English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

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12:59 AM

Q: When doing a translation, what is the opposite of "origin language"?

I'm trying to complete this sentence. I have the missing word on the tip of my tongue. "I'm working on a translation from the origin language to the ... language". Thanks!

single-word-requests

Q: What is a word or phrase that describes an object whose importance depends on its recentness?

For example, a newspaper. In general, last week's newspaper is much less relevant than today's. I want to use it in a sentence like: "Since newspapers are ____ in nature, it's important to be notified the moment a new issue comes out." Temporal is the only thing I can think of, but not really sin...

single-word-requests

SmokeDetector

1:16 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Few unique characters in answer, no whitespace in answer, repeating characters in answer: Comma usage around the word 'still.' by Jadon Jung on english.SE

Trey

I want to know more about the dialects of american english, what are some good resources for learning this?

Tonepoet

1:36 AM

@Trey I'm not entirely sure, but perhaps the Dictionary of American Regional English is a good place to start?

2 hours later…

tchrist

3:25 AM

@Trey Depends what you want to know. Try aschmann.net/AmEng/#SmallMapUnitedStates

The DARE that was mentioned is good for learning about which words and expressions are regional, but it is doesn't do much for phonology.

Feeds

3:48 AM

Q: Looking for a single verb expressing warily scanning the area

I want some verbs meaning surveilling or scanning warily.

single-word-requests verbs

Trey

3:59 AM

is "he don't" a regional slang? if so, where?

tchrist

Well, it's not "slang" per se.

It's ungrammatical to educated speakers. It marks the speaker as something other than that, possibly rural, possibly "ghetto".

Slang is like popping somebody in the kisser.

You have to know the slang meaning of "pop" and "kisser" for that to make sense.

Slang isn't funny grammar or a funny accent or such.

"He don't" might be a feature of AAVE; I'm not sure.

AAVE = African American Vernacular English

A: Can "he don't" be right in any case?

"He don't is not grammarically correct in standard American English. However it is the proper conjugation in AAVE (African American Vernacular English). So you may often hear black celebrities (especially rap stars and other musicians) say this. Or in movies set in primarily black contexts. You w...

It's used in some varieties of African American informal language, which has very unconventional and informal grammar. — Mark Jan 30 '15 at 15:46

That’s probably your answer. Still not slang, though. :)

3 hours later…

Shafizadeh

7:05 AM

Is this correct?

> Which city do you live in?

1 hour later…

sumelic

8:32 AM

@Shafizadeh Technically, that sentence is correct. However, "What city do you live in?" sounds more natural to me, unless it is understood that there is some pre-existing list of cities that the answer will be drawn from. "Which" may be considered more formal, though. See

Q: "Which" vs. "what" — what's the difference and when should you use one or the other?

Most of the time one or the other feels better, but every so often, "which" vs. "what" trips me up. So, what's the exact difference and when should you use one or the other?

differences questions determiners which-what

Another possible issue is the "ending a sentence with a preposition" zombie rule. People who are sticklers about that would insist on something like "In which city do you live?" However, I generally wouldn't advise changing your sentences to try to please people like that.

Xanne

8:54 AM

@Shafizadeh In conversation, most people would say "Where do you live?"

Xanne

9:51 AM

@Trey to heard English speakers from around the USA (and other countries) speak English, you can listen to http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_atlas.php and
http://www.dialectsarchive.com/united-states-of-america; Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dialects_of_the_English_language has some general descriptions.

Also www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect (Harvard dialect project) compares pronunciation and vocabulary choices in different parts of the country and provides maps overlaying freqency.

M.A.R.

Do we have another Wikipedia in this chat, or is @Xanne Tonepoet? I can't recall

Xanne

@M.A.R. Your question isn't clear to me.

M.A.R.

@Xanne 'cause it's not a question, just a silly remark

Xanne

10:19 AM

Is Wikipedia considered declassee; I can assume you Xanne and Tonepoet are two different entitities; I am trying to figure out which or both of us should feel insulted.

umm...assure you, not assume you

2 hours later…

SmokeDetector

11:55 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Mostly non-Latin answer: fashion or clothing industry jargon for a pattern’s age range: toddler, child, adult by YAN on english.SE

Feeds

12:33 PM

Q: Phrase for snipping of scissors between actual cuts that a barber makes

A barber generally keeps on snipping the scissors in between the actual cuts. There is a particular phrase for this behavior. I have come across this phrase before, but can't recollect it now. The phrase was a generic term for such involuntary acts and the barber's one was a good example for it. ...

single-word-requests phrases expressions

2 hours later…

Feeds

2:09 PM

Q: "a" or "the" after this?

Can we use "a" after "this"? For example: This rhetoric is a prelude to more serious attacks OR This rhetoric is the prelude to more serious attacks.

single-word-requests

3 hours later…

tchrist

4:47 PM

If you received a piece of mail with the subject "mortality matters", would your first read of that phrase be the one where matters is a noun or where it’s as verb? Or both? :)

I have to submit a one-byte code-fix where I forgot an "m" on a macro name, which in this case meant that I forgot to mortalize my reference so that it could be garbage-collected normally and die when nobody cares about it any longer.

Definitely a memento mori thing: remember to die.

Such are the perils of writing a native code extension for a managed language: the native code is not managed unless you tell it to be.

> Benefits of using managed code include programmer convenience (by increasing the level of abstraction, creating smaller models) and enhanced security guarantees, depending on the platform (including the VM implementation). Drawbacks include slower startup speed (the managed code must be JIT compiled by the VM) and generally increased use of system resources on any machine that is executing the code.

That's a bit javacentric, but the basic principles still apply.

I suppose few people write in unmanaged languages these days. Speed and direct access to the machine are rarely more important that the increased abstraction level provided by managed languages.

I just realized who our "Kate Gregory" is! She's Kate Gregory!

Kate Gregory, Ontario, Canada

8.5k 2 25 41

meaning etymology single-word-requests phrases word-usage expressions idioms

Managed, Unmanaged, Native: What Kind of Code Is This?, by Kate Gregory

You can tell by checking out her network profile, where her contributions to the technical SE sites are held in much higher repute than those comparative few on ELU are.

> “C programmers think memory management is too important to be left to the computer. Lisp programmers think memory management is too important to be left to the user.” —Bjarne Stroustrup

Yes, well.

Manual Memory Management in Go

> Many developers who use really high level languages routinely run into memory issues because all of the memory management is hidden from them. This doesn’t mean they are bad people or bad developers - it just isn’t in their minds most of the time. This shouldn’t preclude them from the responsibility of understanding what is going on with their code though.

True that.

Trey

5:59 PM

what's the difference between"I'm most interested in X " and "I mostly interested in X" ?

1 hour later…

Feeds

7:17 PM

Q: What does the predator feel when spotting its prey?

Many basic and everyday emotions have an origin that is somehow comprehensible from an evolutionary perspective, i.e. regarding situations which they originally were related to and originated from: happiness – "(joy of) having (found) food" sadness – "(sorrow about) not having (enough) food and...

single-word-requests language-evolution emotions

Færd

7:32 PM

Vantablack

Vantablack is a chemical substance made of vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays and is one of the darkest artificial substances known, absorbing up to 99.965% of radiation in the visible spectrum. == Etymology == The name comes from the term "Vertically Aligned NanoTube Arrays". == Properties == Vantablack is composed of a forest of vertical tubes which are "grown" on a substrate using a modified chemical vapor deposition process (CVD). When light strikes Vantablack, instead of bouncing off, it becomes trapped and is continually deflected among the tubes, eventually becoming absorbed and...

@tchrist I think true black is the most real color.

1 hour later…

Feeds

8:47 PM

Q: Is there a word meaning assumption can be stronger in reality

Is there a word meaning assumption can be stronger in reality?example, if a person dresses, grooms, and acts like a leader they have a better chance of becoming a leader.

single-word-requests

1 hour later…

Feeds

9:57 PM

Q: Which / What do you prefer, tea or coffee?

I'd like to enquire you about the use if what in questions where we present two choices, e.g.: What do you prefer, tea or coffee? Which do you prefer, tea or coffee? When I tried browsing the internet, only 'which' was used in this context. If there was 'What'the questions sounded this way: Wh...

single-word-requests

Feeds

10:46 PM

Q: go to dance training

This time I'd like to ask you if the verb 'go' can be used with the collocation 'dance training', e.g. I always go to dance training on Mondays. I know we can say: I always have dance practice / dance training on Mondays. I'm not sure about the other though. I have searched for that online, bu...

single-word-requests

Tonepoet

Feeds

11:00 PM

Q: Require phrase re-read

What is the word that describes the type of sentences that usually require people to re-read the sentence so it makes sense? Example: "The old house the young man" The above example seems like, at first read, "the old house" and "the young man" as two separate nouns (with an adjective in front)...