English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Mitch

00:21

@MetaEd Really? I never knew that (I vaguely remember concrete was invented in that time frame but didn't realize it was part of those particular famous buildings). But concrete never seems to last. It gets all crumbly. Was the Roman concrete just really good? Did they have a longer lasting recipe?

@Cerberus And then there's the brutalist movement of (arguably) ugly exposed concrete façades

Cerberus

00:39

@Mitch Yeah, that's the summum of horror.

Feeds

03:28

-1

Q: What is a formal word for a person who is content/ content with life?

AKA a person who ennjoys the simple things in life, and is easygoing

single-word-requests

CowperKettle

04:00

0

Q: Which word is used to indicate that a vessel is "blood-filled" during a necropsy?

I'm translating a necropsy report, and one sentence says: Синусоиды полнокровные. Портальные тракты сохранены, сосуды умеренно полнокровные. The sinusoids are plethoric. The portal tracts are intact, with moderately plethoric blood vessels. The meaning of the Russian word is "full of blo...

terminology anatomy

I was completely unsure where to post this.

Færd

04:13

@Mitch Damn. I meant to say literary. Thanks for pointing it out.

@Robusto Thanks. I guess it kinda answers the question I meant to ask.

@Tonepoet Metadata appreciated!

Tonepoet

04:31

@Færd I'm guessing that was not your intention then. XP Also, you're welcome. =)

skullpatrol

06:41

in The Biosphere, 1 hour ago, by skullpatrol

#BREAKING: China successfully clones world's first macaques from somatic cells by method that made Dolly the sheep 20 years ago (Photos provided by Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Tweeted by XHNews on January 24, 2018 at 4:58 PM

NVZ

07:17

@MetaEd Please enlighten me. Why would you decline the flag if you agree that it was delete-worthy? english.stackexchange.com/a/427894/50044

@MetaEd History repeats. english.meta.stackexchange.com/q/11098/50044

NVZ

07:41

Can this be migrated to meta? I think it's too old, so maybe not. english.stackexchange.com/q/8233/50044

Tonepoet

08:20

@NVZ I'd rather see it migrated to Language Learning at this point.

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Manually reported answer: What's the term for "government worker"? by kicx.in on english.SE

CowperKettle

09:23

> The drug product was administered to the rabbits weekly for 3 months, in the doses of 10, 20 and 30 mg/kg. (Do I need this the?)

Feeds

0

Q: delay or pause?

Suppose some machine sometimes stops its work and waits for water in the tank will be replaced. What word (delay or pause) should be used in the sentence: The machine resumes its work after ______. ?

single-word-requests word-choice

Feeds

09:56

0

Q: Capability of storing something

So, if storable stands for capable of being stored, what will stand for capable for storing something? Thanks in advance.

single-word-requests meaning phrase-requests adjectives

-1

Q: crednetials are plural or singular

which one is correct to say In the british grammer ; his credntials are written below or his credentials are written below

single-word-requests

Tonepoet

10:33

Dear English Language & Usage:

Elision is the omission of sounds in syllables, and perhaps only the vowel sounds in particularly. If you want to use a word to omit entire words or passages, ellipsis is the proper term, and like some other punctuation marks, e.g. the apostrophe, the punctuation was named after the grammatical device it is supposed to represent. Please don't use elision for ellipsis.

Sincerely,
Tonepoet

P.S. I dislike that markdown does not work in multi-line messages.

P.P.S. I meant particular.

CowperKettle

> 1. Anti-interleukin-6 monoclonal antibody
2. Monoclonal anti-interleukin-6 antibody

Which is correct?

terdon

1

CowperKettle

Because it should be less and less specific as we approach the head noun?

terdon

Maybe? Dunno, to be honest, I just know that it is correct.

The problem of being a native speaker, I guess.

But it is a monoclonal antibody. That can't be broken. That it is an anti-IL antibody doesn't change that it is a monoclonal one.

I guess you could argue that 2 introduces ambiguity. Is it the IL that's monoclonal or the antobody?

CowperKettle

Ah! Indeed

terdon

10:48

Here's an example in the wild, too: antibodygenie.com/product/…

Feeds

11:37

0

Q: A word for "conceptually clever"?

I'm certain I know of a word that basically means "conceptually clever". A word that tells that something is creative and smart, but not necessarily good or well-executed. The words "clever" and "creative" infer it's something good, but the word I'm trying to find indicates that, while it might b...

single-word-requests

Feeds

12:43

0

Q: Is there a word for "dating invitation"?

Is there a word for that? Example sentence: "He broke the record of the fastest __."

single-word-requests

Feeds

13:52

0

Q: What is the word that means "looking at something without moving the head, just eyeballs."

It is defined as sudden movement of the eye to look around keeping the head where it is. I remember it being a noun. It was of six or more characters. It can exactly or roughly fit in all these sentences: example - you have hurt your eye. X is not advised. ciliary muscles facilitate X. Bulls ...

single-word-requests

Mitch

14:03

@Færd Then yes, 'So it was' does sound a little too formal, too literary.

@NVZ I flagged to have it migrated by hand (if it does get closed). It really should stay around somehow

terdon

@Mitch It can't be migrated, only closed. The only thing that can be done is to flag and ask a mod to put it under a historical lock to ensure it sticks around and isn't deleted by the system.

Questions older than 60 days can't be migrated.

Mitch

@Cerberus I disagree. Well, sort of. I suppose if you take a random brutalist specimen and a random other style specimen and compare and say which one is uglier, I think you can almost always say 'wow, the brutalist one is the worst'. Hmm... I think that logically applies what you said.

@terdon It can't be migrated -at all-?

That seems like a weird technical restriction. Surely -somebody- could somehow bypass the front-level controls.

terdon

5

Q: 60 day migration limit forces cross posting

I came across a question on Ask Ubuntu. It's a fine question for AU, it's on topic, clear, well written and the OP has been answering all requests for information. Everything is just as it should be. However, the OP has not received an answer that solves their issue despite the question having be...

discussion migration cross-posting

Mitch

@Cerberus But some instances of brutalist aren't the worst, and there are many instances of non-brutlaist that are uglier than brutalist instance.

terdon

No, it can't be migrated at all.

Mitch

14:14

All that, and concrete is really not that inviting.

But concrete is used in all sorts of bad ways that are not 'brutalist'

@terdon is your suggestion then, to lock it?

does that prevent closing?

The information could be copy pasted to one of the few meta-qns about resources

terdon

@Mitch No, but it should be closed. It's blatantly off topic. I would suggest putting a historical lock on it. This means the question is closed, but it won't ever be deleted and a special notice is added:

> This question exists because it has historical significance, but it is not considered a good, on-topic question for this site, so please do not use it as evidence that you can ask similar questions here. This question and its answers are frozen and cannot be changed. More info: help center.

72

Q: What is a historical lock, and what is it used for?

Historical locks are sometimes applied to questions. What is a historical lock? What is the purpose of a historical lock? How are questions affected by historical locking? When is it appropriate to lock a question for historical reasons? When is it not appropriate? How do I request a historica...

support faq moderator-tools historical-lock post-notice

Here's an example from SO:

292

Q: Hidden Features of ASP.NET

This question exists because it has historical significance, but it is not considered a good, on-topic question for this site, so please do not use it as evidence that you can ask similar questions here. More info: https://stackoverflow.com/faq There are always features tha...

asp.net .net

Mitch

14:35

@terdon I'm kinda leaning to where resource questions -should- be on-topic. As is the question is a good one with good answers, just possibly not categorized appropriately.

@terdon In other news, I always thought that 'The Dispossessed' ws supposed to be the pinnacle work of UKLGuin. But all the news puts the Earthsea trilogy and Left Hand of Darkness first, and The Dispossessed if mentioned much later

Feeds

0

Q: Specific adjective to qualify a religion

I am looking for a word to describe a religion which is flexible or liberal enough to accept a variety of folk beliefs, magical practices, other demons etc. The author (translator) of the text which I am editing used “absorbent religion” (the text was translated from Polish), but I am quite sure...

single-word-requests adjectives religion

Tonepoet

14:50

@Mitch I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, I do think resource requests are very helpful questions, but on the other they aren't very in-line with the Stack Exchange philosophy (they tend to be P.O.B.) Something else worth considering is that resource requests are probably more in line with E.L.L's. mission of helping people solve practical problems when learning English, although E.L.L. rejected the question category.

Mitch

For example, an etymological dictionary or electronic word list is not particularly helpful for solving the practical problems of a language learner, but is very well suited to a language enthusiast or researcher.

Also, I've heard that other sites successfully allow resource requests on the main site (but also some allow it like ELU on meta)

terdon

@Mitch I first read some of the Earthsea series and was actually very underwhelmed. I didn't get into them at all. I then read The Dispossessed and Left Hand of Darkness and was blown away. So I'll agree with you that Earthsea should rank beneath those. I'd be hard pressed to choose between the two though.

Faheem Mitha

15:06

@terdon Personally I liked Earthsea. But I read at least the first and third when I was very young.

The first is probably still my favorite.

Just learned (yesterday, maybe day before) that Le Guin had died.

I guess that's why you're talking about it.

I always thought the first book would make a good film, properly done. Though I don't know of a director who would do it justice. Hollywood directors are mostly hamfisted morons with the sensitivity of a cement truck. Jackson is probably better than most, and look at the messes he made.

(Excuse the rambling.)

terdon

@FaheemMitha Maye I read it too late? Dunno, I just never managed to care about the main character at all.

Faheem Mitha

@terdon Meaning Ged, I presume.

I thought Russ's review was quite reasonable, for someone with no emotional investment in the books.

eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/0-553-26250-5.html

> The story is told with a very remote, detached voice, giving the impression of someone relating a legend of events long ago, a legend that they've heard so many times that it's lost emotional impact. Ged certainly goes through strong emotions in the course of the story, but they don't seem to ever really touch the narrator, and because of that I never felt emotionally involved in the story.

Personally I don't feel that way about the books, but I can certainly seem how others might feel that way.

Personally, I particularly liked the scene where his ex-lady friend Serret tries to betray him, and he has to run for it. That would be a good cinematic scene.

Well, fly for it, to be precise.

terdon

@FaheemMitha Yes, that sounds about right. I also felt the first book just jumped from bumbling sheepherder to powerful magician in the blink of an eye.

Faheem Mitha

@terdon Well, he was a magical genius. Think Isaac Newton, but with a staff.

Such people do exist, even in real life.

terdon

@FaheemMitha I didn't get that at all though. I was told it, but never shown it.

Faheem Mitha

15:16

@terdon Hmm. I thought it was convincing. But how do you show someone is very talented in magic, given that there is no such thing as magic?

With Isaac Newton, you can look at his work. And be suitably awe-struck. Or not, as the case may be.

For example:

> "Change yourself! Change yourself, they are coming!" Serret shrieked, seizing his arm and pointing to the tower that stood behind them like a tall white tooth in the dusk. From slit windows near its base dark creatures were creeping forth, flapping long wings, slowly beating and circling up over the walls towards Ged and Serret where they stood on the hill-side, unprotected.

Good stuff.

terdon

@FaheemMitha Spend more time showing him growing up and attending school, perhaps? I just felt as though he came into the school in one chapter and graduated in the next.

@FaheemMitha Oh hey, she could write! No argument there!

Faheem Mitha

@terdon Maybe so. You mean, like in Harry Potter or The Magicians? I think Le Guin tended to brevity. Which is not the least of the literary virtues, in my estimation.

@terdon Yes, I think we can all agree that Le Guin could write.

terdon

It may just have been a question of my own expectations. I was expecting a coming of age story and was given something else. But I also didn't much like the second book.Never even tried the third.

De gustibus. . .

Faheem Mitha

@terdon The second book seems to be the most popular. It's the only one Russ liked. Girl power and all that.

Personally I don't remember much about it. I think I read it once, though.

Meaning The Tombs of Atuan, that is.

terdon

Sounds about right. I don't remember much more than my impression of it, to be honest.

Faheem Mitha

15:23

I think I probably read A Wizard of Earthsea when my age was in single digits.

terdon

Ah, that would do it :)

Those get seared into your memory.

Faheem Mitha

If you've read something at that age, it becomes part of your mind. And it's hard to criticize afterwards.

Somewhat similar to the Narnian Chronicles, though I have less trouble criticizing those.

I also have no recollection of reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for the first time, so it was probably at a similar time. Anyway...

As you might know, Le Guin was far ahead of her time in the portrayal of strong female characters. It's a commonplace now, but not in 1970.

To quote Wikipedia:

> The Tombs of Atuan examines the development of a young girl in great detail, a choice unusual for a fantasy writer of the period in which the book was written

One of curious things about the Earthsea books is that they were originally marketed as children's literature. I'm not sure what the people concerned were on - anything less childlike than A Wizard of Earthsea is hard to imagine. Ditto for the other books.

Feeds

15:38

0

Q: Word for doing something reluctantly and making a fuss and transmitting that reluctance

A word to describe "John." John clearly did not want to paint the house. He clanged the paint cans and noisily dragged the ladder around. The painting was quite sloppily done and the edges came out uneven. For example when told to clean up or to do some other undesireable task the actor perform...

single-word-requests

terdon

@FaheemMitha agreed.

Faheem Mitha

And here is a somewhat more positive review.

And here is Joe Walton with a eulogy.

MetaEd

16:00

I'm glad she lived, and I'm glad so many people miss her.

@NVZ I see a VLQ flag was declined, is that what you mean?

NVZ

@MetaEd Ah, yes.

Hello, how have you been?

MetaEd

Oh, up and down. How are you?

NVZ

I'm good as well.

@MetaEd So, any ideas on how I should change my flagging ways? :)

MetaEd

16:18

@NVZ I'll take a close look at that flag. I don't remember what happened.

MetaEd

16:30

@NVZ So ... no, not really, not based on that episode alone. Either NAA or VLQ fit.

NVZ

@MetaEd also, what about my related meta I linked above? Thoughts?

@MetaEd On both of these instances, I see you were one of the delete voters. Which is why I am asking you in particular. Nothing else.

I guess I'll have to assume that those flags were declined because Tim Post lost his keys again.

MetaEd

I remember that answer. I fed it through Google Translate.

NVZ

@MetaEd You really shouldn't.

@MetaEd If you go that path, you're encouraging others to answer in moonspeak as well.

Mitch

@NVZ There's no Duolingo for moonspeak

yet

NVZ

@Mitch I find your lack of... wait, I already said that.

MetaEd

16:40

@NVZ Oh, we actively discourage that.

In fact that answer is a great fit for VLQ.

Mohamed Ahmed

I want to ask someone to share a post with others who may be interested in it.. does this sentence make sense:
"I would appreciate sharing it with whom they may be interesting in such topic."

Cerberus

17:19

@Mitch Do you have an example?

Mitch

@Cerberus First.. a random search for 'ugly architecture' got me this...

I don't necessarily agree that they are all ugly. fashion has its tastes and every one has their own... I don't know if that metaphor makes resolvable sense, but I think you get the idea.

Now looking for non-ugly brutalist...

Cerberus

@Mitch Yes.

Mitch

Ooops... here is the ugly link weburbanist.com/2015/11/02/…

and now for the beautiful brute
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160606-ten-beautiful-brutalist-buildings

I don't see any brutlism in the first link

however, despite my inability to type brtalism the same way twice, the 'beautiful' link has ... well... yeah they're kinda ugly

let's just say that there are a lot of dull buildings out there. At least the brutalists are trying to do something interesting.

I like the lego look of that the very first example, the Montreal thingy...

Habitat 67

Cerberus

17:49

@Mitch Sure, those are all ugly.

@Mitch I see only super ugly buildings...

@Mitch Could be worse, but it's a picture from a distance, on a sunny day.

Still ugly.

Mitch

@Cerberus haha sunny makes the difference

Cerberus

You still like it?

@Mitch And plants. They can make anything look nicer.

This is all your building.

Mitch

@Cerberus yeah those are all pretty good pictures

Cerberus

Super depressing.

The more up close you get, the better you can see how ugly and rotten the materials are.

No attention to detail.

Just shape, from a distance.

And are of these photos were suppose to look nice...

So I'll grant you that there are uglier buildings.

But I would still get really depressed, having to live there.

Mitch

18:05

unadorned concrete is very uninviting

also, as those pictures show, it is permeable by water, so there's lots of dripping everywhere

HOWEVER

as @MetaEd noted, the Pantheon in Rome is built with concrete (the dome uses unreinforced concrete)

Pantheon, Rome

The Pantheon ( or US: ; Latin: Pantheon, from Greek Πάνθειον Pantheion meaning "[temple] of every god") is a former Roman temple, now a church, in Rome, Italy, on the site of an earlier temple commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD). The present building was completed by the emperor Hadrian and probably dedicated about 126 AD. He retained Agrippa's original inscription, which has confused its date of construction as the original Pantheon burnt down so it is not certain when the present one was built. The building is circular with a portico of large granit...

Cerberus

18:18

@Mitch Yes, but in a nice way.

With attention to detail.

Mitch

@Cerberus no, it puts the brute in brutalist

Cerberus

Not a crude prototype-like structure only to be admired from a great distance.

NVZ

18:32

hey, what's the discussion about? psst... i'm a civil engr.

M.A.R.

18:55

@Mitch so what? Stonehenge is built from bulletproof Kevlar

Just some other arrangement of the atoms in it

@Cerberus That looks so Inceptiony

@Mitch That's me playing in an Android tower construction game

Mitch

@M.A.R. those druids!

@M.A.R. right. isn't it great?

M.A.R.

@Mitch I just feel sorry if the people there suffer a bus horn

Mitch

19:09

@M.A.R. what would a bus horn do?

Educ

19:29

Good evening everyone

MetaEd

19:56

Good evening to you.

Feeds

21:46

0

Q: A word for the hatred of others

Looking for a word that describes a person who disliked other humans.A misogynist hates women, what do we call someone who dislikes people in general?

single-word-requests nouns

Feeds

22:18

0

Q: What word is used to explain the omission from writing or words that are superfluous or can be understood from contexual clues

The omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or can be understood from contextual clues

single-word-requests

0

Q: Is there a word for a building facade that only covers the entrance?

Is there an architectural word or term for a building facade that only covers the entrance area, rather than the entire front of the building? Something like this:

single-word-requests terminology architecture

Tonepoet

23:10

@Feeds That's just frustrating. I got beaten to the punch on this one because I was gathering references!

tchrist

23:20

Which is yet another reason why these are all so many garbanzo beans.

Tonepoet

@tchrist Yeah, I know. Its been a frequent problem for me. I usually just discard my answer if somebody gets it close enough .... I've never had it happen quite so quickly before. I guess it's because this is a linguistics website so people are readily exposed to the term. Kinda forced me to publish earlier than I would've like so the time stamps reflect the fact that I was working on the problem at the same time. =\

tchrist

I only wish it were a linguistics site. It feels far more like a "What's the word/phrase/idiom for X?" and a "Is this grammatically correct/which one is right/spot the errors?" site to me. Which, just isn't very interesting. To me.

skullpatrol

Propose one at area54 :-)

Tonepoet

@tchrist That's to be expected though. You guys kicked out the E.S.L. learner.folk, so you lost most of the incoming syntax questions to E.L.L. Native speakers have internalized the syntax well enough, at least in our own opinions, so we are not as interested in syntax: We're more interested in word choice and mastery of the vocabulary as a result.

tchrist

23:35

It's still all writing requests and proofreading requests.

Tonepoet

@tchrist At E.L.L?

tchrist

No.

Here.

At ELU.

And "requests" are not questions.

Tonepoet

Yeah, well, that was the cost of indulging our intolerance. That was my point. XP

skullpatrol

ELL is a jungle.

tchrist

a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing

skullpatrol

23:40

It's historically accurate.

Tonepoet

Just ten points away from being able to cast close and reopen votes (I'm 20 short but I can edit and undelete an answer to make up the remainder if I want.)

Heh, no need apparently.

MetaEd

@Tonepoet To a first approximation, every ELU question is asked by a first time user. If some users migrated the way you say to ELL, they're a drop in the firehose.

Early on, ELU was unique. Unlike other SE sites at the time, it is about a technology that more than a half a billion people use. So you essentially get overrun by the sheer number of questions that are the moral equivalent of "in Java, what comes before the equals sign".

And you get overrun with inexpert answers by people who think they speak the language, so they're experts.

Tonepoet

@MetaEd You speak of the past as if the circumstances changed. XP

MetaEd

@Tonepoet In the present, that's still true here, but we're not unique in that anymore.

Faheem Mitha

23:55

@tchrist What would be a better type of question?

MetaEd

We're still the biggest such site, but ELL is climbing up there, and scifi and diy are catching up.

tchrist

@FaheemMitha Pretty much anything by Yoichi.

skullpatrol

How are the sciences doing? @MetaEd

MetaEd

Travel.

tchrist

We're trying to create a compendium of expert answers. "Yes" is not an expert answer. Neither is "hypocrite".

Faheem Mitha

23:57

@tchrist Um. Example? And really, I wanted to learn what type of questions you thought were more interesting.

MetaEd

@skullpatrol Sciences? In terms of questions per day, Mathematics is the second highest in the network. But of course math isn't a science. Physics is #9 though.

tchrist

@FaheemMitha Questions that the poster has put some work into.

@FaheemMitha english.stackexchange.com/users/3119/…

Faheem Mitha

@tchrist A bit non-specific, but ok.

MetaEd

The problem faced by ELU, ELL, scifi, and DIY is that there are a lot of people writing answers who don't know they're not experts.

6

tchrist

@FaheemMitha Look at his questions. They're all good.

MetaEd

23:59

Someone contemplating a physics question has a better chance of knowing they're not a physicist.

Faheem Mitha

@tchrist ok

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…