English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

22:04

Actually, "there's no need to take a noun derived from a verb and then derive yet another verb from that noun" is flat out wrong. That stuff happens, and for solid linguistic reasons. (For starters, have a look at the LanguageLog post on "flied" vs. "flew".) Secondly, and most importantly, "please please please don't" and "I hate it" are not valid reasons for something not to be considered a word. I am tempted to downvote your answer for that. — RegDwight ΒВBẞ8 16 secs ago

Robusto

@KitFox Yes.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Robusto I searched for a quote but gave up.

Figured you'd be faster.

Robusto

Mein Knie ist kaputt.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Autsch.

MetaEd

*waves at kit

/flies out

Robusto

22:07

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Damn, all these years I've been spelling that wrong? And I've like read it a zillion times, too. My brain is broken.

MetaEd

Speling is overated.

Robusto

i no rite

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Apr 19 at 13:55, by Robusto

Robusto

Anyway, too much basketball and running on pavement. Cartilage shot, yadda yadda, they're gonna rip it out and make me a cyborg.

Cerberus

What a beautiful woman.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

22:10

@Robusto Doppel-autsch.

Robusto

@Cerberus She's pretty good at Speling.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Cerberus you misspelled "hideous man".

Cerberus

Hehe.

Who is they?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Asimov, Inc.

Cerberus

(I'm assuming noöne will object to singular they.)

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

22:11

Feb 22 at 20:40, by RegDwight Ѭſ道

I, Robusto.

I predicted that.

Robusto

So I'm gonna end my perfect attendance record in ELU after Monday. Not sure when I'll be back again, but if you don't hear from me after a couple of weeks then something went off the rails.

Cerberus

@Robusto OK, I'm glad it's not something dangerous.

Robusto

@Cerberus Again with the litotes?

Cerberus

We will pray for you, Vitaly first.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Robusto you shouldn't have rails in your hospitals. Hovercrafts are way safer.

Cerberus

22:12

@Robusto Wha?

Robusto

@Cerberus I thought doggies were quick. Keep up!

Cerberus

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 But how about bus stops in nursing homes?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Cerberus if a bus stops in a nursing home, something's gone wrong.

Cerberus

@Robusto tries to run along train rails

Robusto

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Hospital beds have Rails. And they only let you program in Ruby.

Cerberus

22:13

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Who's talking about buses?

Just a stop will do.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Robusto good thing you freshened up your knowledges in VB, then.

Robusto

Who abuses buses?

Cerberus

You know what I'm talking about, si?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Cerberus you are talking?

Cerberus

You didn't notice?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

22:14

I what?

Robusto

I, Robusto.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Ah!

See, he even admits it now.

Cerberus

frowns

Robusto

Translation for @Cerb: Ego Robusto sum.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

That's all I wanted anyway. Copypasting my own shit was getting tiring. Now I can copypaste his own shit.

Cerberus

22:15

*Robustus

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Coito ergo Robusto summa cum laude.

Cerberus

Sorry, I can'thelp it.

Robusto

@Cerberus Hey, give me a little latitude with my own name, willya?

Cerberus

I'm sorry, but prescriptivism knows no boundaries.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

I prescribe that it do.

Cerberus

22:16

Like Linnaeus.

Robusto

@Cerberus You misspelled proscriptivism.

Cerberus

Who was called "von Linne" in Swedish/German, I believe.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

All his scriptivisms are pro.

Cerberus

Thanks.

Robusto

No, just the tips.

Damn, I shouldna got started here. Me missus is to house and I must today evening supper eat.

Vitaly

22:17

This Nexus Beacon grind is going to take forever…

Robusto

Latahhhhhhhh.

Vitaly

CU.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Have funneh.

0

Q: Musical term: 'quasihemidemisemiquaver'

Is 'quasihemidemisemiquaver' a word? (It describes a note that is equal to 128th of a semibreve.)

music

Cerberus

@Robusto Bye! Take care.

I was wrong about Linnaeus, by the way: he made up his own surname as Linnaeus, then switched to von Linné as he was ennobled.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Yeah. Kind of like Lewis Carroll. This guy is really pushing the envelope.

Cerberus

22:22

Odd.

What does he want?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

The Attila Commemoration Medal?

On his very first day, no less.

The original Attila took his time.

Cerberus

Heh.

Could he want the reps? The attention?

He seems to think it is a game of sorts.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

I don't know. We'll see.

Could be a genuine effort at asking some original questions.

Everyone tries to be witty on their first trip.

Cerberus

Yeah.

He seems benign.

If he goes one despite closures, that will be a sign.

MetaEd

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 The Wikipedia article gives no citation for the word.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

22:31

@MetaEd it's a wiki. You can edit it. Linking to the ELU question.

Cerberus

Aww.

Sniff, sniff.

MetaEd

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 I'm a Wikipedia editor. If I were to edit that entry I would flag it "citation needed". I am curious whether the word appears in any dictionaries. There are no hits on Google Ngram Viewer, and web hits appear to be hearsay.

But I like your idea better.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Well I was joking in case you can't tell.

You want me to reopen it? I am kind of skeptical with this particular OP.

MetaEd

If there were a good answer, I'd say yes. But I think there's virtually nothing to craft a good answer from.

The word doesn't even show up in music books, for crissake.

So the question is equivalent to is "dekvisblvi" a word.

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 So I gave in and edited the Wikipedia article.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

22:47

0

Q: Why do British pronunce their names in ways that bear almost no resemblance to their spelling?

Often the British pronunce their names in ways that bear almost no resemblance to their spelling: Zuill is yull, Menzies is mingiss. I could go on and on. Viscount Althorp pronunce his name awltrop, while the people of Althorp say all-thorp. Why?

pronunciation

Someone's jumping the shark.

Note the pronunce. From someone who breaks no sweat spelling quasihemidemisemiquaver.

@MetaEd haha you do have to explain to me why you meticulously write down all your contributions on your user page.

You are aware you have a very personal, auto-generated contributions page?

KitFox

23:13

@Robusto If it's any consolation, I think cyborgs are supersexy.

z7sg Ѫ

@Cerberus Like grammar girl. Who implies that people use this form because they are 'confused'. They are not confused or wrong, they are just speaking naturally and invalidating that particular notional grammar rule.

KitFox

@MetaEd Really? I've heard it before.

But I can't remember if it was a joke or not.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Heard, huh.

You know some quasisuperduperbooperpeople.

Anywayae's, I'm calling it a day.

Cerberus

@z7sgѪ Is anyone every "confused" or wrong?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Night all, have fun.

Cerberus

23:18

Bai!

KitFox

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 blows kisses

z7sg Ѫ

@Cerberus I expect so

MetaEd

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 The contributions page is long and detailed: lists every edit by the clock. My user page is short and simple: lists accomplishments. Trees ... forest you might say.

Cerberus

@z7sgѪ Then when are people "confused", and when aren't they?

z7sg Ѫ

@Cerberus What? This grammatical form appears in Shakespeare and is still in everyday usage. Now it's wrong because Grammar Girl says so?

MetaEd

23:29

@KitFox My favorite technical terms along the lines of quasihemidemisemiquaver are snap, crackle, and pop: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jounce

Cerberus

@z7sgѪ Are you attributing some position to me? I was trying to get to a more precise definition of the distinction you referred to.

z7sg Ѫ

@Cerberus I am attributing your comments to you. That it isn't modern, that it's funny language used only by politicians.

Cerberus

I didn't say that.

KitFox

@MetaEd I like strange and charmed myself.

MetaEd

@KitFox yes!

Cerberus

23:33

I meant that a politician's choice of words should not carry much weight as stylistic advice.

Because someone (I don't remember who: you?) appeared to be adducing a politician's use of the word as a recommendation of sorts.

But perhaps it was not intended like that.

KitFox

I should've stuck with physics.

sighs

pokes codez

z7sg Ѫ

It may be indicative of the status of this style of speech but none of that can be explored if it is dismissed as incorrect grammar.

Cerberus

hits codes with shoe

KitFox

Hey!

Cerberus

tries to seduce codes

MetaEd

23:36

A shoe makes a great debugger.

We gets us some big bugs in Texas.

Cerberus

@z7sgѪ I don't know, if this is about some fundamental point, "grammar" needs definition. Because many people use it with different meanings.

Boring as it sounds.

@MetaEd Hmm so you shoo off buggers in Texas.

I certainly didn't say anything about "grammar".

KitFox

shudders at the thought of Texas

What's new @MetaEd? How's your little folks?

Folk? I can't remember how many you have.

Cerberus

Can't folk be plural?

MetaEd

@Cerberus Sho do.

Cerberus

Heh.

I see.

KitFox

23:40

@Cerberus Why would you think it couldn't?

MetaEd

@KitFox I have one, and that one is a handful just on its own!

Cerberus

@KitFox I suggested that it could.

KitFox

@Cerberus And I had used it that way.

Cerberus

@MetaEd What shape or form is it?

@KitFox By "Folk?" you didn't mean one object?

KitFox

@MetaEd As I recall, you were just broaching the year mark.

z7sg Ѫ

23:41

@Cerberus It doesn't matter about the definition of grammar. Whatever the justification, here something has been deemed incorrect. I can't reconcile that with stylistic advice about which form should be preferred over the other.

MetaEd

@Cerberus Human female

@KitFox This one's 14

KitFox

@Cerberus Yes, I did. Little folks. Or folk. Plural or singular.

@MetaEd Huh. Memory's a bit rusty.

MetaEd

Her mom has adult kids and we are hinting broadly at grandchildren.

KitFox

Hang on, I'll fix it.

takes memory out back and shoots it

MetaEd

Actually we are not hinting broadly at grandchildren so much as hitting boardly over the head about grandchildren.

Cerberus

23:43

@z7sgѪ I don't see "incorrect" and "stylistically inadvisable" as qualitatively different things, though one is a bit stronger than the other. You could try and find my discussion about this with Kosmonaut, in which we came to agreement, though it was a bit lengthy.

KitFox

Oh! Right. It's Ed Guinness who has the infant.

MetaEd

@KitFox Autch.

KitFox

Wrong Ed. Sorry.

MetaEd

:-)

Cerberus

@MetaEd Ah, that may not be the easiest age...

MetaEd

23:44

It's not bad actually. She's a nerd.

All right, time for me to make like a baby.

Cerberus

@KitFox I'm not trying to be obnoxious or anything, I seriously wondered whether you meant the change from "folks" to "Folk?" as in "or do you have only one child?", or was it just a random exploration of the word "folk"?

@MetaEd Good luck making babby!

z7sg Ѫ

@Cerberus This is not even stylistically inadvisable. It's just a matter of register. You can disagree about that but I have seen no evidence given against it.

Cerberus

How is that different to you?

KitFox

@Cerberus I mean something along the lines of "kids" or "kid." Nothing so deep as all that.

Cerberus

Ok, noted.

KitFox

23:53

BTW, are you in the States right now?

I could swear I drove past you today.

Cerberus

Meee?

z7sg Ѫ

Because I'd never say it's wrong. Just that if a friend spoke to me in that way I'd consider it a bit odd.

KitFox

@Cerberus Yes, you.

Cerberus

I thought I saw a pretty vixen drive by...but, alas, no.

KitFox

What were you wearing today?

Cerberus

23:55

@z7sgѪ I don't see any huge, clear difference between all these things, "wrong", "inadvisable", "incorrect", "ungrammatical", "unacceptable", "nonstandard"...

@KitFox Nothing, of course.

KitFox

Hurm.

Cerberus

Hehe.

z7sg Ѫ

@Cerberus Well it's none of those, it's social register.

Cerberus

A dark-grey pullover, camel trousers.

KitFox

Are you sure it wasn't a red pullover?

Cerberus

23:56

@z7sgѪ That too overlaps with all those things for me.

@KitFox Hmm...perhaps I didn't look at the colour long enough.

KitFox

It really looked like you.

z7sg Ѫ

@Cerberus Seriously?

KitFox

I should have stopped him and taken his picture.

Cerberus

@z7sgѪ There are just various reason for various people why they feel like or dislike towards certain linguistic utterances.

z7sg Ѫ

You don't speak to everyone in the same way do you?

Cerberus

23:58

Very hard to separate and/or categorize those things.

z7sg Ѫ

It's not so hard

Cerberus

@z7sgѪ Well, I sort of do. I try to avoid terms that children probably don't know?

@KitFox You should have!

When was the last time you saw a picture of me anyway? And did you see more than that one picture (my FB picture) that I always post?

z7sg Ѫ

Quite clearly if you use a certain form with more socially distant people than those close to you and I call this a social register, just a very basic thing, you are saying you can't agree on those terms and make a distinction between that and me saying something is incorrect?

KitFox

@Cerberus You posted one or two different ones.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…