English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

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Robusto

00:24

@tchrist God, I haven't heard that term since I stopped playing WoW.

tchrist

00:51

I found a Perl module that instead of ending in the typical 1; to indicate a true value for the module so that the require or use succeeds, it instead ends with the string "All your base are belong to us" — which is equally true, but gee.

Robusto

Maybe they mean base as in numerical base.

BTW, there was no stigma attached to twinking in WoW. It was mainly a PvP thing anyway.

1 hour later…

Cerberus

02:24

@tchrist Neither very aesthetic. What's wrong with a normal ideal like a Greek god?

tchrist

Not sure about the Greek god bit, since they never existed, but no, they don’t trip my trigger either.

Cerberus

But they do!

tchrist

The first one is too skeletal and the second too uncute.

Cerberus

tchrist

That’s an Olympics trophy.

Cerberus

02:27

It is the Greek ideal.

tchrist

Joke.

If you win, you get to bring him home with you. :)

Cerberus

There's Zeus for you.

tchrist

Well.

I decline.

Cerberus

You would not accept that statue?

Odd.

At any rate, I must to bed.

tchrist

That wasn’t my declination.

Or declension.

As must I.

Cerberus

02:29

You would not accept that image?

tchrist

I’m a very accepting person.

Cerberus

Apparently not.

tchrist

Except in my bed.

Cerberus

Bona nox!

tchrist

Benighted.

2 hours later…

Noah

04:32

Hello

Do news outlets change ungrammatical writing in quoted text to grammatical ?

> Abdel Moneim Sharif, another protester, shared that sentiment: "We're not going to [stop protesting] until Morsi is restored to president and democracy is restored to Egypt."

This is a passage from ALJazeera English.

2 hours later…

MετάEd

06:49

@Noah More likely the protestor said "We're not going to until Morsi is restored to president and democracy is restored to Egypt" and the parenthetical addition clarifies what they're not going to.

1 hour later…

David Wallace

07:59

Probably, the journalist said to the protestor "When are you going to stop protesting?" or "Are you ever going to stop protesting?", or even "What would it take for you to stop protesting?" - something of that ilk.
The response would have been "We're not going to, until Morsi is restored to president and democracy is restored to Egypt." But it would have made no sense to quote this, without adding the part in square brackets.
As a general rule, square brackets indicate something that's been added to a quotation, that wasn't what was originally said.

@KitFox Caprica won't play with me!

2 hours later…

RegDwighт

09:45

-2

Q: Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler

Reading Einstein's quotes for some time I came across one that doesn't seem to make logical sense. "Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler" Now 'Make things as simple as possible' sets a limit. So how can you exceed that limit with 'but not simpler' While I understand that ever...

Makes me think of another great quote, by Bill Murray: "Well I wanna die".

Gotta run again.

Noah

10:04

Hello

But do you restore someone to President or Presidency?

Robusto

You restore someone to the presidency.

Noah

So then how was it that they said they would restore Moris to President?

I mean Morsi*

>@Noah More likely the protestor said "We're not going to until Morsi is restored to president and democracy is restored to Egypt" and the parenthetical addition clarifies what they're not going to.

I mean Morsi*

Robusto

Maybe dems not speak da good English, yah?

Noah

Maybe. But that was my question. Do reporters fix broken English in qouted text?

Robusto

The point is, they were trying for a parallel construction for purposes of a rhetorical flourish—"... until X is restored to Y and A is restored to B"—so they forced the issue, even though one part had to use an awkward construction to achieve that effect.

@Noah They don't fix broken English unless it's unintelligible. Oftentimes they'll sic 'em: "He said they isn't [sic] going."

Most often when you see brackets in quotations it means the reporter is changing syntax to include information to make a shorter quote clearer, as David Wallace says, by adding information that is not clear from the fragment quoted but stated elsewhere in context.

My point about "dems not speak da good English" referred to the Al Jazeera writer, not whoever he was quoting. And don't forget all this was translated, adding a further level of misdirection.

3 hours later…

MartyIX

12:48

Hello, I would like to ask a question about an article in the following comment of a data format: "[Informative] Number of boys in the class". I'm not sure if "the" article should be in front of the noun "Number". I think I've seen somewhere that the article is not used in this case but I'm not sure. What do you think?

2 hours later…

tchrist

14:18

Is the reason that this place is so dead here on the weekends is because people use it as a place to goof-off during work hours of the work week, and so on weekends they goof off elsewhere instead?

Matt Эллен

sounds plausible

tchrist

For all you bike-people out there.

Matt Эллен

@tchrist I think I'd prefer something that caused the bike to fall apart. but in a way that I could fix it.

tchrist

You wonder what kind of people spell deterrent with three t's but only one r.

No, I guess you don’t, actually.

But I’d hate to see their version of occurrence.

I was awoken at 4am by a wind storm.

Made coffee.

Found ear plugs.

Went back to bed.

Did you know there is only one word in the English language that is more frequently misspelled than occurrence?

Matt Эллен

which word is that?

Johan Larsson

14:54

Was out picking Rubus chamaemorus today

tchrist

15:05

@MattЭллен separate

@JohanLarsson Gotta love dem Rubes! Those ones are cloudberries.

I remember @Cerb remarking that keeping the English-language berry-names straight was hard.

tchrist

15:18

Who wears a watch anymore?

tchrist

15:35

►

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@tchrist I'm wearing one now.

tchrist

Analogue display, or digits?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Analogue. With date.

I don't get to wind it, though.

tchrist

15:51

Self-winding then?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Battery.

target.com/p/…

I must scamper off.

scampers

1 hour later…

Johan Larsson

17:04

@tchrist A woman with small or a man with large?

tchrist

@JohanLarsson You cannot tell the difference?

Johan Larsson

I think I can, just curious what you prefer? :D

@tchrist you have them and do you like them?

tchrist

Er, the former, if I had my druthers.

Johan Larsson

druthers don't know 'em but too lazy for google

1 hour later…

Robusto

18:20

@tchrist Definately.

tchrist

18:47

Holy cow, Egypt just made Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei interim prime minister!

This is really going to rile up the fundamentalists.

Sim, what’s up?

> Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Prize-winning diplomat, will be named as Egypt’s interim prime minister, his spokeswoman said Saturday.

Interesting that he should have a spokes-woman, eh?

1 hour later…

Mahnax

20:12

@Mitch Perhaps I should have specified that I am going with teachers from my school and several other students… At any rate, I'm paying for that trip.

Anonymous

20:23

Is there a clear difference between 'hype' and 'buzz' I can't seem to tell really

Johan Larsson

When I hear hype I think that some company want you to think something is hot, when I hear buzz I think of some MBA type wanting you to think he is ahead of the game. I don't know the language though

2 hours later…

MετάEd

21:58

@phpNఠ_ఠbie Hype (hyperbole) is over-sell by the marketer. The reality generally does not live up to the hype. Buzz is noise, specifically the noise of something being talked about. Buzz doesn't just include marketer noise but also whatever is being said independently.

All I have to say to my family who hates muskmelon: more for me.

tchrist

22:39

@MετάEd Tell them it’s cantaloup, served as a prophylactic to young girls of marriageable age that they not run off and get married to a young werewolf without their parents’ blessing.

MετάEd

@tchrist Yeah, I'll try that with my 15 year old daughter. :-)

tchrist

That’s the right target, ayup.

MετάEd

I'm afraid the reverse psychology would engage.

tchrist

Just tell them the name; the subliminal message will carry through.

MετάEd

@tchrist A dead person?

tchrist

22:44