English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

4:02 PM

I should take this opportunity to mention that I'm not an expert. I studied visual cognition in macaques and Parkinson's patients.

Grace Note

@Kit I do not know the former, but I still trust your word anyway. You had to do some general studying before you did a focus, after all, neh?

Cerberus

Monkeys? Impressive!

I like monkeys.

Kit

@GraceNote Yes, indeedy. I have quite a lot of background in neurobiology and psychology both.

@Cerberus Yeah. Monkeys. You wouldn't like them so much if you had to work with them, but they are much better to work with than mice and rats.

jcolebrand

@MrDisappointment this isn't even a busy room ;) You should see some of the others I know

Cerberus

@Kit Or men.

Kit

4:09 PM

@jcolebrand What's your neuro background?

Cerberus

Who said this room was busy?

Kit

@Cerberus Men are miles better to work with than either monkeys or women.

jcolebrand

@GraceNote I have experienced this before ...

@Kit only that of having psycho females in my life, and being an avid reader, and knowing a helluva lot more about stuff than I should have knowledge of. This can make for a disconcerting life at times ;)

Cerberus

@Kit Really? Well... I suppose it depends on what you're doing to them.

Grace Note

@jcolebrand Well, you did research, didn't you? Or did I misread you at one point?

jcolebrand

4:11 PM

@GraceNote You may have misread me then. I have only done armchair research, at best.

Kit

@Cerberus 'Struth. Just generally. Women are all crazy.

Grace Note

(Also I didn't know about the first part of that background)

@jcolebrand Hm. Your interest at that earlier point seemed to convey it, but I can accept that I attached deeper meaning to simpler circumstances.

jcolebrand

However, experience often trumps research, in that I've had people who have had true psychotic issues who have had hallucinations both chemically derived and natural.

aedia

Who usually prunes our tags? @JSBangs? definite-article indefinite-article articles are like, all used at once on bunches of questions like this. So many tags for such little words.

jcolebrand

@aedia your mods, or the dev team.

Cerberus

4:13 PM

@aedia JSBangs was driven away with Kosmonaut.

Both are dearly missed.

Kit

@Cerberus He's back today.

aedia

He just stopped back though.

Cerberus

Really!

That is good.

Kit

And @aedia, he does do a lot of tag work.

aedia

I was hoping he might stay.

Grace Note

4:14 PM

@Cerberus JSB... oh, I'm not going to say it if it's been done twice

Cerberus

But I don't expect him to pick up his work again... do you?

Kit

@Cerberus He said he was just taking a break from EL&U for a while.

@Cerberus Dunno.

aedia

@Kit I thought he was the one who was an experienced retagger.

Cerberus

@Kit Yeah that's what I thought.

@aedia He was our tag man.

Grace Note

Having seen him on other sites, he does seem the tagging type

Kit

4:15 PM

@aedia This is what I'm saying.

Cerberus

Noöne else could find the motivation.

But he cared about order.

Incidentally, why has everyone been speaking English for the past hour?

This isn't the incomprehensible room for nothing!

Robusto will do something about that.

aedia

@Cerberus Yo no sé.

Cerberus

Muchos gracias.

Pero no hablo Espagnol.

Kit

Parceque il y a longtemps que je parlais francais, et je ne sais pas ou my ASCII chart is.

Cerberus

Ah, très bien!

Kit

4:19 PM

And I will not speak French at work et ni anywhere else non plus.

Cerberus

Mais pourquoi pas?

Kit

(which is the bastardization of a very sad poem about Acadians.)

aedia

@Cerberus Y yo no hablo holandés, pero he aprendido un poquito :)

Cerberus

Ton Français est plus fort que le mien.

@Kit Quoi? What is that about?

Kit

@Cerberus Vraiment? Peut-etre parceque j'habite l'etat ou il y a beaucoup de francophones.

Cerberus

4:21 PM

@aedia Und es freute mich sehr, auf Holländisch gegrüßt zu werden!

Kit

@Cerberus Lemme see if I can find it.

Robusto

0

Q: What is an expert?

This article made me think of what im actually supposed to think of an expert for ... When can/should i introduce somebody as an expert? Definitions in dictionaries dont show much accordance to me. Professional experience, academic grades, should you use it only for academics at all? Your answe...

Cerberus

@Kit Still good... we have a lot of Frencies here as well.

Robusto

There's no way to answer this definitively.

Kit

说中文吗？

aedia

4:25 PM

@Robusto Alot of credibility, to the rescue!

Kit

@Cerberus I can't find it online, and I'm not sure if I have it anywhere at home. And I don't remember the title either.

Cerberus

@Robusto Unfit, but hard to pick a close reason. Just not interesting...

Kit

My brother might remember; he was the one who gave it to me.

Cerberus

OK...

Kit

@Cerberus Not constructive?

Cerberus

4:26 PM

Hmm... he specifically asks for objective criteria... I dunno.

Grace Note

It seems some parts too broad, some parts not quite on-topic.

aedia

@Cerberus Und jetzt hatte ich zu betrügen und die Verwendung von Google, das zu sagen. Ich hoffe, es ist Worten.

Grace Note

From the latter perspective, certainly the definition of an expert is a matter of the English language, but when you extend past that towards what exactly the measure of criteria is, that seems a bit past that point. From my viewpoint, at least.

Cerberus

@aedia Haha, I see anglicisms...

z7sg

Drat! Where are all the ELU Russians?

simchona

4:40 PM

-4

Q: Synonyms for the word "SPAM" as defined by Monty Python sketch?

Youtube "Monty Python Spam" if you have no historical understanding of the issue. Spam means something that does not help communication, not just "spam emails". Now instead of getting into fights of using it too often, I want to know synonyms for it. For some reason, this word is not well underst...

synonyms

You are all DISCRIMINATING against MONTY PYTHON

z7sg

Now I need them they... aha!

Grace Note

Oh hohum, hi @simchona

simchona

g'morning ^^

Cerberus

Morning!

Kit

@simchona What? Don't be ridiculous!

We're discriminating against a user that asks crappy questions because they are too young to know that Spam was canned meat until recently.

And yet has the temerity to say "Youtube "Monty Python Spam" if you have no historical understanding of the issue."

aedia

4:43 PM

@Kit psst I think simchona is joking

Grace Note

Temerity... after I look that up, I have to see about incorporating that into my vocabulary.

aedia

@simchona "Help, help, I'm being repressed!"

Kit

That question ought to be deleted.

simchona

@aedia: Yup. I forgot to add my sarcasm

@Kit His other questions are all at negative votes too

z7sg

@aedia Bloody Peasant!

Kit

4:49 PM

@simchona All of them?

simchona

@Kit All but one maybe?

Grace Note

@Kit All of the visible ones (minus one)

Kit

@simchona One out of five ain't bad.

simchona

hhh

95 5

business-language synonyms programming narration

One is at +4, the other four are at -3 to -5

Grace Note

Hm...

Cerberus

4:51 PM

Buwaha, which browser do you think scores worst in a Javascript test, by far?

Sorry, that wasn't nice.

Opera: 259 ms.

FF: 270 ms.

Chrome: 300 ms.

Is this an anomaly?

simchona

another of hhh's questions just got closed

Kit

@Cer I don't know what you are talking about.

@simchona I've never seen a user with negative rep before.

And pretty much all within a day.

simchona

Well, off to work

Cerberus

@Kit Chrome is always said to be the fastest browser around, and yet it performs worst in this Javascript speed test.

Grace Note

@Kit Stops at 1, can't go below 1

Kit

4:56 PM

@GraceNote Sorry. Context-less. I mean in rep change when you look in the user bin.

Grace Note

@Kit Ooh, there. Aye, that is possible.

It's worse seeing it on the month or quarterly ones.

Kit

@Cerberus Oh, I see.

drm65

5:19 PM

0

Q: What is a word for the relationship between "waning" and "un-waning"?

In a recent question, an antonym for waning was requested. Waxing was naturally suggested, but the OP declined the word because he was actually looking for a word meaning un-waning, and thought that "antonym" was the word to describe his request. The difference is: waxing means getting stronger...

single-word-requests

Do any of you have input here?

Any of you gurus?

Kit

What kind of input?

@waiwai933 I think the fish question is a dupe, and not exactly a gen ref.

Both plurals are acceptable and there is a question somewhere that explains which is appropriate when.

Grace Note

Ooh, now I understand what that question is asking.

JSBangs

aw, you guys were saying such nice things about me earlier

waiwai933

@Kit en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fish#Noun <-- Explained clearly; how is that not gen. ref?

JSBangs

@aedia anyway, i think there's a case to be made for all three tags

drm65

5:25 PM

@Kit I remember that question too.

I couldn't find it though

Kit

@waiwai933 I understand that, but I think there was a question that explained the differences as well. (Which also explained why it wasn't just gen ref)

JSBangs

@aedia the definite article and the indefinite article are different things

drm65

@Kit Words, numbers, fire, comments, answers, whatever you feel like doing...

JSBangs

of course, having those and also having articles is potentially redundant

Grace Note

@JSBangs But here's the catch - is there an important enough distinction to warrant separate tags for them?

In the scope of how the site can grow, is there value in keeping the questions about definite articles and indefinite articles separate on the tag level? Or is it more than sufficient to contain both of them within a singular articles tag?

Kit

5:27 PM

@drm65 I am tempted to close for peeving. ;-)

JSBangs

@GraceNote point taken. and since there are only three articles in english, you might as well just tag them a an, and the

or [tag:a(n)] and the

Grace Note

@Kit Could I get an explanation of what "peeving" is?

waiwai933

@Kit Well, if you can find it, you can link it. Google, however, can't seem to find it.

JSBangs

a+an maybe?

drm65

@Kit I have no motive for peeving - I got 4 upvotes and an accept.

Kit

5:29 PM

@waiwai933 I think your comment is nice, and will suffice. I am already tired of looking.

JSBangs

@GraceNote well, i'll put it up to the community

english.stackexchange.com/tags/articles/synonyms

Kit

@drm65 Hence the wink. But a wink's as good as a nod to a blind man. ☺

JSBangs

^ vote here if you think they should be merged

@Kit, you betweened me

Kit

@JSBangs Sorry!

@GraceNote Complaining about pet peeves, with use extended into just plain bitchery and ranting.

At least as far as I understand the term.

Grace Note

@Kit Ah, gotcha.

JSBangs

5:31 PM

on further thought, i think that we should definitely merge with articles. so i encourage people to vote for the synonyms above

Kit

@drm65 Oh, right. I was one of those upvotes.

JSBangs

this after i looked at the questions for indefinite-article, and over half of them are duplicates of a basic a/an question. there don't seem to be enough indefinite-article questions to support its own tag, which means it should go away, which probably means that definite-article should also go away

aedia

Huhwhamorecoffee?

Grace Note

Alas, I cannot vote

simchona

@GraceNote Neither can I

JSBangs

5:35 PM

hi, @simoncha. your chat avatar is the only one that might, MIGHT be cuter than @Kit's

simchona

@JSBangs Thank you ^^

I do like fennec foxes, though...

aedia

Hi @JSB! I can't vote for tag synonyms either quite yet :(

MrHen

@JSBangs: Oh, hey, since you are back and all I am more than willing to help you in any of your cleanup/retagging projects.

Just ping me and let me know :)

Kit

@JSBangs I'm not cute. I'm ferocious! yip!

JSBangs

@MrHen you can start by voting here: english.stackexchange.com/tags/articles/synonyms

simchona

5:37 PM

@JSBangs I'll just take the "cute" description then

JSBangs

@Kit aw, that's adorable

drm65

I can vote! Which way, hmmm....

UP for both.

Mr. Disappointment

@drm65 Howdy! I understand I may have disappointed you earlier?

MrHen

@JSBangs Mmk. How does this work? If I vote up for definite-article, does that mean I want to see definite-article disappear?

Kit

I don't understand what I'm supposed to do.

JSBangs

5:38 PM

@MrHen it means that you think that definite-article should become a synonym of articles

Kit

Thanks.

JSBangs

which means that definite-article effectively disappears, since everything tagged with that gets swept together with articles

MrHen

Got it. It looks like I don't have the required votes on the relevant tags though :P

Kit

How can I not be qualified to vote on these tags?

Ridiculous!

drm65

@MrDisappointment Indeed

@Kit Yes. It is.

Mr. Disappointment

5:41 PM

@drm65 Well, I didn't intend to provoke answer deletion; I simply wished to share a view in order to give a wider perspective to any readers.

Kit

Weird! I haven't a single answer tagged with articles or its variants.

Hang on, I'll retag something, vote, and then un-tag it.

drm65

@MrDisappointment Well, if you're right, my answer's not worth putting up.

@Kit :-$

JSBangs

@Kit i don't think that'll work

unfortunately

Kit

Rats.

drm65

@JSBangs How do you know?

Kit

5:44 PM

And I was all gungho about breaking the rules so obviously and everything.

^ sardonic

Mr. Disappointment

@drm65 If I am right, then perhaps; but if you have confidence in your input then let the community decide that .

As it happens, I may not always make myself perfectly clear, but I am, in fact, always absolutely right.

2

JSBangs

@drm65 you have to have ~50 rep IIRC, and in any case tag-specific rep isn't recalc'd that often

Grace Note

@JSBangs In most scenarios it is only calculated once a day, in fact

JSBangs

3

Q: Fish fish fish ...

I have seen that buffalo buffalo... has been posted here before. However some sites claim also that the sentence Fish fish fish fish fish fish fish. makes sense. Can someone confirm and explain?

sentence syntax

i hate this question. can we please come up with a pretext to kill it?

Grace Note

Wasn't there just a discussion about that being either gen ref or a dupe?

waiwai933

5:49 PM

No, that was a different fish question.

aedia

@JSBangs I missed you so much.

Grace Note

Oh. Too many fish.

Mr. Disappointment

It's a great example of a highly contrived question. It doesn't belong.

JSBangs

@aedia man, i should leave more often. when i come back there's just so much love

Kit

@Jasper Hello!

Grace Note

5:51 PM

@JSBangs There are numerous proverbs about how no one understands the value of something until it is truly lost.

Kit

@JSBangs I love you too!

JSBangs

kisses for everybody!

Kit

Hooray!

wags tail

aedia

We closed this one as a dupe:

0

Q: Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo

Possible Duplicate: Awkward sounding but grammatically correct sentences? Why is the following statement valid, and how can I break it down so that it is easier to understand? Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo