English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

RegDwighт

11:00 AM

Rather common words, to boot. Like, "railway".

David Wallace

Hmm, that does seem odd to me. So how did you gain it back?

RegDwighт

The active part by hanging around with Russians on the Internet, and then IRL with my family, and then wife.

David Wallace

I guess that makes sense. Your wife is from Russia then, I take it?

RegDwighт

And ironically, the active part was actually easier to fix. While the troubles with passive comprehension never quite went away.

David Wallace

Actually, I can imagine that.

RegDwighт

11:03 AM

So even today, I will read a word and think, man, I saw it every day as a child, but I'll be damned if I could tell what it means now, and then I ask my wife, and then she says it means "railway".

David Wallace

So you and she speak German at home?

RegDwighт

So yeah. What goes away fast, also comes back fast. What slips away slowly takes a long time to come back.

David Wallace

I guess that makes sense.

RegDwighт

@DavidWallace only on certain days. And she always takes the initiative.

David Wallace

I don't know what that means, but I guess it's an arrangement that works.

RegDwighт

11:05 AM

Though of course I do intersperse my speech with German expletives.

David Wallace

Yes, I do that too!

RegDwighт

@DavidWallace it merely means I'm not really comfortable speaking German with her. So she has to force me.

David Wallace

It must be lovely to have so many options.

RegDwighт

We will also sometimes watch Taiwan TV for hours on end. Or Portuguese or Romanian or Greek or whatever.

And I try to watch everything in English unless she's watching, too.

David Wallace

She doesn't speak English?

RegDwighт

11:09 AM

She barely reads it. Speaking is out of the question.

David Wallace

Why Taiwan TV?

RegDwighт

Though I do have a feeling she often has a better grasp than she is willing to admit.

@DavidWallace because funny language neither of us understands.

David Wallace

Reading and writing a language is completely different from using a language orally. Some people are better at one than the other; others the other than the one.

RegDwighт

Though our goals are usually different. She watches (mostly) for the luls, while I watch (mostly) for trying to understand.

Same with going on vacation.

We pick a different country every year. Then I will always buy a dictionary and print out stuff from the Internet, while she mostly just dives in and lets me handle the language side of things.

David Wallace

luls?

What are luls?

RegDwighт

11:12 AM

Sorry, lulz.

David Wallace

I am no wiser.

RegDwighт

Oh?

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lulz

David Wallace

What is or are lulz?

Ah, I see you are younger than I.

RegDwighт

No, it's more that I'm learning English from a different source.

They even have a link to "for the lulz" but no actual article. I am disappoint.

Now I wonder if they have an article on "I am disappoint".

Nope.

So yeah. For the lulz = for the fun of it; to point and laugh.

David Wallace

Right. I do get it. And I do see what you mean about your wife.

But how does a language she doesn't understand give her lulzes?

RegDwighт

11:16 AM

Well have you seen Taiwanese TV?

It's hilarious.

David Wallace

I have not. I shall have to imagine it instead.

RegDwighт

And then, of course, there's that other type of lulz that you get when listening to a language that is hilariously similar and yet hilariously dissimilar to a language you already know.

Like, Dutch.

David Wallace

Unless it's like Japanese game shows, which I suppose can be laughed at without being understood.

RegDwighт

Sort of.

David Wallace

Hah, for me that would be Russian!

RegDwighт

11:18 AM

Yes.

For us it's Bulgarian or Polish or, in fact, Romanian. Which seems to have Italian grammar but Russian vocabulary.

David Wallace

Yeah, Romanian is an enigma. Its vocabulary seems Yugoslav to me.

RegDwighт

Sep 21 '11 at 16:26, by RegDwight Ѭſ道

Mama e forte bolnava.

Actual sentence in Romanian.

You should be able to figure it out.

David Wallace

Mum is really sick!

Or she's sickly strong, I suppose.

RegDwighт

Ayup.

The former.

David Wallace

Yes, I never really thought it was the latter.

RegDwighт

11:22 AM

Well I guess it's breakfast time for me, followed by Xblast time.

David Wallace

Bon appetite. And have fun.

RegDwighт

You go check if you don't get Taiwan TV after all.

David Wallace

Thanks again for your help.

RegDwighт

I mean, it's like on the next corner for you.

NP.

David Wallace

Since I don't have a television, it would be rather remarkable if I DID get Taiwan TV.

See you later!

RegDwighт

11:23 AM

Perhaps it works with a Game Boy.

CU.

Robusto

@tchrist: If you agree it was lost, then how was it added back? The fact that it was at one time different in another language has no bearing on English. — Robusto 12 secs ago

Someone is wrong on the Internet. Again.

Matt Эллен

12:53 PM

Hello.

RegDwighт

Bom dia.

Matt Эллен

Portugeese!

Robusto

You two better not steal my lunch money again. I'm in no mood.

RegDwighт

Oh, you have new money? Sweet.

KitFox

Oh my favorite people.

Morning.

David Wallace

1:00 PM

@Robusto Everyone is in SOME mood!

Matt Эллен

Hello.

Robusto

Morgen.

RegDwighт

I am in imperative mood.

Robusto

Not me. I'm in no mood.

KitFox

I would that I were feeling subjunctive.

Robusto

1:00 PM

I'm in kind of an aorist root, perhaps, but not a mood per se.

David Wallace

@KitFox I feel more comparative.

RegDwighт

Mood is just doom backwards.

Matt Эллен

I'm in the mood familiar to programmers where things have stopped working fro no discernible reason

RegDwighт

See, for some it's not even backwards.

KitFox

Ack.

I'm feeling like I will learn to use Powershell today.

Matt Эллен

1:01 PM

wooo!

RegDwighт

As long as you're feeling you will forget it tomorrow, all is fine.

KitFox

►

Dig the intro licks.

@RegDwighт What would you recommend?

Matt Эллен

@KitFox channel9.msdn.com has blogs that talk about it

Robusto

@KitFox Don't spoil it. "Ignorance is like a delecate, exotic fruit. Touch it, and the bloom is gone."

RegDwighт

9:48? That's a lot of licks.

@KitFox drinking.

KitFox

1:02 PM

I like the way you think.

@MattЭллен Is the guy British? Because I won't feel like I'm learning if he's not British.

Matt Эллен

oh, apparently it doesn't

RegDwighт

TIL that Gandalf is gay.

Matt Эллен

I wonder where I remeber reading blogs about powershell then

Gandalf is gay, or the actor who plays Gandalf is gay?

the latter I knew

RegDwighт

I wasn't aware.

Robusto

@MattЭллен This.

RegDwighт

1:04 PM

@MattЭллен There's a difference?

KitFox

That opens up such a realm of possibilities...oh wait, it doesn't.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwighт actors and the characters they play are divisible.

RegDwighт

@KitFox Hot steamy action on Saruman.

Matt Эллен

much like how you're a husband and a moderator

RegDwighт

That is divisible by one at most.

Robusto

1:05 PM

You don't have to be gay to act in theater, but it helps.

Tolkien never made an explicitly gay wizard.

RegDwighт

I am pretty sure "Tolkien" is an anagram of "gay" in Elvish.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwighт so long as you're not dividing by zero

KitFox

For the love of fuck, what should I write this in?

feels very angry

RegDwighт

As All Saints recommend, "You could write it in a letter, babe".

Matt Эллен

powershell, because you've already got it installed

Robusto

1:08 PM

@RegDwighт Tolkien is an anagram of "not like"

Or lone Kit.

Or one kilt.

RegDwighт

Or neo klit.

Robusto

No German transliterations in chat.

KitFox

Also "ten loki"

Robusto

Kent oil.

Let oink.

RegDwighт

Oink and let oink.

Robusto

1:09 PM

Helter-skelter.

Matt Эллен

nike lot

Robusto

@MattЭллен Mixing mythologies, are we?

Matt Эллен

cross pollination strengthens the gnome

Robusto

No meg.

Matt Эллен

nutmeg

Robusto

1:11 PM

No gem.

'm gone.

RegDwighт

The Human Gnome Project.

Matt Эллен

lol

Robusto

Human and Gnome are mutually exclusive phenotypes.

RegDwighт

Anagrams are the Optimus Prime of words.

KitFox

> If you want to execute a PowerShell script, you will usually have to type the full path along with the filename.

RegDwighт

1:13 PM

With an axe.

Matt Эллен

bananagrams are the better versions of scrabble

Robusto

Are there pineapplegrams as well?

KitFox

Mutually exclusive phenotypes? What does that mean?

Robusto

@KitFox I would like to execute it with a rifle. Is that possible?

Matt Эллен

if there is a gnome phenotype there isn't a human one?

KitFox

1:14 PM

@Robusto Oh please. Please yes.

@MattЭллен That doesn't make sense.

Robusto

@KitFox "Despite its seemingly straightforward definition, the concept of the phenotype has hidden subtleties."

KitFox

Gnomes and humans are not the same genotype.

Matt Эллен

sense is mutually exclusive to other people

Robusto

These subtleties usually involve gnomes.

@KitFox Sez you.

KitFox

K.

gonna script now.

RegDwighт

1:15 PM

@MattЭллен sense is German for scythe.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox it's a parallel universe constraint. if there is a gnome phenotype there cannot be a human phenotype

Robusto

Scythe is a kind of knife used in Scythera, right? I think @Cerberus would know.

KitFox

@MattЭллен He said phenotype though.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox now I do too

Robusto

Phenobarbitol is a phenotype.

RegDwighт

1:16 PM

The phenocide in The Two Towers was awful.

KitFox

But it...I need coffee.

Good night all.

good night

Goede.

@KitFox Coffee is a crutch. Go straight for the liquor cabinet. You'll be happier, and you might even get more work done.

Matt Эллен

1:17 PM

@RegDwighт that's a cutting remark

RegDwighт

Erich Maria was like that.

Robusto

Also, liquor definitely helps you make sense of this room better.

RegDwighт

►

Robusto

See? It's a tradition.

KitFox

I have this very strong desire today to drink scotch, smoke clove cigarettes, and make love to a dark haired girl in an opium den.

Robusto

1:20 PM

Better than Powershell, isn't it?

KitFox

Such an oddly specific sort of fantasy.

RegDwighт

Hourshell of Powershell.

KitFox

Maybe I should get a tattoo.

RegDwighт

Live from the Crystal Meth Cathedral.

KitFox

It's hardly fair that that life was so empty.

Robusto

1:22 PM

Les sanglots longs
Des violons
De l’automne
Blessent mon cœur
D’une langueur
Monotone.

___
Hours hell of Powers hell.

Matt Эллен

luckily hell/hell = 1 so you can cancel those out

Robusto

If a tattoo
Were taboo
Would you get one too?

RegDwighт

@MattЭллен That's basically all Robert A. Schuller does.

KitFox

La joie venait toujours apres le peine.

Which is not nearly as funny as "La joie venait toujours apres lapin."

Robusto

Did I only dream we had a question on ELU that involved a French term for Schadenfreude? Tell me it was a dream.

RegDwighт

1:24 PM

Lapin crétin?

Matt Эллен

@RegDwighт that explains a lot

RegDwighт

Robusto

@MattЭллен No, hell is an exponent. You can't cancel it out that easily.

Where is my brain today?

RegDwighт

Oh, the new Microsoft slogan.

Robusto

►

Jez

1:32 PM

Some of the discussion here is quite funny: tech.slashdot.org/story/13/01/08/239207/…

Apparently OKCupid has been bought out by Match. Great. I bet they'll start charging everyone

KitFox

I need a certificate to sign these scripts...

@Robusto This is not helping me forget about the girl in the opium den.

tchrist

> The market be damned. If I can tell at a glance whether a woman spells 'you' as a single vowel or not, society, traditional marriage, the divorce rate, whatever - it can all go to hell.

Robusto

@KitFox It is not my job to help you forget about girls in opium dens. And if it were, I would find other, better employment.

Matt Эллен

@Jez how did OKCupid make money?

Jez

@MattЭллен advertising, and upgrading membership for perks

Matt Эллен

1:38 PM

what are the perks?

Robusto

Getting laid is not a perk?

Jez

@MattЭллен for some reason some people like being able to browse anonymously

Matt Эллен

@Jez oh. wow. people paid for that?

Jez

one good thing about a cult like religion - it might make it easier to get with the fellow brainwashed

it would filter out a lot of competition if she said "you have to be a Moonie" and I was a Moonie

Robusto

Who would not say they were a Moonie if it meant getting laid?

Jez

1:40 PM

OTOH, not too many atheists say "no religion allowed" although they probably should

Matt Эллен

Jesus. He was all about not being a Moonie

KitFox

I wonder if I could successfully seduce my tester today.

Robusto

No. Jesus was a Sunny. The Sunny of God, right?

Matt Эллен

I bet he never said he was a Moonie, just to get laid

Robusto

@MattЭллен Pfft. The Bible only tells you what they want you to know.

Matt Эллен

1:41 PM

@Robusto Was Mary Magdalen a Shia? that would explain the controvesy

Jez

@MattЭллен given that one of the strands Unificationism is trying to unify is Christianity, I doubt he was a Moonie

Robusto

@MattЭллен I hope she was a Shia ... and not a Hia.

Jez

maybe if i were crazy enough to actually be able to believe scientology, i could go to scientology conferences and there might be some hot women there who would only accept scientologists

filters out competition

KitFox

You could just lie.

I've lied in exchange for getting laid plenty of times.

Jez

unfortunately, my brain is incapable of descending to that level. or to the level of lying about it

"I don't have HIV"?

KitFox

1:44 PM

"I'd love to go out with you again."

Robusto

You could try going for simple truths, like "I have a pulse. Mate with me."

KitFox

"I've never done anything this crazy before."

Matt Эллен

I've survived this long, there for I'd make a good father

KitFox

"My name is KitFox."

Robusto

"I really love sex. How about you?"

KitFox

1:45 PM

That's not a lie.

Jez

@MattЭллен actually, it applies to all men that all their descendants survived long enough to mate

Robusto

@KitFox I am offering simple truths here.

KitFox

Oh. I got confused.

Matt Эллен

@Jez oh, dash, and I was about to hit on someone.

KitFox

Simple truths don't usually work on men.

Jez

1:46 PM

@KitFox are you kidding?

Robusto

@KitFox Boobs are simple truths. So are asses. Those things work on men.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox not if the simple truth you tell is "you've got a small cock"

KitFox

Very few men to whom I have said "I would like to have sex with you tonight" have responded positively.

Robusto

@MattЭллен Wait, who's talking to whom? That is not something I would say to a woman.

KitFox

Apparently it makes their cocks shrivel.

Jez

1:47 PM

@KitFox "I can't wait to see you again" - I've had that one used on me

Matt Эллен

@Robusto if a woman tell you that you you have a small penis

KitFox

@Jez When you got laid?

Jez

@KitFox I find that hard to believe, but anyhow. You should've tried it on me.

@KitFox nope, after a date

KitFox

@Jez See, I'm saying I used it to get laid.

Robusto

@KitFox No. The true cock-shrivelling remark is, "I'm ovulating. We could make a baby this very night!"

KitFox

1:48 PM

Ugh.

One guy told me he thought I was too desperate because I was too straightforward.

Another guy told me he wanted a little romance.

rolls eyes

Robusto

Women don't have to say anything to get laid. Just shut up and don't say no.

Jez

I actually find the idea of impregnating a hot woman quite attractive, but only if it could be aborted immediately upon finding out

Matt Эллен

@KitFox I would be suspicious. "If something seems too good to be true, it probably is"

Jez

@KitFox dunno what kind of men you've been talking to, probably gay.

KitFox

@MattЭллен Yeah, after the first couple of failures, I stopped telling and started showing, as good writers do.

@Jez Only one of them, I think.

tries to remember how much fun sex was

Matt Эллен

1:53 PM

@KitFox that would almost certainly override my suspicions

KitFox

@MattЭллен You wouldn't have had time to be suspicious.

Matt Эллен

:D

KitFox

But I'm guessing you would have asked me to dinner the next night anyway, even though I told you I wasn't interested in a relationship.

Matt Эллен

yeah, probably

Robusto

amazon.com/Every-Day-Atheist-Holiday-Magical/dp/0399161562/…

RegDwighт

2:08 PM

TIL "of no import" is like five hundred years old.

I thought it was like teenage slang or something.

Robusto

Seriously? I look at it as almost archaic.

RegDwighт

I just run into it in an IMDb review of Matrix: Revolutions, from 2006. And checked etymonline because obviously I'm bored if I'm reading IMDb reviews of Matrix: Revolutions.

Matt Эллен

and if Rousto thinks it's archaic... well...

RegDwighт

Then he means Noah's arkaic.

Robusto

@MattЭллен I said "almost" archaic.

Matt Эллен

2:10 PM

:D

Robusto

And get your hands off my lunch money, you big bullies.

RegDwighт

Mmmmmmh tasty lunch monie.

Robusto

Don't forget, I'm an American. There's a good chance I could be armed.

RegDwighт

Armed Americans only ever shoot unarmed Americans for fun.

They never shoot armed Russians.

Unless they are Samuel L. Jackson.

Robusto

@RegDwighт That's the point. Living in Germany, you ain't armed.

You want an AK-47, go back to Russia.

RegDwighт

2:13 PM

That's what the Germans would have you believe.

Exhibit A: history.

KitFox

As annoying as this is, it is always refreshing to learn something new.

I get tired of the same error messages.

RegDwighт

Mmmmmh annoying refreshments.

Robusto

@RegDwighт Yes, I did not take into account your ability to illegally acquire weapons. As for carrying a concealed weapon, Germany permits that if you are licensed, but licenses are on a "may issue" basis, which means in almost every case if you are not a professional bodyguard or the like, you will not be issued a license.

RegDwighт

Yeah.

Never stopped Hitler.

Robusto

Russia stopped Hitler.

RegDwighт

2:21 PM

Never is a river in Russia, so close enough.

KitFox

Have I mentioned today how much I love Russians?

Robusto

You mean coitus?

KitFox

Yes. Just that.

RegDwighт

@KitFox you did mention annoying. I guess that counts.

KitFox

You find that annoying?

RegDwighт

2:23 PM

I not find anything. I not even search.

KitFox

Here I thought I was being charming and delightful.

RegDwighт

Well, you weren't lighting and decharmful.

Matt Эллен

harmful dec lighting

KitFox

feels a little giddy

I got it to work.

Matt Эллен

yay!

KitFox

2:26 PM

Now I have a meeting, but I feel I have earned cream and sugar in my coffee.

Matt Эллен

go for it!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:48 PM

fucking insurance companies

Matt Эллен

life assurance?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

car insurance

Robusto

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Stop trying to objectify insurance companies!

Matt Эллен

yeah. they're bastards

@Robusto insurance against fucking, perhaps?

Robusto

Of all the potential targets for fucking that may exist, I think insurance companies have to be low on the list. It just wouldn't be any fun.

Matt Эллен

2:52 PM

my dad had this problem where he was with one insurer, but when it came time to renew, it was cheaper, by a huge margin, to cancel his policy and take out a new one, rather than pay the renewal premium

he wrote to them and explained, and they said "yup, that's correct"

Robusto

So he went with the cheap date?

Matt Эллен

he cancelled and got a cheaper "new customer" policy

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I've seen that sort of thing a lot. we went with our current insurer because they were way, way, cheaper than most others. But now, because some asshole hit our car, but they determine US to be at fault, they are refusing to cover my wife.

Matt Эллен

that sucks. I hate insurance companies

tchrist

@Cerberus This is the best I could do in the ongoing hostage negotiations:

Barrie, I’ve been wracking my brains trying to think of some useful application of limiting “tense” to morphological time-markings on individual words only, and I did come up with one: part-of-speech tagging, particularly of the automated variety. However, even this will only get you so far, due to how unrich English is in such things, with confusions over pasts and past participles, with invariant verbs like sit and shut, etc. This paper discusses these issues. Still, the improved tagset they propose still only recognizes preterites. — tchrist 2 mins ago

commutes

RegDwighт

3:16 PM

Elrond is a dwarf.