English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Later

I'm glad you made it out of area51 alive :-)

Matt Эллен

g'night!

12:51 AM

Is it Little Star of Bethlehem in Chat Christmas yet?

That is the funniest sentence I have read all day.

1:20 AM

Hey last year we had sleds???

We all had tiny sleigh rides on our avatars, right??

@regd

Does anyone remember

Or

Does anybody remember

So instead of sleigh rides we get an extra week of hat mania >8(

That's it for this stinkin hat. I want my sleigh ride!!!

1:38 AM

►

2:03 AM

@englishmaster How did you find that?

@kitfox your bounty is running out soon.

@Mitch The French stayed...

4:11 AM

@snailboat sure it does because it sounds like an entirely different word which doesn't fit there at all.

@Cerberus Exactly. What? No, the nobles stayed long enough, right?

@Mitch Everyone stayed long enough to have a nice party!

A nice British-French party? Doesn't sound possible!

Anonymous

@Mitch I actually suspect most speakers wouldn't notice

@snailboat I think speakers would know what they're trying to say. Hearers might not be able to tell the difference. Readers definitely would know that 'X verse Y' is horribly wrong.

4:44 AM

Hello

(Just sneak in here before having my lunch.)

4:58 AM

@badass I don't know

I'm good at finding those weird videos on Internet

Q: How to query elements by attribute value instead of attribute name

6:39 AM

4

So this is an interesting one and may very well be impossible to do efficiently. But I'm interested in finding an efficient way to query all html elements in the document that have a particular value set for any attribute. So, for example, instead of this: document.querySelectorAll('[attrName]')...

javascript html

my answer is the best

right?

8:24 AM

@EnglishMaster Your answer is certified by at least one engineer.

8:46 AM

@tchrist I have lost count.

Noah

9:47 AM

Hi

Is it normal to say during crisis time?

Yes.

Morning, all.

Hullow, hat hunters.

Does the following sentence make sense to you?

> One of the situations where I realized my father is determined to send me to school, was when we were to Madison.

The one who answers my question first, will get a Mr.know-it-all hat for free.

Noah

@JasperLoy I'd say during the time of crisis.

Sounds a bit strange to my ears.

10:15 AM

@Gigili I believe it does make sense to me. (Maybe because I'm a non-native speaker. Making sense is what we do.) This person has many situations. And one of those situations was when we (that person and somebody else, perhaps his or her father, or sibling(s), depending on the context) were to Madison. It was about that time that this person realized that the father determined (maybe there was something that made him determined as such) to send him or her to school. :)

10:41 AM

damn it

my account got suspended for posting Goat and your mom video on JS chatroom

Orl?

Orly*

11:10 AM

@gigili I believe there is a typo: when we ~~were~~ went to Madison.

Or: when we were to at Madison.

I believe you're wrong.

Why?

Why no star me message that hat get not?

Umm, perhaps because we were to Madison.

Perhaps.

I agree.

11:24 AM

With who?

with both of you.

@Noah in a time of crisis is more idiomatic

Possibly it was a confusion from we were to visit Madison.

Possibly.

@Gigili This sentence is a little more difficult, and yet it's still perfectly understandable to me, somehow.

11:28 AM

I'm awesome like that.

We know!

But no hat, not get yet.

:-)

could I have some re-open votes for this? english.stackexchange.com/questions/142330/… wondering if I can get a gold hat over Christmas! :)

@DamkerngT. I see your point.

11:33 AM

@Hugo - Done. You not got the gold hat?

thanks! no, not yet

not sure the easiest way, that ones 3k/10k for views...

this is 53/100 upvotes for gold: english.stackexchange.com/questions/45883/…

Forget the hat, I want my sleigh ride >8(

we could always, ahem, engineer some Reversal golds: Provided answer of +20 score to a question of -5 score

We discussed that yesterday but people tend to vote up the question as well.

I'm happy to give it a go.

@Hugo Why don't you answer my question?

11:37 AM

@Gigili which one?

The one I asked a few hours beforehand.

2 hours ago, by Gigili

> One of the situations where I realized my father is determined to send me to school, was when we were to Madison.

Thank you for your effort.

Don't count on me, I won't vote to reopen your question.

12:02 PM

@Gigili "One of the times I realized my father is determined to send me to school was when we went to Madison."

@Gigili Or, if it all took place in the past and/or the father is no longer determined, or if you're no longer of school age: "One of the times I realized my father was determined to send me to school was when we went to Madison."

@Gigili depends somewhat on the wider context, like if it's in a novel

However correct, the mixed tense of "I realised my father is" makes me cringe.

It's in a biography.

@Gigili Does your father still want to send you to school?

55 mins ago, by badass

@gigili I believe there is a typo: when we ~~were~~ went to Madison.

@badass agreed

12:06 PM

@Hugo So "we were to Madison" is not correct?

@Ste agreed

Umm.

@Gigili no, it's "we went to ..."

48 mins ago, by badass

Or: when we were to at Madison.

@Ste I don't really know. It's about someone else's father anyway and he must be very old now.

OK, thanks.

12:10 PM

Thanks for asking.

@Gigili I would assume, in that case that the author has been and finished school. In which case you would use "I realized that my father was determined..."

Right.

Noah

12:21 PM

I am gona lose my hat over time?

Assuming I don't wear it.

No.

They can't take away something you have earned!

It could be fun if we can wear two hats at the same time.

I want my cat-hat wearing another hat! :)

12:36 PM

There is "one" hat that has three hats stacked up.

This one?

Wearing this hat makes me feel a bit like a king of pop!

(Only if I can find a photo of ASIMO doing a moonwalk.)

:-)

Q: The manifestation of creativity in written language

Morning!

> As I am a scholar of social psychology and marketing, and the aim the project is to be able to track ideas and creativity in online forums.

A scholar of marketing, really?

0

I am working on a project where the aim is to create a dictionary of creativity terms. As I am a scholar of social psychology and marketing, and the aim the project is to be able to track ideas and creativity in online forums. Therefore I was thinking if anyone in here would know what theoretica...

morphology

12:52 PM

That sounds very scholar-ishly.

Verrry....

According to his profile, he is trying to become skilled within quantitative analysis and statistics, too

Hmm.

Perhaps he considers the field a prison...

"quantitative analysis and statistics" is definitively scholar-ish.

It depends on what one actually does with it...

Counting the number of times the word "the" was used in this room today is also quantitative analysis and statistics...

12:58 PM

what do you mean?

^^

@badass That it can be a fancy name for something fairly straightforward.

all of science starts out that way

fairly straight forward

A new hat!

Lately, I found myself rather hat-oriented.

well choosen word

1:02 PM

Can talking about "hat-oriented" make me sound like a scholar?

A scholar in hats.

hatology

OMG! A christmas hat!

That's the first one I saw in the wild.

that is me

I thought it would come tomorrow, not today.

1:08 PM

I thought it would come on any of the three days.

a wild and crazy guy

But in badass's hat description it's more specific, Dec 25th.

I want my sleigh ride with my new hat

?

??

???

I want my sleigh ride with my new hat

too.

Wow, badass has a Mariah hat.

1:13 PM

I want the Christmas hat...

too late

i got the first and last one

:)

bad badass :)

@Gigili "We were in Madison." Going towards the city is 'to Madison'. About something there at a particular time 'in Madison'.

@Mitch Yep, thank you. I wish you were online 24/7.

Umm, what's with these random starred messages?

Hat mongering

1:19 PM

@badass How do you get that hat?

Ho Ho Ho
post or vote on December 25

Matt is not here today, sad.

But it is not Dec 25 UTC yet.

@JasperLoy Not yet?

@Mitch I think they don't follow UTC for hats.

What other time is there?

1:23 PM

time is relative

Not UTC. It's universal. THe astronauts on Mars use it.

E = mc^2

Femen protesting against radical Islam near a mosque in Paris.

hats hats hats

what about these hats?

@Cerberus nothing like showing your boobs to protest a religious minority

Yeah!

1:30 PM

@Cerberus She has small boobs.

@JSBձոգչ They do that against everything they see as injustice. It's usually not religion, but people like Putin.

@JasperLoy Nah.

Women throw up their bras demanding attention for breast cancer.

they did that in the 70's

yawn

It's still nice.

yawn

Poor Badass, are you tired?

1:33 PM

There should be men throwing their underwear to demonstrate awareness for testicular cancer, lol.

Here, have an amphetamine shot. prick

been there... seen that

I just have seen a new ELL's user got their Christmas hat. Perhaps it depends on timezone.

@Cerberus see, but i like putin.

mostly, i just don't like femen. it's the nadir of feminism.

You like Putin?

1:35 PM

pooteen

Did Putin make some antigay laws?

@Cerberus what's not to like?

I am a bit confused here.

@JSBձոգչ This ^ seems to indicate irony.

@JasperLoy And a ton of other things, yes.

@Cerberus no, i only talk in coppery, never irony

@JasperLoy Captain of underpants: activist marches in fight against testicular cancer

1:36 PM

@Cerberus I did not know Russia was so conservative.

OH LOOK i just got the ho ho ho hat as well

@JasperLoy Russia has a liberal elite. But Putin's clan takes about 100 billion from the treasury each year, and he will enact any laws he needs to in order to satisfy various clans.

The starred messages are not funny at all, only my unstarred messages are funny.

6

@JSBձոգչ I'll take Femen over Putin every day.

We're supposed to star important lines, not random jokes, right?

4

@Cerberus the femen do have bigger boobs, but i'd rather have putin running my country

1:39 PM

Are you serious?

what country is that?

i'm completely serious. but i don't live in russia, so we're speaking hypothetically here

are you sure that is not hypocritically?

here's a non-trivial reason to like putin

I definitely don't like staying in my country.

1:42 PM

Hm, how's that non-trivial?

That's the most famous reason, in fact.

the main thing that putin seems to do wrong is that he doesn't genuflect to western elites, but runs his country as he sees fit. since imho the western elites can fuck themselves, i have a fondness for putin

@RegDwigнt hence non-trivial

not that i want to gloss over some real problems

@JSBձոգչ You like Putin, I like Pudding.

2

It's also the most famous reason for not liking him, by the way.

now that is a classic line

Because that money comes from pretty much just oil, and because it goes into the pockets of pretty much UNDER 9000 people.

I'm bringing some presents today!

1:43 PM

@RegDwigнt excellent

@RegDwigнt Geezis!

!!afk

Vote or post today for a limited-edition hat!

3

@RegDwigнt It is the Mariah hat!

@JasperLoy that's the Mariah hat, go grab it! This year it's only attainable on one day!

Haha jinx.

Anyway, go upvote someone and you'll get it.

1:45 PM

I thought it was tomorrow's hat... ?

Helloooh! Supplies are running out already. Don't think, get it.

i up vote year around :D

@JSBձոգչ No thanks to Putin.

that's why i was one of the first

moscow has the most billionaires in the world for a reason

put that on your graph

6 mins ago, by RegDwigнt

Because that money comes from pretty much just oil, and because it goes into the pockets of pretty much UNDER 9000 people.

@JSBձոգչ As Reg says, it's all oil money, the poor did not get much of it, and his clan steals about 100 billion from the treasury every year, researchers have found*. He also lets corruption get out of hand (because they're his cronies), has people killed and tortured, does little to improve the lives of the Russian people. Russia is usually characterised as a Mafiose plutocracy under his rule. And, most importantly, he posts ridiculous pictures of himself catching bears on the Internet...

*) I'll find you a quote later.

1:51 PM

Russia is home of Perelman who first solved a Millennium Problem, but he rejected the million dollars.

@RegDwigнt Preferably one of these and someone else may also get a hat! data.stackexchange.com/english/query/12270/…

Idea! We could easily use the Marauder or Horror questions (or another) to get gold Reversal hats for all ("Provided answer of +20 score to a question of -5 score"). Thoughts? cc @Ste @RegDwigнt

I'm game with anything and everything hat related.

Hah.

First of all, good luck with getting that question down from 29 to minus 5.

Second of all,

There are no hats on meta sites, so you can't get the Marauder hat here. “Oh the Horror” is gained on the main site for something that happens on the meta site, but Marauder has to happen on the main site. You could do this on Meta Stack Overflow though: it counts as Stack Overflow's meta (so you can get “Oh the Horror” on SO), and it doubles as the SE meta which is a proper site, so there are hats there as well. — Gilles 2 days ago

Same for Reversal.

It won't get you a gold badge on the main site.

Thirdly, only one Reversal is awarded per question, I believe.

So. Good thing I'm wearing an umbrella, because that was quite some rain on that parade.

2:08 PM

Haha.

And anyway, I for one have greater troubles.

I must still come up with four questions for RL!

And you are, like, not helping!

I must get drunk again. It worked like a charm when I was drunk.

I am planning on getting drunk as soon as I clock off at 17:30.

That is a spectacular plan, my friend. Make it so.

Although I am working from home today so I could crack open a cold one now...

That is a marvellous endeavour you should pursue.

2:11 PM

@RegDwigнt haha, thanks for the triple warning before we wasted time on that!

I'm afraid it was done before you had responded.

@Ste well, it is Christmas after all

And I have adorned my head with Mariah's hat to show it.

ELU still holding steady at 10th, web apps leading at 9th with 2,727 to our 2,591

just a 136 gap

We are only a few people short in the "Oh, the Horror Hat Club"

2:17 PM

Just a quick one.
“I cannot draw this picture" --> "This picture cannot/could not be drawn by me"
How does that sound?

sounds yummy

Come on!

T_T

Isn't this a PD?

And by PD, I mean Positive Definite.

@RegDwigнt, Of course

Q: "I cannot draw this picture" in passive voice

0

I am confused between these alternatives: 1. This picture cannot be drawn by me 2. This picture could not be drawn by me

passive-voice

I hope that gives you some ideas for your RL questions.

2:22 PM

I'm not very good at grammar, and I don't want to give him misinformation.

I'm sure I will never say those sentences, neither in active voice nor in passive voice.

Are you a painter?

My motto: Everyone can draw. :)

I have the Mariah hat!

Mariah hat? What is a Mariah hat?

@Marthaª Oh, Mariah Carey wears this Christmas hat in some of her photos.

2:31 PM

The Christmas hat.

She wears it on the cover of her Christmas album.

Someone downvoted my hyperbole answer leaving no comment, lol.

(That sound you heard was a pop culture reference whooshing right over my head.)

I see you still don't have it, by the way! Go upvote someone! Or post a question...

@JasperLoy Not me :)

So what does one have to do to acquire a Christmas hat?

2:32 PM

@DamkerngT. I no longer need to have my rep a multiple of 5, so it is OK.

@Marthaª vote up or down on the main site. Or post a question or an answer. During the next 40-odd hours or so.

@RegDwigнt Ah, OK, that one.

Yeah.

There'll be another limited-edition hat on New Year's Day. But that one's in chat.

limited?

Well. You can only get it on a particular date. I'd say that's pretty limited.

2:36 PM

ok

Well, I'm off to eat pancakes. Ta-ta for now! And Merry Christmas to those who celebrate such things!

3

later

@JasperLoy Well I commented and upvoted!

@Ste prepare for the limited-edition christmas hat

@badass - I already got it, thanks!

2:40 PM

:D

they are great on sleigh rides

I have 7 stars on the wall, miracle.

5

only if you believe

7

@Gigili one five star comment plus two single star comments = 7

grammaticality expressions geography grammar antedecent collocation copula

Colin Fine

206 1 4

Colin Fine, England, United Kingdom

27.5k 21 69

word-choice meaning grammar grammaticality prepositions verbs etymology

I wonder if they are the same...

...does it matter?

3:27 PM

I'm slowly getting there!

@RegDwigнt - That's a mission!

It's fun.

@RegDwigнt I was about to ask "What's Quantitative Fiancé?", but then I realized that I misread it. :)

Mind you, I also got six hats on SO in the last couple hours.

And a bunch on MSO.

But other than those two I do not get any hats for anyone above us.

I might on Cooking, perhaps... they cannot be surpassed anymore, either.

Is it hat-for-chat Christmas yet?

3:39 PM

It's hat-for-vote.

Oh.

But it doesn't rhyme. :o(

It's not Christmas but I have time on my hands so there's this:

Wait, are you saying that that it's just cats that wear duck costumes who are not ducks? Or anybody? What about ducks? Ha, you didn't think of that, did you? Philosophy..pfft. — Mitch 1 min ago

Q: Why is X used when we pronounce it Z?

Does anyone know if we have a question on how x came to be pronounced z on the site? If not, I propose to ask one.

Ahh, never mind.

20

I've seen a lot of words use an X but be pronounced with a Z. Mitch Hedberg put it best: Xylophone is spelled with an X, that's wrong, xylophone's zzzz, X? I don't $%(@#& see it. It should be a Z up front, next time you have to spell xylophone, use a Z. When someone says, "Hey that's wrong," ...

alphabet

Funny, but sometimes you can't find a question through the search until you start asking it yourself. Then some better mechanism kicks in. Weird.

@Mitch how do you mean, it's not Christmas. Everyone in here is wearing their Christmas hats already. QED.

3:48 PM

I have no Christmas hat, yet I have voted already.

Ah, there it is.

It was waiting for me to bitch. Squeaky wheel and all.

As I said, QED.

I think you were pulling the strings just to embarrass me.

Nah, I'm only here for a commercial break.

Which I could skip over cuz it's a recording.

That is how much I wanted to see you in the hat.

Sounds like a total lack of dedication.

23 mins ago, by RegDwigнt

2 hours ago, by RegDwigнt

Lack of dedication, you say.

Huh.

My first surname is Dedication.

And that was pulling the strings just to embarrass you.

3:53 PM

Okay - I am working from home but there is not one single person on Lync who is not Away or Offline. Am I the only one working? I'm going to down tools....

BBL!

I've dropped to #17 site-wide, tied with someone named イオニカビザウ (ionikabizau, what ever that is supposed to mean).

I'm never going to hit #1 because "With Great Power" is a mod-only hat, I think.

Mods cheat. We all know that.

Yeah. Dirty mods...