English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

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Mitch

00:16

@Robusto I'll grant he's in the top 500

Not that I know anything

Mitch

00:29

@Robusto I have mixed feelings. Teasing out what a word means is appropriate. But 'why' just seems dumb. It's totally obvious that it's a white drinkable liquid but it's not from a mammal. It's not technically milk but it sure looks like it. How much explaining can be done?

4 hours later…

SmokeDetector

04:58

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive answer detected, potentially bad keyword in answer, toxic answer detected (161): Does the question “Did dancing 10 times daily since I was 12 help me?” imply that I danced for some years? by Sean Keyes on english.SE

1 hour later…

Tonepoet

06:03

@tchrist Tell me Mr. Typographer, do you find the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia's entry for negligence as amusing as I do? It's in the bottom of the middle column.

6 hours later…

RegDwigнt

11:47

@Mitch it's not even about looks in this case. And I'm surprised to see nobody at all point that out.

Soy milk is specifically meant to replace milk. When proper milk is not an option because you're allergic to it, or are vegan, or it's lent, or whatever.

We don't use words exclusively to indicate what a thing is. We also use words to indicate what a thing is used as.

When you develop a desoxiribopropanolfuck, then it's technically desoxiribopropanolfuck and nothing else, but nobody knows what good it is for, so nobody will buy it if you call it that. But if you call it "almond milk" people will go, oh I can use that as milk replacement. Cool.

When a recipe calls for milk, nobody will think of replacing it with juice. Or replacing it with desoxiribopropanolfuck. They will specifically look for something that says "milk" on it but isn't.

Kind of like we call electric cars cars. They are not cars, but we call them that to indicate their purpose. It's a car for people who don't want a proper car but wouldn't mind having something comparable.

Or like we call a table leg a leg. Not because it is a leg, which it is not, or because it looks like a leg, which it doesn't, but because it is used as one.

And then there's all the genericized trademarks. A kleenex is quite typically not technically a kleenex, and an escalator is very likely not an actual escalator. But we still call them that because it indicates their purpose.

Technically, we have very, very few words that actually are what they say they are, or look like what they say they look like, or mean what they say they mean. Technically, pretty much all words are misused and misapplied. Starting with the word technically.

@Robusto all that said I guess I'm letting it fly because it's the hat season. We've had worse questions in the past to fish for hats. I had some. Hell, you had some.

And Mitch, well, let's not talk about Mitch.

He isn't even a Mitch, technically.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Even though you are not actually one and also not actually every, and it's not an actual mas, whatever that even is, and the actual Christ never makes an actual appearance.

3 hours later…

tchrist

15:03

🎄 🎁 🎄 🍮 🎄 𝕸𝖊𝖗𝖗𝖞 𝕮𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖒𝖆𝖘 𝖙𝖔 𝖆𝖑𝖑❗ 🔔 🎵 🔔 🎶 🔔
🎄 🎁 🎄 🍮 🎄 𝕬𝖓𝖉 𝖙𝖔 𝖆𝖑𝖑 𝖆 𝖌𝖔𝖔𝖉 𝖋𝖑𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙❗ 🔔 🎵 🔔 🎶 🔔

2 hours later…

Mostafa

16:50

Is "office works" correct for referring to works like getting documents signed by this and that and filling forms, etc. ?

or maybe bureaucratic works?

or paperwork? :/

Ice Girl

17:11

Hi all. I have a question. My question is: " what is the difference between 'quality learning' and 'learning quality' "?

Mostafa

@IceGirl Hi. "quality learning" means learning of high quality.

quality X = X with high quality

1 hour later…

Tonepoet

18:46

A: Why is the /t/ silent in "christen"?

It's associated with the `Great Vowel Shift'. I found this on Hartford Courant, citing a letter from James McCawley (professor of linguistics at the University of Chicago at the time, I think currently acknowledged as the expert in his field) in a letter to language columnist William Safire (also...

1 hour later…

Robusto

20:11

@RegDwigнt Well, in fact it is an actual mass, Christ Mass. From Old English. Michaelmas was St. Michael's Mass, and there was even a Loaf Mass, which became Lammas.

Lammas

Lammas Day (Anglo-Saxon hlaf-mas, "loaf-mass"), is a holiday celebrated in some English-speaking countries in the Northern Hemisphere, usually between 1 August and 1 September. It is a festival to mark the annual wheat harvest, and is the first harvest festival of the year. On this day it was customary to bring to church a loaf made from the new crop, which began to be harvested at Lammastide, which falls at the halfway point between the summer Solstice and Autumn September Equinox. The loaf was blessed, and in Anglo-Saxon England it might be employed afterwards to work magic: a book of Anglo-Saxon...

As for Christ making an actual appearance, I think the loaf is more likely.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto well yes obviously I was being facetious.

Robusto

That can get you in trouble.

RegDwigнt

They still have way more of those masses in German. Mariä Lichtmess and stuff.

Robusto

German makes a mess of mass.

RegDwigнt

Darstellung des Herrn

Darstellung des Herrn, lateinisch Praesentatio Jesu in Templo, altgriechisch ὑπαπαντή τοΰ Κυρίου, altertümlich Jesu Opferung im Tempel, (früher auch Mariä Reinigung, Purificatio Mariae), volkstümlich auch Mariä Lichtmess oder (veraltet) Unser Lieben Frauen Lichtweihe und Hypapante (griechisch ὑπαπαντή), ist ein Fest, das am 2. Februar, dem vierzigsten Tag nach Weihnachten, gefeiert wird. == Biblische Zusammenhänge == Die Erzählung von der Darstellung Jesu, die sich an einen kurzen Hinweis auf dessen Beschneidung am achten Tag nach seiner Geburt (Lk 2,21 ) anschließt, berichtet von zwei hi...

That'd be Presentation of Jesus in English. Or should I say, French.

Jasper Loy

20:24

Don't miss the mass of moss which is a mess.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Haha, speaking of French, I recently learned that there is an NFL (or other) coach whose actual name is Frank Reich.

RegDwigнt

That's a bit rich, frankly.

Robusto

But not too riche, francly.

RegDwigнt

Brandy is quite cherie.

Which is not the same as riche.

What the fuck have Wikipedia done to the language selector. What is this brainfuckery.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt But better than pauvre.

RegDwigнt

20:29

So they have as the main languages Alemannian and Indonesian somehow. But the other 28 they hide.

And not just hide but then fucking sort according to what appears tosses of dice and rolls of coins.

Worldwide: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese.
America: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese.
Europe: White Russian, Frisian, Chuvash, Serbian, English, Welsh, Spanish, French. No Portuguese though.

And so on and so forth. What the fuck is this.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt So ... sorta like the way they arrived at the new ELU design.

RegDwigнt

Spanish is under everything, Portuguese is under everything except where it should be, and there is no Russian anywhere.

@Robusto that is a very apt comparison. Especially how you can't see the whole list at a glance, or even just the top categories. You only see six items at a time, as in the screenshot. No resizing.

Robusto

Maybe it's a form of influenza.

RegDwigнt

And look at the spacing.

Robusto

Definitely influenza.

RegDwigнt

20:34

That's the middle of the list somehow. It goes on after and before.

Robusto

Their designers caught it from SE.

RegDwigнt

And not sorted alphabetically or anything.

Robusto

Wheeeeeeeee!

RegDwigнt

After the bit above, you get Armenian.

Still no Russian tho.

It used to be one single list on the left-hand side. With all languages alphabetically. What was bad about that. Just what.

Robusto

I suppose at some point all code (and all influenza) becomes unmaintainable.

RegDwigнt

20:35

It's not that it becomes that, it's that they actively make it that.

You have to go and fuck the alphabetical list. You have to do that. Out of your own accord.

Robusto

Another sin that can be laid at the door of OOP. Procedural ftw!

RegDwigнt

And then they have the choose-pah to ask me for a donation.

I am not donating to that.

Robusto

RegDwigнt

That is actually brilliant.

Robusto

Why I linked it.

RegDwigнt

20:39

Don't ask me, I don't know. But it is brilliant.

Well frankly it has no way to go from here by down so I'll go crack open a cold one and maybe watch Robocop or Predator or something.

Tis the season!

Robusto

Enjoy!

RegDwigнt

Enjoy your heathen festivities!

Robusto

I should go as well. Merry season.

RegDwigнt

CUs arounds.

Færd

21:25

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; French: Gendarmerie royale du Canada (GRC), "Royal Gendarmerie of Canada"; colloquially known as The "Mounties", and internally as "the Force") is the federal and national police force of Canada. The RCMP provides law enforcement at the federal level. It also provides provincial policing in eight of Canada's provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Saskatchewan) and local policing on contract basis in the three territories (Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon) and...

Shouldn't it be RMCP?

I'd've thought Canadian took precedence over mounted.

Jasper Loy

@RegDwigнt The thing about donating money is that you don't really know where the money is going to.

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