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02:00 - 19:0019:00 - 23:00

Anonymous
19:00
Quoting a single sentence out of context doesn't really help illustrate the concept, either
I'm not sure, but I think the definition of "GRAMMAR" in that edition doesn't say anything about "topic sentence".
Though it says "exposition".
Anonymous
The quote on the right is supposed to be an illustration of a topic sentence.
Anonymous
It could equally have been about chicken farming
user116848
'More chickens in the world then people'.
user116848
19:04
I have heard that a thousands time.
Ahh... I see it now. It's a demonstration, not the name of a section.
user116848
In documentaries etc.
user116848
David Attenborough
I think we are outnumbered by a lot of living things!
Bees, specially.
And ants!
<3
19:06
Speaking of which, I remember that I've heard fishery might not last very long.
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. Yes, it's distracting because 1. it doesn't illustrate the idea of a topic sentence very well and 2. it looks like it might actually be related
Anonymous
Because the article claims that it's about grammar, though it doesn't explain how
Anonymous
To illustrate a topic sentence, they should show an entire paragraph and highlight the topic sentence, showing its relationship to the rest of the paragraph
Anonymous
The sentence should probably be well written present-day English, not that blurb from a hundred years ago
Your suggestion is much better.
@JersonZuleta And mosquitoes!
Anonymous
19:09
Ants are scary.
Anonymous
We need more bees. We need less ants.
I think ants over there are bigger than ants around here.
Black ants look friendlier than red ants, too.
Anonymous
Ants here are actually mostly pretty small.
@snailboat Oh! But scary?
Anonymous
19:10
@DamkerngT. An individual ant isn't scary.
Anonymous
Billions and billions of ants are scary.
nods
I think we don't have that many ants here. Or at least, not that many in the same place.
@snailboat How? Bees are scarier if you ask me.
Have you seen bees killing a giant hornet?
Fascinating.
Anonymous
@JersonZuleta There are more ants. And they're more organized.
@JersonZuleta I have bees in my house!
Anonymous
19:12
On an individual scale, I'm significantly more afraid of bees, wasps, hornets, and the like than ants
Anonymous
An individual ant doesn't frighten me. I'll go out of my way to avoid a hornet, though
Anonymous
But there's a lot of ants in the world.
I've also had a wasp nest around my house a couple of times!
I really love bees. Wish they were domestic somehow.
@JersonZuleta If domestic means relating to people's homes, my bees definitely are domestic, but they aren't domesticated!
Anonymous
19:16
I think that domestic animal usually means "an animal that has been domesticated"
Thought both had the same meaning.
Anonymous
I think that in this context they do
Anonymous
Of course, domestic has other meanings in other contexts.
Perhaps rats are domestic animals that haven't been domesticated?
I just meant "in my house" by domestic.
Anonymous
19:17
domestic, adj.: 3. Tame or domesticated. Used of animals.
Anonymous
@JersonZuleta Domesticated rats are very intelligent and make adorable pets :-)
My bees are a domestic issue, to put it another way.
Anonymous
Domestic rat usually refers to domesticated rats
@snailboat Well, to be honest depends on what rat. I am not afraid of them and don't hate on them like my sister does; but I'm more fond of rats used in laboratory rather than the rats you find in drains.
That's a nice rat, indeed!
Anonymous
19:20
@JersonZuleta The latter are probably not domestic rats.
Anonymous
Rats are quite intelligent, though, domesticated or no.
@snailboat Some homeless domesticate them, though.
Have you seen genetically modified rats? More intelligent, stronger and faster!
user116848
Anonymous
A twist ending!
user116848
haha
user116848
19:26
Yes, it is.
user116848
Topaz is a silicate mineral of aluminium and fluorine with the chemical formula Al2SiO4(F,OH)2. Topaz crystallizes in the orthorhombic system, and its crystals are mostly prismatic terminated by pyramidal and other faces. == Color and varieties == Pure topaz is colorless and transparent but is usually tinted by impurities; typical topaz is wine, yellow, pale gray, reddish-orange, or blue brown. It can also be made white, pale green, blue, gold, pink (rare), reddish-yellow or opaque to transparent/translucent. Orange topaz, also known as precious topaz, is the traditional November birthstone, the...
I've always wondered why do singers like to use bad grammar?
@Arrowfar Nice story!
user116848
@DamkerngT. Thanks! :D
I'm not sure which zodiac sign is associated with topaz.
user116848
19:31
@JersonZuleta Maybe because it makes the rhythm!
Anonymous
@JersonZuleta Got an example handy?
Often the use of do with the third person.
user116848
@DamkerngT. Some someone might ask: what was the princess doing in the Antarctica anyways in the BC era? :-)
I've tried replacing it for does and in some songs and the song keeps its rhythm.
Anonymous
@JersonZuleta Do you have an example of that?
19:34
@Arrowfar She might went their to find another topaz?
Anonymous
It could well be an example of a non-standard dialect rather than ungrammaticality
user116848
@DamkerngT. haha Could be.
"Cause we're just under the upper hand
And go mad for a couple grams
And she don't want to go outside tonight"
The A Team by Ed Sheeran.
That confirms @snailboat's hunch :)
Anonymous
@Arrowfar It's either "Antarctica" or "the Antarctic". You appear to have blended the two
user116848
19:43
@snailboat Oh, thanks. I'll correct it :-)
20:02
> 1:00
And you're wondering if you made a mistake, and if maybe you should change the baby's name.
Should you change it, have you saddled this baby with a name that--it's just gonna be a problem for the rest of baby's life.
That's right. That's the baby gonna hate you even more than she does.
Wow. I know what you're talking about. We found that this discussion on the site askmetafilter [ph]. (Uh-huh) And it's really interesing. A lot of discussion we posted to our Facebook pages, and Facebook group as well. And everybody came out. Some people said, "Yeah, that's a difficult name and you sho
I really dislike my name.
So, the problem was about these another people's, I think.
> Some people said, "Yeah, that's a difficult name and you should consider something new." Another people said, "I named my daughter that, and she's wonderful." (Uh-huh. Right.) Another people said, "My Waterford Crystal [ph] has that name."
@JersonZuleta Is your account name your real name?
@DamkerngT. Yes. Though I began using Nicholas since it's the name I want. I'll probably change it when I get the money to do so.
I thought you could change your name without the money got involved!
Anyway, Jerson sounds quite nice to me.
Bureaucracy is a pain in the ass here.
It's not a common name, and I often get tired of people mispronouncing it or calling me Jefferson simply because they couldn't remember Jerson was my name.
Anonymous
20:15
@DamkerngT. What's [ph]?
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. Oh! That's ungrammatical
Anonymous
I think. Is it okay in some dialects, then?
I usually note the sounds I'm not really sure with [ph]. (from phone or sound)
Anonymous
The sound in phone is [f]
No, I mean I wasn't sure about "Waterford Crystal".
Anonymous
20:18
@DamkerngT. You left out the before baby's life
@snailboat Ah, I think so. It was just a rough transcription.
Anonymous
Oh, okay
Anonymous
I'll skip the other stuff then and go straight to people
Anonymous
And other people said...
That's what I wondered, too. Though I repeated this part a few times, and I remember I couldn't hear the /d/ sound.
Anonymous
20:21
Oh, that's okay. They don't have to pronounce the /d/
Oh! (Because And other people would make more sense.)
@snailboat This is the answer our OP is looking for, I think!
Anonymous
You'll occasionally see people spell it an' to indicate a pronunciation without a /d/, but usually it's written and regardless of whether the /d/ is there
Anonymous
Or even 'n'
Anonymous
And is very easily reduced
Anonymous
20:23
Like most unstressed function words
I expected it to be reduced more than that if the /d/ sound wasn't there.
But I trust you that this is normal.
Anonymous
I hear and
Anonymous
If I pay attention, I notice the /d/ isn't there
Anonymous
But if I don't pay attention, I just hear and :-)
20:24
LOL
I heard And other people first.
But I remember the OP said, another, so I repeated it again, and again.
And the best I could tell was there was no /d/.
Maybe writing it as an'other people might make sense.
Hmm... probably not a good idea.
Anonymous
No
Anonymous
An' would have to have a space after it
Ahh... That's why it looks weird, I think.
an' other people
Oh, this one doesn't look as weird.
Anonymous
It would normally be written and in any case. You can write an' if you make it clear why you're drawing attention to the pronunciation
Anonymous
But the default assumption is that the writer is trying to portray the dialogue as nonstandard or uneducated
20:28
nods
Anonymous
Eye dialect is often used for exactly that reason―even examples like wuz, which indicate the pronunciation everyone normally uses
Anonymous
They carry that connotation
nods
Going with IPA is probably safer.
Anonymous
I'm not sure if there's any distinction between another and and other in pronunciation here
Anonymous
There might be very small cues
Anonymous
20:34
Sometimes there are, even when there's no real phonemic distinction
Anonymous
I don't hear any
Anonymous
I think that it's just understandable from context as one or the other
@snailboat nods -- I think the context made me think of And other people at first. But when I focused on their pronunciation, I heard just Another people.
I'm still not sure about "My Waterford Crystal", either.
Anonymous
Oh!
Anonymous
I didn't listen to that part
20:38
It's just after the second "And other people said".
I suspect that it might be a brand name. :-)
Anonymous
I'm not familiar with Waterford Crystal, but it sounds right
Anonymous
It does appear to be
Anonymous
Waterford Crystal is a manufacturer of crystal. It is named after the city of Waterford, Ireland. Waterford Crystal is owned by WWRD Holdings Ltd, a luxury goods group which also owns and operates the Wedgwood and Royal Doulton brands. In January 2009 its Waterford base was closed down due to the bankruptcy of the Wedgwood Group. After several difficulties and takeovers, it re-emerged later that year. In June 2010, Waterford Crystal relocated almost back to its original roots, on The Mall in Waterford City. This new location is now home to a manufacturing facility that melts over 750 tonnes of...
Oh!
I hope you will write up a short answer for the question. :-)
Anonymous
Aww, I thought you were doing it :-)
20:46
I guess I can take our learner only as far as about 60-70%, while you can take them all the way home. :-)
21:01
+1!
Anonymous
Hehe, thanks, I wrote it on my phone :-)
Anonymous
I'm multitasking!
You're very good at multitasking!
Anonymous
Walking in place on a treadmill isn't terribly demanding in terms of cognitive load
21:06
I had a hunch that it might be related to listening, so I went hunting for the clip for a bit. It wasn't that easy to find, because it's not on their main site!
@snailboat Oh, you're on a treadmill! And I'm a little drowsy!
Anonymous
I'm linking to that for my own sake so I can copy it
Their main site is here: waywordradio.org. Somehow the episode in question isn't there.
21:33
What happens when ELL graduates?
It will get its own design, I think.
& that's all?
Anonymous
Moderators will be elected, it'll get its own design, some other minor stuff
Anonymous
Mostly it'll be the same as it is now
Anonymous
Because of an arbitrary limitation in the code, migration paths can only be set up to non-beta sites
21:36
Oh, and how long has it been ever since it could graduate? I was going through the meta posts and saw that the statistics show good chances of it graduating.
Anonymous
So a migration path from ELU to ELL will finally be possible
Anonymous
@JersonZuleta Probably sometime in early 2013.
@snailboat So right now the questions must be deleted from say ELU and then reasked on ELL?
Anonymous
Moderators can migrate them, but only moderators.
Anonymous
After graduation, it'll be possible to set up a "migration path" so regular users can pick "This question belongs on ELL" as a close reason
21:38
Oh, got it!
Anonymous
The bottleneck isn't ELL itself, it's SE's designer
Anonymous
SE is graduating sites very, very slowly
Anonymous
It's creating sites much, much faster than it's graduating them
Anonymous
Originally betas only lasted 90 days
Anonymous
Now they can last 3 or 4 years
Anonymous
21:39
ELL's already in the graduation queue
Anonymous
We don't have to do anything except wait for SE's designer to come up with a theme
Also, I was intrigued by a question on another meta site asking how can we prevent from people posting answers along the lines of "me too", "Here in XXX we use ... " and such—— but then I saw in the ELU site a question can be protected by a moderator? So why don't they do it.
Anonymous
I'd say give it 6-12 months
@snailboat That's really disappointing.
Anonymous
Not just moderators. Any high-rep user can do it
Anonymous
3500 reputation on beta sites, 15000 reputation on graduated sites
Anonymous
Oh, that's another thing. The reputation requirements for various things will go up.
Anonymous
That's more or less arbitrary, too.
I noticed. Well, that seemed odd, since the user who asked had around 2500 reputation, I assumed he should know but that was just a guess.
Anonymous
Community will automatically protect a question when it meets certain criteria.
Anonymous
21:42
Most of the time, there's no need to protect a question if those criteria aren't met.
Anonymous
There's no need to discourage new users from answering, generally speaking
Anonymous
It's a safety valve to prevent lots of bad answers from piling on when a particular question invites lots of that sort of thing.
It was related to how can you translate an idiomatic expression to another language. The question was getting too many "In X country we say..." and then there were answers with "Yeah but in this same X country you can change this and it'll mean the same." and so on.
Anonymous
I've noticed a lot of people on SE say "mean the same" when I'd say "mean the same thing"
Strictly speaking?
 
1 hour later…
Anonymous
22:47
It just sounds better to me.
Anonymous
Corpora seem to back up my intuition, but I seem to recall some of the people who say it without thing are native speakers
02:00 - 19:0019:00 - 23:00

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