English Language Learners

Damkerng T.

08:00

It's a cute sheep, but this year is a goat year!

Anonymous

Oh, that's a neat 未!

Anonymous

The animal is 羊, but the special character 未 is associated with the year of the goat/sheep

Damkerng T.

Oh, the two characters look the same to me at first glance!

Anonymous

If you practice writing them, you won't mix them up! :-)

Anonymous

In Japanese, they would both be read ひつじ

Anonymous

08:03

Although in normal contexts, only 羊 would be read that way

Anonymous

This is a special context where 未 can also be read that way

Damkerng T.

I guess that the characters could be used for both sheep and goat.

Anonymous

In Japanese, 謹賀新年 is most often used on New Year's cards, and people say あけおめ or あけましておめでとう（ございます） etc.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Well, ひつじ is sheep

Anonymous

Goat is ヤギ

Anonymous

08:05

I don't really know how to explain the discrepancies in animals for these things

Anonymous

But in Japanese it's literally the year of the sheep

Anonymous

Often called "The Ram" in English

Anonymous

So a picture of a sheep is actually appropriate :-)

Damkerng T.

Ahh... Now I'm not sure where this sheep or goat year is from. I thought it was Chinese, but maybe it wasn't.

@snailboat The sheep is also cute. :D

Anonymous

I think that in Japanese, 羊 is specifically sheep

Anonymous

08:07

But in the Chinese it's from, 羊 is maybe slightly more general

Damkerng T.

Well then, Happy Sheep Year!

Anonymous

So like, if you look up 绵羊 or 山羊

Anonymous

You'll see that sheep and goat are actually more specific types of 羊

Anonymous

But my Chinese isn't really good, so don't be surprised if I've botched something in the explanation there :-)

Damkerng T.

Ah, the goat is the mountain sheep in Chinese!

Anonymous

08:11

Or perhaps "the mountain yáng", where yáng means "superset of goat and sheep"? :-)

Anonymous

But if you call 羊 "sheep" I don't think you're far off the mark

Anonymous

It's often glossed that way

Anonymous

We have a Chinese.SE where people probably know this stuff.

Anonymous

I haven't actually used that site yet

Damkerng T.

Me either. I think I've joined the site already, though.

Anonymous

08:13

10

Q: Sheep or goat? 一只羊跑过来

In the sentence: 一只羊跑过来 Would a Chinese person typically assume this is a goat or a sheep?

Anonymous

They already discussed this point!

Anonymous

A-ha, they introduce Caprinae!

Anonymous

So perhaps we could gloss Chinese 羊 as "caprid"!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Happy Caprid Year!

Damkerng T.

:D

I think it's perhaps like asking a native English speaker if blue means rgb(227, 248, 255) or rgb(0, 0, 255). :-)

Anonymous

08:18

Well, does "water" mean hot water or lukewarm water?

Anonymous

Does ashi mean leg or foot?

Damkerng T.

Exactly my point!

CopperKettle

@DamkerngT. We have a separate word for "light blue". (0:

Anonymous

Does "brother" mean an older brother or a younger brother?

Anonymous

Does yáng mean goat or sheep?

Anonymous

08:19

Quotes, italics, quotes, nada. At least I can say I'm consistent.

CopperKettle

The sky is rarely blue in Russian, it's usually "goluboye" (light-blue)..

Damkerng T.

@snailboat It doesn't matter (according to a Chinese guy in that question). :-)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Hey, hey, I was being rhetorical! :-)

Damkerng T.

I was playing naive. :-)

Anonymous

I don't like using italics when I type pinyin because I think it can make tone marks harder to read

Damkerng T.

08:20

@CopperKettle Ah, does that mean that in Russian blue-blue and light-blue are two different words?

CopperKettle

@DamkerngT. Yes, it's usually mentioned in linguistic books

Anonymous

Japanese has a nice word, mizuiro, which literally means "water color"

Anonymous

google.co.jp/…

Damkerng T.

Oh, that sounds quite nice!

Anonymous

Sometimes I feel like it's missing from English

Anonymous

08:24

"Copywrite", eh?

Anonymous

0

Q: what dose " copywrite"mean?

"A pair of mouse ears and a big castle – these are internationally recognized symbols that mean that you are about to watch an incredible movie or are heading to the happiest place on earth. We all know Disney, and many of us have gladly watched many of their films. What makes this company so suc...

meaning-in-context

Damkerng T.

I think there is something called copywriting.

Anonymous

A-ha!

CopperKettle

Yes, there is..

Anonymous

Yes, there is!

CopperKettle

08:25

Writing commercial texts (0:

Anonymous

But, well,

Anonymous

There isn't usually a verb copywrite

Anonymous

The noun copywriting is a deverbal noun writing with the noun copy incorporated

2

Anonymous

You usually write copy

Damkerng T.

I wonder if copywriters will say they "copywrite". A-ha! "write copy" makes more sense.

Anonymous

08:26

Copywrite, fairly often, is a misspelling of copyright

Anonymous

The verb copywrite is, I think, a non-standard back-formation

Damkerng T.

Copywriting: Not to be confused with Copyright. (Wikipedia)

Anonymous

See where I said "a deverbal noun"?

Anonymous

On reflection, I'm more comfortable with "the deverbal noun"

Anonymous

But a is what came out of my brain.

Anonymous

08:33

Guess being a native speaker doesn't make me immune to mixing up articles :-)

Damkerng T.

I guess it was because you changed your mind on-the-fly.

Anonymous

I don't remember anymore.

Anonymous

Seems possible. Or it could be I meant "a deverbal noun, writing, ..."

CopperKettle

Exactly!

Anonymous

Who knows? My mind is a mystery. At least to me.

Damkerng T.

08:34

:D

CopperKettle

(0:

Anonymous

09:00

So I don't think Jim's comment telling the OP to look up copywrite is wholly warranted

Anonymous

If he tried looking it up, surely he'd find that it's in remarkably few dictionaries

Anonymous

Not in the OED, nor in Collins, nor Macmillan, nor the ODE, nor Longman

Anonymous

And there's a reason for that.

Damkerng T.

Ah, I just realize this is not true: "what dose copywrite mean here? means writing? it is from this link: expresswriters.com/dream-wish-heart-makes-disney-copywriting/…;

I checked out that link and there is not a single occurrence of copywrite.

Anonymous

Well,

Anonymous

09:06

If you assume (incorrectly) that copywriting is an inflected form of the verb copywrite, then it seems there are plenty of occurrences.

Anonymous

That's part of the OP's problem, which an answer needs to explain.

Damkerng T.

09:23

I wrote a make-do answer. :-)

Anonymous

Yay!

Anonymous

It's so weird seeing '14 on all the timestamps on activity from last year.

Anonymous

Is it really 2015?

Anonymous

I mean, 2000 is already pretty far in the future, so 2015 must be, I don't know, I guess I expect flying cars and hoverboards.

Damkerng T.

Oh, yes, I'd love to have a hoverboard. :-)

Those hoverboards in Back to the Future are so cool!

Anonymous

09:31

I think you got your wires crossed there, robot!

Anonymous

"I'd like to"

Damkerng T.

Oh, indeed!

LOL

Anonymous

Somehow addressing you as "robot" seems rude. Well, I don't mean to be rude. I just wanted to call you a robot.

Anonymous

Robot!

Anonymous

It should be a compliment. After all, robots are very advanced life forms.

Damkerng T.

09:32

I'm Mister Robotto!

Anonymous

You are the modren man?

Damkerng T.

LOL!

Anonymous

Here we go again:

Anonymous

►

Damkerng T.

:D

0

Q: The right word for search with looking over something in cursory way

I am trying to write but stumbling to find a word for the following situation. Here is line what i wrote And one more hidden reason I found, that is the greed to store these beauty of right now life as a perfect part of the picture, so that someday if I fumble picture of life what past paint...

grammar word-choice word-request vocabulary writing

Ahh... too many things to address.

Anonymous

09:46

0

Q: Grammatical role of "the hell"

I'm wondering exactly which grammatical role the word hell takes on in expressions such as Get the hell out of here Clearly, the hell in this case modifies the verb to get (get out of here quickly has a similar meaning), so I would classify it as an adverb, even though hell itself is a no...

grammar adverbial-phrase

Anonymous

A linguistics question!

Damkerng T.

Is it a discourse particle?

Anonymous

Nah, it's a phrase.

Anonymous

You can tell because you can do stuff to it and pause in the middle. "What in the bloody hell is going on here?"

Anonymous

Plus, it's a distinct construction.

Anonymous

09:50

Whatever you call it, you're going to have to give it its own rules.

Anonymous

Compare:

Anonymous

> I asked what she asked.

Anonymous

This could mean "I asked the same thing she asked" or "I asked her what question she asked"

Anonymous

But:

Anonymous

> I asked what the hell she asked.

Anonymous

09:51

This can only mean "I asked her what question she asked"

Damkerng T.

Hmm... I don't know what it is then, but I think we can remove it from the OP's sentence without losing the meaning.

Anonymous

The essential meaning would be the same.

Damkerng T.

An expletive?

Anonymous

Well, in terms of form it's a noun phrase. Hell is often called an expletive.

Anonymous

But syntactically it's a noun here. You can tell 'cause it's got a determiner.

Anonymous

09:56

(It's often an interjection.)

Anonymous

But this noun phrase, the hell, has a rather special pattern of distribution that it shares with similar phrases

Anonymous

Linguists often refer to this phrase as the hell and use it, more or less, as a stand-in for all similar phrases

Anonymous

So you can find lots of discussion if you search for "the hell"

Anonymous

swarthmore.edu/SocSci/dnapoli1/…

Damkerng T.

"Just for the hell of it" -- This time we can't remove it from the phrase!

Anonymous

09:59

True!

Anonymous

That one's fixed. You can't substitute other expletives.

Anonymous

But in the wh* the hell construction, you can.

Anonymous

gc.cuny.edu/CUNY_GC/media/CUNY-Graduate-Center/PDF/Programs/…

Anonymous

ci.nii.ac.jp/…

Anonymous

"Aggressively non-discourse-linked wh-phrase" is a bit of a mouthful, if not a brainful

Anonymous

11:49

Word of the day: nonveridical

Anonymous

Poor copywrite question.

Anonymous

I think that confused questions are a good thing.

Anonymous

Part of the reason answering questions is helpful is because the answerer can clear up the asker's confusion.

Anonymous

And dispelling their confusion provides an opportunity for other people to learn.

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