English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Robusto

01:27

Dandy Warhols - Cool as Kim Deal

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Seems somehow appropriate.

Cerberus

02:30

Hi!

Elll

03:05

hi

Is there someone in this room?

Cerberus

Hi.

skill patrol

Hi.

Spork

03:40

@terdon it was apparently very intuitive to many to interpret 'pretty ugly' as an oxymoron, which is why it's on lists all over the internet. That makes it a plain fact that it is interpreted as such. Your example of 'cheap dear' does not seem to be evoking the same feeling of contradiction in anyone - hence nobody feels it's an oxymoron.

There is only force in denying the existence of tens of easy to find sources (including in the top-voted answer that states it isn't an oxymoron) with 'pretty ugly' as an example. There is no hoopla.

SmokeDetector

06:32

[ SmokeDetector ] Offensive answer detected: In "That patient merit of th'unworthy takes", what does merit mean exactly? by HFo on english.stackexchange.com

Nicholas J.

07:25

Hello!

skill patrol

Hi pal.

Nicholas J.

Sorry to bother you again. I'm curious, though... is "not probable to happen" wrong or simply just not used?

Because when I search on the Web I get around 55 results and in books, only 14. The Ngram throws zero results.

skill patrol

I would say that it is rare, but not wrong.

Nicholas J.

07:41

Alright, thank you, m8.

skill patrol

np, thanks for asking :-)

Nicholas J.

How long have you guys been here?

Like if I'm not mistaken, I remember logging on like two years ago, and it was pretty much the same people.

skill patrol

about 3 years...

Nicholas J.

Oh well, thought it'd be more.

Justyna Nogala

08:27

If I said "according to him" would a meaning stay the same as "according to what he said"?

skill patrol

first message 2010-11-10 @NicholasJ.

chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/95/2010/11/10

Nicholas J.

08:46

Well, that's interesting. Thanks for your time.

Justyna Nogala

09:06

Is there general order of writing names in english? an essential principle which cannot be betrayed? I know it goes a following order First name - middle name - family name such as Justyna Nogala Arthur Cocan Doyle Margaret Thatcher etc. In many languages including mine, in writing the names are written backwards. Nogala Justyna Smith Jones, Wołkowicz Jakub. So my question is; when we translate sth from source language to target langage(English).

Do we have to write names in accordance with the general rule? or we should stick to the original version?

Nicholas J.

Can you give us an example?

Justyna Nogala

Relacja 301/2653
Wołkowicz Jakub, [Opole, 11.07.1947 r.]
Buczacz
s.4
„Rano 4 lutego 1943 roku gestapo, żandarmeria i policja ukraińska łapała każdego napotkanego Żyda. Zabierali również z mieszkań i wyprowadzili za miasto, tam gdzie były wykopane rowy nad Strypą, w miejscu zwanym Fedor. Tam kazali rozebrać się, stanąć nad rowem i rozstrzeliwali grupami. Rozstrzelili wtenczas około 1300 Żydów obojga płci, starych, młodych i dzieci.”

Testimony 301/2653
Wołkowicz Jakub,/Jakub Wolkowicz? [Opole, 11 July 1947]
Buchach
p. 4
"In the morning of 4 February 1943, Gestapo, Gendarmes and Ukrainian Police would capture every encountered Jew. They would also take those who were at homes and take them outside the city to the ditches by the Strypa River, in a place called Fedor. There, Jews were told to undress themselves and stand in groups over the ditch to be executed. About 1,300 Jews were killed at that time, men, women, old, young and children."

Wolkowicz is a surname Jakub(jackob) is a first name

Nicholas J.

"When East Asian names are transliterated into the Latin alphabet, some people prefer to convert them to the Western order, while others leave them in the Eastern order but write the family name in capital letters. To avoid confusion, some always write a family name in capital letters, especially when writing for an international audience. This habit is commonly used in the international language Esperanto. "

Personal name

A person's full nomenclature, also known as a personal name or full name, refers to a set of names by which an individual may be known, that are or can be recited as a group, with the understanding that they all relate to one person. In some cultures, individuals are known by a single name; in others they may possess a variety of names, some of which are specific to the individual and distinguish that person from other relatives, while others indicate the person's relationship to others, or membership in a family, clan, or other social structure. In Western culture, nearly all individuals possess...

Justyna Nogala

omg

This is not an Asian name.

Nicholas J.

Read the whole section about it. They're not just talking about Asian names. They categorize them as Western & Eastern order.

Justyna Nogala

09:15

ok

terdon

11:51

@Spork My point is that pretty ugly both is and isn't an oxymoron depending on how you choose to interpret it. Beautifully ugly is certainly an oxymoron. Using pretty ugly as an example seems silly since it can also be interpreted differently.

The "normal" interpretation of pretty <ADJECTIVE> would be to take pretty as an adverb. My normal interpretation anyway.

My feeling, therefore, is that taking pretty ugly as an oxymoron is twisting its arm.

skill patrol

12:05

@terdon Hi pal, welcome back :-)

terdon

Hey :)

Andrew Grimm

12:41

esl currently has 17 questions. It seems a little meta. Should it be burninated?

user116848

13:04

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Nice piano!

Faheem Mitha

16:04

For those searching for Indian linguistic oddities, hot water heaters are called geysers here. You know, like Old Faithful. I wonder where that came from. A brand name gone generic?

This might also be imported British usage.

Hmm, articledashboard.com/Article/… first para

An Englishman Benjamin Maughan, however in 1868 invented the first instant water heater called “The Geyser”, a device where the water was heated as it flowed into the bath.

So, maybe imported British usage.

Robusto

16:17

I've heard geyser used that way in British films of the mid 20th century.

Cerberus

We still call it a geiser.

Geiser (apparaat)

Een geiser is een apparaat dat dient voor de bereiding van warm water, het water wordt hierbij meestal verwarmd door middel van aardgas, soms met propaan of butaan, maar er zijn ook geisers die gebruik maken van elektriciteit. De naam is afgeleid van een geiser, een warmwaterbron in de natuur. Een geiser is een warmwatertoestel waarbij het water pas wordt opgewarmd op het moment dat dit benodigd is, dit in tegenstelling tot een boiler waar een op temperatuur gehouden hoeveelheid warm water in een geïsoleerd vat is opgeslagen. Men noemt een geiser daarom een doorstroomtoestel en een boiler e...

@FaheemMitha Or just an international word.

Faheem Mitha

@Cerberus Oh. I've never heard that usage outside India.

Cerberus

Now you have.

Faheem Mitha

Probably came from the 1868 usage. It's not a word that would arise naturally as slang, for example.

@Cerberus Only because I bought it up.

Cerberus

Well, why else would we talk about geysers here?

Faheem Mitha

16:24

@Cerberus Uh, my point is, I lived in places outside India and never heard the word. Period. Of course, I might have forgotten.

Mitch

17:17

@FaheemMitha Have you seen a water heater go bad?me neither but bet it looks like a geyser.

@MattE.Эллен I know you're a puppy hater, but ...

.. but that's it

well there's this:

Suppose you have the following set of sentences:

I like to eat broccoli and bananas.
I ate a banana and spinach smoothie for breakfast.
Chinchillas and kittens are cute.
My sister adopted a kitten yesterday.
Look at this cute hamster munching on a piece of broccoli.

I mean that's totally wrong. In all ways. Broccoli.. ick.

skill patrol

18:42

Dear America... | David Mitchell's SoapBox

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Faheem Mitha

I wonder if people actually say "I could care less". But it isn't the only nonsensical phrase out there. Far from it.

skill patrol

Nonsense has no limits.

Faheem Mitha

According to David, crimes committed long enough ago become funny, but I don't think this is actually true - youtube.com/watch?v=uJqEKYbh-LU

Maybe comedians are professionally trained to think everything is funny.

If anyone feels the urge to read about hair raising historical events, check out the Punic Wars. Which happened over 2000 years ago.

In which Rome wiped Carthage off the face of the planet. Fun.

Mitch

20:46

Sorry I couldn't resist:

Is that Kelsey Grammer? I'm pretty sure he's not a virgin. — Mitch 44 secs ago

@FaheemMitha I think that's extreme to say that they become funny. More realistically, they lose their shocking impact.

Faheem Mitha

@Mitch I was paraphrasing David. And I personally don't things get less shocking because they get older.

skill patrol

21:02

All memories naturally fade with time.

If you want to continually refresh them then that's your choice.

Mitch

@FaheemMitha You may personally not feel it, but most other people recognize it. Billions of people have died over thousands and thousands of years, many of them your own personal ancestors, yet that is accepted as the natural order of things. But no one gets over a family member.

skill patrol

Blood is thicker than water.

Faheem Mitha

21:22

@Mitch I'm talking about major tragedies, to be clear. Like an entire civilization being wiped off the face of the earth. Yes, every individual death is a small tragedy, but that's part of being alive.

And you might get over a family member pretty quick if you hated him/her. In fact, you might be delighted.

Here is another good one:

Living in the Moment | David Mitchell's Soapbox

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Personally I think it is perfectly possible to live in the moment.

Look around you. You're breathing. You've alive. You're standing on the surface of the earth. It's magic. Take a moment to be glad to be alive.

This one is also very funny, though taking pot shots at advertising drivel is easy enough -> youtube.com/watch?v=Bz2-49q6DOI

Robusto

23:25

@RegDwigнt: OK, I finally saw Broken Flowers. Not sure what to think about it, though. I really wonder if Bill Murray has the "understated acting" gear. When he's not clowning he seems to just dial it down to zero. And I say that as someone who likes Bill Murray. Not sure I get Jim Jarmusch, either.

→ 1 message moved to Trash

Robusto

23:47

@FaheemMitha Yes, they do say that. It's actually rather more common in America than the other way around. I can only conjecture that once upon a time someone said it ironically, and it caught on even though people did not understand the ironic usage.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…