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Damkerng T.

08:53

> As soon as they had had enough to eat and drink they wanted music and dancing, which are the crowning embellishments of a banquet, so a servant brought a lyre to Phemius, whom they compelled perforce to sing to them.

I upvoted this one because to learners, Engish have can be used to mean eat, and to can be used to suggest whatever yet to come.

So the phrase "they had had enough to eat and drink" could be ambiguous.

2 hours later…

GATA

10:38

Hi all :) could someone please help me to say this correctly : "Smooth and soft cheek is a bold characteristic/feature of a female portrait, which differentiate/separate/distinguish them from male's."

Damkerng T.

Hmm... I wouldn't use bold there. Maybe obvious or prominent.

I think either characteristic or feature is fine.

I think "which differentiates/distinguishes such a portrait from male's ones" is better.

I'm not sure about using Smooth and soft cheek as a mass noun. Probably okay.

GATA

@DamkerngT. As always Thank you :) My last question, would you please explain why you have replaced "them" with "such a portrait".

Damkerng T.

At first, I though it'd be better to replace them with it. But then I felt that it sounded a little too terse.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Smooth and soft cheeks are

Damkerng T.

@snailboat That's definitely better. Oh, it also gets along with them in the original version quite well.

GATA

10:50

So it would be vague if I say "it" becouse it wont be clear to what I am referring.

Damkerng T.

nods -- I think that was what I felt too. (What is it? Is it the feature or the portrait?)

GATA

I got it. Many thanks :) you were great help

I was struggling for half an hour to write that sentence:)

1 hour later…

Anonymous

11:58

Q: What does this strange sentence mean?

To have had enough to eat would have been to have reached paradise at once. Source Does this mean, "If they had had enough to eat, it would be like they had reached paradise at once?"

meaning

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. This is another [To X] is [to Y] sentence like my example the other day :-)

Anonymous

But, y'know, with more auxiliaries and an adjunct

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Ah, yes. I also wish that our answerers would've mentioned backshifting.

I think we shouldn't swap X and Y (at least in this sentence).

Anonymous

Hmm. Can you think of an example of [to X] is [to Y] where swapping X with Y makes sense? I can't, off the top of my head

Anonymous

→ 2 messages moved to Japanese Language

Nico

12:09

> To live is to love

> To love is to live

Anonymous

@Nico Do you think those have the same meaning?

Nico

I agree this is only possible becuase of the abstract nouns

@snailboat Logically not, but poetically yes.

> To add up a number with itself is to double the number

How about that?

Damkerng T.

Ahh... It's a definition!

Anonymous

12:28

> To add a number to itself is to double the number
> To double a number is to add the number to itself

Anonymous

Hmm. Can we go all the way to a on both sides? :-)

Anonymous

> To add a number to itself is to double a number
> To double a number is to add a number to itself

jimsug

Hmm. That's interesting, because logically there's no difference.

Semantically, a slight difference can be coerced.

2 hours later…

user8153

14:22

@StoneyB Hello

I have questions about a single paragraph

StoneyB

15:17

@user8153 Hi. Shoot!

Damkerng T.

The guy is gone. I think what they wanted to ask was Faulkner's quote. ell.stackexchange.com/questions/27814/….

Hello @StoneyB.

Interesting...

> They served the coffee blindfolded.

> They served the coffee cold.

> They served the coffee here.

Anonymous

16:15

Anonymous

I saw this on an envelope today.

Anonymous

Really? "Generate positive"?

Anonymous

I wonder if this slogan is patterned after Think Different (which I find rather more acceptable than Generate Positive)

Fantasier

I think "positive" seems to have a different function.

What I think -> Think Different(ly) ~ Generate (things that are) Positive

Damkerng T.

An adaptation of "Think Positive"?

Anonymous

16:44

@Fantasier It must.

Anonymous

@Fantasier I don't see any opportunity for that ellipsis, though

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Also possible. Think positive is a fine phrase.

Fantasier

Hmm

Anonymous

You have to be careful positing ellipted strings like that. You can make anything possible or meaningful if you allow ellipsis without restriction

Anonymous

itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003144.html

Anonymous

16:52

itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004231.html

Fantasier

Oh, Thanks!

Damkerng T.

The first one is easy to read. I saved the latter for later. :D

4 hours later…

jinawee

20:48

Hi, could someone identify this accent:

►

Damkerng T.

21:02

One of the hosts is BrE and the other is AmE, I think. There are a few other variants (probably faked by the hosts), too.

Anonymous

Where are the variants?

Damkerng T.

For example, at 1:33.

I think it's rather obvious that he tried to make the accent thicker.

Another explanation could be he tried to impersonate someone else.

Anonymous

Oh, you must be more attentive than me

Damkerng T.

I think I didn't. :)

I think I paid less attention that I should have, actually. I probably read them wrong.

ClickRick

22:04

0:23 "republic" is said with a hint of what I'd call "northern" - generic rather than specific

and it gets progressively more distinct - at the risk of sparking a civil war I might venture Lancashire rather than Yorkshire

Damkerng T.

22:16

Interesting... (and thanks!)

I'm still curious about what he said after monarchy at 7:52.

(Between monarchy and you)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. "And so to finish off, I can't help but wonder if your citizenship of two countries that have cast off the negative influence of our monarchy means you can emotionally detach yourself from the philosophical oppression that being a subject rather than a citizen entails."

Damkerng T.

That's what I was curious about. I couldn't hear his /s/. :)

(It sounds more like a /t/. A funny /t/. Something usually happens in words like "gotcha", "betcha", "at you", etc.)

user8153

22:32

@StoneyB Praise God that whatever made and loves and pities Hemingway and me kept him from touching it any further.

I thought that Faulkner was saying that Hemingway had discovered God and it was just as well that he hadn't gone much further than that; to get to know more, to see him more, would have ruined his work...this subtlety was good.