English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Q: What do you call the removal of a repeated syllable in words for ease of pronunciation?

6:14 AM

I read about it once. I think it has to do with alliterative sounds. Not sure if it was deliberate or not.

1 hour later…

Lawrence

7:22 AM

@Mitch Whoops, force of habit? :P

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Now, that's a good case for making the dot a lot larger. Avoids all that "I didn't see the point in that" business. An accountant I worked with wrote his dollars and cents with a short dash, almost like a minus-sign. It looked odd at first, but I quickly picked up why. The Euro comma-as-decimal-point is more visible than the dot, but that looks even weirder than the dash to me. Maybe the dot would look weird to them there.

@tchrist light bulb moment

@tchrist Perhaps it's to do with things like senpai/kohai, where it seems that people call their 'superiors' senpai but don't call their juniors kohai. A junior calling himself a kohai might be considered to be an application of a 'negative' honorific.

@tchrist Tipping wait staff is well-understood. How does one tip cows?

1 hour later…

Færd

8:48 AM

@RegDwigнt Thanks.

So the layout is quite random and arrived at by trial and error, and is not mathematically and ergonomically optimum.

But any language using the Latin alphabet would have a different ideal keyboard. So it doesn't make much sense pursuing this problem in the abstract way I formulated it.

I don't know what my fuming habits have to do with Dvorak?

I started out in my early twenties and soon reached two or three hours a day (yeah I measured the time it consumed, not the tobacco I consumed), then quit for a year or two.

And now I've backslid but I'm only smoking one cigarette a day and I don't feel awful about it the way I did back then.

I've even found a brand that doesn't throttle my larynx. It doesn't affect my voice at all.

Which is kind of important to me, because I hate not being able to sing to myself when I roam the streets of Tehran.

Q: Word for someone who helps a leadman or chief

9:14 AM

To my observance, I found the following words: Helper, one who helps others. Assistant, one who assist others. Are these okay, or should I need other words?

single-word-requests

4 hours later…

Q: Word for reenacting emergency situations for training, etc

1:36 PM

I am looking for a word (or a combination of words) that describes reenacting emergency situations, including painted wounds, etc. Basically a name for the whole concept of painting wounds, reenacting injury, etc. This is something that is often done by emergency services for training their staf...

single-word-requests phrase-requests

1 hour later…

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

2:46 PM

@ledonter I didn't hear that

user2236

Q: what do you call a person who thinks that everyone is talking about them

3:13 PM

what do you call a person who thinks that everyone is talking about them only.what ever the public post is done they think it's for them only and give a quick reaction.

single-word-requests meaning word-choice word-usage

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

@Feeds Anything from paranoid to self-obsessed

I'd go for paranoid

:O Was this question to interrogate me about my English vocabulary?

ಠ_ಠ

user2236

terdon

3:32 PM

@user2236 come on, cut it out.

3 hours later…

6:36 PM

@tchrist: So am I the only one who thinks the elephant in the room is that "as I flew" and "as I was flying" simply don't mean the same thing at all?

As I flew above the city = I crossed the air space.
As I was flying above the city = as I was going back and forth and in circles and whatnot.

Actually, I won't even wait for your reply, I'll leave that as a comment.

7:02 PM

I don't know, I don't really see the going back and forth thing.

7:28 PM

Hi, everyone

Everyone, yeah. All one and a half of us. :-D

@Cerberus In my brain, one is mapped to the Russian лететь, and the other to летать. Same verb, but two different aspects. English doesn't have those. But it still needs to express similar things occasionally.

How are you ?

A bit exhausted.

Just trying to find a peace of mind.

Quit social media | Dr. Cal Newport | TEDxTysons

7:39 PM

try to relax

►

tchrist

7:53 PM

Cow tipping

Cow tipping is the purported activity of sneaking up on any unsuspecting or sleeping upright cow and pushing it over for entertainment. The practice of cow tipping is generally considered an urban legend, and stories of such feats viewed as tall tales. The implication that rural citizens seek such entertainment due to lack of other alternatives is viewed as a stereotype. The concept of cow tipping apparently developed in the 1970s, though tales of animals that cannot rise if they fall has historical antecedents dating to the Roman Empire. Cows routinely lie down and can easily regain their footing...

8:05 PM

> Cows routinely lie down and can easily regain their footing

Goes to show how stupid people are if we have to spell that out on Wikipedia.

Like, who's never seen a cow.

@Educ yeah that's actually quite apropos. Social media are very much a crucial contributor whenever I face any exhaustion at all.

We only think in terms of likes and upvotes and followers these days. You post something on Facebook or YouTube or Reddit (or ELU, for that matter, or Wikipedia, even) and you get a million views and a trillion likes, but the person next to you gets a trillion plus one, and you feel all sad and drained. For no reason at all. None that holds up to scrutiny, anyway.

That said, it kinda takes away from that talk that it's being held by someone who's never been part of this crazy treadmill in the first place.

Q: What word describes the attitude of "if I can't have it, nobody can"?

8:41 PM

Is there a single English word to describe the attitude conveyed when someone destroys an object/opportunity for others simply because he/she cannot benefit from it? For example, suppose a formerly wealthy financier goes bankrupt and his creditors arrive to haul away his assets which include som...

single-word-requests psychology emotions social-interaction

tchrist

9:10 PM

@RegDwigнt It's the epidemic of nature deficiency syndrome caused by poisonous urbanization and obsessing over flashy video games and "social media" propaganda.

If You Use Social Media, YOU NEED TO KNOW THE TRUTH! Mark Zuckerberg's Testimony

@RegDwigнt yes totally agree

►

ab2

9:38 PM

"Like, who's never seen a cow?" One of my classmates at MIT had never seen a cow. We drove her out to the countryside and showed her a cow. She was vastly impressed at how large it was. She was, of course, from New York City. This was decades ago.

10:00 PM

please someone correct my sentence

@ab2 Funny.

By the way, it can be harmful for sheep to lie on their backs.

@Educ He's right.

yes please could you correct my sentence

I love this Manga / Anime in a way that you can not imagine, I started watching it since 2003 and I still. By the way, the author supports the flat earth.

I see two sentences?

It should be three: there's a comma splice in the first one. So it should be split up.

> I started watching it in 2003
OR
I have watched it since 2003

yes there are two I mean both of them

second one I mean

> the author believes in the the flat-earth theory
OR
the author believes in a flat earth
OR
the author believes that he earth is flat
OR
the author believes the earth to be flat

10:11 PM

what about the author supports the idea of a flat earth

by the way thank you

It's just meh.

I would say you support a person or a cause, but not an idea.

Maybe it's not 'wrong', but I'm not thrilled about it.

1 hour later…