English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Alain Pannetier

00:01

Look at his activity tab and read through all his comments (about wikipedia, wiktionary, Aus SR1, etc). Same brazen behaviour, same TZ. Above all trust Kit. She's a woman...

Cerberus

TZ?

But could H be faking his ehh... style so consistently?

Alain Pannetier

Time zone. I know you seem to be an Aussie yourself since you're up when everybody else is in bed...
It's a second nature. He can't help it. He deserves more compassion than anything else. Nevertheless detrimental to the site IMO.

Needs to open analyst.stackexchange.com

I shall soon leave you to your own insomnia; I've had a flu for the last 3 days and I'm knackered.

Cerberus

@AlainPannetier Oh! I hope you get well soon.

I have read a couple of their comments, but they don't look very similar.

They may both be in Australia.

But JB's English seems smoother than H's.

But I'm not sure.

By the way, I am travelling in your direction in a few hours...

Alain Pannetier

@Cerberus, neither am I of course. The real litmus test would be the voting beneficiaries.

Going to Burgondy ?

Cerberus

Yep!

Alain Pannetier

00:14

I should have been in Dijon myself today actally.

Postponed

Cerberus

Oh!

Funny.

We might pas each other in different cars, or something.

How's the weather?

Alain Pannetier

Train.

Bad.

Cerberus

Ah.

Alain Pannetier

Worse next week.

Cerberus

Bad=rain?

Oh dearie.

Alain Pannetier

00:15

yes

Cerberus

Well, I prefer anything over heat. Still, sunny 20 degrees would have been nicer.

Alain Pannetier

france.lachainemeteo.com/meteo-france/…

Cerberus

Hmm... Troyes doesn't look too horrible.

I have never been there, I think. Is it nice?

Oh, it looks gorgeous.

Alain Pannetier

That's another kind of wine: champagne. Not very nice under the rain.

@Cerberus, regarding JB, many of his comments get a +1 very quickly. Which is what raised my suspicions.

Cerberus

@AlainPannetier Hmm...

The system is supposed to notice that.

Alain Pannetier

00:19

and why so many down votes.

and same pattern of received downvotes.

OK, I'll leave it there. I think you're too much of a nice guy.

Cerberus

Hmm many down, yes...

Well, I'm not nice; I just don't know.

What do you mean pattern of received downvotes?

Alain Pannetier

If you take an average user he will have like one down vote every 50 upvotes.

Brazen people will have a much higher ratio

Cerberus

Where do you see that?

Alain Pannetier

They just don't care. down votes are cheap.

Use the reputation tab and then the by-time tab.

Cerberus

Ah, yes.

But the accounts they are linked to seem to be different?

They are active on different sites, with significant rep there.

Alain Pannetier

00:24

I'll have a look.

Robusto

How do?

Cerberus

I see only Sceptics and ELU.

@Robusto Hai! Which language is that?

Alain Pannetier

You've got a point.

Robusto

English.

Cerberus

english.stackexchange.com/users/8286/joe-blow?tab=accounts

english.stackexchange.com/users/8183/ham-and-bacon?tab=accounts

Alain Pannetier

00:26

Hi @Robusto

Cerberus

@Robusto What's it mean?

Robusto

How [do you] do? It's elliptical. Like a crappy billiard ball. Or an egg.

Cerberus

I didn't know it was used that way. Like howdy or southern Dutch houdoe, or however it's spelled.

Robusto

"Howdy" is a different way of contracting the same phrase.

Cerberus

@AlainPannetier It could be done with some long-term planning. But...

@Robusto Yeah.

Robusto

00:29

@Cerberus — Give up the pretense that Dutch is a real language. We'll all feel better.

Alain Pannetier

No I now think these are 2 different profiles. Apologies.

Cerberus

Southern Dutch I should gladly give up.

Robusto

@Cerberus — What's the "Dutch" term for redneck?

Cerberus

@AlainPannetier Heh. Still, more algorithms could be good.

Alain Pannetier

Let's see how it goes... I'd give a lot to get my hands on the real db though.

Cerberus

00:30

@Robusto Ehh... I don't think we have an equivalent, because we have no sun. But the general sense would be caught in boer, perhaps.

Robusto

Ah. There it is.

Alain Pannetier

German bauer

Cerberus

How would you define a redneck? A stupid provincial?

Robusto

Ich kenne boer und bauer egal.

Cerberus

Do the Germans use it that way?

Robusto

00:32

No. The Germans have Austria for such comparisons.

Cerberus

I could say "that guy is a bit of a boer, which doesn't necessarily mean that he's rude—just primitive.

Heh, do they really use Austrians as stereotypical provincials?

Robusto

Don't forget, the Boers fought a war with England for who had the rights to oppress South Africa.

Cerberus

I know.

Robusto

The Boers won. Kind of.

Cerberus

The plural is boeren in Dutch.

Robusto

00:33

And the present progressive form is BOOOOORING!!!

Alain Pannetier

@Robusto - with Kirchner and the first Konzentrazionslagers
Guys, I'll have to leave you.

Cerberus

*the qualifying adjective to the perpendicular pronoun.

Alain Pannetier

CU on Monday.

Robusto

Me too. Gotta go get dinner. Laterz peeps.

Cerberus

Yeah that war was nasty. Bai!

OK adios!

See you in a week!

I shall be exploring the Burgundian countryside.

Kit

00:42

Bye @Cerberus! Drink some tasty wine!

Cerberus

Thanks! I shall.

Though Burgundian wines are known to be a bit light?

trg787

02:06

Btw , guys, .... do you know the fact: Sikorsky who built all helicopters aviation of the USA. He had no money in Americac. He asked composer Rakhmaniov to help him. Rakhmaninov gifted Sikorsky with $5000.

And we lost such people..... uphhhhhh

aedia

05:48

@Cerberus I hope you enjoy your trip!

I guess everyone is asleep around this time. Except for those of us up way way too late drunk watching Star Trek.

unsuccessfully pretends to be a firefly

trg787

11:11

@Cerberus heh, how would you translate to English -> До президента дошло, что его нет

it's from the link that I

Of course it can be said "mr. President have understood that he does not exists" but I can't grasp how it sounds in English, nuances etc

Sounds for Englishmen ears, I meant

F'x

11:37

hey, I came back just in time to celebrate my 100th bronze badge!

now that's a testament to the power of passive rep

at that rate, I could continue doing nothing and I'll be a 20k user in 5 months; then, my these mad powers, I take over the world

trg787

F'x, where are from?

where are you from?

I live in Gomel, Belarus

Maria sharapova was made in fact here. But your parents escaped to Sibiria, after Tchernobyl catastrophe. When her mother was pregnant

PS terrible typos..... :) her parents not your

RegDwight

11:54

@Fx Grats!

F'x, ♁

17.6k 2 46 100

It says "♁" right there.

Apr 24 at 21:24, by F'x

anyway, bug apart, I now have the most accurate "location" field of all users of the site

F'x

@RegDwight true that! wherever I travel, I usually don't have to change that location field

it's always accurate

RegDwight

Right.

Cerberus is lying right now, for example.

F'x

yeah, we all know he's on the banks of the river Styx, but you can't really write that in a profile, can you?

RegDwight

Nah, more like the river Seine or Rhône or what have you.

trg787

Can't invent a question abt English....... But I like the atmosphere of this chat room.

RegDwight

11:58

That's because we vent regularly!

F'x

@RegDwight I hope he's enjoying himself, though the weather is not so great these days

trg787

haha :)

F'x

(not so great for tourism, I mean; I quite like that it's not hot)

RegDwight

I dunno, I enjoyed this kind of weather while in Paris.

F'x

@RegDwight yeah, there was this rabid rabbit-like smell

RegDwight

11:59

And that one day when it was 40 degrees I did not enjoy at all.

F'x

@RegDwight big cities are not made for hot weather

right now it's a cool 18°C with some wind, that's quite nice

RegDwight

I dunno, last time I was in Paris before that, that was in winter, and -15 degrees.

And we spent the whole night walking.

It was freaking cold.

We tried to avoid the Seine as much as possible.

So +40 sounded like a good deal in comparison.

And it was.

But on itself... meh.

Anyhow, I gotta go shop for groceries in a few minutes.

F'x

and I'll go back to work

RegDwight

Or a few hours, I dunno. Not really in the mood for shopping. Just a warning in advance in case I disappear.

F'x

see you!

RegDwight

12:04

Have fun!

(Work on a Saturday? Those French are crazy!)

F'x

I have let the wife and kids go on holidays so I can get 10 days of bachelor-style work (day and evening work, night watching TV series, little sleep, no week-end)

RegDwight

Ah.

Now that is some serious work.

Don't wanna miss that one.

And won't disturb you.

F'x

regular EL&U breaks for mental health

see you later!

RegDwight

Bye!

Robusto

How do?

RegDwight

12:08

Approximately very!

Robusto

Meghan Deegan ate a vegan.

RegDwight

Except that I'm trying to convince myself to leave the house.

@Robusto A wise choice.

Robusto

Scary, that. Much safer to stay inside.

RegDwight

That's what I am replying, yes.

Most accidents happen outside, once you're there.

Robusto

On the other hand, most deaths occur in hospitals. So you'd do well to stay out of those.

RegDwight

12:11

Right.

Also, every single non-smoker will die.

Robusto

Stop reminding me.

RegDwight

Not drinking kills, too.

Robusto

Who appointed you Minister of Buzz Kills?

RegDwight

First time I hear I'd need an appointment for that.

Robusto

Well, you already have the Buzz Kill merit badge ... what more do you need?

RegDwight

12:14

Actually I got the Synonymizer badge yesterday.

Robusto

I think there's a word for that.

RegDwight

english.stackexchange.com/badges/97/synonymizer

trg787

btw, I suffer from TB both lungs.......... So, guys

RegDwight

I hear the swamps are on fire again?

Robusto

Curiously, in the "boiling hot" question, I noted drm65's misapplication of NGrams in my answer, so he fixed his and edited mine to reflect an understanding of his changes. I think it would have been more appropriate to change his own answer to take responsibility for the change, don't you?

RegDwight

12:17

Sound like fun.

Let me see.

Robusto

I already rolled mine back.

RegDwight

Wow I get motion sickness from all those NGrams.

Even Vincent posted THREE.

Nice to have him back, BTW.

Hey @vincentmcnabb

Robusto

Yeah. I only posted mine to counter the spurious flat-line of "boiling-hot" ...

Robusto

12:56

@RegDwight — Hey ... I'm back too. You didn't say it was nice to have me back. Now I'm gonna pout all day.

RegDwight

in War Metal Tyrant, 1 hour ago, by RegDwight

Robusto hasn't been seen in chat for quite a while.

I actually thought that it was that ping that brought you back.

Robusto

Wasn't a ping. No at-mention.

RegDwight

Click on that link.

You got not one, not two, but three pings.

Robusto

AH.

They didn't get to my inbox for some reason.

RegDwight

Interesting...

See, I can summon you without even summoning you.

I didn't even have to mention Chicago.

Robusto

13:05

How did you know I was in Chicago?

RegDwight

I didn't.

Robusto

Tricked, again. Must be your NKVD training.

RegDwight

Jul 5 at 19:32, by RegDwight

Now we just need to mention NY bagles and Chicago to summon Kosmonaut and Robusto, respectively.

Apr 11 at 17:12, by RegDwight

Like, Chicago is even worse than @Robusto, or @Robusto is even worse than Chicago, or something like that. You catch the drift.

It actually did work every single time.

Robusto

You misspelled bugles ...

RegDwight

Jul 5 at 19:33, by RegDwight

Search the chat for "bagles".

Jul 5 at 19:33, by RegDwight

That's the correct spelling in this room.

Mar 16 at 14:22, by RegDwight

Let the mighty bagle soar!

Now, all these mentions of bagles should actually summon Kosmonaut.

Robusto

13:07

Or maybe you misspelled bulges.

RegDwight

Bulges is an anagram.

Robusto

This one will work: Hey, @Kosmonaut, @Cerberus is grousing about Dutch being a real language again.

RegDwight

This will only half work.

Robusto

Anagrams are my ars magna.

RegDwight

Cerberus won't show up for another week.

Robusto

13:09

@RegDwight — But his doggy sense will be tingling. Still, he'll probably just pee against a tree or something to alleviate the feeling.

RegDwight

We could go @Martha on him. Like, @Martha @Martha @Martha. No, wait. Whom are we summoning again?

Robusto

The Thwackmeister herself?

RegDwight

Apr 30 at 14:13, by RegDwight

@Martha But all of those pings were of the most extremeliestest importance! Especially Kosmo's "Hey @Martha, do you see this @Martha mention? @Martha, @Martha, @Martha. Also, @Martha!"

Oh man. The picture right under that post is disturbing.

Robusto

Wow, yeah. It's like ... I dunno ... wood-rot or something.

RegDwight

It killed F'x, even.

Although it was originally him who posted it.

Weird.

Robusto

13:12

Speaking of wood rot, while I was on vacation one of my trees fell on the neighbor's porch.

RegDwight

@Robusto Like, um, just like that?

It decided to fall over and just did?

I mean, if there were some wind involved or heavy snow or something...

Robusto

No. My neighbor said it was absolutely still.

RegDwight

Fascinating.

Effing trees, how do they work?

So, any serious damage to report or repay?

Robusto

Almost as if there were communists in my back yard, working at undermining my cherry orchard. Wait! Cherry Orchard! They were striking at Chekov's tsarist decadence!

RegDwight

Man, you really are fast to notice.

Robusto

13:15

IDK about damage. Doesn't look bad, but I'm sure there will be $$ to pay.

RegDwight

Just stuff the hole in the soil before Communist swarms start getting out.

Robusto

But if there's already a hole in the soil, how can I stuff another one in? Doesn't this involve theoretical physics and n -dimensional spaces and stuff like that?

RegDwight

I dunno, dude. I was merely making an Aerosmith slash porn reference or something and got lost along the way.

Robusto

Walk this way.

RegDwight

Walking ain't the issue, which way should I talk?

Robusto

13:18

This way. Sheesh. Don't you know nothin'?

RegDwight

Ah.

That must be it.

Thank you!

Robusto

And I posted in WMT.

RegDwight

I can see it.

Don't even have to leave this room.

It's an awesome post.

A work of art.

Robusto

Thank you. You are very perceptive.

RegDwight

Your count is way off, however.

I count like four. Not both.

Forth?

Robusto

13:20

My count?

RegDwight

19:31

Ha, this is a question for @Cerberus and @Kosmonaut:

1

Q: Do all words have a part of speech?

Do all words have a part of speech? The closest example I can think of is yes. The dictionary says its supposed to be and adverb, but it doesn't really strike me as something that modifies a verb. Are there any words in common use that simply don't have a part of speech? Or alternatively, are ...

grammar

← 2 messages moved from War Metal Tyrant

RegDwight

21:47

0

Q: What is the history of synonyms

When synonyms were first used did people know they were called synonyms ? As in "bold" and "courageous"

history

-2

A: When did the use of acronyms begin?

I believe one of the earliest acronyms are Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Bavarian Motor Works (BMW). Probably around 4-20 years ago.Then they didn't call it acronym they called it initialism

April 1st?

RegDwight

22:00

0

Q: Where/when did the *idea* of bad words come from in English?

Bad Words: f*ck sh*t *ss d*mn b*tch ... Ok, so there's no point in listing them all. The thing I'm interested in is this: Why is it that in English we have a strong sense of a group of words that are bad, while in other languages/cultures, this distinction does not exist? Maybe this is a...

word-usage history

0

A: Do all words have a part of speech?

It is intended that all words have a part of speech. As for your second question - "are there parts of speech they don't just teach in school?" Traditionally, The eight parts of speech are: nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. Students learn...

Seriously, what's going on today?

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…