English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@Arrowfar Yes, it works for any sentence with this general structure.

user116848

Ok Thanks man

Thank you for asking! I'm glad if I was of any help to you.

user116848

:D

@Cerberus Consider the resort city of Cádiz, which the Brits inevitably pronounce either [ˈkʰeɪdiːz] or [kʰəˈdɪz], but never the native [ˈkäð̪̞iθ] or even [ˈkäð̪̞is]. Notice the lack of aspiration, the dental approximate, etc. About the closest you can come in English is [ˈkʰɑ ɾiθ]. Otherwise you start using sounds that don’t occur in English, and will not be understood. They’ll think you’ve said Gahtheeth or something.

(Changing /d/ to [ɾ] as is standard in North America.)

Once you lose the aspiration, a native English-speaker will mishear the first letter as a g not a k sound.

And that’s just part of it.

7:04 PM

@tchrist /aɪ ɾoʊnt ɾuː ðæt/!

@TheodoreBroda Shore.

@TheodoreBroda Tell that to your [kʰɪɾiz].

@Cerberus Look, you get your choice of a new suit for next year!

I dunno how long the batteries last, though.

@tchrist Names of places that already have a common pronunciation in English I would not normally pronounce the native way.

But pronouncing it that way shouldn't be a problem if you know Spanish well enough (I don't).

@tchrist Where I live, they won't understand jalapeño unless you pronounce it /dʒæpəliːnoʊ/.

@Robusto This critical pedagogy is too abstruse for someone as obtuse as me.

@tchrist I think the demand for noble gases will skyrocket, with all this neon.

@TheodoreBroda I don’t talk to those people. They never understand me anyway. It took three train conductors to understand that I was going to Hinton WV, since I rhymed it with Clinton and they all said [ˈhĩʔn̩]. It was like surreal.

@tchrist Wow, so much variation!

7:17 PM

@Cerberus No blonds.

I guess it doesn’t work with red or something.

@Cerberus You can have any color you like, so long as it's crimson.

I love choice.

And what in the world is this garment??

It must be a swimming suit, given the lack of underwear.

@tchrist A toreador's nightmare.

I don’t think I care for it, personally.

7:20 PM

the girls love it

Plus, wouldn’t it attract sharks?

female sharks ;-)

@tchrist What in the world is fashion?

!!wiki fashion

Jarvis

Fashion

Fashion is a popular style or practice, especially in clothing, footwear, accessories, makeup, body piercing, or furniture. Fashion is a distinctive and often habitual trend in the style in which a person dresses. It is the prevailing styles in behaviour and the newest creations of textile designers. The more technical term costume has become so linked to the term "fashion" that the use of the former has been relegated to special senses like fancy dress or masquerade wear, while "fashion" means clothing more generally, including the study of it. Although aspects of fashion can be femi...

7:23 PM

@TheodoreBroda Oh, that happens later in that gallery:

Good thing it’s a Christian bull, eh?

Circus clothes.

@tchrist I thought it was a Dolce & Gabbana, not Christian Dior.

@TheodoreBroda They have crucified a bull. Now who’s safe?

@tchrist This fashion is truly scary. I hope I never have to wear such ridiculous clothing.

@tchrist Matadors.

Those things aren't meant to worn by actual people, I believe.

There are more like...an inspiration of sorts.

7:30 PM

@Cerberus For nightmares?

Mother-in-mother-in-law-in-law. — John Lawler 11 mins ago

I think he has one too many instances of in in there, but I kinda lost track.

Maybe they could hire this prisoner as a model. The internet thinks he is quite hot.

That just looks like a scary mobster, not "hot".

@TheodoreBroda It’s the lighting on the cheekbones, the gruff unshaven look, and most of all the Paul-Newman baby-blue eyes glaring out from what is clearly a negroid face. It’s a blue–orange contrast that subtly sets people up for appeal.

Which people? Crazies?

Did you have an alternative?

7:36 PM

I have an alternative, who looks nothing like that.

I mean, alternative suggestion to crazies as to whom he might appeal to.

@tchrist Those orange jumpsuits still look better than that scarlet Dolce & Gabbana crap.

@tchrist No.

@TheodoreBroda What does putting something below someone mean?

@Alraxite Rocket to adventure?

7:39 PM

@Alraxite I meant "put it past you". I conflate my idioms sometimes.

user116848

@TheodoreBroda "She said she [loved/had loved] him when she was at college. Both are correct?

@Alraxite If I put a certain bad action beneath you, I'm saying you are above it, morally and/or otherwise, so I'm saying you wouldn't do it.

@Arrowfar Yes, both sound fine to me.

@TheodoreBroda I read that as I conflate my demons sometimes.

If I would not put this bad thing beneath you, I'm saying you might very well stoop to it.

user116848

7:40 PM

So both perfectly grammatical?

Grammaticality is not at issue.

Signification is.

@TheodoreBroda Ah, OK.

@tchrist I confuse Beelzebub with Mephistopheles sometimes.

user116848

@tchrist So? What do you think?

@Cerberus Oh, that interpretation makes sense.

7:42 PM

Right.

@TheodoreBroda Need more Queen.

Something can be beneath you, or you can be past something, but those have nothing to do with each other.

@tchrist I know, it was just a stupid error.

@TheodoreBroda I was peeling the pineapple.

I didn't blink at put x below you, but I think beneath is more common?

@tchrist The expressions were put something beneath someone and put something past someone. Both mean that that someone wouldn't do that something.

7:46 PM

@Cerberus Yes, it was possibly the worst preposition I could have chosen. Dice me up and throw me in a piña colada.

@TheodoreBroda I wouldn't call it wrong?

Me neither

books.google.com/ngrams/…

Google Ngram can't find either expression.

Of course past is the same thing.

I wouldn't be so sure. those two expressions aren't on the x-axis (at 0%) either.

books.google.com/ngrams/…

put it beneath her, however, has ngrams

books.google.com/ngrams/…

compared to

books.google.com/ngrams/…

8:03 PM

But look at the scale on the ordinate axis

books.google.com/ngrams/…

thanks :-)

welcome :-)

some math books don't even use the word "percentage"

only "percent"

Huh.

Like how?

@Alraxite Hmm strange!

@skullpatrol But the terms are not interchangeable.

8:08 PM

They completely avoid the word "percentage" @TheodoreBroda @Cerberus

they don't what confusion with "percentile" I guess...

Why and how?

good questions^

you only really need the word "percent" to teach what it means

@skullpatrol Mathematicians and their terminology... They have no regard for parallelism either. I have seen textbooks that say "abscissa, ordinate, and z-axis".

@skull google.com/…

@TheodoreBroda must have been traditional

8:14 PM

But maybe not many maths books do, I dunno

Either use "x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis", or use "abscissa, ordinate, and applicate". Is that too hard, mathematicians?

And what about this confusion between "trapezoid" and "trapezium"? Just pick a meaning and apply it universally, preferably the one that makes the most etymological sense.

The {math} ∩ {English} is a confusing place, indeed.

@TheodoreBroda And that's coming from someone who loves pretentious words.

@Alraxite I appreciate consistently applied pretentious words, yes.

I also enjoy pedantry.

{my elitism} ∩ {inconsistency} = ∅.

I think that I scared everyone away.

8:31 PM

too many symbols

Andrew Leach

It's the first time I've seen set theory in here.

@TheodoreBroda you lose half your readers for every equation

@skullpatrol Pity this is integer math.

@TheodoreBroda btw if you what to be consistent use {} for the empty set

@skullpatrol Hob!

8:34 PM

!!define hob

Jarvis

@skullpatrol hob A kind of cutting tool, used to cut the teeth of a gear.

@skullpatrol Excellent suggestion! I prefer the term null set, though (remember, pretense).

Dec 5 '12 at 15:18, by tchrist

> The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them. ... A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.

18 hours ago, by tchrist

 Either I mistake your shape and making quite;
 Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
 Call’d Robin Goodfellow: are not you he
 That frights the maidens of the villagery;
 Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern
 And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;
 And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;
 Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
 Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
 You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
 Are not you he?
                   Thou speak’st aright;

@tchrist Don't wax philosopher on us.

fahdijbeli

hi

user116848

8:46 PM

@skullpatrol Here both are grammatical and understandable?: "Tom said he wrote/had written it himself"

yes

user116848

So if I prefer the simple one. Its perfectly Ok too Right?

correct

user116848

okay

user116848

@skullpatrol Can you tell me what does capital T with small d means in The Cambridge Grammar Of The English Language 2002

8:57 PM

sorry, i don't know

user116848

You know anyone here who read CGEL?

fahdijbeli

me too don't know :(

A: What is one’s mother-in-law’s mother-in-law called?

-2

The old harridan that just won't die.

That isn’t a very nice thing to say: that old harridan that just won’t die.

It might be an amusing comment, but an answer? I think not.

@JohnLawler I know redundancy reinforces, but I almost think you have one too many in instances infixed in there. Plus one wonders just what sort of fixture mother-in-law is: is she an infix or a circumfix? I guess she’s mesoclitic, but be sure never to skimp on that word’s last syllable. — tchrist 10 mins ago

Mahnax

@tchrist I flagged it. Garbage.

Iffy at best as a comment, inappropriate for an answer. Answers are supposed to be helpful.

medica

9:15 PM

Sorry there isn't a more private place to message people. Don't want to involve people in an argument.

Stack Exchange

Limerick Machine: A pig did once dream of a man Who was ground up and squashed in a can The can was then sold The...

posted on June 21, 2014 by sgdi

A pig did once dream of a man Who was ground up and squashed in a can The can was then sold The public were told That man meat was actually spam

medica

@Robusto - I apologize for our exchange earlier this morning. It was ungracious of me to characterize you as I did. Had I a way of sending this message to you privately I would have done so.