English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

tchrist

20:01

What the heck are you guys flagging so much of that doesn’t piss @Reg off?

On SO it was trivial because of their queue, but our bat signal only went off twice.

RegDwigнt

Well I am the one who tells people what to flag, so.

Trying to make a list of 40 questions to upvote tomorrow. It is exhausting.

Am at nine now.

tchrist

Oh right, it has to be questions. Sheesh.

RegDwigнt

Well that's playing it safe.

tchrist

I keep thinking I’ve already upvoted all the questions worth upvoting.

I guess I could always edit it first. :)

RegDwigнt

You need like 10 questions to start with. After that it's smoother sailing, just not perfectly smooth if I remember correctly.

tchrist

20:05

I got the skull from deleting and undeleting my own answer. hmmm

RegDwigнt

Good to know.

tchrist

I figured that you used superpowers to get yours.

I guess I could find no-longer-relevant comments.

RegDwigнt

Ah! You have the funnel but not on ELU!

This new layout keeps playing tricks on me.

tchrist

Yeah.

It’s a tinfoil hat.

Cerberus

Y'all are welcome to vote the questions up that I have posted answers to; I guarantee that the questions behind the top 10 of my answers will be fairly interesting.

tchrist

20:08

No?

RegDwigнt

@tchrist of course it is.

9 hours ago, by RegDwigнt

Looks like a funnel though.

tchrist

Mr Kringle is always a font of spurious comments.

RegDwigнt

Today is so freaking slow.

Ice Girl

Hi. what does the( borrowing the source language idiom) mean? can you say an example for it?

RegDwigнt

Nobody is on the site. At all.

Questions get like 17 views in an hour.

The voting situation is even worse.

tchrist

20:10

And why you are a Dallasite, I have no idea.

RegDwigнt

@IceGirl I am not sure which part of that is what. The punctuation is weird.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt You could be from Dallas, TX! — Kris yesterday

Cerberus

@IceGirl Someone or some language uses expressions from another language, the "source" language.

Ice Girl

can you say an example for it?

RegDwigнt

I answered a simple question 40+ minutes ago. Not a single vote.

In the mean time, someone posted a way awesomer answer. Not a single vote, either.

Is there some public holiday today or what?

I mean, it's not just ELU.

I linked to the Cooking stats earlier.

All these 100000+ of hats are smoke and mirrors.

Cerberus

20:13

English uses à la just as French does. It has borrowed the idiom à la from the source language, French.

RegDwigнt

99000 of them were awarded automagically. Actual people are barely scratching the surface.

Ice Girl

I need a complete expression for it and a good example

tchrist

y = f(x)

RegDwigнt

@tchrist yeah what's the deal with that? I never got it.

Ice Girl

ok good example

tchrist

20:16

I have no clue, and I’ve even lived in Dallas before. Seems rather like your elephant to me.

Ice Girl

can you explain more about it without example

RegDwigнt

@tchrist google.de/…

tchrist

I did start down that road, as you’ll’ve seen.

RegDwigнt

Yeah. "Thanks fixed" and "fixed thanks" are all taken. Gotta be creative now.

But here you have a couple, plus the corresponding predecessors.

Or parents, rather.

tchrist

Did you know that one’s padres are both one’s dad & mom in Spanish, but that you cannot do that with pères in French, which would only include dads? You have to say mes parents in French, which is the same as English, but mis parientes in Spanish is just one’s relatives not one’s parents?

RegDwigнt

20:25

24

A: Why “half past” and not “half to”?

If you make it a matter of personal preference you will defeat one of the purposes of language, which is to make your meaning clear to your listeners or readers. If no one else says half to, you may find that you will be asked to repeat what you have said in some other way. There is also a more d...

Barrie could use a hat.

@tchrist yeah sort of. I'd never care enough to write it all down in that amount of detail but something something yeah I know.

Cerberus

@tchrist That's interesting, because parent(e) in French also means "relative".

In addition to "parent", I mean.

tchrist

You can’t say mes pères to includes both your parents in French à moins que tous les deux soient hommes.

Cerberus

Yes, but you can say mon parent for a distant cousin.

tchrist

Why the hell doesn’t French have a word for “both”?

Cerberus

Neither does Dutch, not as in English.

tchrist

20:29

Spanish and Portuguese and Galician and Catalan and Occitan and even German for the love of God all have such a word.

Cerberus

And shouldn't that be des hommes? Not entirely sure, but simply hommes looks a bit...bare.

tchrist

Ambos padres.

@Cerberus Yeah, I was wondering.

But I’m not sure.

Cerberus

I would definitely say des hommes.

tchrist

Ambos padres míos son hombres.

Cerberus

You could use beiden in Dutch for both.

Or colloquially allebei.

tchrist

20:32

@Cerberus What’s wrong with doing so?

But guess what amb means in Catalan — or even its part of speech.

Cerberus

Nothing, in this example.

tchrist

Spanish ambos/ambas is defective by the way: it cannot occur in the singular.

Catalan amb is “with”.

Cerberus

But in general Dutch beide(n) does not work like English both; for example, you cannot say *beide de melk en de boter.

@tchrist As in Latin.

tchrist

Such a useful word. I don’t understand why French lost it.

Cerberus

French often uses et...et as in Dutch, and also Greek and Latin.

Robusto

20:59

TIL another example of Romanov foolishness. At the start of WWI, they instituted prohibition. No vodka would be sold. Since all vodka was sold through state-owned venues, this cut the country's GDP by one-third. Most countries, the duma dryly noted, try to increase revenues through varies taxes and levies when engaging in a costly enterprise like war.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@tchrist in Chinese you say "父母" which just means "father mother".

Or you can say 双亲 which means "pair of relatives"

tchrist

6

A: Hats order guide (Spoilers)

SPOILERS BELOW Feel free to edit. On the Horror I'm not listening SockPuppet Upboated Ghost of winterbash past Bounty Hunter Archaeologist Chatty Chatty Marauder Robocop R-E-S-P-E-C-T Mr Peanut Monopoly McDuck Conspiracy Theorist The Stallman Florence Nightingale R...

Cerberus

21:14

@Robusto Not to mention the boost to morale that vodka can give, especially in Russia.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

21:39

I have an announcement.

taps microphone

Robusto

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 rests chin on hands Go on.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

As of this weekend, I'm a regular Hack A Day contributor.

I'll be on the staff page on Thursday or so.

Robusto

Cool. Give us a heads-up and a link.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

I have one post up already and another scheduled for a little later today.

I have a second announcement.

aedia λ

HAAAATS!

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

21:43

Yes, HAAAATS.

aedia λ

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Ooooh that's awesome!

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

I opened an Etsy store.

@aediaλ thanks, dude!

Well, ladydude.

I owe you a word.

Robusto

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Nice, grats. I wish the comments were a little more intelligent, but this is teh Internetz after all.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Robusto Those are, so far, the nicest comments I've seen.

Robusto

Wow.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

21:47

According to my editor, they will tell me I'm ruining the site.

Probably with my boobs.

Boob reasoning mine.

Cerberus

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Cool!

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Cerberus :D

I'm spreading Good Answer cheer.

Robusto

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 You're already ruined ELU with your boobs, so why not spread it around a little.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Robusto right?

Robusto

Just kidding. Boobs never ruined anything.

In fact, I don't think I've ever been in a situation that included boobs where the boobs didn't actually make it better. The healing power of boobs. It's real.

►

And I'm out!

aedia λ

21:58

'Night!

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Well, this is goddamned wizardy right myaw: youtube.com/watch?v=7foDiXX-CcE&feature=youtu.be

@Robusto groovy!

@aediaλ wot?

OH.

Johan Larsson

22:28

in Bitcoin on Stack Overflow Chat, 44 secs ago, by dirt

Child Labor in Bitcoin Mines Exposed

RegDwigнt

Bah, I'm only 6 points away from rep capping.

Less than one upvote. When is the SE midnight officially?

Johan Larsson

I have never capped, reached 195 once but then I quit

RegDwigнt

Ouch.

Cerberus

@JohanLarsson Oh, dear. Worrying.

And the price is down to € 544...

Johan Larsson

did you sell?

Cerberus

22:37

No.

Robusto

22:51

What did you buy in at?

Cerberus

€ 88 or so.

RegDwigнt

First-world problems.

Only 11 hats behind the c(r)ooks.

I think I finally capped, so it should be down to 10 soon.

There it is. Yeah baby, here I come.

> You earned R-E-S-P-E-C-T on English Language & Usage!

Why thank you.

KitFox

OK. What do you need me to do?

badass

!!youtube resect

KitSox

►

RegDwigнt

23:06

@KitFox get hats! And then more hats! And then get some hats!

KitFox

But how!?

RegDwigнt

Easy.

First, find a typo or anything to fix anywhere on this page.

Edit something there.

badass

!!wiki respect

KitSox

Respect

# Respect is a positive feeling of esteem or deference for a person or other entity (such as a nation or a religion), and also specific actions and conduct representative of that esteem. Respect can be a specific feeling of regard for the actual qualities of the one respected (e.g., "I have great respect for her judgment"). It can also be conduct in accord with a specific ethic of respect. Rude conduct is usually considered to indicate a lack of respect, disrespect, where as actions that honor somebody or something indicate respect. Specific ethics of respect are of fundamental import...

RegDwigнt

Very good. Let's see what's next.

KitFox

23:09

@RegDwigнt OK.

RegDwigнt

You'll need to find obsolete comments and delete them not by deleting but by flagging as "obsolete".

KitFox

How many?

RegDwigнt

This is a bit hard right now as all the easily googleable stuff such as "thanks fixed" has been taken.

@KitFox five for a hat, another ten for another.

Next up, undelete a question.

And yeah, keep an eye on the review queues. Five reviews are a hat. Five reviews in five different queues are another hat.

KitFox

Wait a sec, I've got seven more obsolete to go.

badass

You could bar me to get an executioner hat

RegDwigнt

23:13

@badass Is that a secret hat?

KitFox

Are you volunteering?

And is it a chat ban or a site ban?

RegDwigнt

Speaking of chat, say something witty. Twice. You must get starred.

badass

Yes @reg it is a hood

RegDwigнt

Wow Kit's up from 5 to 9.

KitFox

I've been starred once already.

What's the Johnny Three Hat?

RegDwigнt

23:16

You get it for any three hats. Rich getting richer.

There's another one for twenty hats.

KitFox

Pro tip: flag comments on deleted answers/questions.

Easy pickings.

RegDwigнt

Oh I see.

But I am good.

I have that hat already.

Perhaps next year.

badass

I'll take the network wide ip ban please

KitFox

It might not actually work. I lost count.

Undelete a question?

Robusto

I've lost count too.

RegDwigнt

23:21

@KitFox could be your own.

You can also reopen rather than undelete.

KitFox

Oh, but I hate that question. I hate that I asked it.

RegDwigнt

@KitFox you can always delete it again. If you hate it real good, I can delete it again for you.

Okay, the next one is real easy. Get a gold badge.

No, really.

Hm. Kit's highest-voted post, like, evar is at 51. That won't be trivial.

Perhaps she can get Steward or Populist.

KitFox

47.

I think mods can't get Steward.

RegDwigнt

51

Q: How did Americans greet each other before "Hi"?

I had assumed that "hi" was a somehow abbreviated form of "hello," but though both of these words appear to have originated from a noise to attract attention, hi actually predates hello. These words both appeared in the mid- to late 1800s, and seem to be primarily American usage. Does anyone kn...

I am looking at a 51 there, hon.

aedia λ

Assassin's Creed IV is out now, so you could totally just ask more questions about Pirate English and then delete them and undelete them, way, ay, roll an' go!

KitFox

23:26

Oh, I was looking at answers.

RegDwigнt

@KitFox I have like five.

Steward is for review queues.

Not Marshall.

Oh, and tomorrow you will need to vote on 40 things. You only get that many votes if you start by voting on questions, not answers. To be completely on the safe side, just vote on 40 questions in a row. That's a hat. If all of them are upvotes, that's another hat.

KitFox

10

Q: Is there a semantic difference between "pedophile" and "pederast"?

If I understand the etymology of pedophile and pederast, both mean child lover. Is there a difference in their connotation? In some recent local news stories that discuss changing sex offender laws, the controversy has centered around dividing the pedophiles and the rapists from the more questi...

differences

I could get famous question for this if we push 300ish more views.

230 more views.

RegDwigнt

Oh, excellent thinking.

KitFox

feels pleased

aedia λ

Catch y'all later!

KitFox

23:30

Can I vote on 40 questions today?

RegDwigнt

@KitFox have you voted on any answers yet?

Then no.

Otherwise, knock yourself out.

KitFox

I've upvoted three questions.

Any others I should look at in particular?

RegDwigнt

Then you are good to go.

Just remember not to upvote questions from all the same people. These will get caught and reverted by the script.

Also, they don't all have to be upvotes. You can get the hat for that on another day, and for upvoting just one thing.

So basically if you vote on 37 more questions either way, you should be fine.

KitFox

Might as well kill two birds with ~~one~~ an stone.

RegDwigнt

@KitFox Speaking of which, ten edits on anything get you the nursey hat.

KitFox

23:34

Yay nursey hat!

Um, does a closure vote count toward my votes?

RegDwigнt

Also, if no sucker downvotes any of us until midnight, we should get yet another hat for free, for only receiving positive votes during one day.

@KitFox no. But don't get distracted with that.

You already have the hat for closing.

KitFox

I just want to make sure I'm not wasting my upvoting-all-questions time.

RegDwigнt

Nah.

What you're doing now is the opposite of wasting time.

You're getting hats at godspeed.

KitFox

My efficiency would impress Germans.

RegDwigнt

@KitFox you could go to the Review queue for Close Votes, though, which for me has 3 items right now, so probably for you as well. Since you have 2 reviews there already, that would get you to the threshold of 5.

KitFox

23:38

I know, but I couldn't decide about the questions.

RegDwigнt

We are but one hat behind the cooks BTW. Go Kit!

@KitFox you can say "looks good", I will delete them all from orbit anyway.

Good mod, evil mod.

KitFox

Hmm...

That's a bit sneaky.

shrugs

RegDwigнt

You don't say.

What do you think all the other people on all the other sites are doing right now?

Actually I take that back. It ain't even sneaky. If you're not sure, that's a "looks good". In dubio pro reo.

KitFox

Shit. I thought I could get the two I skipped over back, but I can't.

RegDwigнt

Wevs. Can wait. Get back to voting.

That one could get close.

Not sure when midnight is.

Could be in 17 mins.

Stack Exchange

23:43

Limerick Machine: It wouldn't sit still

posted on December 16, 2013 by sgdi

A man who was obsessed with hats Had run out and was left just with cats So he lay down in bed Wearing one on his head But the cat didn’t think much of that

KitFox

Midnight is still hours away.

Actually, I think it is at 8 my time.

RegDwigнt

We don't want to find out the hard way.

Is all I'm saying.

It used to be at 2 at night my time.

Then it used to be at 1 because of summer time or winter time or both.

And it is 15 minutes till 1 my time.

KitFox

OK, OK, I had to wipe my son's butt, for heaven's sake!

3

I'm hurrying.

RegDwigнt

That is the precise amount of dedication we need. Wiping butts and single-handedly beating cooks all at the same time.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…