English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

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SmokeDetector

00:34

[ SmokeDetector ] Email in answer: Is there a word for someone who's like a "troll," but they are avocating an actual point of view? by Al-Mjro0o7 NrrN on english.stackexchange.com

Jez

happy 2016 all!

user116848

01:09

Happy New Year, everyone.

Jez

01:22

:-)

i enjoyed the fireworks. all i have to do is stay at home and look and listen. virtually everyone in Northampton has fireworks

tchrist

02:17

MOAR STARZ

Jez

how's it going @tchrist

tchrist

Been on vacation. So hacking for pleasure.

Jez

oh. im drunk.,

tchrist

@Jez Now there's an idea.

Jez

02:43

come back nowwwwwwwwwww cactus is our friend, he walked out the way

come back nowwwwww til the evening ends

Phonics The Hedgehog

03:33

Happy New Year... (EST QQ)

"He suddenly felt humility" or "He suddenly felt humble"?

One can feel both nouns and adjectives right?

1 hour later…

Minnow

04:49

Happy NY all!

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

05:39

@tchrist are you home yet?

Happy New Year!

15 hours ago, by cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

M! M! XVI!

Phonics The Hedgehog

05:56

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Dat hat.

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector ] Offensive body detected, offensive title detected: “Hooker”, “whore”, “prostitute”, when to use which? by Yousui on english.stackexchange.com

6 hours later…

Hugo

12:30

Q: Can questions on meta earn the It’s Always 5 O’Clock Somewhere hat?

If one were to ask a question on meta when it's 17:01 on Friday somewhere in the world (say, Bangkok), which is subsequently upvoted, would it be hatworthy?

1 hour later…

crl

13:38

0b111111<<5

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector ] Offensive body detected: When and why did the N-word and “negro” go apart? by Ilya Melamed on english.stackexchange.com

2 hours later…

Kit Z. Fox

15:34

room topic changed to English Language & Usage: For English language enthusiasts; meta.english.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/chat-faq (no tags)

1 hour later…

Mitch

16:35

Q: Problem listening to foreign accents

From the beginning I had some problems listening to foreign accents. Like when someone from my native country (India) speaks English I understand it at once, but if someone from a foreign country especially US speaks English, I have to make them repeat the sentence several times to understand it....

american-english accent listening

OMG! This! I can't even! Parataxis! ^^^!

muru

17:11

> "A likely thing, too!" replied the strong woman. "If it was ever intended that I should go across salt water, do you suppose Providence would have cast my lot in an island?"

(At the very end of Chapter 4, A Tale of Two Cities.)

Is that typical of English from that period? I'd have negated both clauses of the question: If it was never intended that I should go across salt water, do you suppose Providence wouldn't have cast my lot in an island?

Does this qualify for a question here?

Mitch

@muru It's not a great question for ELU since it is a style question. Dickens presumably meant to say it his way. I haven't read that in a long while, and reading it quickly it is hard for me to tell the right context to interpret. But I agree with you that it is hard to follow as is.

It might work out better on writers.SE.

Hm.. but 'is that typical of that period?' might work on ELU.

I still don't understand the sentence, and what is implied. I feel like what the woman is trying to get across, assuming she is English is something like 'God put me on an island because he intended for me to cross salt water". Then it is twisted around a lot.

muru

@Mitch That's what I wonder most about that line. I'd read many of Dickens' other works before, but only got around to an unabridged version of A Tale of Two Cities just recently. Somehow the writing jars with I'd been used to in, say, Great Expectations - but those two are only separated by two years!

@Mitch The lady was asked if she'd journey to France. I assumed it was a sarcastic retort.

Damkerng T.

17:29

@Mitch Hey, I was in there!

Mitch

@muru "This being another question hard to answer, Mr. Jarvis Lorry withdrew to consider it" I think DIckens wrote it to be intentionally confusing to Mr. Jarivs who just like us doesn't get where the crazy lady is meant. She seems to be... complex.. and so yes, we are supposed to wonder if she's being sarcastic or sincere too just like Jarvis.

@DamkerngT. haha...have you ever taken Chinese? I'd guess you understand your classmates better than native speakers.

Damkerng T.

@Mitch Very true indeed. (I can't really speak Chinese, though. Just picked up a few words, here and there.)

muru

@Mitch Well, Jarvis also disconcerted by "Do you call that being a Banker?", and is in hovering on the edge of panic given Miss Manette's state. I was tempted to discount any opinions he had on the matter. Ah well, I will just take it as a quirk.

Mitch

@DamkerngT. Is English a second language for you? I find it very jarring, when hearing an American speak a foreign language I've heard, how understandable they are in comparison to native speakers. It just seems so wrong. You can tell they have a poor native-speaker accent, but you can understand them so much better.

@muru If you're reading DIckens, and you stumble on that sentence, I think (after rereading that passage a number of times and my not getting it) I think a fluent reader is supposed to not get it. So I would say, don't try to get anything more from that.

muru

@Mitch That is interesting. Thanks for the help!

Mitch

17:41

@muru Dickens is starting to sound pretty old-fashioned to me, both how people are presented to talk and his narrative.

Damkerng T.

@Mitch English is my second language, yes. I think an American trying to speak Thai is kinda cute, though. (We have a famous country singer who is Swedish, and he sounds 99% like native speakers! I've heard that he put so much effort into it and tried so hard before a teacher accepted him and taught him how to sing our country music.)

muru

@Mitch That is to be expected, I suppose. It's just that I was fairly confident of my English ... and to be thrown by something Dickens wrote was completely unexpected. But the context you present makes sense, and I'll be on my guard against anything Miss Pross says. :D

Mitch

So do you find countrymen speaking American English easier to understand than Americans?

@muru The next chapter is a famous scene (or at least one that is vivid in my memory: "V. The Wine-shop A large cask of wine had been dropped and broken, in the street."

Damkerng T.

@Mitch I used to feel that way. Lately, I think it's fine either way. (A Thai speaking a long English sentence could be a problem for me sometimes, especially when they say something ungrammatical.)

muru

@Mitch Is it? I'd been wondering whether Dickens borrowed a page from Victor Hugo's book when he wrote that. Vivid scene, but what is it doing there?

Mitch

18:00

@muru I've never read Hugo...is there a similar passage?

checking wikipedia it looks like ToTC was published 1859 and LM in 1862 so Dickens would have priority.

The impression I get from the passage is that people in Paris were desperately poor. I'd expect people in London too but I can't remember if Dickens gave that impression in ToTC

muru

@Mitch In LM, there's a massive description of Waterloo that, while magnificent, could be safely skipped without any loss to the story.

@Mitch I'd have expected a similar reaction from any of the English poor in Dickens' works.

Hugo

18:15

hmm, didn't get the hat for meta.english.stackexchange.com/q/7531/9001

wonder why not?