English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Q: How do you write a formal email?

I finally figured out why I couldn't find my little writeup about emails. Been looking for it for ages. We threw this question over the wall to Writers and I answered it there, where I don't pop in often...

2

What is the web equivalent of formal letters? In this day and age, formal correspondence have all become digital, and it would be helpful to know the proper way. Oh, and please do highlight if there are different styles (the classic American vs British, maybe?) and how they differ.

email

This new one asks about salutations in the beginning but really they want to know almost everything that other question does.

0

Q: writing an email?

I am pretty confused how to I use the initial words While writing an e-mail to my superiors. I mean suppose if somebody is writing a letter to his HR(HR of a company) requesting for some letter,approval, information etc. should we say like : Hi or dear or her/his name dear jenny what...

email salutation

2:18 PM

maybe we should migrate it to writers?

I kinda think so. I promise to help edit it into as much comprehensibility as possible so they don't totally hate us.

Uff. Sorry, work.

Where was I?

@MrHen Haha, and now you're getting flak for it.

@MattEllen: That's a Russian smiley.

Everyone uses those in Russia. Everyone.

@RegDwight yay! I was pretty much right

Wow @MrHen is in our ELU posting dupes. Bad MrHen, bad!

@RegDwight — People smile in Russia? I did not know that.

2:31 PM

Only in writing.

@RegDwight having read several fat russian novels, i find reason to doubt your statement

Try the low-fat ones.

Hi.

Wo?

Sure they smile...

Though it may be more like thundering laughter.

2:37 PM

Jul 5 at 15:29, by RegDwight

Four Russians, one Englishman.

Who's smiling now?

Hah is that Shakespeare?

Hot.

Hot red.

That just because the complete works of Pratchett, Adams and Gaiman are out of shot

Huhuh, gaiman, huhuh.

MrHen

@RegDwight :)

2:44 PM

@MrHen I think you misspelled )))

MrHen

@MattEllen (((Oh really?!?

Wow, Russian rchern.

I might revise my answer to postulate that the example chatter is doing his part to close the open paranthesis around the internet

A chatter with a lisp.

@RegDwight thwack

2:47 PM

dodge

Also, volkswagen

stumble

MrHen

Eesh, what is this? EL&U LARPing?

recover

run away

@MattEllen You pluralized tumble on the wrong end.

@RegDwight I hope I'm not tumbling out of the wrong end

2:49 PM

Everyone hopes that. Sometimes the hopes are in vain.

@MattEllen Little-endian tumbling, or big-endian?

@Rhodri well, the smaller the better!

Hey, wtf, Shakespeare didn't look like Gollum.

@Robusto I know that picture, but I don't know why. Maybe it's Gary Busey in red face paint

Q: What is good expression/phrase/word describing service being fast?

0

Basically I want to say this: I went to that place for brunch with my gf last weekend and service was pretty fast and food was good too. I want to say that service was good in way that it was pretty fast, without a delay, etc. Thanks

word-choice single-word-requests

So general reference

2:59 PM

I just saw that one and cleaned it up a lil bit but I'm always confused why people need words for things they already have words for.

@aedia single-word-request I need a word to describe that feeling you have when you know a word and you want to ask people for a word just like it.

3

@MattEllen Haha nice.

@MattEllen Reg actually had a name for that but I can't think of it. Self-answering question?

@aedia As a non-native speaker, he might not know whether fast is grammatical in that context at all, let alone if it's the best thing you could possibly say.

Heck, I am not sure if that's the best thing you could possibly say.

And I'm not sure if I had a word for that. I only remember whining in lots of words.

2 days ago, by RegDwight

I dunno what I'm missing, but it appears that the OP is looking for a word for something he already knows the word for.

But hey, I know that site where I could ask for a single word...

Wow, hi @Jin.

hey!

3:10 PM

"Fast service" sounds perfectly fine?

Hi!

@RegDwight Would that be thesaurus.com ?

@Cerberus It sounds fine, it is fine.

@Jin I am honored to see you here. I hope we're not breaking the design. Or are you? :P

@z7sg Then I don't get his problem...

Has Jin designed us?

@Cerberus He has doubts about its sounding fineness

3:12 PM

@RegDwight oh I'm honored to me here, among English experts! I better watch out how I type...

nah I just randomly stop by SE chatrooms sometimes, if I see one is active

@z7sg Mmmk, so then this doubt has hereby been solved!

@Cerberus Jin has designed everything and everyone, including us. He is our intelligent designer. Don't tell @Vitaly.

@Cerberus Jin made us beautiful. All hail Jin.

@RegDwight Waaahh noooo....

aww thanks. Actually, I did not design the English site. A friend of mine did. I think he did a great job.

3:14 PM

Does that mean I can be wicked and blame it on Him?

@Cerberus Is that why we're here, to resolve these doubts? I don't begrudge a pineapple resolution of his doubts but I don't think such questions are likely to be useful to others.

Alex Char Char of retinart.net

@Jin He did!

Wow! Secrets get revealed!

@z7sg Isn't it like other single-word requests and "x v. y"? I never read, let alone answer those, so I cannot distinguish between "good" and "bad" ones...

3:16 PM

You should read his blog, a lot of nice posts on typography and design history. e.g. retinart.net/typography/blackletter

@Jin We were truly created in His image!

Someone didn't recognize one of the Tenniel pictures earlier today. I was sad.

Mana

Oh hey Jin.

22 hours ago, by Bogdan Lataianu

what does that picture mean in the error message anyway? with the puppet of a king

The font is the same, colour is a bit off but close, header similar style...

3:18 PM

@Jin So those are Char Char chars?

@Cerberus Its worse in a way, it's more of a "is word A appropriate in context B", so given that there are more collocations in existence than single words it's even less useful. imo

@Jin Ooh!

It should really be possible to automate a search like that.

@z7sg Perhaps so... it depends on how much ESL we are willing to admit. We have plenty other questions about very specific contexts that noöne else is going to search for.

I'd rather not get involved with SWRs and thesauristic ones.

I used to answer lots of SWRs, they used to be rather interesting.

3:20 PM

How?

Follow-up Question for ELU: If I'm convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison, and then my sentence is commuted, does that mean they let me out and then take me right back?

They did degenerate, but there are no inherent problems.

@RegDwight — I need a single word that means inherent problem.

I just never find them interesting—personal taste, I suppose.

I need a single word that means never show me a single-word request ever again!

A: Word meaning "use of uncommon words"

8

It depends on what you mean by "uncommon". Lexiphanicism is the use of excessive terminology, while patavinity is the use of local or provincial words. (I hope you are not just looking for slang or jargon.)

3:22 PM

Something like bang might do.

And I got a comment by none other than hippietrail himself thanking me.

Arg I can't look at that.

In fact, now I find I need a single word for a peanut-butter-and-bacon sandwich, grilled and garnished with olives, served with a side of peanut brittle.

Requests for abstruse bits of linguistic terminology are one thing. "I can't be bothered to pick up a thesaurus" requests are quite another.

@Robusto Lekkermiddageten.

3:23 PM

@Robusto ...

@Rhodri My argument exactly.

@RegDwight — Damn, you're fast.

@Rhodri Linguistic terminology? Well, I suppose that is a meta-word, so it could be interesting.

Then there was the Baader-Meinhof question, and the semantic satiation question.

They added value to the site.

@Cerberus — Dots all you have to say?

3:24 PM

And still do.

They constantly get quoted.

And bring us editorial mentions.

Most importantly, people learn from them.

@RegDwight I happen to like the SS question, but rather as a curio than a practical tool, which this website is supposedly meant for...

@Cerberus Amongst other things, they show how English words can be made up of nailed-together Latin, Greek and God Knows What Else roots.

@Cerberus But those "does this sentence sound okay pls review now I need it quick" are all about practicality.

So I'm confused.

@Rhodri I'm not sure what kind of questions you mean now...

You don't want to have practical questions, and you don't want the curios. What's left?

3:27 PM

@RegDwight I have always been confused about the contradictory aims of Stack Exchange. A question must be practical. It must be interesting for experts. These two often conflict.

@Cerberus very true

@Cerberus Yes, that's why I'm ignoring SE and talking to you.

I am asking about your opinion.

Which questions do you want to have? Other than the 25-tops good ones Kosmonaut liked?

@RegDwight My opinion for a site that would generate enough views, or one that would generate mostly questions that I'd like to read? You know, I am also not entirely convinced that bad and good questions cannot be on the same site. The bad questions attract users and slowly educate them towards the better ones. Or perhaps that would deter experts after all.

I see. But that is kinda like everyone feels.

In the mean time, the site just exists.

@RegDwight I will only look at questions about style and linguistics. But I might want to ask a proofreading or ESLish question now and then. I suppose the former could go on Writers.se.

3:30 PM

Nobody can say where it will be in ten days, but it will be.

True.

Unless we collectively take our balls and commit to Sex.

And take the linguistic questions with us?

Sure. I am certain "what is the difference between boobs and tits" would be welcome there.

Oh! Yes.

3:32 PM

)))

That would be...efficient.

To speak with 7of9.

@Cerberus — I think bad questions and answers are a deterrent to potentially good users.

Honestly, why not have a sex site run entirely by linguists, translators, and pineapples?

I can't find a flaw.

@RegDwight — It is a process of discovery, this difference you speak of. The journey is the reward.

@Robusto Could be... but if we take away all the questions I don't like, we are left with 2 or so a day. Stack Exchange probably think sthat is too few and closes us then.

3:33 PM

@Robusto You are not supposed to answer questions in this phase.

Answer them in private beta.

So many people get this wrong!

Censored private beta.

@RegDwight — You misspelled phrase. And besides, it's not a phrase, it's a sentence!

A sentence is a phrase...

@Robusto A sentence as in "six months hard labour"

@Cerberus — Well, you could make your own site called Doggy Treat[i]s[e]. And you only get two treat[i]s[e]s a day.

@Rhodri — You're being so sententious today. What gives?

@Cerberus — If you insist.

3:36 PM

Feb 3 at 20:37, by Robusto

Nothing propinqs like propinquity.

That is a sentence.

And you can quote me on that.

No, you can quote me on that. And I can quote Ian Fleming on it. Which I did. Which nobody here caught.

At last it can be told!

@Robusto Just distracted. I'm trying to figure out why my boss's code doesn't do what either of us think it should.

@Robusto Well, only me was around and I don't read Belgian writers.

@Rhodri — Eeeeeuwwww! Boss code! Yuk.

I need an opinion.

3:38 PM

Actually it's pretty good, it's just aiming at iPhones. Ew.

@RegDwight — Veddy British, that one. Not Flemish.

@Kit Here, have mine. I have two.

@Kit — Take it to SCOTUS.

You can say Sir to me.

@Robusto What's that?

@RegDwight Sir.

3:38 PM

Supreme Court.

@Robusto He's just being a right Walloon today :-)

nobody wants to commit to FL&U, do they? we're 1 off being at 75%. 1.

A: "Normalization" vs. "canonicalization"

Should I delete my answer here?

4

I cannot help you with the specifics of these terms as they relate to software engineering specifically, but as far as these terms are used generally, there is a marked difference between normalization and canonicalization. Understanding these differences may help you figure out the difference in...

So, I had a perfect stat of 100 bronze badge, and now some people ganged up on me, upvoted my latest answer and I have 101 bronze badges. People have no respect whatsoever for beautiful things

@Jez Whaddayamean, nobody? Everyone in this room did!

3:39 PM

I meant it as a question

like "does anybody"

I mean that as a statement. Like "nobody here can".

there needs to be a way of conveying tone of voice in text

WUT????

Wow, I just discovered that Ian Fleming was himself quoting someone else with that remark. Mind = assploded!

George Wildman Ball

George Wildman Ball (December 21, 1909 – May 26, 1994) was an American diplomat. Biography Ball was born in Des Moines, Iowa. He lived in Evanston, Illinois and graduated from Northwestern University. During 1944 - 45 he was director of the Strategic Bombing Survey in London. He was the Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs in the administrations of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He is well known for his opposition to escalation in the Vietnam War. After Kennedy decided to send 16,000 "trainers" to Vietnam, "Ball, the one dissenter in Kennedy’s entoura...

@Kit It's been accepted, so you won't be able to.

3:40 PM

the 'do they' in that sentence would have its tone raising rather than lowering, indicating a genuine question

@Rhodri I feel badly. I am filled with self-doubt.

Kit, I have to ask; what is this about?

2 hours ago, by RegDwight

@Fx Is that true? @Kit.

@Kit I would have to read that thoroughly. What's the problem?

I thought I understood it well, then I got all muddled when FF started arguing with me.

@Kit In most cases of doubt, FF is wrong :-)

3:41 PM

I doubt that!

Oh...

@Robusto — Hmm ... or it might have been the other way around

@Fx @Reg apparently thinks I'm the resident whore.

@Robusto I shouldn't have taught you how to talk at yourself.

@RegDwight — Don't worry, I don't listen to myself anyway.

Welcome to the club

3:43 PM

@Kit got that vibe too, was wondering if I was misunderstanding

Feb 10 at 16:01, by RegDwight

Even @RegDwight doesn't read all of @RegDwight's crap!

@Fx You got the vibe that I was a whore? Or that @Reg thinks I am?

@Kit the second one :)

Huhuh, she said vibe, huhuh.

Yeah I got the second vibe too.

3:45 PM

Well, for the record, I am not a whore, nor have I ever been one.

I don't get that vibe re-reading my comments.

@RegDwight ”vibe. 2. another word for vibraphone” — I can see how that makes you giigle

If anything, I labeled you an expert in linguistics and sex.

If that is the current definition of "whore" then I'm behind the times.

I am definitely not an expert in linguistics.

10 hours ago, by RobinHood

@kit when you ping like @Rob to Robusto message would also come to me in my inbox, becuase intially three word of Robusto and RobinHood is same. so take care

3:46 PM

2

Q: "adaption" vs "adaptation"

I'm writing a formal paper, and have a section about "the process of adapting a model to a new situation" Should I title the section "model adaption" or "model adaptation"? I'm rather confused by the difference between the two words. I am inclined to use "adaption" but i dont know why... David

meaning differences

@RegDwight that one, with "langue" and "sexe", opens up so many puns in French that my head just exploded :)

i'm sorry, but how does it get any more gen ref that this?

@Martha Oh I saw that, thanks. @RobinHood I got your message, thank you.

@Fx Why do puns explode heads in France?

@Fx I have been accused of being a very cunning linguist.

4

3:47 PM

@Kit THWACK!

@Rhodri Hey, that's my line!

GROAN been waiting to see that pun rolled out for a while now.

(But thanks for the help.)

@Martha — Hey, stop proxy-pinging me!

@z7sg it was truly inevitable

3:48 PM

@RegDwight — Just be thankful they still can.

@Martha Under the circumstances I thought speed of thwackage was appropriate. Sorry for trespassing :-)

@Robusto What? You were here already, it's not like I dragged you out of bed or something.

@Martha — Just because I'm at work doesn't mean I'm not trying to get some sleep.

2 hours ago, by F'x

@RegDwight I would, except that I bet my chances of getting laid are better on Linguistics than on Sex

And I think this is true.

@JSBangs I've been itching to use it for days but I said to myself, no @z7sg don't use that pun... you will be thwacked for sure!

Q: Single word for "requires a crew"

3:50 PM

1

Is there a single word to describe an entity that needs a crew/staff or requires manning in order to function. This is subtly different to using the words "manned" or "crewed" to describe or imply an entity that is currently staffed, not that it must be staffed to operate. e.g. a ship or a pow...

single-word-requests

@Robusto Oh, right. Sorry. I'll be quiet. (Perhaps I'll work on a nap, myself.)

Umm, "The little man in the boat"?

@z7sg And it's funnier if I say it.

@Kit and you wonder why you have a certain reputation

(but i would never call you a whore)

@Kit It's especially funny when you've got your titty shirt on.

3:51 PM

@Kit indeed, this pun has been a long time coming

Thwack.

@Fx ...I want to...but I'm not going to...but just so you know, I could.

@Fx THWACK

@Martha thwack jinx

Ooh, looks like I entered at the right moment.

@Kit don't resist, come on… punnitus interruptus is so frustrating

3:54 PM

@aedia You came just in time.

@z7sg thwack

16 hours ago, by Martha

@Martha ZOMG!!! !! A DOUBLE RAINBOW!!!

I took too long with the editing, so y'all had left by the time I posted that last night.

yesterday, by Rhodri

::buries head in hands:: I swear you lot are worse than the slash writers for innuendo.

3:56 PM

@Martha murmurs so... beautiful...

Apr 23 at 1:01, by Robusto

Well, you're all a proper bunch of cunning linguists now, ain'tcha?

A resounding THWACK to everyone who's been starring gratuitous puns, by the way.

@Martha Dein Regenbogen ist so eckig. Warum bloß?

@Robusto precognitive jinx!

I'm off for the day... bye all!

3:57 PM

@Cerberus Bye!

Cya doggie

ciao!

See ya @Cerberus!

@RegDwight I don't know eckig or bloß, which makes it hard to make sense of that.

Gosh, people. I look away from the monitor to my boss, for just a second, I look back and see that bearded joke starred four times.

3:58 PM

Bai!

Mana

I don't get the joke!! Does that make me dumb?

@Martha Ecke = corner. Bloß = just an intensifier.

So about that "requires crew" question...I keep thinking something like "mannable" but -able means it could be; what suffix would imply that it must be?

Dang, it's that late already... Gotta run.

CU

@RegDwight Oh. In that case, I believe the answer is "iPhone camera". (I.e. the rainbow wouldn't fit in one shot, so I took a whole bunch and stuck them together. But all I have for doing that on this computer is Paint. Hence the, um, perspective issues.)

4:00 PM

Laterz.

@Kit Manned.

see you

@Martha Fascinating stuff. iPhones with cameras. I love living in the 21st century.

Byes!

Over and out!

4:01 PM

hey guys, i hate to interrupt this punstravaganza, but i have a real question

@Martha I disagree. Manned doesn't mean the same thing as mandated manning.

0

Q: What does "zingo" mean?

I'm doing some maintenance work on some software - whose original developers are unknown. There is a report called the "All Zingo Report", which basically dumps all the data for the primary "entity" in the database (the primary entity represents a person that has been referred to a government-ass...

etymology

is this "too localized" ?

he's basically asking about a word that only exists in some report he's working on

yes, it is too localized

@Kit Think of a manned rocket as opposed to an unmanned rocket. Obviously, the former needs the men to function.

@Martha But manned just means that it is manned, it doesn't mean that it is required to be manned.

4:03 PM

@JSBangs Well, except he can't know that, can he?

@Martha — Women can "man" a spaceship, too.

@Martha but he could have found out by googling, or going to a dictionary

@Robusto Yeah, yeah, yeah.

so if it's not too loc, it's gen ref

@Kit I think the OP is asking for a fine distinction that English happens not to provide. As is rather frequently the case in this sort of SWR.

4:06 PM

@JSBangs There are words that don't appear in every dictionary, but are nonetheless valid words (though often only in some esoteric context). I've been too lazy to read this question very closely, but if he's asking "Is zingo a meaningful word anywhere? I've looked [here] and [here] and haven't found it. I encountered the word in [this context]." I think that's a perfectly valid question.

@Kit It seems to me that manned is always used to mean "required to be manned", and this distinction is only theoretical.

@Martha i suggest you look at the question itself, as the asker does not do any of the things that you describe in your defense

@z7sg, stop pinging yourself!

hmmm odd

Oh, there are still two of you, @z7sg @z7sg.

@JSBangs Oh. Um. BRB.

4:12 PM

OK, who started the unicorn breeding programme?

If I ping a @z7sg I get a ping in my inbox!

@Rhodri One day we may be released back into the wild!

I only see one z7sg. I feel deprived.

@Martha Shh! One @z7sg is sleeping.

@Kit! You'll wake the @z7sg with pings!

Btw, what word can I use for vagina in a question title, that is a little more casual but not rude?

I mean that wouldn't get redacted

@z7sg come on, you know better than to write some multicollider bait!

4:21 PM

It's a genuine questions ;)

Cootchie

Hoohah

Bits and pieces

Undercarriage

Moneymaker

OK, that's silly now! Moneymaker? errr...

Queen Elizabeth

or go with the broader lady bits

Or even lady parts

4:23 PM

Ah damn I think I found the answer already!

Pubic area

Bit too coy that one.

@z7sg What was it?

@Kit that's not synonymous; you can find lots of detailed drawings on wikipedia, I'm sure

I wanted to know if the 'nothing' in Much Ado About Nothing referred to pussy

Q: The question deals with the correct word usage in different contexts

4:25 PM

0

what is the difference between all these words: differnt,divergent,disparate,distinct?

word-usage

It seems it does. :)

and the crap continues to roll in

I've used up 9 close votes today!!!

Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero. Benedick and Beatrice are engaged in a "merry war"; they both talk a mile a minute and proclaim their scorn for love, marriage, and each other. In contrast, Claudio and Hero are sweet young people who are rendered practically speechless by their love for one another. By means of "noting" (which sounds the same as "nothing," and which is gossip, rumour, and overhearing), Benedick and Beatrice are tricked into confessing their love for each other, and Claudio is ...

the answer is inside

or, like they said about the Challenger disaster: much ado about an O-ring

(preventive counter-thwack)

Yes, much further in, I found it already. Most questions I have, I can find the answer without recourse to ELU.

hehe

4:29 PM

today i went to ask a question and found that we already had an answer here on ELU

so... good for us!

no thwacking? should I feel like it was a bad pun, then?

@Fx Martha told me off for thwacking without a license :-)

@Fx It was a terrible pun, but you got the counter in there really quickly.

The worse the pun is the better imo. I especially like the laboured variety.

Mitch

@MrHen: on the question english.stackexchange.com/questions/35941/…, you changed the tag to 'grammaticality'. But nothing in the question is about grammar (It is about word-usage). (I started to answer the question totally based on the 'grammatical' tag' saying that the choice of 'spoil' had nothing to do with grammar...when I realized the OP wasn't the one who chose that.

@Mitch having seen that question, i think it should be moved to writers.se