English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

badass

11:00 AM

!!youtube if you're gonna do it do it right

KitSox

►

RegDwigнt

15

A: "Pricey" vs. "Pricy"

First of all, dictionaries list both spellings, and pricy is generally listed as a variant spelling of pricey, not the other way round, at least in the dictionaries I have checked (Merriam-Webster, Wiktionary, New Oxford American Dictionary, American Heritage Dictionary, Cambridge Dictionaries On...

Oh this graph is good.

Anonymous

Oh, nice!

RegDwigнt

8

A: Has "mother" become politically incorrect?

Here are the usage stats from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (number of instances per million words, by context): SPOKEN FICTION MAGAZINE NEWSPAPER ACADEMIC mother 281 939 287 253 134 mom 125 204 102 59 6 An...

Gosh, I even graphed this.

I really should get a life.

Anonymous

I like your graphs.

Gigili

11:01 AM

@RegDwigнt What kind of self advertising is that?

Hulow, BTW.

RegDwigнt

@Gigili it is not self advertising, it is advertising beautiful graphs and COCA.

And hulloh.

It is safe to say that at least the first three answers have been upvoted by absolutely everyone on the site already.

So I feel safe posting them here.

You should really go around upvoting nohat, because he was the one who converted me.

He started using all those pretty graphs, and I followed suit.

46

A: When did it become correct to add an “s” to a singular possessive already ending in “‑s”?

Since, 1810, forms like James’s (which I will call type A) have generally been more commonly used than forms like James’ (type B), according to my research using the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA). I compared a number of names ending in -s looking for possessive forms with and with...

Just look at this beauty. Drink it in.

Gigili

@RegDwigнt Don't be so sure.

RegDwigнt

49

A: Why do some words have two past tense forms (e.g. "dreamed" vs. "dreamt")?

I did some research using the Corpus of Historical American English to see if I could track the history of these words. Each of these words has a different story to tell. DREAMED and DREAMT See the raw data (Google Docs) In the early 1800s, dreamt was more common than dreamed but by the mid...

badass

Clap clap clap

RegDwigнt

So the real lesson here is: you add graphs to your answers, I will promote the hell out of them.

3

Anonymous

11:05 AM

I suppose it would be worth learning how to make pretty charts.

RegDwigнt

Usually you start by creating a really hideous chart, and then proceed by gradually improving it.

Not trying to be snarky, that really is the algorithm at work here.

badass

The brain likes pictures

Anonymous

Another thing I'd like is a convenient tool for making syntax trees.

RegDwigнt

@badass Yes!

Anonymous

Right now I use phpSyntaxTree

Anonymous

11:06 AM

It has two problems I have not taken the time to solve

RegDwigнt

Der Mensch ist ein Sehtier.

Anonymous

1. It doesn't support Japanese

Gigili

2. It doesn't support other languages as well.

Anonymous

Ahem.

Anonymous

It may have other problems too, but there was an implied scope restriction in my statement :-) I was only talking about problems I face.

Anonymous

11:08 AM

My 2. was "It doesn't make it easy to visually separate category and function, e.g. by putting them on separate lines"

Anonymous

Which is not something everyone does in syntax trees, but it's something you can do

RegDwigнt

Our company produces a state-of-the-art graph visualization tool, and I am in marketing, so I could totally pitch it, but it's not a Web 3.0 click-and-easy WYSIWYG type of tool before you get all excited, it's quite academic in fact. But yeah, one of the reasons it was created in the first place was parse trees. Compiler engineering.

Anonymous

Well, I can program, even ... erk even PHP, so I could theoretically make it do those two things I want.

EnglishMaster

If you have a task to port a program written in a functional programming language back to a language that doesn't support functional programming feature, would you just give up and quit ur job?

Anonymous

@EnglishMaster How bad is the target language?

RegDwigнt

11:11 AM

@snailboat absint.com/aisee

EnglishMaster

Let's say it's Java

but without any functional programming feature

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt Neat!

RegDwigнt

It just occurs to me that both sample screenshots have to do with language.

Anonymous

@EnglishMaster You were mostly there when you said "Let's say it's Java"

RegDwigнt

Must've been a subconscious thing on my part.

EnglishMaster

11:12 AM

and no recursion

nvm, it was a stupid question

Anonymous

@EnglishMaster Well, recursion and iteration are equivalent. Technically.

RegDwigнt

I would never convert anything to Java. Or anyone.

Sorry, I am a hator.

MoscowML FTW!

Noah

I speak Java. Which means gibresh

Is it okay to smoke pot?

Or hashish?

badass

I only speak gibresh :-)

Anonymous

@Noah You probably need to define a scope in which to evaluate that question. Otherwise, "okay" has too many interpretations

RegDwigнt

11:16 AM

You need my permission for smoking pot? I mean I am an owner of the room, but still...

Noah

That's why you are a badAss.

@RegDwigнt Yeah, kind of. I want to smoke it here in this room.

Anonymous

@Noah Good luck!

RegDwigнt

Noah

Why every time a cat picture posted here is starred?

Anonymous

@Ste Oh, no! I'm going to lose my 15 points!

Anonymous

11:18 AM

@Noah Because cats.

Anonymous

I'm going to keep trying my best to answer your questions.

Anonymous

It's kind of fun.

Noah

@snailboat Thanks. But I hope you are not a cat lover.

badass

I smoked A LOT of it when I was a teenager I have regretted it ever since

Anonymous

@Noah Why do you hope that?

Noah

11:19 AM

Hope is not bad. Is it?

badass

For it was bad

Noah

@badass Why do you regret it? Is it good?

badass

Go and learn the hard way

Noah

Star me and I will star you. It's a win-win situation. LOL

badass

Like I did

Anonymous

11:21 AM

Are all of your messages non sequiturs?

Ste

@snailboat - yep you have!

Anonymous

@Ste Noo!

Ste

Giving out hats is more important than your measly 15 points.

Noah

@badass Oh, you mean I should smoke it first and then I will understand its detriments.

badass

If I said jumping off a bridge will kill you do you still have to do it?

Ste

11:25 AM

@Gigili - stand by for pirate hat!

Noah

No.

I will not do it.

badass

Any drug is bad

I have tried most of them

Noah

I mean does it have long term effects on your body?

I mean negative effects.

badass

Yes

Your MEMORY suffers the most almost permanent damage. I found out the hard way

Anonymous

@Noah Well, you should avoid inhaling smoke in general.

Gigili

11:30 AM

@Ste Haha!

RegDwigнt

0

Q: The new top bar gets crowded — too crowded to the point of things overlapping

Observe: The Winter Bash and the flags overlap. Now, I understand this is a complete edge case, and I also understand that it's a (not-so-)subtle hint that I should be handling those flags and suggested edits pronto if I want to get to the hats, and I also understand that the hats will soon be...

Oh, salad. Mmmmmh. Sorry folks, AFK.

Gigili

Today is the day we've been waiting for, Reg will be closed in a minute. devil smiley

RegDwigнt

And up to five people will get a hat.

Glasses can be half full! Binoculars even easier so.

Gigili

So the important lesson here is: Don't post a question when you are in a mad rush, eat your salad first.

RegDwigнt

Well. Yes. You are so right.

eats salad

and pizza

badass

11:44 AM

Would you like a drink?

Nonalcoholic of course :-)

RegDwigнt

Wha? Then of course not!

Who do you think I am, a churchgoer?

Anonymous

I've never churchgone.

Anonymous

Well, I once churchwent to a wedding, actually

RegDwigнt

Right.

Weddings, sightseeing, and the christening is all I can offer.

Matt Эллен

me too. Well, and funerals

RegDwigнt

11:48 AM

They should be doing divorces in churches. Now that would get them attendance!

@MattЭллен I skipped on the funerals so far. Everyone keeps dying in my immediate family, but they do it a thousand miles away.

Has its sad moments and its advantages. It's a mix.

badass

They have drive thru divorces in Vagas

Matt Эллен

"We are gathered here today, in the sight of God, to see that these two are split up because they're clearly no good for each other"

RegDwigнt

They should have drive-thru drive thrus. That is a niche unexplored. You drive there, pay ten bucks, drive through, drive away.

badass

Do you want fries with that?

Divorce/wedding

Anonymous

@badass I do not want fries with my divorce/wedding.

Anonymous

11:53 AM

Too much starch

Matt Эллен

but if you have a diet drink... maybe?

Johan Larsson

> Multi
> Line
> Quote

Anonymous

@JohanLarsson Success!

Matt Эллен

:O

is it new? or has that always been possible?

Anonymous

> Shift
> Enter
> Very bad poem

Johan Larsson

11:54 AM

think it is new

RegDwigнt

@MattЭллен Yeah.

Anonymous

It's been possible as long as I've been here.

RegDwigнt

@JohanLarsson Nah.

Anonymous

Which is maybe 18 months now

RegDwigнt

Don't make me go looking for examples cuz you know I will.

Matt Эллен

11:55 AM

so you have to put > on every line?

Anonymous

With a space after the >.

Johan Larsson

ok I have always failed when trying before then

Matt Эллен

@JohanLarsson me too

RegDwigнt

@MattЭллен no. First line only. Then just Shift+Enter.

Matt Эллен

> something
like this
hasn't worked for me in the past

because of reasons

Anonymous

11:56 AM

> You can also put them
> on each line if you really
> want. I always do

Anonymous

Always is one syllable.

RegDwigнt

> That
is
a
waste
of
perfectly
fresh
bytes.

Anonymous

So I declare

Anonymous

Oops, always is back to being two syllables now.

Matt Эллен

> I said this before, but:
I think this scene was so important because for once disney was saying that men aren’t perfect. Stop looking for Mr. Perfect Prince Charming because he doesn’t exist. Find a guy with flaws, someone real, and love then for who they are because then they’ll be perfect to you .

For once, it wasn’t “True Love at First Sight”. It was a real relationship that developed and they got to know each other and they realized they both had flaws but, like in a real relationship, they over came them.

I'm pretty sure that didn't work in the past

RegDwigнt

11:57 AM

So I flagged a whole bunch of stuff on a whole bunch of sites last night, but only got a hat on one. So now I know whose mods are asleep when. Mwuahahahaha.

Matt Эллен

because multiline all sort didn't work in the past

badass

What is this ">" called? Don't say greater than please

RegDwigнt

More than.

Matt Эллен

what other answer do you want?

Anonymous

@badass If you don't want to call it that, you can name it yourself.

Matt Эллен

11:58 AM

[link](http://example.com)
[lunk](http://example.com)
[lank](http://example.com)

Anonymous

Doesn't work.

Matt Эллен

which is as expected

RegDwigнt

I am sure @tchrist will quote you to death, or swoon if you're lucky, with the appropriate Unicode code points.

badass

> inequality symbol

Anonymous

Multi-line mes-
sages *don't* **support** Markdown.
It is very sad.

RegDwigнt

11:59 AM

@badass That is like every second symbol ever.

Matt Эллен

@badass you can call is a right angle bracket, if you like

Anonymous

Now mes- is two syllables.

Anonymous

I am a master of haiku.

RegDwigнt

≠ is unequality. Or <> for the poorer folk.

Matt Эллен

or !=

RegDwigнt

12:00 PM

That is for the poorer folk still, programmers.

Anonymous

Or ne

Ste

or !==

Matt Эллен

:D

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt In-

RegDwigнt

@Ste That is for the richer programmers, who are still very poor.

Ste

12:01 PM

Do you need to be rich to do type conversion

?

RegDwigнt

@snailboat that's what he already said. So I changed the prefix so he could reply "ha, but see that's a different prefix and thus a different sign, I win".

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt Oh! How unequal of you

RegDwigнt

Such are the ways of the Reg.

Anonymous

Sometime this morning, I will successfully write a haiku.

RegDwigнt

Haiku is German for "shark cow". Just sayin.

Anonymous

12:02 PM

It's also Japanese for "hike"!

RegDwigнt

I think Jeff Goldblum played it once.

Matt Эллен

I wrote a haiku
Sort of. No garden theme though
But it was quite close

badass

So < would be a left angle bracket @matt

Matt Эллен

yes

RegDwigнt

@snailboat nonono no Katakana not again Lord no.

Anonymous

12:03 PM

Now enough has been forced to do the work of a monosyllable.

Matt Эллен

dang

I miscounted

Anonymous

Me too. Twice!

RegDwigнt

But enough is not strong enough to defend itself. Otherwise it'd be called strong enough.

Matt Эллен

!!wiki haiku

RegDwigнt

But yeah. Matt is such a bully to word. Poor words. Those British hools.

KitSox

12:05 PM

Haiku

(no separate plural form) is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities: * The essence of haiku is "cutting" (kiru). This is often represented by the juxtaposition of two images or ideas and a kireji ("cutting word") between them, a kind of verbal punctuation mark which signals the moment of separation and colors the manner in which the juxtaposed elements are related. * Traditional haiku consist of 17 on (also known as morae), in three phrases of 5, 7 and 5 on respectively. Any one of the three phrases may end with the kireji. Although haiku are o...

RegDwigнt

Hey speaking of which, how offensive is "hooligan"?

I've heard differing accounts all over the years.

badass

This [ is a left square bracket @matt

Matt Эллен

yup

badass

:)

RegDwigнt

Oh, a can of Pandora worms! Lemme see.

@badass you sure that's not a brace?

Matt Эллен

12:06 PM

and this {, is a left curly brace

RegDwigнt

@MattЭллен that's clearly a bracket!

Matt Эллен

you're clearly a bracket

RegDwigнt

As a recent ELU question said: "discuss".

@MattЭллен no I am a tool.

And RIP Peter O'Toole.

Matt Эллен

oh! yes, let his body not be dug up

or reconsituted from the ashes, if it was burned

RegDwigнt

"What are your favorite English language tools?" — "Myself!"

4

Matt Эллен

12:08 PM

lol. excellent

badass

Use and abuse

RegDwigнt

@MattЭллен hey he was good in How To Steal A Million.

badass

And Lawrence of Arabia

RegDwigнt

I am still to watch that one.

Matt Эллен

I haven't seen it. I don't know uch about his career apart from that he was in Lawrence of Arabia

badass

12:11 PM

That is a must watch classic

Mitch

@RegDwigнt It's kinda old-fashioned sounding. Like 'commode' for 'toilet'.

badass

!!wiki Lawrence of Arabia

Matt Эллен

Sorry, I didn't see the question, @Reg. I agree with Mitch, although maybe not as old seeming as commode for toilet.

KitSox

T. E. Lawrence

Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO (16 August 188819 May 1935), known professionally as T. E. Lawrence, was a British Army officer renowned especially for his liaison role during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign and the Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkish rule of 1916–18. The breadth and variety of his activities and associations, and his ability to describe them vividly in writing, earned him international fame as Lawrence of Arabia, a title which was used for the 1962 film based on his World War I activities. Lawrence was born illegitimate in Tremadog, Wales, in August 1888 to Sir Tho...

RegDwigнt

@Mitch ah. Interesting.

Mitch

12:13 PM

@MattЭллен also, it is a laughable word to anybody it is directed at.

RegDwigнt

It's completely unobjectionable in Russian, where it means just rowdy, nothing to do with football. But I had people get offended at it in other languages. Including English unless I misremember.

The Pussy Riot, for example, are hooligans. They got locked up for hooliganism.

Mitch

people who use it are 'square'. Or some other more modern word. 'berk'? 'knob'? 'old out-of-touch person'?

badass

!!wiki movie Lawrence of Arabia

RegDwigнt

"Not bad"?

KitSox

@badass The Gods of Wikipedia did not bless us

RegDwigнt

12:15 PM

Since bad is the new good, I guess old-fashioned people are not bad.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt Ha ha, the translation is is totally inappropriate!

@RegDwigнt They have corners. Dull, dull corners. Square old people.

Anonymous

@Mitch Using out-of-touch words is hip now.

Anonymous

Or something.

Mitch

IN french people get really upset by 'racaille'

badass

!!youtube Lawrence of Arabia

KitSox

12:16 PM

►

Mitch

@snailboat that's so out of touch. Or is it hip?

Anonymous

@Mitch Umm!

RegDwigнt

Xblast time!

For the first time in weeks again!

Matt Эллен

@Mitch yes

I can smell a roast dinner coming from one of the other flats. it's making me salivate

badass

Roast beef?

Mitch

12:21 PM

Pea soup.

badass

Normally when people say roast they mean beef, right?

But you can roast all meats.

Anonymous

When I see "a roast" I think it's an unspecified meat rather than defaulting to a particular kind

Ste

I wouldn't say the default roast is beef.

Anonymous

You can roast non-meats, too, but I do default to "a roast" being meat.

Anonymous

Just an unspecified one.

Anonymous

12:23 PM

I don't know if my interpretations are shared by anyone else.

Ste

If I'm going for a roast, the meat (or or non-meat) is not determined.

badass

"I smell a roast"

Ste

@badass Well it's not me, I am having Chilli Chicken Masalla for lunch,#

EnglishMaster

Why do they call instructors as "Drill Instructor" in Marine Corp?

Ste

!!wiki drill

KitSox

12:26 PM

Drill

A drill is a tool fitted with a cutting tool attachment or driving tool attachment, usually a drill bit or driver bit, used for boring holes in various materials or fastening various materials together with the use of fasteners. The attachment is gripped by a chuck at one end of the drill and rotated while pressed against the target material. The tip, and sometimes edges, of the cutting tool does the work of cutting into the target material. This may be slicing off thin shavings (twist drills or auger bits), grinding off small particles (oil drilling), crushing and removing pieces of th...

badass

Because they

Ste

Haha - I knew that would happen

!!wiki Military drill

Matt Эллен

@badass I say roast when I mean roast. If I don't specify the meat, I don't normally mean beef

KitSox

Military parade

A military parade (square bashing in British military slang) is a formation of soldiers whose movement is restricted by close-order manoeuvring known as drilling or marching. The American usage is "formation or military review". The military parade is now almost entirely ceremonial, though soldiers from time immemorial up until the late 19th century fought in formation. Massed parades may also hold a role for propaganda purposes, being used to exhibit the apparent military strength of one's nation. History The terminology comes from the tradition of close order formation combat, in ...

Matt Эллен

I can't tell the meat

badass

12:27 PM

Icic

Ste

@EnglishMaster a "drill" is a set routine, for example marching in time is a drill. There is an instructor for that.

badass

Like the times table drill

8*6=48 , 8*7=56 , ...

Elementary math teachers are just drill instructors

EnglishMaster

DIs are phucking cool

badass

Sadly

Ste

!!youtube drill instructor

KitSox

12:34 PM

►

EnglishMaster

NEVER QUIT

NEVER GIVE UP

badass

Never forget your times table !!!!!

!!Wiki times table drill

KitSox

@badass No result found

badass

!!wiki times table

KitSox

Multiplication table

In mathematics, a multiplication table (sometimes, less formally, a times table) is a mathematical table used to define a multiplication operation for an algebraic system. The decimal multiplication table was traditionally taught as an essential part of elementary arithmetic around the world, as it lays the foundation for arithmetic operations with base-ten numbers. Many educators believe it is necessary to memorize the table up to 9 × 9. Traditional use In his 1820 book The Philosophy of Arithmetic, mathematician John Leslie published a multiplication table up to 99 × 99, which allows...

badass

12:40 PM

Nice visual^

RegDwigнt

1:31 PM

Hm.

The kind folks on Cross Validated keep rejecting my "obsolete" flags.

MartyIX

'Actor McLean Stevenson once described how his wife tricked him into marriage: "She said she liked me."' :o)

RegDwigнt

You made a typo! — mark999 Feb 17 '12 at 9:18

@mark999, OMG, thanks! :) Fixed — Tomas Feb 17 '12 at 10:08

How are these not obsolete?..

50% of my flags have been rejected. There's no way I am getting a hat now.

Fair enough, I won't bother with pushing their site higher in the rankings. There are 100+ others.

Lesson learned: aim for the flag hats first, all other hats later.

badass

Make that your new objective.

RegDwigнt

Yeah. Life's too short. The Hat Season's even shorter.

badass

Yep.

Stack Exchange

1:41 PM

Limerick Machine: He was precariously balanced

posted on December 23, 2013 by sgdi

Sat on the top of a shrub A man was consuming some grub A passer-by saw Thought the climbing a chore Saying “I’d rather be sat at the pub”

Cerberus

Morningy.

Anonymous

@Cerberus Morningish!

Cerberus

How slidest thou?

badass

The owner of the ELL chat room will not correct the room description I posted two messages to him saying to take out the word "lurk" :(

Anonymous

@badass I can change the ELL chat room text.

Anonymous

1:43 PM

What would you like it to say?

badass

Please :)

Cerberus

@badass Perhaps he felt you were discriminating against him as a lurker...

badass

@Snailboat Just change lurk to like.

Cerberus

I noticed the error, too, but then there's also the failed [link](www.zombo.com).

And "over about".

Actually, those errors are probably all intentional...d'oh.

badass

Maybe that room needs a new owner(s)?

Anonymous

1:48 PM

@badass Oh, it has a new owner(s) now.

Cerberus

Or maybe the owners like to joke around and confuse visitors with ELLisms?

badass

Don't confuse ELLs

Anonymous

@badass I try not to, but I explain stuff pretty badly sometimes.

tchrist

Oh bloody ELL. I need some reddit addict or something.

I need to lure people to view my bounty questions for the 42 badge. :)

badass

Bloody?

RegDwigнt

1:52 PM

@tchrist I thought about that. Problem is, no one on Reddit cares.

tchrist

I’d rather have them upvote the weefil, but just getting viewcount up seems the shortest route to missing badge.

RegDwigнt

I posted Kit's question and it got like 20 views in a day. And it was about pedophiles, for crying out loud!

tchrist

@RegDwigнt I don’t need for them to care.

Oh.

Cerberus

Hilarious.

RegDwigнt

Yeah I mean care as in a synonym for click.

Cerberus

1:53 PM

shrugs

tchrist

I got her +~100 views by setting an autoreload in my browser on her question for a couple of days.

RegDwigнt

When I posted a pic of my LEGO elephant, I got ten thousand views in a day. Ten thousand.

tchrist

With a delay outside the 10-minute MRU cache.

Whoa.

RegDwigнt

@tchrist you think views on old questions work? Extrapolating from all the other badges, it'd have to be a fresh one...

tchrist

10k?

I now see theproblem.

No, it has to be a new question.

RegDwigнt

1:54 PM

Yes. 10k views, about 100 upvotes on Reddit, about 1 new follower on Flickr.

tchrist

Well, one asked during Winterbash.

RegDwigнt

It's powers of 100.

And 0 new supporters on CUUSOO.

The math checks out.

tchrist

I could get Mr Peanut for the weevil question, because Kit got it from the 10,000 views on an old question. If only it were at 100.

But getting to the 42 badge seems easier.

That’s why I put a bounty on the new wanking questions: to elicit views.

That sounds like exhibitionism, but isn't.

It just hasn’t worked. :(

Ste

@tchrist How did you get Eureka?

tchrist

By figuring it out.

Needs views:

6

Q: Where does the word “jism” come from?

Another word of mysterious origins of jism, in the sense of spunk. The OED mentions it is sometimes spelled jizz, and may even be the precursor word to jazz. But neither the OED nor Etymonline gives any etymology for this word. The oldest citation is from 1847, and there are many citations fr...

etymology slang offensive-language

RegDwigнt

1:58 PM

I figured out something yesterday, and went to Meta to post it, and there it stood in plain sight, in a comment, posted by a dev himself. And the comment wasn't even upvoted.

tchrist

Needs votes:

76

A: What animal is a “weefil”?

f vs ſ That’s merely a “long s”, not an f. Therefore, it is not a weefil but rather a weeſil — meaning of course, a weasel. We can rule out weevil because it has the look not of a bug but of a musteline critter. Here are some examples in various faces — namely, in roman, italic, scrip...

You know what, I know the problem with the jizz question.

It doesn’t have a cute graphic like the weefil question.

And no, I am not about to add one.

Ditto for this:

3

Q: Where does the word “wankers” come from?

The term wanker is derived from the verb wank in the sense of to masturbate. However, neither the OED nor Etymonline can trace it further back than that: both claim it is of “obscure origin”, which just means they don’t know. As with my question on snogging, this term seems to have come into vo...

etymology slang offensive-language commonweath-english rude-words

That’s my other 42 candidate.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…