English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

tchrist

00:32

-2

Q: What is a gender-neutral way of saying "middle-man"?

As per the title, I'm looking for an alternative phrasing for "middle-man" without the gender connotations.

gender-neutral

Just middle and nothing else? Oreo-cream? Wafer-thin mint?

Intermission?

Wholesaler?

Middlesex?

Thorax?

Runner?

Lunch?

Orc doesn't know his own strength!

@Mitch is growing superpowers.

Mitch

01:17

I saw that

Lawrence

3 hours ago, by Mitch

@Cerberus You were standing there innocently

:)

Wait, that didn't come out right. I wasn't trying to pin this on Cerberus.

Lawrence

01:39

I wonder what happens if I copy the history of my deleted messages. Testing:

chat.stackexchange.com/messages/32220567/history

chat.stackexchange.com/messages/32220573/history

@Mitch Are you able to read those two histories, or do they show up as deleted as well?

tchrist

Only "room owners" and moderators can see those.

And I believe you can see your own, if you have a link.

Mitch

@Lawrence I see "Page not found"

"Page not found
We couldn't find the page you requested. We did, however, find some guys with an even more serious problem.

Try searching for a particular message
Browse the available rooms
Occasionally, messages or rooms may be removed for reasons of moderation: spam, off topic, abuse, etcetera.

If you feel something is missing that should be here, contact us.

"

Lawrence

@Mitch @tchrist Ok, thanks.

@Mitch Probably best to leave those guys alone. :)

@tchrist Hmm, now that I know that "intermediary" was already in the answers, I don't 'get' the list of suggestions beneath your message. What was your intent? (not rhetorical)

tchrist

01:56

Humor.

Lawrence

@tchrist Ah.

tchrist

@Lawrence I wonder whether this makes any sense to you at all in your own English accent:

0

A: The pronunciation of try to vs. Tried to

For most North Americans, excepting only the Deep South, Canadian Raising applies to try to [ˈt͡ʂɻʷʌɪɾə] — but not to tried to, which is just the un-raised form [ˈt͡ʂɻʷaɪɾə]. This is the same thing that happens between writer and rider, despite both being flaps; the one that originally had a /t/...

And I have to run on an errand for 15m.

Lawrence

@tchrist Yes. And I agree that try to has a longer vowel sound than tried to.

user227867

02:27

My question has 6000 views, hehe!

Tonepoet

@tchrist What emotional nuance is the speaker trying to convey?

I read the word "raise" and can't help but think of an emphatic bid to excuse yourself for your failure to somebody.

tchrist

Oh.

Raising is a technical term here.

It’s the difference in the height of the diphthong in tight versus the one in tide.

For us who have it, the first one has the CUT vowel at the start of the diphthong, not the FATHER vowel like the second.

Tonepoet

02:44

Hmm, I figured it was something technical I wouldn't understand, but I'll just pretend like I do. =P

@JasperLoy You're creeping up to that 40 mark.

user227867

@Tonepoet And then I will delete my account, LOL.

Tonepoet

@JasperLoy Such an odd behavior that is. Do you have any clue what motivates you to do it?

user227867

@Tonepoet I don't know. But it does not affect me in any bad way, so it's OK.

Tonepoet

@JasperLoy Well, aside from needing to build up the rep. to join chat again. XP

user227867

@Tonepoet Hehe. Anyway, they should totally make a version of AHD without all the colour photos at half the price.

Tonepoet

02:50

@JasperLoy They always used to use grayscale until recently.

user227867

@Tonepoet Another marketing trick? Hmm... I feel like writing to OUP to tell them they should not have put esquivalience in NOAD and they should include full IPA in ODE and COED. Then maybe they will fix that in the next editions.

user227867

@Tonepoet Maybe after fixing that, OUP will send me a free copy of each of the three books. I am going offline, bye.

Tonepoet

@JasperLoy They already removed it from the current edition I think.

I just used it as an example as to why dictionaries aren't 100% trustworthy regarding the matter.

tchrist

I feel like when you marry a woman, then it’s matrimony, but that when you marry a man, it should be patrimony. I think this means it’s past my bed time.

Tonepoet

@tchrist Call it Extrimony. Also, g'night tchrist.

tchrist

02:57

@Tonepoet Do you have the same vowel in tight as you have in tide?

Tonepoet

@tchrist I think there's too many variables in the way I speak to be sure.

tchrist

Tight and died are a good pair, but there are many others.

You don’t sound suthun to me.

Tonepoet

Text don't make no noise tchrist. You should know that. =P

tchrist

There's more to a dialect than its accent and intonation.

By their words shall ye know them, and by their turns of phrase, and by their cultural allusions.

Tonepoet

@tchrist Hmm, there are things I do with my writing that I doubt other many people do though. You already know that I am using the 1828 American Dictionary of the English Dictionary as my main consultant for instance. That choice was made under much deliberation upon what the function of a word is.

I also try to avoid ellipsis if I realize I'm doing it since I believe the complete sentence conveys a complete thought on its own, without much need for inference from the other reader. This makes my posts considerably longer than they could be otherwise.

I am not going to say that clues are insignificant, yet their implications certainly do not apply to every person.

tchrist

03:12

ok

Tonepoet

03:32

@tchrist What assumptions would you make somebody who often uses an ĕ pronunciation of the word eh, rather than an ā pronunciation? I'm basing this notation upon the second edition of Merriam-Webster's New International Dictionary's pronunciation key (āle, ĕnd) and the book excepts either for this word. I've been wondering about it ever since @Mitch mentioned how odd that is.

tchrist

What is that in standard IPA?

Tonepoet

Random House Kernerman Webster's uses (eɪ, ɛ). All of the other dictionaries I've looked at online only use eɪ.

tchrist

So you want to know how to say eh, eh?

That would be eɪ. You cannot have ɛ as the last sound in English.

Think of the word MET.

You cannot drop the T sound and still have a word that can possibly be said in the English language.

Tonepoet

@tchrist Meh.

tchrist

Not English.

Not expressible.

It’s invalid according the English phonology. Sorry bout that.

Tonepoet

03:45

@tchrist Hmm, well to answer your earlier question, I wasn't really asking what was valid. I was wondering if you could make any assumptions from it. You seemed to be having fun with your little dialectical guessing game so even though I don't really want to give away my identity, I was wondering what little musings you might infer from something I already said.

tchrist

dialectal

lectal

tal

Tonepoet

There's quite an echo in here, eh?

And yes, the end of that sentence would be pronounced like ɛ if you're wondering.

tchrist

04:03

I’m from a region that customarily uses eh as a tag question. It’s just like hey without the h-.

You can’t not glide, you know, howsoever Californian you may be.

Nor are you a native speaker of a language that doesn’t have off-glides at the ends of vowels that finish syllables.

Tonepoet

@tchrist Oh that's right. That reminds me of something Mitch said earlier when I exemplified that Bugs Bunny uses it at the start of a sentence, rather than as a tag at the end.

tchrist

You know I say all that in the nicest way it can be, eh.

@Tonepoet That’s the hey thing I mentioned.

And all seven of those vowel-ending words emboldened above have an obligatory off-glide to them, because that is simply how English phonology works.

Tonepoet

@tchrist That vaguely reminds me, heh and hey are homophones then?

tchrist

Intriguing question, actually.

heh is what people write, just like they write er.

In that the letters are rather irrepresentative of the sounds.

They’re made to convey an idea.

Most people pronounce what they spell "heh" as something closer to [hæə] in IPA.

Whereas "hey" is of course [heɪ].

The exact realization of heh probably varies by speaker and even utterance. For example, I can envision [hɛɘ] as well.

So when people write er, they actually say [ɜ].

Pace @Cerberus, the Latin alphabet runs a bit wan here.

Tonepoet

04:23

Oh wow, Merriam Webster put heh behind their paywall. Oxford and Cambridge refuse to recognize its existence altogether!

tchrist

It's a very high-falutin’ word.

You cannot expect a dictionary to give you the [phonological] transcription, only the /phonemic/ one.

Tonepoet

@tchrist Also, I'm a little slow on the uptake, but I thought you just said that was invalid because it violated the phonology rules! ;-)

tchrist

The people who write er have centralizing diphthongs.

They’re near the center of the chart already.

You can’t have a lax vowel at the end.

Tonepoet

@tchrist Oh so many symbols on that chart are mirrored. Dyslexic people must have a heck of a good time trying to figure it out!

tchrist

Or inverted.

You would like Latin. Or Spanish. Or Venetian. There are only five vowels, and they are spelled by their IPA names: a, e, i, o, and u.

Because, see, Latin started it, and there were only five. (Although length was phonemic then.)

You coasters should get together.

Tonepoet

04:36

@tchrist Ah yes, Latin. The purportedly ideal language.

tchrist

Oh no, it's quite messy.

But the vowels, those are not messy.

The only ideal part is that ideal pure vowel is one of those five.

This is why Italian opera are better than German. :)

Tonepoet

Now, now, tchrist don't dismiss it so quickly. They also don't split their infinitives or end their sentences in prepositions or so I hear anyway. ;-)

tchrist

What’s a split infinitive?

I don’t know where you would split something like, oh, facere or calculare.

fac–
ere

fa–
cere

I’m sure you can se–
e how that’s a silly idea.

Tonepoet

Actually I can't. My knowledge of the subject is mostly third hand information. Actual Latin is not something I've studied. When people speak of split infinitives in English they exemplify "to boldly go where no man has gone before." Now if I seriously deserved to be here, I would probably be able to comment on the whole matter but I'm more of a casual English enthusiast than a "serious" one, as of yet. >_>

tchrist

The infinitive there is go and it is not split.

A to-infinitive is two words. It is not inseparable.

No one who knows anything pays such claptrap any heed.

Tonepoet

04:53

Shouldn't the same logic apply to noun adjuncts?

tchrist

No idea what you mean. But my kitties have come to take me to bed.

Tonepoet

Okay, g'night tchrist.

user227867

@Tonepoet I am back.

user227867

I am currently using Xubuntu 1604

Tonepoet

@JasperLoy How suspicious that you suddenly appear as soon as tchrist leaves. I know, you're his seret identity! His alter-ego! His... I'll stop now. =P

user227867

05:00

From the reviews I have read, it seems that the Oxford dictionaries are often not properly bound and fall apart quite easily.

user227867

I was considering the Chambers Dictionary, but it has some rather quirky definitions, like eclair.

user227867

At this rate, I will still be deciding which to get in 5 years.

Tonepoet

@JasperLoy Hmm, do they still use the joke definition in the present edition?

user227867

@Tonepoet Yes. Long in shape, short in duration.

user227867

@Tonepoet I am going to bed. Good night.

Tonepoet

05:10

@JasperLoy Ah yes, I know. I was talking about it to Lawrence before. It's quite funny I think, although it's another reason to distrust dictionaries sometimes. I suppose Chambers thought it...

G'night.

user227867

08:33

@Tonepoet Why are you in so many rooms? =P

stampedunder

10:28

I will post my first chat thing here.

Success.

Færd

11:12

@stampedunder Message?

.

> If it hadn't been for me, you'd have been in big trouble.

> Yes, I would / would have / would have been.

Are they all possible?

> If it hadn't been for me, you'd have been killed.

> Yes, I (1) would / (2) would have / (3) would have been.

In the latter, (3) doesn't sound right, but in the former, it does.

Tonepoet

11:44

@JasperLoy 'cause I leave a whole bunch of windows open.

Tonepoet

12:28

@Færd My limited understanding suggests that you have a whole bunch of helping verbs squeezed together, with no main verbs for them to help. It vaguely looks like gibberish. Given the context, I think I could reconstruct an approximate meaning along the lines of "Yes, I know I would have been in trouble, wouldn't I have been?"

^big trouble

Færd

13:01

@Tonepoet Are you reading those slashes as I's?

Tonepoet

@Færd Actually yes. I didn't realize with the italics. XD

What is the difference anyway? 1. I 2. /

Færd

/ separates different choices.

Tonepoet

@Færd Ah, that's not quite what I meant. I meant how can I discern between the two, or rather, how are they different visually? It looks like the italicized I is shorter and less slanted in my present font.

Færd

13:26

I don't see you mistake 'l' for 'I'; why do you think is that? ;)

@Tonepoet Or do lower-case L and upper-case I look exactly the same in your present font?

Tonepoet

13:39

@Færd It's difficult for people to distinguish between lengths sometimes. I had the same problem reading Iuso as Luso and there I even had the advantage of knowing it was supposed to be a proper noun. Oh those silly Polarans and their silly lyrical language.

Færd

My I has shoulders and feet.

Tonepoet

Mine doesn't.

Færd

I suppose you can change the font if it's troublesome?

Mitch

hi.

bye.

Tonepoet

@Færd I could but that'd only solve the problem for me. I do not recall changing my font before, so this is probably the default font for Chrome, or at least it is on Ubuntu. Many people just don't change their default settings, so other people might make the same mistake too if you put slashes in italicized text.

Færd

13:52

I use Chrome too, but not on Ubuntu.

Thanks.

Tonepoet

14:07

Yeah, it looks like you use a serif font, whereas I use a sans-serif font. I like the look of serif fonts better, but because some of the elements are small sans-serif is often preferred in web applications for readability on the internet.

Maybe the problem would be solved if you italicized the slashes alongside the text? Like this / instead of this /?

Færd

@Tonepoet Yeah, will do from now on.

Tonepoet

14:23

@Færd Here's a screenshot of what I saw if you're curious.

Cerberus

SE specially uses a font where capital i has serifs.

In order that I and l can be distinguished.

I see them in Chrome and Firefox.

So there must be something odd about your browser/OS.

Tonepoet

@Cerberus Is it specified as a proprietary font?

Cerberus

No idea.

Færd

@Tonepoet Good. The question came up again.

Cerberus

But I block the loading of external fonts in Firefox, and I don't recall ever having installed a font for SE.

Tonepoet

14:33

@Cerberus It's vaguely possible. Chrome is a proprietary browser, but many Linux distributions try to follow the gist of the principles outlined by the Free Software Foundation like @JasperLoy if I am not mistaken. If Ubuntu lacks the font S.E. specified, that might cause me to see a default font instead perhaps.

However I wouldn't fully dismiss the possibility that I just changed my font locally and just don't recall doing so.

Andrew Leach

14:46

The style-sheet specifies Verdana,Arial,sans-serif in that order.

If you don't have Verdana, you'll get a font where I and l are very nearly identical.

Verdana is sans-serif but the capital I has serifs.

My screenshot app isn't working :-(

You may have set an option that your browser should ignore CSS font specifications and use a specific font instead.

Tonepoet

@AndrewLeach Yeah, that makes sense. I just reset my browser preferences and I have the same font as I did before. I doubt Ubuntu has either of Verdana or Arial so it's probably set to Liberation Sans.

Andrew Leach

If that's what's set as the default sans font in your installation. You could test it by choosing a different default.

user227867

People can actually downvote my 6000 view question. =P

user233358

15:03

howdy

user233358

I would upvote the question but I have 1 rep.

user227867

You deleted your old accounts?

user233358

oh yeah. Twice.

user227867

Haha. I thought only I was mad.

user233358

I am following in your footsteps I guess :p

user233358

15:04

Lol!

user233358

btw I have learned not to get attached to rep after deleting my accounts.

user233358

It has been kind of enlightening.

user233358

And silly, of course.

user227867

15:35

@Arrowfar Yes. There are some people who know nothing about something and can get 100,000 rep on something SE.

user233358

oh you came back.

user233358

@JasperLoy How is your health/OCD these days?

user227867

@Arrowfar Still trying to get better.

user233358

I see. well my prayers are with you.

user227867

Thank you. How is your married life?

user233358

15:38

Erm

user233358

Great I guess.

user227867

I can't believe the university rejected you then. Your English must have improved a lot.

user233358

Yes it has. I read a lot these days.

user233358

I didn't get married. I am focusing on my career now, looking for a new job these days, the old one sucked. Also it was part time.

user227867

Trust me when I say that you already possess native speaker fluency.

user227867

15:42

At least in the written form.

user233358

oh thanks man.

Tonepoet

@JasperLoy I'm going to email you with an edit suggestion to your question based upon what I said to Joe Blow in the comments section.

Færd

> I may come to Colorado. I'll inform you if I do.

Do you think it should be do so too? I guess your statement is true when do substitutes a main verb after an auxiliary.

user227867

@Tonepoet Hey, why not just type it in to SE now and I will approve it?

Tonepoet

@JasperLoy I haven't written it yet and by the time I'm done I don't know if you'll still be here.

user227867

15:47

@Tonepoet Oh OK.

Tonepoet

16:06

@JasperLoy Which edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English do you own?

If you don't have that what's the copyright date on it?

tchrist

@Færd You could make it do so, but you don’t have to.

Færd

Okay. So I guess it's the auxiliary + 'do' substitution that sounds British, not any 'do' substitution.

tchrist

There is a dropping of so from do so that does sound quite British, yes.

Færd

Thanks.

tchrist

Like I might do without the so.

Færd

16:14

Yeah.

tchrist

This is very hard to google.

Færd

I appreciate it when people fault me when I make a mistake in chat. It can really stick in my mind and teach me something.

@tchrist The closest I could get on the Web was this:

Cerberus

Will do.

Færd

Verb phrase ellipsis

In linguistics, verb phrase ellipsis (VP-ellipsis or VPE) is an elliptical construction in which a non-finite verb phrase has been left out (elided), e.g. She will sell sea shells, and he will sell sea shells too. VP-ellipsis is a well-studied kind of ellipsis, particularly with regard to its occurrence in English, although certain types can be found in other languages as well. == Features of verb phrase ellipsis in English == In the types of VP-ellipsis considered here, which are features of English grammar, the elided VP must be a non-finite VP; it cannot be a finite VP. Further, the ellipsis...

There's no mention of transatlantic differences there though.

tchrist

Indeed.

Færd

16:18

@Cerberus Thanks!

But I found a nice account of the matter in Michael Swan's Practical English Usage (3rd Ed.), topic No. 161.

@Cerberus Strangely, that's an auxiliary plus a 'do' substitution that (I reckon) is not especially British usage.

user227867

@Tonepoet I currently own none and just use the website. But I might get the third edition published in 2010, as mentioned.

NVZ

OK, so I've spent some time tinkering with CSS (something I had zero idea about previously), and here's what I came up with

Tonepoet

@JasperLoy Hmm, I'm not sure if Oxford Dictionaries Online and the O.D.E. are identical. The same goes for Merriam Webster. Would you mind if I changed it to reflect the fact that you checked online editions?

user227867

@Tonepoet Also, here is a nice review of Collins English Dictionary 2014. whichenglish.com/Book-Reviews/…

user227867

@Tonepoet I guess we could just add 'online editions of'.

user227867

16:30

@Tonepoet I don't mind anything, for I will probably delete my accounts by the end of next week.

NVZ

@Tonepoet oxforddictionaries.com/words/… The main differences between the OED and Oxford Dictionaries.

user227867

@NVZ Not what he is asking.

Tonepoet

Well if you don't mind anything, I'll ping you when I finish editing.

user227867

@Tonepoet OK, though I might not be in chat at that time, of course.

user227867

@Tonepoet Actually, all websites we check are not identical to the paper books themselves. That is almost for sure. Which is why we might as well not mention it, unless we want to be pedantic.

user227867

16:35

@NVZ Oxford has many dictionaries: OED, SOED, ODE, NOAD, COED, COAD, OALD, OAAD, etc. For more info, check out the OUP webstie.

Tonepoet

@JasperLoy I'm going to change it to Oxford Dictionaries Online and Merriam-Webster Online. It's a more honest citation in my opinion. That's also why I like The Free Dictionary by Farlex (owned by Princeton). They cite the exact dictionary they quote on their website.

user227867

@Tonepoet OK, then will you change the other two as well, since I have four there?

Tonepoet

@JasperLoy I verified the other two with The Free Dictionary, so there's little need. I'm mostly editing to add editions and dates to it.

user227867

@Tonepoet I now think that for the American the best dictionaries are AHD and NOAD.

user227867

@Tonepoet After you edit, ping me when I am in the chat room to verify I am here, then click submit edit, then I will approve. Because other users may reject it.

Tonepoet

17:05

@JasperLoy Okay, I'm about to submit. Are you still here? If not, check your inbox.

Cerberus

@Færd Indeed not.

user227867

17:22

@Tonepoet I am here now. Are you here?

Tonepoet

@JasperLoy Yes I am and the edit is now submitted.

user227867

@Tonepoet Approved. I have 100 per cent confidence in your abilities.

Tonepoet

Ah hey @JasperLoy, would you be a dear and add something I forgot? I wanted to put 5. in the first quotation to show the relative order of the entries.

user227867

@Tonepoet Done.

Tonepoet

Thanks.

user227867

17:28

SE is sometimes slow.

Tonepoet

18:08

Thank you @tchrist.

tchrist

Great auk

The great auk (Pinguinus impennis) was a flightless bird of the alcid family that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus (unrelated to penguins, although it was the first bird to be called penguin). It bred on rocky, isolated islands with easy access to the ocean and a plentiful food supply, a rarity in nature that provided only a few breeding sites for the auks. When not breeding, the auks spent their time foraging in the waters of the North Atlantic, ranging as far south as northern Spain and also around the coast of Canada, Greenland, Iceland...

Tonepoet

@tchrist I'm trying to remember if I ever heard of that bird before or if I am merely confusing it with one of the many other extinct birds, such as the Passenger Pigeon and the infamous Dodo.

tchrist

18:40

@Tonepoet huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/03/…

Thus perished the last great auk in Britain, a once-common seabird, agile in water and clumsy on land, hunted to extinction for food, bait, eggs, and pillow stuffing.

I've a single-word requestion: what’s a better word than de-extinction, preferably one free of prefixes?

De-extinction

De-extinction, or resurrection biology, or species revivalism is the process of creating an organism, which is either a member of, or resembles an extinct species, or breeding population of such organisms. Cloning is the most widely proposed method, although selective breeding has also been proposed. Similar techniques have been applied to endangered species. There is significant controversy over de-extinction, and critics assert that efforts would be better spent conserving existing species, and that the habitat necessary for formerly extinct species to survive is too limited to warrant de...

Hm, the opposite of ex(s)tinguere should be instinguere.

But we don’t have *instinguish.

Kindling. Ignite.

I feel like this question could be rescued with a bit of editing:

1

Q: A word or phrase to describe a local setting

What is the word or phrase to describe something that occurs in a specific local setting? If "geographically" describes a setting that can point to a particular place on the globe, what is the word or phrase that can describe a setting that is more local? Let's say a crime is committed. We spec...

single-word-requests phrase-requests

tchrist

19:27

@NVZ Do please study my edits versus yours, and go thou and do likewise.

NVZ

@tchrist sure, but that's not my edit.

tchrist

I know. But you approved it.

NVZ

@tchrist I'm listening. How was it wrong on my part to approve it?

user227867

@Tonepoet Thanks to your edit, my question now has more votes and views, lol. Also, I just sent you a super short email, lol.

tchrist

@NVZ We don’t want to encourage minor edits of tiny ocular specks that fail to see the glaring beam sticking out. I would have preferred that you had instead of approving it, improved it.

NVZ

19:30

@tchrist duly noted. :)

tchrist

There've been a lot of minor edits lately that have left to much needing to fixed.

I didn’t mean to single you out here in any way whatsoever.

And they aren't your edits, as you justly point out.

Virtually every first question posted by new users, and most first answers, can be improved with editing.

NVZ

@tchrist agreed 100%.

@tchrist I do try my level best. See my own edit history. :)

tchrist

Those who can, do. Those who cannot, review.

NVZ

@tchrist Not sure what that means.

tchrist

George Bernard Shaw.

NVZ

19:37

@tchrist I know a famous quote, but I didn't quite understand what you implied here.

tchrist

There are many variations on the original, some quite catchy.

I just meant that whenever one sees a review that more can be done to, one should do that more done to thing. :)

NVZ

Oho, okay. :)

How am I doing so far? english.stackexchange.com/users/50044/…

tchrist

Whether you choose "improve edit" or "reject and edit", though, is up to your judgement. Was it made in good faith? Did it do most but not quite all of what was needed? Do you want to see more reviews like that one? Was it just minor cosmetic improvements not major reconstructive chirurgery?

NVZ

@tchrist there is one user in particular (I wish to not name them, but you might know them) who has been making all sorts of pointless edit suggestions, among some good ones.

tchrist

I know.

Those are being done in good faith, although some could stand further improvement.

But the posts most often do need work.

Most posts do.

NVZ

19:43

@tchrist Yes, "in good faith" is what I assume, too.

Learning takes time, a different amount for each user.

Tonepoet

@tchrist What a pointless, potentially destructive and anti-evolutionary concept that is! Have we learned nothing from Jurassic Park?

tchrist

@Tonepoet Why of course we've learned something. We've learned that John Williams is a popular composer.

NVZ

@Tonepoet I have learned that it's dangerous to think you can control big beasts.

tchrist

Sure you cannot place Jurassic Park in the same category as Rabbit-Proof Fence.

@NVZ Mmm . . . Forbidden Planet.

tchrist

20:52

One more upvoted needed here:

5

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Martin AJ

21:17

Is he word of "morning" used just in the daybreak? Or I can use it even in the night as hello when I go to a chat-room?

the word *

stampedunder

22:11

No, it is universally for early day-time between the hours of about 5:00 a.m., to 11:59 a.m. The only time I will use "morning" as a greeting is if I know the person I'm talking to is in a country where it is morning.

Tonepoet

@tchrist There's hope in this world yet. It looks like English Language & Usage hates the Brusque twitter format of conversation. =P

tchrist

23:48

@Tonepoet Who is this Mr Brusque of whom you write?

Tonepoet

@tchrist That would be one Mr. Brusque Twit Writre. =P More seriously though, I only noticed the typo after the two minute window of opportunity to edit it had expired.

tchrist

That guy’s so passé he even changed his name to past tense.

Just like after he couldn’t stand it any longer, Mr Sit became Mr Sat.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…