English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

curiousdannii

00:14

After 487 reviews my close vote queue is at 0! :)

Mazura

02:26

Am I the only one who saw that picture and immediately thought, it's about to be a really bad day for that crocodile? (He doesn't make it... – @the ten people who thought it would.)

IͶΔ

09:12

@Shafizadeh Yeah, tongue slip

Dave

10:46

Morning, I'm struggling with what vertical and horizontal are... If I were to write "in both blue and green colours" , then it makes sense. Blue and green are colours, but what are vertical and horizontal.. Is it directions? eg "in both vertical and horizontal directions" or are they actually more angles?

Is it projections?

I think it's angles myself

Matt E. Эллен

11:38

@Dave directions could work, or orientations

Dave

@MattE.Эллен, Orientations... Yess.....!!!!!

Thank you

Matt E. Эллен

no probs :)

tchrist

The crouching-jaguar question is on the multi-collider.

Matt E. Эллен

12:00

ta

Mitch

13:50

@tchrist I was impressed. Is an alligator for lunch worth the trouble? Evidently cats think so.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

14:29

Starting in the 90s, people were really getting down with that

2

Kit Z. Fox

14:39

rofl

SmokeDetector

16:15

[ SmokeDetector ] Bad keyword in answer, bad keyword with email in answer, email in answer: Does the phrase "second off" make sense? by Tori Hanson on english.stackexchange.com …

IͶΔ

17:06

@SmokeDetector That spam

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 What I find amazing is that given the range of probabilities based on the corpora size (many of digits of precision) that any pair of phrases are ever comparable without zeroing one of them. That is, even for synonyms ike pail/bucket, they're really with a factor of 10 of each other?

books.google.com/ngrams/…

remove the first word one by one, roughly decreasing by a factor of 10 each time. There's a lot of room there for things not to be anywhere close even for things we intuitively think are about the same.

@IͶΔ I don't know. It's talking about a spellchecker or spellcaster or something. We could all probably use one.

IͶΔ

17:23

@Mitch That is spam. I just meant to indicate it in this chat.

And it's gone

I had this person cast a spell on me.

I was never the same

Mitch

17:37

she looked deep into my eyes and I was gone.

wait, what kind of spell?

@IͶΔ of course it is spam. I would think it more trouble than it is worth to try to learn the SE API or even copy that by hand here.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

17:48

@Mitch I'm not sure what you mean

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 a priori, (from the graph) there's at least 8 factors of 10 between 'the' and 'arax' for word frequencies/probabilities to fall in where just one factor of ten comes close to flatlining the less probable one.

and so picking two random words, one should be way more probable than the other (not likely to be in the same of eight bins).

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mitch But words aren't chosen randomly

Mitch

so, now that I've thought about it, I surprised when two words/phrases put in there are somewhat comparable even if they are synonymous.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Oh.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I'm not surprised if synonyms are in the same bucket.

It's what I'd expect, at least some of the time.

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Well, that's sort of every comparison, we come to it with thinking the two are the same somehow

Fard

17:58

@Mazura I hope this makes you feel better: youtube.com/watch?v=hf-iFzcpHJ0

Mitch

but...

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I dunno. Pail/bucket: afaict there's no reason to choose one over the other. So it's just a matter of preference, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were equally used or if one is much rarer.

like, "soda" or "pop" (or "coke") for the name of fizzy drinks.

The differences are regional rather than logical, and it's totally plausible that each one is equally used by authors

Mitch

we usually have a rough idea of familiarity of a word (the, very, when are obviously more likely than fovea or meretricious), so that does squeeze down the number of bins)

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Sure

Mitch

@Fard that does not make me feel better. 1) I like cats better than lizards 2) that sequence looks very manipulated. so I feel like it may have been staged.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

18:05

@Mitch Pretty sure the dramatic soundtrack wasn't recorded live in the jungle

Though it'd be pretty useful if you could hear your life's own soundtrack, you'd know when something big or bad was about to happen

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 compare grass and tree: not synonyms, intuitively about the same contexts/maybe similar frequency. factor of two difference.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I turned off sound

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 looks over shoulder

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mitch I wouldn't have predicted that, but I'm not surprised at all.

RegDwigнt

0

Q: eliminating "which" statements at the end of sentences

I have noticed lately, that when I write letters describing things I've done recently, I default too often to sentences that look like "We did such-and-such, which was really great." I notice that I often have to append the "which..." to almost every event description, just to get the point acros...

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I'm playing devil's advocate about expectations. Like why would you think -any- (possibly relevant) comparison would even come close.

RegDwigнt

Nov 12 '15 at 15:33, by RegDwigнt

— "I don't know how to steer the ISS properly." — "Well, then don't".
— "I don't know how to run the United States of America." — "Well, then go watch TV instead".
— "I don't know how to operate a nuclear plant." — "Well, leave it to the people who do".
— "I don't know when to use the word 'never'." — "Well, you totally should, and here's the exactly one simple rule that tells you how to do it correctly 100% of the time".

The elephant in the room here is: if you want to eliminate which statements at the end of sentences, then you should eliminate which statements at the end of sentences. Works every time. Nobody forces you to add which statements. So. Um. Just don't do it. — RegDwigнt ♦ 19 secs ago

IͶΔ

18:13

What are witch statements?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mitch I would expect related words like tree and grass to be within a factor of 10 of each other. I would expect more specific words like pine and oak to be less common than "tree", maybe by a factor of 10. I'd expect trees foreign to places that speak English to be even rarer.

@RegDwigнt I bought the Firehouse Headquarters the other day, which is driving me crazy because I haven't had time to open it yet.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt at gunpoint a rabid newspaper editor might. Peter Parker just takes pictures so he doesn't ever get that kind of 'tude.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

arg, it was just another drive-by-Reg'ing

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 he had something to say.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I don't think I'm saying anything other than I'm surprised most frequency comparisons come out so close. but to your point, there's often intuition that says the compared things are close enough.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mitch But sometimes comparisons come out pretty far. Off the top of my head, I don't have an example, but some words which are synonyms or you'd think get used as often as each other (or close) don't.

Sofa, Couch, Chesterfield

car,truck,automobile,van,vehicle

bike,bicycle,motorcycle,motorbike

computer,television,tv,pc

RegDwigнt

18:40

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 lolwut, you have a LEGO set before I do? Unpossible. Your a lier.

@Mitch correction, kind sire: I have nothing to say. Ever. Like, do you even read the shit I post?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@RegDwigнt It was double-VIP points time

And AFOL-day, but the AFOL-day discounts are tiny and that set is excluded.

RegDwigнt

19:12

Funny coincidence, I am about to start writing the request for my AFOL sticker. The previous one expired on Dec 31st, and I've been procrastinating to request a new one.

The next AFOL day is in April, I should really get rolling.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Your AFOL days are at least worthwhile.

I got 15% off pick-a-brick

crl

19:41

If I have a file like vpaste.net/EFBOT (oh nice url) how would you call it (config, settings, .. )? the thing is I have it in a folder named config/ already, I wanted to name it ui.json (since it targets more specifically the menus, in toolbar, and in dialogs and other things), not sure it's ok, but having config/config.json is horrible to me, but that's what someone working with me would like..

Victor

20:56

hi

is it ok to say "fully ready"?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

sure

ready is an adjective, fully is an adverb

Victor

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 but isn't is a pleonasm ?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

that depends on whether the context allows for something to be partially ready

And whether you want to be completely clear on the distinction

Victor

can we say that a document is partially ready if only some chapters are complete?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Example: your cell phone needs battery to run. You might consider a dead battery to be not ready, a partially-charged battery to be partially-ready, a 75% charged battery to be "ready" (i.e. you would grab it and go), and a 100% charged battery to be "fully ready" (i.e. cannot possibly be any more ready)

@Victor Perhaps, depends on your needs.

Victor

21:07

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 thank you! I got it now

Anonymous

21:41

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 In COCA's word frequency list, tree is around #600 with a frequency of 72k, grass is around #2000 with a frequency of 19k, and pine is around #3000 with a frequency of 11k. Why is pine so frequent? Well, they don't distinguish pine from Pine, unfortunately, and it appears quite often in place names.

Anonymous

None of my frequency lists are perfect :-(

Anonymous

It looks like pine would end up somewhere around #4000 without Pine.

Anonymous

(Those frequencies will all be greater if you check the current version of COCA online, since it's up to 520 million words now.)

Mitch

"So long sucka!" — Mitch 2 hours ago

Mitch

22:15

@RegDwigнt I sense that you have typed something but my eyes get tired just expecting more words from...ugh...that guy.

RegDwigнt

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 but but but you can pick any brick! Out of about thirty. Out of 6500. That ain't a deal? That ain't a DEAL?

First world problems galore!

@Mitch If you want your eyes to stop getting tired, consult a psychologist.

Psychologist blinds woman with drain cleaner, because she asked him to

crl

22:30

Itaipu Dam

The Itaipu Dam (Guarani: Presa Itaipu, Portuguese: Barragem de Itaipu, Spanish: Represa de Itaipú; Portuguese pronunciation: [itɐjˈpu], locally: [ita.iˈpu], Spanish pronunciation: [itaiˈpu]) is a hydroelectric dam on the Paraná River located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay. The name "Itaipu" was taken from an isle that existed near the construction site. In the Guarani language, Itaipu means "the sounding stone". It is a binational undertaking run by Brazil and Paraguay at the Paraná River on the border section between the two countries, 15 km (9.3 mi) north of the Friendship Bridge....

such power "75% of the electricity consumed by Paraguay and 17% of that consumed by Brazil"

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…