English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

12:21 AM

@crl I know it from literature.

And hi.

Robusto

1:10 AM

@tchrist Yeah, I've seen that one before. Pretty funny.

@crl That is a false dichotomy. It's usually seen in music, especially in German music of the late Romantic period (Wagner, Richard Strauss, etc.). But you encounter it in literature as well. Still, it is not reserved for the exclusive use of those disciplines. Anywhere you think that a recurring them appears you may feel free to describe it with the term leitmotif.

Often, though, you would be more likely to use the term motif or just motive.

@tchrist Hmm, I see them all on my PC. It was just my tablet where they were missing.

crl

Ok thanks

It's interesting it comes from motivus, motif has still (at least in French) some senses related to motive, motivation (le motif d'un crime) but also it means "pattern" which seems really far from the latin sense..

Robusto

1:39 AM

@crl Well, pattern in the sense of something overlaid on something else, and imposing a kind of order.

Robusto

2:07 AM

> The word for "and" in Spanish is "y," and the word for "or" is "o." However, if the word after "and" starts with an "i" or "hi" (which sounds the same as "i" because the "h" in Spanish is always silent), then you need to use "e" instead of "y." For example "sons and daughters" is "hijos e hijas." Similarly, if the word after "or" starts with "o" or "ho," then you have to use "u" instead of "o." For example, "dog or bear" is "perro u oso."

Cerberus

Good to know.

tchrist

2:44 AM

@Robusto It’s sadly more complicated than that.

> La conjunción e es una variante de la conjunción y. Toma esta forma cuando la palabra siguiente empieza por el sonido de i vocal, normalmente escrito i- o hi- (en palabras extranjeras puede estar escrito de otro modo, pero cuenta únicamente el sonido). Sigue siendo y si forma diptongo, con sonido semiconsonante (intermedio entre i e y).
Era un proyecto ambicioso e ilusionante.
Padres e hijos fueron a la excursión.
Iberia e easyJet [pronunciado /ibéria e isiyét/]
iPod y iPad [si se pronuncia /aipód y aipád/]

Similarly if hu- starts a diphthonh, you don't change o to u.

O huevos not u huevos.

So diphthongs don’t count.

Hiatususus do.

tchrist

5:39 AM

1

A: "Habría" or "Hubiera"

You will never go wrong using either of these standard forms: Si tu hermana me llamase, te lo diría. Si tu hermana me llamara, te lo diría. That pair are completely interchangeable: no meaning changes when you switch between –se and –ra in the protasis. However, there are other, rarer scenar...

@Rob ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Matt E. Эллен

8:09 AM

148

Q: New UI encourages askers to confirm or dispute duplicate votes

As of yesterday (March 9th), the banner shown to askers whose questions have attracted at least one duplicate close vote has a couple of new options: If the author clicks the first button, the question is instantly closed: If, instead, they edit, then the choice will go away... At least unt...

woo!

infinitesimal

nice!

infinitesimal

9:24 AM

Is that a Tom Brady jersey on your avatar @JeannePindar?

Robusto

9:46 AM

@infinitesimal I don't think they sell Ken Stabler jerseys anymore, even for gravatars.

TRiG

10:01 AM

@Cerberus Three logic professors walk into a bar. "Do you all want pints?" asks the barman. "I don't know," says the first. "I don't know," says the second. "Yes, please," says the third.

infinitesimal

Good point @rob

Robusto

Also, Stabler's record for getting to 100 wins as a QB has fallen. Guess who holds the record now.

Try just calling it "common decency"—no article: "It's just common decency to say thank you." I can't see a reason why you would ever need to put that idea into one word, however. — Robusto 1 min ago

Why do people think they need to put something into a single word?

infinitesimal

Yep, the comparisons to Montana have begun :-)

Matt E. Эллен

@Robusto sothattheirsentenceslookshorter

Robusto

OIC

infinitesimal

10:10 AM

ic

Matt E. Эллен

if there were a way to map any given sentence into a single word, communication would become very weird

infinitesimal

They would call it math.

Robusto

@TRiG Them logic perfessers . . .

Matt E. Эллен

11:05 AM

2

Q: Does weapon weight count in World of Tanks?

I'm driving a Luchs (Light Tank) as a scout in WoT and I'm having a problem about choosing between the main gun: Gun 3cm M.K. 103 Gun 5cm Kw.K. 39 L/60 The latteris better in every aspect (apart from burst damage) but it weights 700kg while the former is just 141kg. Does this count in WoT? Fo...

world-of-tanks

@RegDwigнt

Mitch

11:23 AM

@MattE.Эллен remove spaces. Problem solved. Next problem?

Matt E. Эллен

@Mitch remove spaces from what?

Robusto

@infinitesimal The Patriots have just hemhorraged another team's worth of Pro Bowl talent. Gone are Revis, Browner, Wilfork, and at least four others. I will be amazed if they return to the Big Dance next year.

Mitch

11:37 AM

Remove spaces from your sentence to make one word

Robusto

Remove sentences from your space.

RegDwigнt

@MattE.Эллен that is one excellent tank, the Luchs. Especially if you drive in a platoon of 2-3 of them.

And yes, it drifts like you're playing Ridge Racer.

No other tank really does that, not even its successor Leopard.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Accept no subsitute.

Matt E. Эллен

@Mitch ah. whataboutafterpunctuation?

RegDwigнt

@Robusto because they are Germans.

YoumusttellthemthisisnotaGermansite.

Robusto

11:45 AM

@RegDwigнt I overlooked that possibility.

RegDwigнt

In English, that should be "I over looked". You German.

Robusto

What if we underlook something? English makes no provision for that.

One of my favorite put-downs: "I was trying to overlook that, but I fell short of the mark."

RegDwigнt

@Robusto English makes enough noobvisions to compensate.

Yesterday was a fine day for me.

That's the first time I got Unicum on anything.

Robusto

Eeeuw, did you clean it up?

RegDwigнt

Yes, with your een.

Matt E. Эллен

11:51 AM

what is unicum?

Robusto

It is cum not used in conjugal relations.

RegDwigнt

A horse with a spear on its head's sperm.

wotinfo.net/en/wn8scale

And I was actually playing in a platoon with someone who occasionally gets Super Unicum.

But yesterday, he only got Good-Great-Great.

Robusto

0

Q: harmless coloured water vs harmlessly coloured water

In the passage... The remarkable thing about many of the medicines dismissed then as 'snake oil' is not so much that they failed to live up the outrageous claims made for them - those that weren't harmless coloured water could be positively dangerous." I tried to decompose this super comple...

meaning grammar

Who will win?

My money is on harmlessly coloured water.

Who knew coloured waters were having a smackdown? Did I miss a memo?

Matt E. Эллен

@Robusto yes, the harmless coloured water is harmless.

Robusto

QED

Andrew Leach

12:00 PM

Whereas harmlessly coloured water might have a colourless poison in it.

Robusto

That is my plan for world domination of coloured waters.

So . . . sshhhh!

RegDwigнt

That is so racist.

And he talks big in Whitewash County,
Talks sweet as sugar cane.

Robusto

Clear waters cannot compete.

infinitesimal

but still waters run deep...

Robusto

But still, waters run deep.

Andrew Leach

12:07 PM

They need to run fast if they're going to compete.

RegDwigнt

Muddy Waters never runs.

Robusto

McKinley Morganfield is dead.

infinitesimal

running water never gets muddy

RegDwigнt

@Robusto nah, she merely runs fast asleep.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt She? She?

Muddy Waters - Im a Man (Mannish Boy).mp4

►

RegDwigнt

12:09 PM

Yes. Ever heard of PC, you chauvi?

infinitesimal

ole black water keep on rolling...

RegDwigнt

Just because she's got a dick, doesn't mean she gets to call herself a he.

infinitesimal

:-O

RegDwigнt

It's been a mere three days since the International Women's Day and you're already back to your habits. Awful.

infinitesimal

dick van dike?

RegDwigнt

12:13 PM

Besides, real men don't have to sing how they are real men. Talk about overcompensation.

infinitesimal

real men wear black

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Hey, why isn't there an International Men's Day? It's, like, a rainbow, dude.

RegDwigнt

So many feminism supporters, and not a single supporter of menism.

Matt E. Эллен

@RegDwigнt not here, perhaps...

RegDwigнt

These are the times, dude.

Robusto

12:16 PM

Peter Gabriel Shaking The Tree Live HD

►

RegDwigнt

LOL

Robusto

Look at Peter, prancing around there celebrating Woman's day.

Matt E. Эллен

Meninist

@MeninistTweet, Snapchat: DailyMeninist | Shop

created by @jewcup and @helloimivan | (parody) obviously sarcasm | contact: meninistbusiness@gmail.com |

2.6k tweets, 736k followers, following 461 users

RegDwigнt

I don't want to see Peter shake his tree live. Not even his Richard Roundtree.

I might buy the VHS, though.

Matt E. Эллен

Would you like to see Shaking peter his live tree?

RegDwigнt

12:19 PM

For 3000 dollars, I could like it for twenty seconds.

Volume discounts possible.

Robusto

This is why I'm glad I play keyboards. Nobody really expects you to shake your tree much while you're playing.

Unless you're playing a keytar, which I do not.

RegDwigнt

Exactly. Whenever I shake my tree while I'm playing, everyone goes "whoa, that was unexcpected".

Yes, with the extra C.

That's just how unexpected it is.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Totally chthonic, dude.

RegDwigнt

Chthulhu stops narwals from eating ye.

Robusto

Peter Gabriel -- Main Vocals, Harmonica, Keyboards, Rainstick
Manu Katché -- Drums
Tony Levin -- Bass, Chapman Stick, Main Vocals
David Rhodes -- Guitar, Main Vocals
Jean-Claude Naimro -- Keyboards, Main Vocals
Shankar -- Violins, Main Vocals
Levon Minassian -- Doudouk
Paula Cole -- Main Vocals
Leo Nocentelli - Guitar, Main Vocals
Daniel Lanois - Dobro,Telecaster . . .

I see women get 8th billing on that tune.

RegDwigнt

12:25 PM

Rainstick Manu Katché.

Katché got rainstickmatized.

Robusto

Well, it could have been his name.

RegDwigнt

Very katche name.

Robusto

I would rather be called Rainstick than Manu.

RegDwigнt

I would rather be called Manu than Womanu.

Robusto

WTF is a rainstick, anyway.

RegDwigнt

12:26 PM

It is a kind of stick.

Matt E. Эллен

it's a dried out cactus husk filled with cactus needles

Robusto

With rain on it?

@MattE.Эллен Whoa, TMI, dude.

Matt E. Эллен

and blocked at the ends so the needles don't fall out

RegDwigнt

For 3000 dollars, I will put as much rain on my stick as you wish.

Robusto

@MattE.Эллен But seriously, why even list that as an instrument?

Matt E. Эллен

12:28 PM

@Robusto so he looks like he had a lot to do

RegDwigнt

@Robusto Horror vacui.

They had space left, and a couple of letters over.

Robusto

@MattE.Эллен Whereas Paula Cole only had to look hot and sing. But she got no official credit for looking hot.

Matt E. Эллен

@Robusto it's a tough job

Robusto

And, apparently, a thankless one.

RegDwigнt

No looking hot goes unpunished.

Matt E. Эллен

12:30 PM

when was the last time you were thanked for looking hot?

Robusto

OK, evaluate: clean basement today or have fun outdoors?

RegDwigнt

Clean outdoors. Have fun in the basement.

Robusto

@MattE.Эллен Do masturbatory fantasies count?

@Matt: I am now Level 14 in Spanish. Fear me!

RegDwigнt

I am driving a level 9 tank, and it's not a Spanish one. Fear me twofold.

Robusto

Temerme!

RegDwigнt

12:32 PM

In fact, the tank has a name, and it's Josef Stalin.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Great name for a killer.

RegDwigнt

IS tank family

The IS tank family (IS in Cyrillic "ИС", meaning the Joseph Stalin or Iosif Stalin in Cyrillic "Ио́сиф Ста́лин") was a series of heavy tanks developed as a successor to the KV-series by the Soviet Union during World War II. It was named after Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The heavy tank was designed with thick armour to counter the German 88 mm guns, and carried a main gun that was capable of defeating the German Tiger and Panther tanks. It was mainly a breakthrough tank, firing a heavy high-explosive shell that was useful against entrenchments and bunkers. The IS-2 was put into service in April...

> It was named after Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

Thank you for that clarification, wiki.

Robusto

I still think getting hit by an 88 mm shell, even in a Stalin tank, would make your head ring like a bell.

RegDwigнt

Dude. The whole point of sitting in a Stalin tank is so that you don't get hit by an 88 mm shell.

Robusto

> Su esposa es conductora de autobús

Hehe. Now they're getting into sexist slurs in duolingo.

RegDwigнt

12:35 PM

Su conductora es esposa de autobús.

@Robusto they call that shit 74% of real Spanish text?

I don't think they've seen many books.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Tu hermana es conductora de autobús.

RegDwigнt

Es cierto.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt I think I got to 79.2%, but I'm too lazy to look it up.

RegDwigнt

At 79.2%, I'd expect to be asked to understand something like "Descubrí que no soy disciplinado por virtud, sino como reacción contra mi negligencia; que parezco generoso por encubrir mi mezquindad, que me paso de prudente por mal pensado, que soy conciliador para no sucumbir a mis cóleras reprimidas, que sólo soy puntual para que no se sepa cuan poco me importa el tiempo ajeno. Descubrí, en fin, que el amor no es un estado del alma sino un signo del zodiaco."

Note the remarkable absence of all kinds of búses.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Well, that and 25 pesos gets you on an autobús in Mexico City.

RegDwigнt

12:41 PM

Sorry, I am not familiar with that word, pesos. I'm but at 79.2%.

Does it mean dogs?

Robusto

Ask @Cerberus.

RegDwigнt

¡Hola Cerberus, tengo una pregunta para tí!

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Tu hermana no tiene ingresos.

RegDwigнt

Se habla ingres.

Robusto

14 mins ago, by Robusto

Temerme!

RegDwigнt

12:46 PM

Damelo.

Damelo is traveling tonight on a plane, I can see the red tail lights heading for Spain.

Robusto

OK, Mr. John.

RegDwigнt

That'd be Sir Mr. John to you.

Robusto

Well, wouldn't it technically be Dame Mr. John, given the damelo reference?

RegDwigнt

Nonono, you must be thinking of Van Morrisson's Damelo Honey.

Robusto

だめです。

RegDwigнt

12:53 PM

Instructions clear. Use less "des".

I've been using less des all week already.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt Whorable.

Nobody ever remembers the happy ones.

@Robusto One of your cats had piddled on your keyboard again.

Robusto

It is wonderful to hear the birds singing again after our horrid winter.

tchrist

184

Q: New UI encourages askers to confirm or dispute duplicate votes

As of yesterday (March 9th), the banner shown to askers whose questions have attracted at least one duplicate close vote has a couple of new options: If the author clicks the first button, the question is instantly closed: If, instead, they edit, then the choice will go away... At least unt...

discussion featured vote-to-close exact-duplicates

RegDwigнt

@Robusto Hey, Mr Tambourine Man.

tchrist

@Robusto Mine are sleeping.

Robusto

12:59 PM

@tchrist Wake 'em up! Early bird catches the worm, what?

Ellos deberían beber más café.

RegDwigнt

Si, porque ellos son muchos homosexuales.

tchrist

Cuidado por los gusanos.

Matt E. Эллен

@Robusto is fearful

tchrist

@Robusto Ni ellos solamente.

Shoggoth is become a lightning rod, attracting all manner of lightning bolts and fireballs.

I guess that’s one way to separate the trolls from the orcs.

RegDwigнt

Yesterday on Twitch I watched a Tomb Raider stream in which the streamer kept pronouncing "instructions" as "instrooctions". It was unnerving.

Matt E. Эллен

1:10 PM

are they from Birmingham?

RegDwigнt

I wouldn't know.

Andrew Leach

Or Liverpool, perhaps.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt They must have a lot of nerve if they've gone around unnerving the teeming millions.

RegDwigнt

And I don't mind people saying "foock off" or what have you, but for some reason the "instrooctions" really just killed me.

Robusto

Foock your instrooctions.

RegDwigнt

1:11 PM

Foocker-Woolfe.

Andrew Leach

This is getting sally.

RegDwigнt

Who is afraid of Foocker-Woolfe?

tchrist

The Red Beren.

RegDwigнt

That's a mistranslation, it's actually The Beautefel Beren.

infinitesimal

in Homotopy Theory, 3 hours ago, by Sean Tilson

@AaronMazel-Gee What could you possibly do? Oh how I wish you could know my pain. As bad as your calc students are I have had worse. I once heard a grown women ask what counterclockwise was. When someone told her she didn't believe them because "one hand goes one way and the other hand goes the other." When someone pointed at a clock and said no they don't, she asked for a second opinion. This person was over 40.

tchrist

1:14 PM

One man’s red is the next woman’s butler.

RegDwigнt

@infinitesimal so all you're saying, she was eligible to vote.

infinitesimal

@RegDwigнt yes, for one thing

tchrist

Yours goes to eleven?

Matt E. Эллен

Someone was telling me, in a class of students training to be veterinary nurses talking about P to Ca ratios, that none of them would believe that 1.3:1 was a ratio, they all thought it was a misprint

RegDwigнt

A misprint can still be a ratio. At least in a democratically elected country.

Matt E. Эллен

1:17 PM

even the lecturer had to look it up

infinitesimal

in Homotopy Theory, 55 mins ago, by Jon Beardsley

@SeanTilson @AaronMazel-Gee i once had a student ask me if the fact that $a<b$ implies $b<a$ is some kind of rule that they need to memorize.

RegDwigнt

> ... but asking if the fact that a<b implies b<a is some kind of rule that they need to memorize clearly shows a lack of a thirst for reasoning.

True story: I read that as "a lack of tchrist for reasoning".

No really, I did.

tchrist

Understandably.

RegDwigнt

Must be that "I cdn'uolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg" thing.

tchrist

They think we don’t read the way we think we read I think.

RegDwigнt

1:21 PM

Legito ergo sum.

tchrist

Better living through LEGO?

RegDwigнt

How is that even a question.

tchrist

I’m just traducing.

RegDwigнt

And I'm just telling you to end statements in periods not question marks.

tchrist

That never stops the uptalkers.

RegDwigнt

1:28 PM

It does stop some of the walkie-talkers.

It outright full stops them.

tchrist

That’s a Microsoft bug, not a Stack Exchange bug: it looks just fine on normal operating systems. — tchrist 1 min ago

Microsoft simply can’t do fonts right. That is not something I expect Stack Exchange to fix.

Have they fixed the word break bug on counts yet? That one is theirs.

Well hell, I’m going to have to use the 10k tools to find them.

I almost never use those any more.

Got it.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Yo no lo haría así.

RegDwigнt

1:43 PM

Sharia, YOLO.

Mitch

2:02 PM

@MattE.Эллен Your P to Ca ratio is going to be in the thousands. That was obviously a misprint because would have been terribly dead by spontaneous combustion. I am shocked and hurt by your prejudiced assumption that nurses are innumerate.

Or they could be dumb.

Robusto

2:19 PM

> Congratulations! You scored 4.41/5.00

infinitesimal

:-O

Robusto

Hmm, only a B+.

They don't give you a breakdown of what you missed.

infinitesimal

88% is a B+ ?

an A must be 90%

Robusto

5 = A, 4 = B.

They don't give you a breakdown of the scoring, though, so it's hard to say what they mean.

Anyway, the day is too nice to spend indoors. I'm going out to ride my bike.

infinitesimal

later pal

Robusto

2:32 PM

Yesterday felt great, btw. This damn snow can't melt soon enough.

infinitesimal

have fun :-)

Jeanne Pindar

@infintesi, yes, my avatar is supposed to be wearing a Brady jersey. It looks more like a Colts jersey but there's a limit to what one can do with a low-res image.

infinitesimal

@JeannePindar did you watch the game?

Jeanne Pindar

The Super Bowl? Of course!

infinitesimal

yes, what did you think of the last play call by sea?

Jeanne Pindar

2:46 PM

Inexplicable

infinitesimal

I see.

Jeanne Pindar

I mean I read various explanations but still...

infinitesimal

...we argued over many of those "explanations" in the Sports.SE chat room :-)

The bottom-line is how did the seattle defense give away that lead?

Robusto

4:10 PM

Is today the day? Eight more up votes will free me from this turbulent quest.

Cerberus

4:32 PM

Hello.

What will you do after?

Ice Girl

@infinitesimal :)

infinitesimal

4:46 PM

@IceGirl :)

Robusto

6:33 PM

@Cerberus Nothing. That's the point.

BTW, 35 miles today! I'm back, baby!

For you metricists, that's ~56 km.

Is there some kind of disease where you don't want to do anything but ride your bike? If there is, I think I have it.

Cerberus

We should have had you vaccinated.

@Robusto Not even answering the occasional question that catches your interest?

Robusto

@Cerberus Well, sure. But the over on that should be in the neighborhood of one or two per annum.

Cerberus

6:58 PM

The "over"?

I stopped regularly answering questions after the Atwood débâcle.

But I find that I still answer more than one question a month.

Robusto

7:44 PM

@Cerberus The betting line n where the winner takes the range of n (or n + 1, I don't recall exactly) to infinity.

In other words, if we were making a pool on how many questions I would answer in a year, and the oddsmakers determined I would probably answer from 10 to 20 questions per year, 20 would be the over and 10 would be the under.

Cerberus

All right.

And how many answers did you write last year?

Robusto

@Cerberus Too many.

More to the point, why aren't you helping me get there? Don't you want to see me put paid to this whole reputation wheel thing?

I am still in my post-cycling euphoria. It doesn't take much to keep me happy.

Mitch

@Robusto How often have you hit your head?

If you can remember, then it hasn't been enough.

Robusto

8:14 PM