd say "I wonder if you've ever flown a plane before."

If I'm really wondering, like... really, haha.

@ColleenV This too.

V.V.

I read that it's not natural to use "I am wondering ",right?

ColleenV

19:00

It's not typical, but I can imagine it as the answer to a question

"What are you doing?" "I'm sitting here wondering why you never call me."

V.V.

Perhaps we'd better use "was wondering "

userr2684291

pastebin.com/raw/xcVbmRMH

This is from a dictionary.

Anonymous

Word of the day: digestives

3

ColleenV

I would use "I am wondering if/whether" if you're asking someone a question

if you must use "wonder"

Anonymous

(I'm an American English speaker, so I had no idea what digestives were!)

ColleenV

19:05

@snailplane They seem like cookies, but aren't nearly as good :)

Damkerng T.

@snailplane Oh, I have a couple boxes left!

Anonymous

@userr2684291 Just link to the LDOCE and cite it by name: ldoceonline.com/dictionary/wonder

Damkerng T.

McVitie's Digestive.

CowperKettle

reminded me of DNase I

also a digestive (0:

Have been trasnlating this stuff all the day

Damkerng T.

@CowperKettle :)

CowperKettle

19:08

good night!

Damkerng T.

Aww... good night!

userr2684291

@snailplane I didn't know they had that on that site. I copied it from my copy of LDOCE.

Anonymous

Yes, the LDOCE is online :-) And it's not a really big deal, but we would like users to cite sources by name on SE when they quote things, if possible.

userr2684291

Gotcha.

Anonymous

See: How to reference material written by others

Anonymous

19:11

Technically, it applies to chat, too :-)

Anonymous

Though we aren't going to be very strict about anything.

Anonymous

It's interesting that people say I was wondering when it's not really literally true that they've been wondering for a while.

Anonymous

I never really thought about it before.

Anonymous

@M.A.R. This is going to be exciting :-)

Damkerng T.

0

Q: deal of sunshine or extent of sunshine?

I am doing a this moment use of english open cloze. What is the right collocation of sunshine:extent or deal? thanks

nouns collocations

People have different ways to learn a second language. (^_^)

Anonymous

19:20

@V.V. Technically, "I was wondering if you've ever flown a plane" has the form of a statement, not a question. The interrogative (if/whether you've ever flown a plane) has the form of a subordinate clause. The main clause is declarative.

Anonymous

Most commonly, it would be written with a period at the end.

Anonymous

If you put a question mark at the end anyway, it indicates that you're using rising intonation, and you probably intend the sentence to have the force of a question.

Damkerng T.

I've never heard a deal of something before. It's always a great deal. So I wonder if that open cloze exercise is somewhat misleading.

Anonymous

In conversational English, it would often be phrased something like this:

Anonymous

> I was wondering, have you ever flown a plane before?

Anonymous

19:22

Although we don't usually write this sort of sentence down, when we do, we tend to put some sort of punctuation after I was wondering which corresponds to the pause and break in intonation in the spoken version.

Anonymous

Now the interrogative Have you ever flown a plane before? has the shape of a main clause. You can tell because of the subject–auxiliary inversion.

Anonymous

And it actually is a question, and would pretty much always be written with a question mark.

Damkerng T.

userr2684291

@DamkerngT. You don't know the complete (incomplete) sentence. I'd wager the gap is preceded by "great".

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I don't understand the phrase a deal of something. It works with modification by great, as you point out, although good also works.

Damkerng T.

19:32

@userr2684291 I guess so. Still, it seems to make the OP think sunshine governs the use of deal (or extent).

Anonymous

The question doesn't really imply that it's a deal of something.

Damkerng T.

@snailplane Ah, right! Good works too.

Anonymous

Oh dear, everyone responding is unfamiliar with cloze deletions.

Anonymous

Well, the question is very unclear.

Anonymous

For all I know, cloze is actually just a typo there.

userr2684291

19:33

@DamkerngT. D? Doxxed.

:>

Anonymous

@userr2684291 We know where New York is now!

Anonymous

It's by a bakery.

Damkerng T.

@userr2684291 I used it for this:

I don't think a block has a fixed distance. It's more like a block in a city. It's literally a block, if you look at the map. For example, here's a map of part of New York City: i.stack.imgur.com/QWHQ3.jpg. — Damkerng T. 17 secs ago

Anonymous

Wait, I live near a bakery! Could I be New York?

Damkerng T.

:)

Anonymous

19:34

@DamkerngT. You know what? Block is a word that always confused me growing up.

Damkerng T.

Hah!

ColleenV

@snailplane I was going to try to fix up the question, but I'm pressed for time

Anonymous

Never knew exactly how big a block was.

Anonymous

@ColleenV I'd like to, but I'm not 100% sure I understand it.

userr2684291

Exactly one block.

Anonymous

19:35

That's the thing, though. Like, where I grew up, all the roads are squiggly.

Anonymous

They end in cul-de-sacs and go all around in random directions and cross themselves.

ColleenV

@snailplane I was very close to closing it as unclear.

I live in Texas - all our roads are built on top of cow paths

userr2684291

Haha.

ColleenV

or at least the Ranch Roads. The Farm to Market roads are a little straighter

Damkerng T.

Hehe!

Anonymous

19:36

@ColleenV To be honest, I think we probably should close it.

Anonymous

I don't really see how it's answerable. We can guess at what the OP is asking, but it's really too confusing to be sure.

userr2684291

Yeah, cloze it.

Anonymous

I'll cloze it, but I won't delete it.

Damkerng T.

LOL

Anonymous

Cloze test

A cloze test (also cloze deletion test) is an exercise, test, or assessment consisting of a portion of text with certain words removed (cloze text), where the participant is asked to replace the missing words. Cloze tests require the ability to understand context and vocabulary in order to identify the correct words or type of words that belong in the deleted passages of a text. This exercise is commonly administered for the assessment of native and second language learning and instruction. The word cloze is derived from closure in Gestalt theory. The exercise was first described by W.L. Taylor...

ColleenV

19:37

I think we should, I wanted to write a nice comment, but I've got to scoot

Anonymous

Should I go with "unclear" or "details, please"?

ColleenV

I would say details

It's not that unclear if you know it is a "cloze" test

Anonymous

A cloze deletion should look like this:

Anonymous

> The windows let in a great ＿＿＿ of sunshine.

Anonymous

Now, try to remember: what word fits in that blank? Is it extent?

Anonymous

19:39

No, it is not.

Anonymous

Could you please edit your question and add some details to clarify your question? Right now, we can guess at what you're asking, but we can't really be sure. Could you show us the entire sentence that extent or deal would fit into? For example: "The windows let in a great ＿＿＿ of sunshine." — snailplane ♦ 2 mins ago

Damkerng T.

nods -- But if it's so, I wonder why the OP didn't think it should be associated with (a) great ... (of), as opposed to sunshine.

Hmm... come to think of it, actually all words are interrelated.

userr2684291

"Great" goes with both "extent" and "deal".

Damkerng T.

Right

So, the best angle to tackle this collocation would be choosing between a great deal of and a great extent of.

If the OP wants to think of it as a collocation.

BTW, anyone know the best stack or maybe a chat room if I want to ask about Visual Studio for Mac?

userr2684291

I use the verb "collocate" with the meaning "often occur together".

Damkerng T.

19:48

nods -- I suppose linguists may have a bit more specific and technical definition for collocation and collocates. I've never really looked into the defn, though.

userr2684291

There's probably a more precise definition in the ambit of linguistics, but...

Stop reading my mind.

Damkerng T.

:P

Another BTW. BTW, is there a way to search something across chat rooms?

Ooohhh, I seeee!

From pein-city.info/visualstudio-for-mac-review-1 (via: stackoverflow.com/questions/41951037/visual-studio-for-mac)

> This has the potential to be quite exiting: Microsoft has last week released VisualStudio for Mac. Together with developments around .Net Core you should now be able to write MVC C# applications on a Mac same as on a PC, have the source code in GitHub, build the project online and deploy it to Azure.

> The only trouble is: it does not work.

Anonymous

> collocation (n.) A term used in lexicology by some (especially Firthian) linguists to refer to the habitual co-occurrence of individual lexical items. For example, auspicious collocates with occasion, event, sign, etc.; and letter collocates with alphabet, graphic, etc., on the one hand, and postman, pillarbox, etc., on the other. Collocations are, then, a type of syntagmatic lexical relation.

2

Anonymous

> They are linguistically predictable to a greater or lesser extent (e.g. the bond between spick and span is stronger than that between letter and pillarbox), and this differentiates them from sense associations, which tend to include idiosyncratic connections (e.g. mother-in-law associating with hippopotamus). Some words have no specific collocational restrictions – grammatical words such as the, of, after, in.

Anonymous

> By contrast, there are many totally predictable restrictions, as in eke + out, spick + span, and these are usually analysed as idioms, clichés, etc. Another important feature of collocations is that they are formal (not semantic) statements of co-occurrence; e.g. green collocates with jealousy (as opposed to, say, blue or red), even though there is no referential basis for the link. Lexical items which are 'collocated' are said to be collocates of each other;

Anonymous

19:58

> the potential of items to collocate is known as their collocability or collocational range. A related notion is 'semantic prosody' (see semantics). Collocational restrictions are analogous to the notion of selectional restrictions in generative grammar. Collocations should not be confused with the notion of word association in psychology, which refers to any kind of mental relationship between words –

Anonymous

> for example, car might produce the association New Zealand or Uncle Joe. Word associations of this kind are being increasingly studied as part of psycholinguistics, especially for the light they throw on cultural differences (e.g. in relation to bilingualism). See also paradigmatic, syntagmatic.

Anonymous

(A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 6th ed., David Crystal 2008)

Damkerng T.

Wait! mother-in-law associating with hippopotamus!

Anonymous

No comment!

Anonymous

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is a series of novels that were developed into a British sitcom starring Leonard Rossiter in the title role. Both the books and television series were written by David Nobbs, and the screenplay for the first series was adapted by Nobbs from the novel, though subplots in the novel were considered too dark or risqué for television and toned down or omitted, an example being the relationship between Perrin's daughter and his brother-in-law. The story concerns a middle-aged middle manager, Reginald "Reggie" Perrin, who is driven to bizarre behaviour by the p...

Damkerng T.

20:01

Haha! Thanks!

Anonymous

By the way, some language learners are very excited about the concept of massive-context cloze deletions (MCDs).

Anonymous

I don't know how well they work.

Damkerng T.

I think it helps.

Not sure how much it can help, though.

userr2684291

20:20

I wonder how effective solving crosswords is at assimilating vocabulary.

Or maybe at achieving fluency.

Anonymous

22:32

@userr2684291 Fluency, I would guess not very much?

Anonymous

I think the #1 method for achieving fluency is just to keep communicating with people.

2

Anonymous

You can learn specific strategies to help with fluency like circumlocution (can't think of the right word? Don't stop talking, just express the idea with several other words!)

Anonymous

But for the most part I think it's just communicating with people.

Transcript for