English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@aediaλ Eh, it doesn't matter.

What kind of video? Like a skit?

No, a fashion show.

12:49 AM

Hehe.

It won't be fun doing the fashion part.

Sounds fun.

But I intend to insert a few jokes here and there.

sniggers

Of course it should be! Don't you get to wear silly hats or anything?

Well, yes, actually!

Making a mockery of fashion will be fun, I suppose.

12:55 AM

starts laughing to self thinking about trash fashion from Zoolander

Oh, I heard about that movie.

►

Here it is.

Oh gosh I feel old. It's more than ten years old.

I guess the reason I feel like it came out sort of recently is that my friends and I watched it umpteen zillion times.

user19161

@Foxinsocks It is native speakers that make mistakes in punctuation as they don't learn the rules.

Oh, you're not old.

user19161

@Mahnax We are all padawans, only you are yoda.

1:00 AM

@ClarkKent Correct.

user19161

Wow, I got a record 275 rep yesterday!

pats Jasper's head, gives cookie

Nice!

Sweet!

My best ever is 228.

I haven't any idea what my best is, but not that good!

There was a reason that I had like five windows open. Hmm. What was I doing again?

1:18 AM

Your best is 190, @aedia.

Unless I missed something, that is.

I would have another cup of coffee if it wasn't so late. looks longingly at empty desk spot

@Mahnax Ooh, there's like, a place to look for that?

@aediaλ I just looked through all your reputation pages, and 190 was the highest I saw.

Ah.

And your lack of the mortarboard badge indicates that it isn't over 200.

adjusts stolen tassel on horn I don't need no stinkin' mortarboard! I's graduamacated!

1:25 AM

Alrighty then, if you says so.

Yay, I'm home

Hi @Robusto!

Howdy.

How was the ordeal?

It's ongoing. But at least I'm home.

1:28 AM

I'm sure that must be some relief and give you better hope for sleep, at least.

Ah, hello Robusto.

Good to see that you're home again.

Je vais faire du thé maintenant, BRB.

Robusto

@aediaλ Yeah. There is, like, no hope of sleep in the hospital.

Well then you're 100% improved! Get out there and ~~run around~~ have some nightmares about things beeping and people yammering.

Robusto

I will simply sleep. Sleep, which "knits up the ravel'd sleave of care."

cornbread ninja

oh noes :(

1:43 AM

@cornbreadninja Quoi?

@Robusto But you've missed "the owl... which gives the stern'st good night"! However will you sleep? :)

2:17 AM

Nighty night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite!

poof

8:37 AM

I'm confused. I don't know whether english.stackexchange.com/questions/68668/would-be-glad-to/… is contradicting me or agreeing with me. He seems to be contradicting me, but I can't tell which bit of my answer he's not happy with. Any thoughts, peeps?

@DavidWallace He probably means that he asked whether <a would-clause following a present-tense if-clause> is grammatical, and that you said that <present-tense if-clauses> are grammatical instead of answering the original question?

(as opposed to <a would-clause following an if-were-clause>)

But I said his sentence was grammatical. What more could he want?

Thanks for answering though, Vitaly.

8:53 AM

No idea, I am just trying to interpret what he said there.

@DavidWallace So, about that count vs noncount issue, did you get my message?

Huh, what?

17 hours ago, by Vitaly

@DavidWallace A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1985) analyses the of issue as abstract vs concrete attributes, not nount vs noncount nouns:

17 hours ago, by Vitaly

You didn't really have my full attention yesterday, when Monica was describing her problems. Sorry.

No, I pinged you after you left.

Oh, hang on, let me blow that up and read it. I missed your ping.

8:57 AM

Normally, if you are pinged when you are absent, that red thingy should be in your inbox.

Also, I reproduced the relevant excerpt from CGEL for future reference:

16 hours ago, by Vitaly

Thanks for your thoroughness. I shall have to read that more than once to absorb it all. But wouldn't it have been better to post it on Meysam's original question? He might just un-accept my answer and accept yours!

@All: hai

May 14 '11 at 13:56, by RegDwight

You're so repophobe, Vitaly, that's really something.

Umm, yes I saw the red thingy, but I glossed over it a bit. Sorry about that, after you put in all that effort.

Hi Sankar.

9:01 AM

Hi Sankar.

hi david and vitaly ,i came here to share my troubles, i felt i m lonely , i need to share my problem with someone, that's why i came here

thank you guys for welcoming me

@Vitaly So you want me to update my answer with your quotes from CGEL, is that right?

@SankarGanesh What is your problem? Can you be specific?

@DavidWallace how you manage your stress

@SankarGanesh by making an effort to understand which things in my life are important, and which are not; and acting accordingly.

@DavidWallace Well, I am still trying to figure out whether abstract vs concrete is more applicable than count vs noncount. Naturally, I couldn't come up with any counterexamples and decided to share the excerpts and see if you would have more insights.

9:05 AM

@Vitaly I need to think about it. I can see CGEL's point, even though I'm not sure whether I agree. I too will try to think of counterexamples, both to its point and mine.

@DavidWallace I donot know why i m expecting , others to care for me , when i got sick, i find very hard to relive from my stress

(BTW, A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language can be abbreviated to CGEL, but CGEL here usually means The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language; so those two excerpts are from two different grammar references.)

hi

hi Meysam

is this correct? "we as a peoples do not pay enough attention to the stuff we need for our survival, until it's too late of course"

I read it in a blog

9:08 AM

oh it is nice

is it correct to say "a peoples"?

It's nonsense. Or a joke.

I read it here:

ichabodsview.com/2012/05/22/maslows-foundation

@SankarGanesh Have you tried speaking to a professional?

@DavidWallace you mean to speak with psychologist

9:11 AM

@Meysamرهادربند Are you querying its truth or its grammaticality?

its grammaticality in search for truth

@SankarGanesh Yes. I am a long distance from you, which makes it difficult to help you. I'm also not qualified. So I'm uneasy about offering you too much advice here; other than to seek the help of an expert.

@Meysamرهادربند There is no doubt that it's ungrammatical. I can't comment on its truth, as it's difficult to tell what it means.

@DavidWallace oh, i conselling myself and doing mediation to reduce these stress

@SankarGanesh Mediation? Meditation? Medication? Which do you mean?

@SankarGanesh This is the first time I see you here, glad to meet you :)

9:15 AM

@DavidWallace: Meditation

@SankarGanesh That's probably a really good idea.

@Meysamرهادربند i was very busy to launch my android app in google play store, so i came here

Do you know what's causing the stress?

@DavidWallace: I think i m expecting some one to take care of me , i showed real care and affection to my best friend, but they were selfish, i feel i got disappointed , when they did not show same what i did for them, that's why i got stress david

@DavidWallace Oh, and one more minor point: if the question were to be modified so as to say that the indefinite article shouldn't be present, it would be almost logically equivalent to excluding count nouns. (Which means that, basically, no new information would be present.)

9:19 AM

@Vitaly Yes, that occurred to me too.

@SankarGanesh But you're old enough to take care of yourself, right? So you don't need to rely on others.

@SankarGanesh It's sad when your best friend turns out not be the best friend

@DavidWallace But Somehow, i feel i m alone,i hate myself for this mate

@Meysamرهادربند yes, i m asking myself , why you give priority , forget about others , but the next time if others getting problems, i automatically going to them and helping them

ok mates , i want to forget this

@SankarGanesh Seriously, there is no shame in seeking professional help.

It has to be better than sitting in a chat room full of people you'll never meet and don't know anything about.

ok david, sure i will meet a psychologist person

Good luck.

9:34 AM

Thank you

Okay, let's pretend that adjectives weren't mentioned in the original question. Now, a girl of a sunny disposition invalidates the noncount part, and the article counterargument doesn't apply because of the aforementioned logical equivalence. But I still can't come up with a concrete mass noun to try and invalidate A Comprehensive Grammar's analysis.

@Vitaly As does "People of the Book". Meysam's question was specifically about putting "of" immediately in front of the noun.

Let's pretend that it wasn't about that, too. :P

So, you're proposing a slightly different question, then?

I'll have to refer back to the original, to decide whether "a piece of furniture" is a counterexample.

(No pun intended)

Well, to be honest, I think Meysam's question is misleading because it tries to impose artificial restrictions where a more natural breakdown of those constructions into grammatical categories (as exemplified by CGEL-1985 and CGEL-2002) is possible. He couldn't have known that before asking his question (why ask a question in that case, then?), though, so I don't blame him.

9:39 AM

How can a question be misleading? All you mean is that Meysam's question is not as interesting as the hypothetical question that would be answered by your analysis based on CGEL.

Hello @simchona

@DavidWallace Well, what do adjectives have to do with the issue at hand? Seems like an artificial restriction to me. It's blending together parts of speech and syntax.

OK, read my comment about body parts and adverbs if you like.

But what do you think "the issue at hand" actually is?

@DavidWallace Hello. Sorry, was reading back through the transcript a bit

@simchona This is an unusual time of day to see you here.

The issue at hand is how the range of possible of-phrase modifiers in NP structures is semantically restricted.

9:42 AM

@DavidWallace It's before midnight here right now

@Vitaly which doesn't seem to be what Meysam asked.

@simchona Is it? I'm clearly crap at figuring these things out.

@DavidWallace I usually don't pop in at this time though, so you're still right

@DavidWallace Well, yeah, no "changing nouns to adjectives" occurs there. The head of the of phrase isn't an adjective.

@DavidWallace: and @Meysam: bye cya, tc

Bye, @Sankar, look after yourself.

@simchona I've just realised where you are. Sorry, I don't know why I assumed you were further east.

9:46 AM

@DavidWallace Because I usually am. I travel a decent amount coast to coast

Right, but there's only one part of USA where it's currently before midnight.

Unless you mean midnight Wednesday.

@simchona Does your job compel you to travel? Or is it just for pleasure?

@DavidWallace I'm still in college, so it's back and forth from campus and internships

@simchona Ahh! I'm quite envious. When I studied, it was all in one place.

Is yours a big College?

11:16 AM

Holla.

user19161

@KitFox How is your back now?

Better, but not great.

The most annoying thing is that these drugs are severely limiting my processing.

Poor foxy.

user19161

Are you on leave today @kit?

Not today. Just yesterday.

user19161

11:26 AM

Fedora 17 is supposed to be out today but it is delayed by a week. In other news, Mageia 2 is out today.

user19161

I tried using torrent to download a file yesterday. I think I get how it works now. It is not really faster.

@KitFox Aw, you have my sympathies. I can relate to that, what with minimum measurable energy per bit and all. What an annoying limit.

Exactly, my friend. I am of a mind to take an IQ test just to see if this is what it is like for normal people.

No prob.

11:41 AM

Oh, oh, god it hurts.

I'll just push the top button.

Well then you are just as smart as most people. So an IQ of 100. After just one question! Not bad.

One more question and it will be 200. Mensa, here you come!

No wonder my knuckles hurt this morning.

(from all that knuckle-walking)

Not that Knuckles.

So you see the image, and I get a not found.

Justice, where art thou?

11:48 AM

She's in my bed.

Being served cold.

Geezis. My wit's gone all to shit. Where'd I put that strop?