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yubraj

02:27

@ColleenV Thank you very much for bounty in my question. ell.stackexchange.com/questions/109008/…

I wonder why people didn't answer my question which could lead to upvotes.

5 hours later…

SmokeDetector

07:26

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Manually reported answer: Wishing Merry Christmas or Happy New Year on Dec 28th? by Iriss Qulin on ell.SE

1 hour later…

SmokeDetector

08:53

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Blacklisted user: Wishing Merry Christmas or Happy New Year on Dec 28th? by Iriss Qulin on ell.SE

9 hours later…

Jasper

17:46

Hi.

Anonymous

Good morning!

CowperKettle

Dobry vecher! (Good evening)

Jasper

There is a sudden influx of life in here.

CowperKettle

The bushed half of the globe salutes the yet-unbushed one.

Anonymous

@CowperKettle The what now? :-)

CowperKettle

17:52

> Word of the day: bushed - sep 18 at 17:57 by userr2684291

(0:

Anonymous

Oh.

CowperKettle

> Tired out; exhausted.
‘unless you're totally bushed, it's best to press on’

Anonymous

Yabbut, that's a predicate adjective.

Anonymous

macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/bushed

Anonymous

> [never before noun]

CowperKettle

17:53

Ah!

oops

Anonymous

I wasn't able to understand what word it was until you explained, because I only recognize its meaning in predicate position.

Jasper

Have you checked CowperKettle Dictionary? Who cares about MacMillan, lol.

Anonymous

By the way, it's hard to tell with the all-caps logo, but it's written Macmillan.

Anonymous

They don't capitalize their second 'm'.

Jasper

Good, good! Perfect writing just like userr, lol.

CowperKettle

17:55

What are other predicate adjectives, I wonder

Jasper

@CowperKettle How is your eye?

CowperKettle

18:14

@Jasper Much better! I'm going for a 90 km bicycle ride tomorrow

I hope that won't make it worse.

But tomorrow is the last chance to ride in a ... relatively.. good weather

Anonymous

@CowperKettle For example, alive.

Anonymous

She's alive but never *She's an alive person.

Anonymous

Really, adjectives have four major functions. The two most important are predicative and attributive, and sometimes never-predicative adjectives are called attributive adjectives, and sometimes never-attributive adjectives are called predicate adjectives.

Anonymous

For the never-attributive (or very rarely attributive) adjectives, Macmillan writes "[never before noun]", which is a nice simple way of putting it.

Jasper

18:33

@snailplane I am not sure whether it is clearcut whether an adjective is predicate or not. For example, I might want to say she's an alive person in a strange situation, hmm...

1 hour later…

V.V.

19:37

I can't be bothered with the teachers
Always trying to shape the way I act.

Can anybody explain the meaning of "can't be bothered ", please? Sick and tired?

Jasper

@V.V. Yes, something like that, lol.

V.V.

Hi, are you OK?

Jasper

Nope, but it's alright.

You should always consult a good dictionary when in doubt.

For example, you can look up bothered or bother.

I think many people underestimate the extent a dictionary can help with learning!

@V.V. dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/bothered

V.V.

And what?tired or lazy.

userr2684291

20:00

@V.V. I can't be bothered to do my homework now, or to google that phrase's definition.

Do you understand what that means now?

Anonymous

@Jasper I can't think of a situation when that would work, outside of a metalinguistic use.

Anonymous

Alive is probably a pretty clear-cut case.

Anonymous

@V.V. "I can't be bothered to X" = "I don't feel like doing X. I don't want to put in the effort, so I won't do it."

userr2684291

There's a similar phrase in BrE only, but it's not very polite.

V.V.

But in that sentence, it seems "I don't care",right?

Jasper

20:08

Yes.

V.V.

It's not laziness

Jasper

Not laziness, just I don't care.

userr2684291

No, it could be both.

It just means "I don't feel like doing it now" for whatever reason.

Jasper

The thing is when you ask whether X means Y, X and Y each can mean so many things.

When you say you can't be bothered with the teachers, it means you don't care what they say anymore, yeah.

When you say you can't be bothered with the homework, it means you don't care about finishing it anymore.

userr2684291

Hm...

I think that's only by implication.

V.V.

20:13

So it's nearer to " tired".

Jasper

Depends on what you mean by tired or lazy, lol.

I think it's best just to read the dictionary definition and try to understand it.

And look at the example sentences provided there.

userr2684291

Yes it is. It's more as though you're sick of it.

Anonymous

@userr2684291 I think cba is a lot more common than cbs, at least in my experience with BrE speakers. YMMV.

V.V.

Ah, in a figurative sense

userr2684291

@snailplane Right, haha.

Jasper

20:15

@snailplane I didn't know you use short forms, lol.

V.V.

And camb dict.doesn't provide it

Jasper

You can also check a few dictionaries and compare the definitions.

V.V.

userr2684291

@snailplane I actually like the latter more, is all, haha. The person I used to spend a lot of time with used the s-word a lot (in various other expressions) so I thought it was sorta cute and not too taboo.

@V.V. macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/…

Jasper

@userr2684291 I have never used shagged before, not because it is offensive, but because I don't like the word, lol.

Anonymous

20:19

@Jasper Sometimes people abbreviate things when they have some reason they don't want to type them out.

Jasper

@userr2684291 When I was in high school, my schoolmates used it all the time, lol.

userr2684291

@Jasper I see.

Well, the person who I was in touch with was in their early thirties, educated.

Jasper

Whether a person uses a word a lot or not depends on many factors.

I wouldn't even think that knowing things like age, education, nationality, sex, etc. help much.

@userr2684291 For example, I like to use lol a lot, lol.

userr2684291

20:43

@Jasper Yes, but that's indicative of something else.

I generally agree in that you can't account for everyone's idiosyncrasies, but the "factors" you listed can give you a crude estimate of the person's vocabulary, etc.

Jasper

By the way, I picked up this habit of using lol from someone I was emailing long ago...

Although I like using lol, I don't really use haha.

userr2684291

I use both.

Jasper

Don't tell me you are that lol person, haha.

No, you can't be.

userr2684291

Three or more ha's indicate I'm actually laughing.

Haha is maybe a grin.

I have my various reasons for bothering to construct proper sentences in informal settings; virtually all of them are at odds with the justifications one might think I have for lol and its ilk.

Jasper

You and snailplane write very similarly in this room.

userr2684291

20:55

I'll take that as a compliment.

Jasper

I am the opposite.

I don't bother to write properly, but I do try to correct people's spellings if I think it's not a typo.

userr2684291

@Jasper What do you mean?

Oh, if you suspect they actually don't know how to spell the word?

Jasper

@userr2684291 If you spell a word wrongly in chat I will correct you.

userr2684291

@Jasper Alright. (← Is that a misspelling?)

Jasper

@userr2684291 That's fine, lol.

userr2684291

21:13

@Jasper I sometimes relapse into doing that, haha, but I've recently taken up the approach which consists in repeating the word as it should've be spelled in a sentence of my own.

Jasper

@userr2684291 I really think you and I are very similar, lol.

userr2684291

For example, if someone says "It was laying on the floor", I reply "Oh, just lying there, huh?".

It never works.

Lol.

Can sheep-dip something be used generally to mean "change something so its former shape isn't recognizable anymore"?

Jasper

You need to check the dictionary. I don't know the word, lol.

userr2684291

21:30

I'll probably forget the word myself anyway.