English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

SmokeDetector

00:36

[ SmokeDetector ] Possible low-quality post: What is the difference between "you're" and "you have been"? by mayerbrig on english.stackexchange.com

SmokeDetector

05:20

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body: Statement of purpose: Could someone help me in reducing the size of the following paragraphs? by TheEvilGuardian on english.stackexchange.com

SmokeDetector

09:09

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword with a link in answer, link at end of answer: Which is the correct verb form with Who? by latest online news on english.stackexchange.com

SmokeDetector

13:24

[ SmokeDetector ] Request for explanation: Using verbs with would by Juliana Góes on english.stackexchange.com

terdon

13:35

Sorry, proofreading is explicitly off-topic here. See the help center for more details of the kinds of questions the site is set up to address. I will tell you that you have an agreement problem between "men" and "he"/"himself", and that "to gain space" comes across as a nonsensical nonsequitur. — Dan Bron 6 mins ago

@DanBron try saying "nonsensical nonsequitur" five times quickly :P

Mitch

14:23

@terdon done

33

Q: What is a good alternative for the reverse of a boycott?

Boycotting is a classic consumer strategy to, in a sense, vote with your feet or with your dollar against some business that is doing something you find troubling, whether integral to the business, like slaughtering practices for meat, or incidental, like personal ethics violations by management....

looking for good comments here (especially on my two (community wiki) suggestions.

It's also somewhat of a push poll, trying to advertise the concept of instead of (or in addition to) being negative, doing something positive (the carrot as opposed to the stick). Reward those doing good.

But I am really interested in the linguistic question of the word semantics. From the voting it seems like unboycott and reverse boycott are terrible, but unboycott is in my opinion just as bad as anti-boycott, and reverse boycott is really how I would explain the situation. Buy that's the point of asking a public question, because of bias and semantic satiation, and probably other reasons.

terdon

@Mitch Girlcott, obviously.

Mitch

14:38

@terdon :o

terdon

Ah, damn. Robusto beat me to it.

Mitch

funneh!

I'm going to start using that...until someone punches me in the face.

Færd

14:51

> This room is small as a cupboard.

How does it sound to you?

Dropping the first as in this sentence, I mean.

Shafizadeh

15:02

Is this correct?
- Why you want to learn that skill?
- Because of my huge interest that I have to it

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector ] Request for explanation: Those people are Argentianian or Argentine? by marco on english.stackexchange.com

Andrew Leach

@Shafizadeh Why must be followed by a verb when it's a question-word (rather than an exclamation). "Why do you want..." "Why do I have..." or occasionally *Why have I..."

And one has an interest in something, not to it.

@Færd It's poetic and uncommon.

Shafizadeh

@AndrewLeach thx

is this correct?

Mitch

@Færd questionable. In writing it looks wrong. In speech, I can hear it being mushed in with the 'is'.

Shafizadeh

> it is sweet as honey as is !

Andrew Leach

15:13

@Shafizadeh Actually, you don't need the "that I have" because you have already identified the interest as yours with "my interest". "Because of my huge interest in it," or "Because of the huge interest I have in it." You only need to refer to yourself once.

Shafizadeh

@AndrewLeach great, thx

Andrew Leach

@Shafizadeh No. What do you want that to mean?

Færd

@AndrewLeach @Mitch Thank you.

Mitch

It's like asking is 'I don't know' pronounced as 'aūõ' 'correct'? It's natural (it's what I say) but is it correct?

Færd

In some phrases like cold as ice or hot as hell it's common enough to drop the first as though.

Shafizadeh

15:15

@AndrewLeach I want to say: "no, not at all, programming isn't difficult, it is delightful, it is sweet as honey is"

Færd

Basically, what I just asked.

Mitch

@Færd Oh. good point. yes. Maybe it's just idiomatic for those. 'hot as hell' acting as a single adjective.

@Færd Coincidence?

Færd

I don't know!

Andrew Leach

@Shafizadeh "It is sweet as honey is" is rather poetic and means "It is sweet, just like honey is sweet". "It is as sweet as honey" means the sweetness is at the same level. "It is sweet as honey" also means that, again poetically. When you miss out words, a phrase can gain a specific nuance of meaning.

Shafizadeh

@AndrewLeach perfect explanation .. thank you very much

I will go with "It is sweet as honey is" plus a blink emoji ;-)

Færd

15:21

You're a poet. You don't knowet.

Dan Bron

@Shafizadeh Closing one eye is a wink, closing both eyes is a blink. Don't ask me why.

Shafizadeh

oh really?! So I meant was "wink" ;-)

Dan Bron

Yep.

But real-life winkers need their own special prison.

Færd

As do the wankers.

Dan Bron

I'd recommend we put both populations in one prison. Two birds.

Færd

15:23

Nice society.

Dan Bron

I imagine it would simultaneously dramatically cut down on both winking and wanking.

They're mutually inhibitive.

Færd

15:44

Be that as it may, there aren't nearly enough winkers to counterpoint the wankers.

Dan Bron

15:58

thank goodness for that

terdon

16:23

Winking wanker gets 20 months in jail

MetaEd

16:41

@terdon If he'd been acquitted, the headline would have been better.

Mitch

16:53

@MetaEd "winking wanker walks"?

Arrowfar

woot.

Howdy

since when did "winking" become a crime by the way?

MetaEd

@Mitch Winking wanker gets off.

Mitch

probaly at the same time the winker knowingly self-congratulates themselves and informs others of their brilliance by pointing out a pun they just made tht everyone else had made when they were 7 years old..

@MetaEd wink wink

terdon

@MetaEd Snort

Mitch

splutters

MetaEd

16:58

mops

Mitch

eww

terdon

Hmm, actually, they could still have made the headline read winking wanker doesn't get off. What a wasted opportunity.

MetaEd

17:17

@terdon Writer wasted winking wanker.

Færd

17:32

You say the right word and people will carry on talking about it for two hours.

Anonymous

@Færd Tmesis!

Anonymous

*hopes*

Færd

Erm ... are we going to talk about tmesis now?

Anonymous

A plane can hope.

Færd

Good topic.

My knowledge of it is limited to abso-X-lutely and the like.

Tmesis

Tmesis (/tᵊˈmiːsɪs/; Ancient Greek: τμῆσις tmēsis, "a cutting" < τέμνω temnō, "I cut") is a linguistic phenomenon in which a word or phrase is separated into two parts, with other words interrupting between them. == Verbs == Tmesis of prefixed verbs (whereby the prefix is separated from the simple verb) was an original feature of the Ancient Greek language, common in Homer (and later poetry), but not used in Attic prose. Such separable verbs are also part of the normal grammatical usage of some modern languages, such as Dutch and German. === Ancient Greek === Tmesis in Ancient Greek is something...

It doesn't say anything interesting about tmesis in English.

Mitch

17:43

T-effing-mesis

Færd

Dirty thoughts permeate into every nook and cranny.

Anonymous

@Færd Expletive infixation!

Anonymous

But is it a kind of tmesis?

Færd

@snailplane According to ODO's definition, yes.

> The separation of parts of a compound word by an intervening word or words, used mainly in informal speech for emphasis (e.g. can't find it any-blooming-where).

Arrowfar

I hear "Absofuckinglutely" sometimes. It sounds funny.

Anonymous

17:52

There are phonological constraints on where you can insert expletives.

Anonymous

Abso-effin'-lutely but not *absolute-effin'-ly or *ab-effin'-solutely

Arrowfar

yes nice point.

Anonymous

It works a little bit better if you choose a more likely expletive than effin' :-)

Færd

a-whole-nother story

Anonymous

@Færd Metanalysis!

Anonymous

17:53

I would just call it reanalysis, though.

Anonymous

Even though metanalysis is fun to say.

Færd

It's not exactly analysis. The n ruins it.

Anonymous

Hmm?

Anonymous

It's clearly a reanalysis of an|other as a|nother.

Anonymous

That is, the origin of another as an + other has been lost and the n has moved over.

Anonymous

17:56

Like in a napron → an apron.

Færd

I meant *an-whole-other would be meta-analysis.

Anonymous

How so?

Anonymous

That would just be splitting the word back into its etyma.

Færd

because in a-whole-nother, nother is not an original part of the word.

Anonymous

Right, which is what makes the opposite of what you're saying correct.

Arrowfar

17:57

@snailplane what's a more likely expletive than "fucking"? I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Anonymous

@Færd Anyway, *an whole nother would never occur.

Anonymous

@Arrowfar None. Lots are possible, though.

Færd

@snailplane Ah, so that's why it's meta.

SmokeDetector

18:16

[ SmokeDetector ] Possible low-quality post: Non Stock vs Non-Stock rules for hyphenation by Vikki on english.stackexchange.com

MetaEd

18:37

"is rock stable and is continuously being developed" :D

Færd

It's possible. :)

Matt E. Эллен

Schrödinger's programme

Færd

I was thinking of a rock-founded building.

MetaEd

The many-worlds interpretation of VIM.

I can't think of a tool as stable when it keeps reconfiguring itself in my hand. Even when the reconfigured tool has no glitches.

Matt E. Эллен

@Færd true. it only said stable, it didn't say safe ;)

Færd

18:47

It could be safe too.

MetaEd

VIM is not safe.

It's safer than EMACS.

Færd

It's too hard to find out what VIM stands for.

Matt E. Эллен

@MetaEd what? never. unless you mean safer in that you'll give up using it much quicker

MetaEd

VIM is a scout knife. EMACS is this scout knife:

Færd

Nice.

I do all that with a kitchen knife though.

It's a real space saver.

Matt E. Эллен

18:51

@MetaEd true

Færd

You can't wield that thing, can you?

Matt E. Эллен

it is unwieldy, yes

MetaEd

@Færd That's EDLIN.

Anonymous

I like vim. My brother still prefers nvi for reasons that escape me.

Færd

19:25

Can you use circumstance to mean 'one of the circumstances'?

Or a circumstance is always the same in meaning as circumstances?

Probably the latter.

> many homeless living on our streets, a circumstance now regarded as just "normal"

> That's what had to be done in a circumstance like this

Shafizadeh

Is this sentence correct?

> I guess you need some sense of criticism

Færd

19:48

If you want to say to someone that they should take criticism more gracefully, you could say: "I think you could work on your tolerance a bit.", or "You ought to more open to criticism", or ... .

I don't see criticism as a sense.

Shafizadeh

thank you

Færd

If you want to tell them that they should think more critically, then you can tell them that, or that they should be more skeptical about things.

Correction: "You ought to be more open to criticism"

Shafizadeh

+1

Mitch

@Færd I can weld that thing. Would that work?

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…