English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

02:00

Hullo.

I had a great night.

And you?

David Wallace

03:21

@Cerberus Who, I?

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Yes, for example.

What is it for you, 5.21 pm?

Being my antipode.

David Wallace

It's 3:23, actually. I go the opposite way during winter.

Are you hung over?

Cerberus

Ohh...

@DavidWallace Nope, rather a tiny bit intoxicated.

Went to a birthday party.

David Wallace

Yes, so I heard.

Or rather, read.

Cerberus

I love it when so many friends and family live in the same city.

Currently they do.

I would absolutely hate having to life in some godforsaken place while they were elsewhere.

Half an hour by train is doable, but this is even better.

David Wallace

03:27

Friends, yeah; family less so.

Cerberus

Hmm well, I guess it depends on your family.

My brother lives about 15 minutes away from me by bike.

My parents half an hour by train.

David Wallace

My brother lived in Sydney, when last I heard from him.

Cerberus

Hmm so you're not very close.

David Wallace

It takes my Dad about 2.5 hours to get here, using a bus and two trains.

My Mum doesn't know where I live.

Cerberus

Oh, wow! Why not?

Do you live close to the Australian border?

David Wallace

03:29

... because I've never told her. Duh. And my address is wrong in the local phone book.

Cerberus

Hmm so is there a split in your family? Or just odd driftings-away?

Oh, so it is accidental?

David Wallace

@Cerberus Several, and (c) all of the above.

Cerberus

Oh, I see.

Is it painful, or have you accepted the state of affairs?

Or c?

David Wallace

Probably c. I'm not motivated to change anything.

Cerberus

OK.

It is that way with many families, I think.

David Wallace

03:36

I used to work with two men, a father and son. They sat next to each other at work. The son lived with his mother, who was divorced from the father. I was always amazed by his situation; the only thing I can imagine worse than going to work every day, and my Dad being there, would be coming home every evening, and my Mum being there.

To be fair, he is nothing like me, his Dad is nothing like my Dad, and his Mum is nothing like my Mum.

Cerberus

Yikes.

Being that close a parent 24/7 would be a bit...much.

Mahnax

05:19

@JasperLoy No.

user19161

05:35

@Mahnax What are you doing on Easter?

Mahnax

@JasperLoy Eh, probably eating chocolate for breakfast and then going to church.

How about you?

user19161

@Mahnax Well, I just went out for a walk last night.

Mahnax

@JasperLoy Good good.

Always nice to get exercise and fresh air.

user19161

@Mahnax So I have gotten an answer on the breathing question on fitness, and my question also got 6 votes. Yay!

Mahnax

@JasperLoy Nice!

Perhaps you should participate there more often.

user19161

05:40

@Mahnax What kind of church is it? Charismatic?

Mahnax

@JasperLoy It's a very welcoming church.

Not super fundamental, open to all who wish to attend.

Not Catholic, either.

user19161

John Lawler's rep is rising rapidly.

Mahnax

Yes, it is.

He is very good.

Gigili

06:34

Winki Dinki.

Mahnax

Hi!

Gigili

'Ello.

Mahnax

Good morning, I think.

Gigili

What time is it there? 23:34?

Mahnax

No, 00:36.

Gigili

06:36

That was close.

Have you had a good day?

Mahnax

Yeah, and where you are it is 12:34?

@Gigili Eh, not really.

Gigili

@Mahnax 1107

Mahnax

@Gigili Oh, interesting.

Gigili

@Mahnax Umm, why not? Being with your family?

Mahnax

@Gigili Have you, so far?

@Gigili That, and work.

Gigili

06:38

@Mahnax Not really.

Mahnax

My relatives are all so loud and obnoxious and I wanted to be left alone so I could study.

@Gigili Aww, why?

Gigili

Are all European/American/NZian people anti-family?

Mahnax

I don't think so.

I like my European relatives.

But most of the ones here aren't so nice.

Gigili

@Mahnax Mainly because I have to go out in an hour which I'm not in the mood of.

Mahnax

@Gigili I see, I hope you manage to have fun somehow.

Gigili

06:41

Thank you.

Mahnax

Any time.

Gigili

I hope you dream of a house where you're alone and you can study 24/7.

Mahnax

Well, I wouldn't want that.

I would like a nice house with a view of the mountains, good Internet connection, and lots of tea.

I could study when I wanted to, and go to the mountains other times.

Or have friends over.

The possibilities are endless!

Gigili

I hope you dream of what you said, except the lots of tea part.

Mahnax

Why?

Tea is great!

Gigili

06:49

I hate hot drinks. I drank tea once in 25 years!

Mahnax

gasps

Hot drinks are so nice.

You don't like coffee or hot chocolate?

Well, to each, their own.

Gigili

I only like hot chocolate but I cannot drink a full cup of it.

Mahnax

Too sweet?

Gigili

Exactly, and hot.

Mahnax

Aww.

Do you have Starbucks there?

Gigili

06:55

I don't think so, no.

Which taste do you like better? Sweetness?

Mahnax

Sweetness is good.

I like many foods and tastes.

Gigili

I like sourness and dislike sweetness.

Mahnax

Hm, I also like sourness.

Gigili

Do you have something like this there:

Mahnax

Uh, no.

Gigili

07:01

It's made of fruits like plum, pomegranate and blueberry.

Mahnax

Oh, maybe we do.

Fruit leather, it's called.

Gigili

Try it, it's delicious.

Mahnax

They boil the fruit down and then let it harden into sticky strips.

But it's different from that, I think.

Gigili

Yes, they boil the fruit down and squeeze it afterwards.

Mahnax

Oh, okay.

So they are similar, then.

Gigili

07:05

Don't you like it?

Mahnax

It's alright.

Too sticky.

Gigili

Hehe.

Mahnax

Makes a mess, it does!

Okay, bed time. Good night!

Gigili

No, it doesn't. They should be homemade. They taste great when you make it by yourself at home.

Good night, sleep well.

David Wallace

08:52

@Gigili No, just the ones you know :-)

Jez

10:19

yro.slashdot.org/story/12/04/07/1928220/…

USA more screwed than usual.

Probably rest of world too.

David Wallace

11:03

So Google, Facebook and so on need to move their operations out of USA, if they are to provide privacy to their customers.

Jez

and the UK, its satellite state.

prob Aus and NZ too

such a shame the English-speaking world has come to be dominated by a few ultra-rich unmentionables.

Gigili

Damn, I hate spring.

user19161

Better than not being able to buy chewing gum.

Jez

you can't buy it there now?

David Wallace

Not NZ. We don't let ourselves get pushed around by America. Remember the nuclear warships.

Jez

11:07

nuclear warships?

ultimately if the US want to extradite people coughKimDotcom NZ bends over

user19161

@Jez I think one can buy it elsewhere and bring it in for personal use.

Jez

lol

David Wallace

In the 1980s, NZ passed laws forbidding any ships to enter our harbours, unless they could guarantee there were no nuclear weapons on board. USA have a policy of not disclosing what types of weapons are carried by what sort of warships. After a big squabble between their government and ours, they ended up cancelling all their training exercises and other visits to NZ waters.

Jez

mind you, it's more harmful than marijuana which out govts. ban :-)

user19161

@DavidWallace To be fair I think America is usually a nice guy.

Jez

11:10

@JasperLoy lol

David Wallace

Most NZers don't have an issue with the extradition of Kim.com

user19161

I mean, look at the world. There are so many nasty places.

Jez

I do. Why should you get tried in a US court?

We've extradited people there who never set foot on US soil. Finally there a minor brouhaha about it, but it's taken time

and even now I doubt much will change. I see the US as a big bully that itself is controlled by bigger bullies.

David Wallace

Does the international community seriously view NZ as another USA pawn, like Australia and UK?

Jez

I do now that you extradited Kim Dotcom

seems the same

David Wallace

11:12

Damn, I feel so unclean now.

I believe that most NZers view USA as the big dumb thug that kicks sand in the faces of smaller countries. We've always prided ourselves on having a government that thinks for itself; from the days of David Lange (prime minister in the 1980s) standing up to Reagan over nuclear warships, to Helen Clark (prime minister in the 2000s) refusing to let our troops join USA in Iraq.

But at the end of the day, Dotcom is a criminal, and the NZ Justice system would probably have been out of its depth attempting to try him.

Gigili

NZers or NZians?

David Wallace

The term is "New Zealanders".

Jez

New Zealanders

Most people in most countries have come to view the US that way, no? It's the traditionalists (state and its institutions) that still tend to worship the "world's greatest democracy"

Gigili

Aha.

David Wallace

@Jez That seems like a hell of a generalisation to me.

Gigili

11:18

@DavidWallace Why didn't you correct me when you responded to that?

David Wallace

because I knew what you meant

and this probably isn't the right forum for people to go round correcting each other's grammar.

Do you want me to correct your grammatical errors in future, @Gigili?

Gigili

@DavidWallace No thank you.

Jez

comma after the 'no' ;-)

Gigili

I said it quickly like that since I'm disappointed.

Jez

@DavidWallace I'd say it's about the best forum actually.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

11:21

1

Q: Derogatory connotation of "tourist"

I noticed that the word tourist is loaded with connotative emotion after I watched Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Rio(2011), and The Tourist starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. Especially in Ice Age 3, Buck sneers, "Tourists!" after rescuing Manny and Diego in the nick of time when they ...

Jez

or, most appropriate

RegDwight Ѭſ道

This question is not specific to English.

David Wallace

Gee, we talk about correcting people's grammar, and Reg shows up. Does the man have some kind of psychic powers?

Jez

@RegDwight Hey. Noticed that in some of your translations you paraphrased and/or removed some words, like in the sci-fi store your translation didn't refer to the salesman

David Wallace

@Gigili Crap, what are you disappointed about now?

user19161

11:22

@Jez I agree with you.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Jez Paraphrasing is how translation is done. If I left him out he must have seen irrelevant to me.

There were quite a few places where literal translation would just get you "the producer produces productions" or some such.

user19161

@DavidWallace What you just said is heresy!

Jez

@RegDwight yeah, some of it was gratuitous though. i'm trying to keep as close to the original sense as possible.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

So was I.

Let me check that line.

Jez

actually special FX store, i meant

David Wallace

11:25

@JasperLoy I always commit heresy on Easter Sunday.

Jez

"Verkäufer"

user19161

I mean how many chat rooms in the world correct "existance" to "existence" and "matress" to "mattress"?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Oh yeah.

"Special-Effects erhalten Sie hier beim Verkäufer."

Well that's utter nonsense.

Jez

@JasperLoy Ones that focus on correct usage of English.

user19161

This chat room rocks!

2

Jez

11:27

oh I see, you were making that point.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

The "beim Verkauefer" part is completely redundant.

David Wallace

Sorry, but that sucks. If I want to write existance and matress, I'll bloody well write existance and matress.

user19161

@Jez Yeah I see you are using the right arrow more, good boy.

Jez

@RegDwightѬſ道 Really? I think I ended up with something like "you can get special effects here from the salesman for your own productions"

redundant possibly but not nonsense

@JasperLoy Right arrow?

oh, reply

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Jez that sentence is clumsy.

I wanted natural-sounding clear sentences.

Jez

11:29

Anyway the translation is going pretty well

should have that file done in a day or two

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I actually haven't checked how much was still left.

Jez

I have discovered the game is buggy as hell.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Hah.

user19161

I have decided to forget about Maria...

Jez

Like, you play one scenario and you look at a region's description, and it's fine

if you then switch to another scenario without exiting out to DOS first, you look at the region in the same slot's description and it still has the text from the last scenario's region

happens in the original German version too

for a while I thought it was my hacking that was at fault!

user19161

11:31

TV and dinner time!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Ha. I can see how that totally helps in making sure your translation is okay.

Jez

How do you solve a problem like Maria? Forget about her.

David Wallace

I'd like to say a word in her behalf
Maria makes me laugh

Jez

@RegDwight I just have a rule that I always exit right out to the commandline now

@RegDwight oh, I was interested by this one:

> Ich habe die Informationen bekommen. Die Daten stehen Ihnen ab sofort in Ihrem Computersystem zur Verfügung. Bitte beehren Sie mich bald wieder.

I see you were a bit unsure about it. It's the "honor" thing.

In German, is it normal for a business partner to say "please honor me again" to mean "I'd be happy to do business with you again", or does "honor" have the same strong connotation of respect as in English?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

It depends.

Jez

11:33

If the latter, I'm thinking they might be trying to make the guy sound "Godfather"-like, with all the criminal underworld respect thing

RegDwight Ѭſ道

It's a weird mix in this game anyway. As I was saying, I wasn't sure who is talking to whom there.

I'm missing the relationship context.

Jez

It's a shady underworld guy in a trenchcoat who does dirty tricks for you like stealing opponents' info and sabotaging them

in this case he's just gotten some opponents info for you like their accounts

even if the game does call him a "headhunter" lol

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Ah. Well then it's a tiny bit over the top in German as well. Possibly sarcastic, even.

Jez

oh, he poaches actors/actresses too

(from the opposition)

I suspected as much.

Gigili

"Recurring type" means it'll happen again?

Jez

11:38

?

Gigili

Reactivation or something?

> HSV-2 causes meningitis which may often be of recurring type.

Jez

that sentence is ungrammatical

should be "the recurring type" and yes, it means it happens over and over

Gigili

Umm, thank you.

David Wallace

There are many types of meningitis. Presumably some recur and others don't.

@Jez I disagree. "May often be of recurring type" sounds fine to me - putting "the" in the middle implies that there's only one recurring type, and I don't believe this is true.

Jez

I guess.

Although then you could use the indefinite article.

David Wallace

11:44

You could. I don't think you need to.

Robusto

►

David Wallace

Actually, I rescind my earlier remark. The more I think about it, the more "may often be" sounds clumsy to me. Why not just "is often"?

Robusto

What's wrong with Maria. ^

@RegDwightѬſ道 Many questions about words have parallels in other languages. That doesn't make them not specific to English; it simply makes them not unique to English.

David Wallace

Potato potato.

Jez

lol that must be funny for a foreigner to read. why are they repeating the word?

David Wallace

11:51

If any foreigners don't understand my remark, they're welcome to ask me what it means.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Robusto that's not my point.

Robusto

@RegDwightѬſ道 What is your point then?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

My point is that I have no idea why anyone would ask that question as if it were specific to English even though it's the exact same situation in his mother tongue.

David Wallace

Perhaps he's trying to find out whether it ALSO applies to English?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

He should just watch the translated version.

Robusto

11:53

@RegDwightѬſ道 What is his mother tongue?

Jez

later, food

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I don't know.

David Wallace

"I'm a Cantonese native speaker from Guangzhou,China" - is what the OP says.

@Jez Bitte beehren Sie uns bald wieder. :-)

RegDwight Ѭſ道

> My major is Event Management, branching from Tourism.

Wow, and then he has to ask?

He doesn't realize how locals use to look upon tourists?

Curioser and curioser.

> Fluent: English, 日本語*; Less Fluent: Español*,한국어*,français; Learning:Italiano*,Português*,Русский*

Robusto

In reflecting on the question after coffee, I think the meaning is more slangy in America. Someone who wears business clothes all week, say, but puts on Goth makeup and attire on Saturday night, may be called a tourist by hard-core Goths. If there are any of those left.

@Reg: Should I try against Blue Note or hold off?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

12:00

Ugh. Let me see.

@Robusto well if you have a full bar, then feed it to them.

I have 84 myself, so with any luck we should catch up considerably.

Robusto

Sigh. OK.

@RegDwightѬſ道 What's good against these guys?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Robusto I used LtW for the first battle and won, but then switched to Gorelesup because I'm more comfy with it.

No idea how Da killah would perform.

Robusto

I won one with it.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

They do have a bunch of rainbows, against which Killah is probably the best. But they also have Killah decks themselves.

Robusto

Also, is Rugged Nomad worth incorporating into a deck, and if so, what?

Crap, and then I go run it off on auto. That's, like, the 5th I've done that. Stupid grinding!

Ah, but I won!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

12:05

Nomad, nomad... I can't quite picture a face to go with the name.

Robusto

Then I hit Wasteland Skimmers.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

... and I don't have him.

Robusto

Door #3 when maxed with Sovereign Supporter rep.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Then I suppose I'm not maxed.

Cuz those I usually buy by the dozen right away.

Well I have fought and won two battles, but it doesn't look like the gap is getting smaller.

Robusto

I've won 4 of 6. Nothing I can do against Wasteland Skimmers.

user19161

12:17

@jez +1 for shelves!

David Wallace

@JasperLoy Hey, I said it first! :-)

user19161

@DavidWallace I must have missed it in the transcript.

David Wallace

In my comment, under the question. I beat Jez by about 1 hour and 22 minutes.

user19161

Actually I don't know what it's supposed to be called, but I like "shelves".

David Wallace

I have certainly never heard of "back bar". Sound like a Mogul Emperor.

Robusto

12:25

design-decor-staging.com/blog/…

user19161

@DavidWallace I noticed your last three messages have pencil marks. How interesting!

David Wallace

I don't think so. But four of my last five do.

@JasperLoy It's because the people who made my keyboard put the ENTER key too close to my little finger.

Hey, sudden thought. If I have a keyboard for a right-to-left language, does the arrow on the backspace key point to the right? I suppose it must.

user19161

@DavidWallace Ah, ask Jimmy Wales.

David Wallace

Whoops, just realised that that picture wasn't what I first thought. It must be bed time for me or something.

Robusto

12:47

@Reg: Spent, still 700 behind.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

12:57

4

A: Meaning of the phrase "to name a few"?

The expression "to name a few" is used when there are lot of things to list. But you are prefer best of one or the one you like to list. Because there are so many choices available. Another meaning is "There are more examples also." Ex.The dealsforyou website has so many products like clothes, ...

Four upvotes for "But you are prefer best of one or the one you like to list" plus advertising.

You people are hilarious.

Haha, five upvotes now. You're killing me.

Robusto

Hey, don't look at me. I just edited his stuck-together list.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

13:28

0

Q: Ellipsis or semantically incomplete sentence?

I've got a resource, say a web-page. The page represents a product that belongs to one of the categories. For instance, Toys(category) -> Robocop (product). There's a link on the page that takes user to another page with suggestions on places where the toy can be bought. Is it going to be gramma...

ellipsis

Robusto

13:41

Nice that he would "appeal" to ellipsis. That's kind of like praying to a deity.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I also like how he got "a resource, say a web-page".

Jez

a web page is a resource

RegDwight Ѭſ道

That's not my point.

It's painfully obvious that it's about a website. So why beat around the bush. "I got this, um, er, resource here. For the sake of argument, let's say it's a website."

Robusto

@RegDwightѬſ道 Well, now, don't go calling it a website just yet. The jury's still out. We should have a conference, and appoint a committee to study the matter.

That's how big companies and governments would do it.

3

A: Using -ed vs. -ing in the "needs washed" construction

I grew up in the South of Scotland and find this usage entirely ordinary: the construction "your car needs washing", however, to my ears sounds gauche or pompous. Ironically, I immigrated to Ohio which, along with Pennsylvania, I understand, is one of the few parts of the United States within whi...

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Robusto but we are already calling stuff "links" and "products" right and left. Aren't we too fast about that as well?

Robusto

13:48

Too bad @Kosmonaut is gone. I should email him that link.

@RegDwightѬſ道 Indeed we are. We should be more circumspect and deliberate in all our usages.

30 mins left and 1k behind. Hmm ...

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Robusto I've been looking for an active war for the last 30-40 minutes. But everyone's at +1.

Worse still, if I kick off an active war now, that joker will start whining in faction chat again about how we would have totally won if not for me.

There. The Samurai have lost another 3 points and are available now. Active war @Rob.

Robusto

@RegDwightѬſ道 A'ight.

Jez

@RegDwightѬſ道 Everything's an "app" now.

I'm going to fire up my store app to download a browser app so I can browse web apps and play a Tetris app on the embedded Flash app

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Directly to the forehead.

Robusto

Mar 11 '11 at 15:35, by Robusto

The IDE I use has a plugin that implements the game because, as it says, "This is a Komodo port of Xultris by 'mackers'*, a Firefox extension of the infamous Russian block-puzzle game Tetris. Added here to satisfy David Sklar's assertion that any sufficiently advanced editor will implement tetris."

RegDwight Ѭſ道

13:59

I can't parse that ungrammatical shit. There's not a single app in there!

Spent and AFK.

Robusto

Ditto.

Gigili

15:25

I'd flag that comment if I were you.

Mahnax

I want to kick him in the face.

Gigili

I'll support you strongly.

Robusto

Looks like the communists are trying a grass-roots movement to subvert America with the metric system: theonion.com/articles/…

Mahnax

@Robusto Good.

That Carlo guy is pretty demeaning.

Stupid kids.

Gigili

Naughty kids.

Mahnax

15:37

I can't believe Carlo told me that I have to study more.

Gigili

Actually, the question doesn't make any sense.

Mahnax

I'm voting to close.

Gigili

I would if I could.

He is labouring under the illusion that his question will get a better answer.

Mahnax

I deleted mine, but I took a screenshot of the comment before doing so.

Anyways, I'm outta here.

timothymh

@Mahnax Bye.

Happy zombie Jesus day, by the way.

Gigili

15:56

@Mahnax Well done.

Have fun.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Robusto I have trouble believing that the OP has so much as read your answer. He keeps editing back and forth, even though your general advice still applies.

I commented and closed as NARQ. Now he's edited it yet again, but I'm not sure what we can tell him that he hasn't been told already.

BBL Zelda.

Mahnax

@timothymh Hi!

user19161

16:17

@Mahnax Relax. Have a Kit Kat!

user19161

I also voted NR. Anyway he says he is travelling to Canada now!

user19161

So maybe he will show up at your KFC in a few hours!

user19161

Oh happy Easter!

user19161

0

Q: Search for a new "name"

My last name in Chinese spelling is Fang, but I find that it has a bad meaning as an English word. I tried to change it to Feng, but since they are not quite distinguishable on the pronunciation, it still may remind people of that meaning... I was wondering whether you could help me look for a "...

names

user19161

OT

timothymh

16:25

@Mahnax Salutations!

user19161

@timothymh What a deep word!

Jez

Hey guys

Actually never mind, I'll ask it as a question.

user19161

@Jez Yeah and try to get some rep too.

timothymh

@JasperLoy Do you mean... recondite?

user19161

@timothymh Another deep word. You force me to look it up in the dictionary!

user19161

16:29

-5

Q: 'Futuristic' and 'futurible'

On Collins English Dictionary the word futurible does not exisit; however, on the the other hand, it frequently occur to see sentence like the following: [...] is a futurible tecnology allowing us to create an artificial photosintetic [...] [...] is a futuristic tecnology allowing us to create ...

word-usage

user19161

NR

timothymh

@JasperLoy You forced me to look it up in the thesaurus!

(wordfinder, wordbook, synonym dictionary, synonymy)

user19161

@Jez What kind of expression are you looking for in your question exactly?

Jez

1

Q: English equivalent for German "wie eine Seifenblase zerplatzen"?

In German, there is an idiomatic phrase: wie eine Seifenblase zerplatzen Its literal translation is "burst like a soap bubble"; if something will "burst like a soap bubble", it will fail miserably. Is there a good analogous English expression?

idioms translation german

how do you mean what 'kind'?

user19161

@Jez What do you mean by analogous? Involving bubbles too?

Jez

16:35

no

carrying the same meaning.

I was thinking "fall like a house of cards", but that implies that the thing that is failing was weak to begin with.

Gigili

@Jez Oh, shouldn't you ask it on GL&U instead?

Jez

nope

it's to English, therefore on ELU

Do you know the meaning behind wie eine Seifenblase zerplatzen?

is it a common German phrase?

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…