Language Overflow

Eddie Kal

01:33

I don't think we should close this question except as a duplicate. I thought snailplane had a canonical answer that addressed this. I couldn't find it. Am I tripping?

-1

Q: English grammar

Which of the following is grammatically correct? (A) I am surprised at you not participating in the competition. (B) I am surprised at your not participating in the competition. (C) Both are correct.

grammar

CowperKettle

02:06

aprication

Noun: aprication (uncountable)

(rare) The act of apricating, or basking in the sun.

David

03:26

@userr2684291 lip service comes from the King James Bible, as does much of our language.

Isaiah
29:13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

Jesus quotes this when his disciples are criticized for not washing their hands.

CowperKettle

04:08

Word of the day: line cook

CowperKettle

04:35

> I asked Choi if COMET’s approach — combining incrementally better neural networks with improved common-sense knowledge bases — was still, essentially, building a ladder to the moon. She conceded that her dream would be to have a neural network that could learn from knowledge bases without human supervision, the same way language models like GPT-2 already learn by ingesting reams of raw text.

quantamagazine.org/common-sense-comes-to-computers-20200430

Very interesting.

I wonder if by 2030 there will be a human-scale AI

AIQ

05:32

oh god, I have written long comments and it seems like I have reached and went beyond "comments are not for extended discussions"

Eddie Kal

06:08

@userr2684291 Thanks!! You are always reliably resourceful!

Decapitated Soul

@AIQ, I had asked a simple question and it became famous out of nowhere.

I don't like it lol

It happens a lot on ELU

Most of the time there are easily googleable questions and when someone answers that question (copy-paste from Google), it hits 30+ upvotes ...

And there are questions/ answers... for example, this one they only get up to 10 upvotes... I spent 3 hours collecting information and making up that answer.... :((( That's odd.

AIQ

06:37

@DecapitatedSoul haha you made me rich

I know I wrote one answer about a furniture shop and people upvoted it like crazy

for no reason

AIQ

06:47

@DecapitatedSoul That answer of yours is crazy - it should have +30 or something

some questions get awful lot of upvotes for nothing ... and then some answers too ... Like the furniture one I wrote

But I think the best answer anyone wrote for me which deserves more upvotes is this:

50

A: "When you Frankenstein a team together..." - Is "Frankenstein" a new verb?

It's a figure of speech, known as anthimeria: the use of a word in a part of speech other than its customary usage.* Ordinarily, Frankenstein is a proper noun referring to a fictional monster originally from the 1818 novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and later made into numerous horror movies, ...

Also it is my all time favorite question - Ben's and EddieKal's answers are the two best I ever got

@DecapitatedSoul Have a look at this +50 question

51

Q: When a girl mentions her girlfriend, does she mean it like lesbian girlfriend?

I have a classmate and sometimes she says something like "I told my girlfriend that she has to blah blah". Does this wording imply a lesbian relationship, or is she referring to a her best friend (a girl) only?

meaning meaning-in-context word-meaning

Maybe because who doesn't like to read anything that says "lesbian" or anything sexual ...

Decap sorry about the pings

Decapitated Soul

It says I've already upvoted it

No worries

AIQ

Look at this answer

70

A: What is the difference between “nope” and “no”?

From here, they have no difference in meaning; but nope is more informal, only used in a sense of opposite to yes (or yup). Also, nope is not used often in writing. You wouldn't say "there were nope errors", for example.

Decapitated Soul

Actually, the OP has bountied the question for my answer

Read my answer in 'no Vs nope'

I've given a phonological explanation as to why there's p in nope

Thanks for the UV

:D

AIQ

interesting ... still short of 69

Decapitated Soul

XD

But that's odd

People upvote the questions/ answers that don't deserve UV's

And they over upvote

3

A: When is "L" doubled?

-l- vs -ll-: Both versions (-l- and -ll-) are correct and acceptable (when it comes in stressed syllable). Modeling and traveling are more common the in U.S. (-ll- is also used and acceptable in the U.S.) while modelling and travelling are most commonly used in the UK and many other regions (-l...

4

A: "Updatable" vs. "Updateable": which is correct?

Updatable vs updateable: Both of them are correct and acceptable. Google Ngram shows updatable is more prevalent than updateable. However, the plausible answer would be: if the removal of final e from the base word changes the pronunciation of the preceding consonant, it's often incorrect a...

People often say 'this is the rule' in their answers.... I say 'this is not a rule'

There are no rules in English

:P

M.A.R.

07:03

@userr2684291 Absolute

Decapitated Soul

Idiom of the day - Gild the lily: try to improve what is already beautiful or excellent.

AIQ

07:18

@DecapitatedSoul This seems fishy

the accepted answer isn't that great

Decapitated Soul

Lol

OP sometimes chooses to be a C

(You better know what C means :p)

AIQ

It could be the name Decap, maybe it scares them

Decapitated Soul

lmao

I should change it then 😂

AIQ

What is even more strange is the butterfly - the name and the butterfly are just sooo different it's almost psychotic

or psychopathic or something

Decapitated Soul

Yess

Intentionally

Kind of oxymoron

Like 2 things that don't go together

Cool fire

Butterfly is cute, decap is gruesome

M.A.R.

07:30

@DecapitatedSoul There's one person to be blamed for such a nick

Whoa, cool fire!

Decapitated Soul

👀

That's 'oxymoron'

When you put together two words and the meaning is nonsensical

M.A.R.

@CowperKettle This one's useful!

@DecapitatedSoul Well, I'm not a moron probably and I still said it

Decapitated Soul

Lol

That combo is called oxymoron

:D

M.A.R.

I know, I'm just fooling around

Decapitated Soul

I know lol

Anonymous

08:31

The butterfly is really pretty.

Anonymous

I love moths and butterflies.

Anonymous

Word of the day: folderol

2

CowperKettle

11:21

Can I write "The method allows using this and that", or should it always include the subject? "The method allows us to use this and that"?

CowperKettle

13:23

Word of the hour: weeaboo /ˈwiːəbuː/

CowperKettle

13:55

1

A: Our research aimed at defining criteria based on which we CAN (or COULD?) differentiate patients from normal subjects

The difference between can and could in this context is whether you actually do what you say. The ceiling is so low that I can touch it! The ceiling is so low that I could touch it. In the first sentence the speaker is demonstrating as they speak that they are able to touch the ceiling, w...

Interesting answer! I was so sure that I must use could there.

Anonymous

14:13

I can’t express how nice it is to sign in to both sites I moderate and see every single flag has already been handled :-)

3

CowperKettle

14:34

@snailplane You can try to express it in verse

CowperKettle

14:54

I don't think that's correct (it's not true that "the only proper verb to use is can"). In fact, arguably could is somewhat more natural / accurate for the exact context, given it's hard to argue that can/could means anything other than is / will / would be able to. And ...criteria based on which we are able to differentiate... doesn't look good to me as an alternative here, since we're talking about a hypothetical future .situation, not something we're currently doing (because we haven't yet found out how to do it! :) — FumbleFingers Reinstate Monica 34 mins ago

FF confirms my hunch

Mansplaining is correctile dysfunction

userr2684291

16:05

Not sure. I feel like could works, but I can't explain why. I know why can works (it can be seen as timeless in that sentence).

Actually both are sort of timeless, just that the could one is hypothetical.

userr2684291

16:21

OK, so, the way I see it, the sentence can be parsed in two or three ways: "We were looking for criteria which are defined as follows." That's why can works. "...criteria, which if found could help." – why could works, and also "We want to define criteria which can help" backshifted "We wanted to define criteria which could help".

Anonymous

I don't think could is wrong, but I do like can better.

userr2684291

16:36

Can is more direct and unambiguous "we wanted this", while could or would be able to are more descriptive, reportish... I don't really have a preference.

CowperKettle

17:39

> Russian literature is built on suffering. Either the character suffers, or the author, or the reader. If all three experience suffering, it's a Russian literary masterpiece.

Decapitated Soul

'Cellar door' is considered the most beautiful word in English.

When it's spoken with a non-rhotic accent.

Decapitated Soul

18:12

@AIQ, Another example of overexposing: english.stackexchange.com/questions/534920/…

It's got 9 answers and 6 UV's in a single day.

OP has accepted my answer though. :p

AIQ

@DecapitatedSoul lol. I wonder why no one wrote "I am just chilling" ... that to conveys not really doing anything ... or does it not?

Decapitated Soul

Lol

Yep

I really hate when a question becomes famous like this one

AIQ

Sometimes it pisses me off that some of our great answerers write answers to some easy questions, but they don't write answers to my questions

lol

Decapitated Soul

:P

AIQ

Wait I don't understand how that question is suitable for ELU. That seems like a quesion for ELL

You don't need linguists to answer that quesion jesus

Decapitated Soul

18:22

Yesterday I asked a question, in that question, I linked a similar question that didn't answer my question,,, and some members have associated my question with that one as a duplicate

Yes

I'm going to close vote

Lol

Like wtf... they didn't even click the link in my question and Close-voted it

These days, I mostly close-vote and down-vote questions :D

Anonymous

19:36

16

Q: Why does spell sound like "|sbel|" while in dictionary it is "|spel|"?

I listened to the pronunciation of spell in Wiktionary, and it sounds to me that it's pronounced as |sbel|—it sounds to me very clearly as a b sound. But in dictionaries, such as my Mac dictionary app, they say it's pronounced |spel| with a p sound. Could anybody please give me some information ...

pronunciation listening orthography

Anonymous

Related: phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2011/04/…

Decapitated Soul

19:54

@snailplane, Thanks.

I answered that question off the cuff.

Reading gets me bored lol

Have a look at ell.stackexchange.com/a/248025/106592

The previous answers are kind of misleading

I strongly recommend reading this answer.

I refuted the previous answers in this question...

The OP told me that she couldn't unaccept the already accepted answer because it was kind of... um. .what to say ...

But she offered a bounty

Gave me 100+ bounty

userr2684291

21:09

@DecapitatedSoul Things kinda clicked for me towards the end of StoneyB's answer.

Decapitated Soul

:P

You mean... the answer about 'gn'? @userr2684291

userr2684291

@DecapitatedSoul Yes.

Decapitated Soul

No offence but the etymological answer is nonsensical.

I have explained it thoroughly in my answer in ELU.

8

A: Is there an etymological explanation for the silent ‘g’ in “paradigm”?

General overview: Title: Is there an etymological explanation for the silent ‘g’ in “paradigm”? Word pairs like 'science-conscience', 'sense-nonsense', 'sign-signature', 'paradigm-paradigmatic' have sometimes different pronunciations from each other. They're 'English' words then why do we n...

Read the 'General Overview' of my answer.

userr2684291

It was a pun.

Decapitated Soul

Lol

I was just touching the topic

Read this answer on Quora

And then read mine

userr2684291

21:14

But you're obviously wrong. Listen to how GNU is pronounced here: youtube.com/watch?v=kb2T8hWRu8g

Decapitated Soul

I'm obviously wrong.... Lol

No

He's pronouncing it as /g(vowel)nu/

No IPA atm

You cannot pronounce nasal right after plosive

Or try it..

userr2684291

):

Decapitated Soul

Try saying /gn/

userr2684291

I just did it.

Decapitated Soul

You'll pronounce it something like /g(ə)n/

There must be a vowel

Weak but it must be there

userr2684291

21:17

Wait, those parentheses don't denote optionality?

Decapitated Soul

No

It's weaker than the one without parenthesis

userr2684291

I didn't know that.

Decapitated Soul

:)

/gn/ is not allowed in English

M.A.R.

Genau

Decapitated Soul

You can pronounce /g(ə)n/ but you cannot pronounce /gn/

@userr2684291, Try saying 'fast'

M.A.R.

21:19

Decapitated Soul

You'll be able to pronounce /st/ very easily

Then say /design/ with g and n sound respectively

M.A.R.

Ignore the typo, mine are not as high quality as Cowp's

@DecapitatedSoul if I had discussed the origin of everything, I would have reached a conclusion by now

Decapitated Soul

lmao

userr2684291

@M.A.R. Reminds me of a henway I bought the other day.

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 it's called Beth?

userr2684291

21:26

@M.A.R. Something like that.

M.A.R.

Decapitated Soul

0

A: Why's 'Cellar door' the most beautiful English word/ phrase?

Why is 'Cellar door' the most beautiful word in English? It's because of sound symbolism or phonesthetics. Phonesthetics is the study of beauty and pleasantness associated with the sounds of certain words or parts of words. Speech sounds have many aesthetic qualities, some of which are subjectiv...

userr2684291

Maybe to native speakers of English. Not into BrE (RP) myself. Idk why. I like the way cellar and door sound in AmE (GA) separately.

I suppose RP is too posh (and everything associated with that) to me. I mean obviously I can stand it, it's just not my favorite. AuE, on the other hand, is pretty neat.

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