English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

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Tanner Swett

00:08

So, Wikipedia says that "a sequence of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance" is called a collocation.

Is there a word for a sequence of words occurring less often than expected?

I can think of about half of one example.

Which is that it's common to use fast to mean "with great speed", and it's common to use -ly to form an adverb from an adjective, but fastly is almost never used as an adverb meaning "with great speed".

2 hours later…

Robusto

01:57

@Cerberus If you're a fount of wisdom, then @tchrist is a wisdom of fonts.

tchrist

02:56

@J Taylor: The Dutch pronounce it with gurgling both before and after the "o". — Peter Shor 6 hours ago

I became aware of the "double gurgle" when somebody from the Netherlands, speaking English, was shocked that none of us had ever heard of the painter Ghhhoghh (he left out the van, as well, although I don't think that's the way it's usually done in Dutch). — Peter Shor 2 hours ago

@Cerberus He just means it's some variation on /xox/. at least consonantly, right?

I've never heard /x/ referred to as "gurgling". That's funny.

Cerberus

03:14

@tchrist Yes.

@Robusto Quite so!

How is your hand?

1 hour later…

KannE

04:18

@Mitch I want to write like that; people try to write like that, but it only happens once in a while. Very nice, Mitch.

5 hours later…

SmokeDetector

09:27

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive answer detected, potentially bad keyword in answer, toxic answer detected (161): A single word synonym for "A person not to mess with" by user331343 on english.SE

5 hours later…

Mitch

14:56

@KannE In all humility, I blame all infelicities and solecisms on auto-correct. I meant every tpyo that should have been there.

Robusto

@Cerberus The hand is, in the main, better—thanks for asking—but the little finger is still problematic. It hurts when I play piano chords and doesn't have a lot of flexibility. Nevertheless, it's better than it was a few days ago. I'm hopeful it will continue to improve.

Mitch

Left or right pinkie?

Favor the other one.

Sonatas for the left hand

Chopin etudes sans melodie

Robusto

@Mitch Right.

Mitch

@Robusto Argh

Robusto

My left hand is the strong one on the piano, curiously.

Mitch

15:00

I would have said that for the left too.

string as in strength or strong as in ... adeptness?

Robusto

My teacher used to tell me I didn't have to have "rock bass" lines in the left hand.

Mitch

loud?

Robusto

I tend to hit it harder because I like a good bottom. Depends on the piece, though. I don't do that with Debussy, say.

Bach? Sure.

Mitch

Are you saying that Bach is more balanced across the scale?

I don't know, I'm just asking

no one -wants- to sing the non-soprano parts.

Robusto

No, that's not what I'm saying—although I believe he is. All his parts seem meant to be equal. A voice in the treble translates to a voice in the bass.

@Mitch You'd have to talk to @tchrist about that. I'm not a choral person.

The simplest example for Bach are the two-part inventions. Each line is duplicated in the right hand and the left hand. I tend to overplay the left a bit in those.

Not sure why, I guess I just like the sound. Feels right to me.

Mitch

15:07

@Robusto I'm not a music person. I sang in choir in high school (tenor, which is like the viola of singing) and took a class in voice leading/music theory in college. And since then my involvement with music has been turning off the oldies rock station when Foreigner or REO Speedwagon come on.

So I don't actually know anything in practice like with an instrument.

Robusto

When I said "each line" I should have said "each theme" ...

There are variations, of course, and a little filler, but those give very good exercises for balance in the hands.

@Mitch I think oldies stations play waaaaay too much Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Not enough stuff like this: