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00:52
> Li Wenliang, uno de los primeros médicos que alertó sobre el nuevo y misterioso virus, fue silenciado por las autoridades de su país, que intentaban controlar la crisis. Falleció en la madrugada.
I'm so glad it's not just us who can't figure out the number for the verb in "one of the first doctors who XXX".
alertó is singular so agrees with "one" not with "doctors", which take alertaron.
I sometimes wonder whether our analysis mightn't be wrong in at least some such cases.
I'm looking for good examples of accidental gaps in English: words and phrases which seem totally reasonable on their faces, but which actually aren't commonly used, for no other reason than that they aren't commonly used.
For example, we say "more fun" instead of "funner," even though there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with "funner."
It's because fun was originally a noun, and so there can't be a degree inflection.
Not even nouns used attributively can inflect by degree.
> Let's have more fun.
> My sister is more fun than my brother.
Hm.
> ?This game is funner to play than that one.
That's why funny is the adjective, which has no problems with degree inflections.
But then we started using fun more adjectivally.
Oh, that makes sense.
But now fun and funny have diverged in meaning, and so now there's call for fun to be an adjective.
Now we can say "it's not very fun" instead of "it's not much fun," and "oh, how fun it is to ride" instead of "oh, what fun it is to ride."
You have distantly similar weirdnesses with so-called adjectives like ablaze, which cannot be used attributively, only predicatively. Because they're really prepositional phrases, or were so once on a time.
(We don't say "oh, how fun it is to ride," but we can.)
Oh yeah.
01:01
Your house might be ablaze, but never could you have an ablaze house.
Or an asleep person or an alive person.
Or even an alone person, even though "alone" comes from "all one," not from a- + lone.
right
Why do you think it an adjective not a noun in "What fun it is to ride and sing"?
It looks like a noun there to me.
Ok good.
What doesn't usually go with adjectives.
01:04
It sounds like you're looking for grammatical/syntactic/morphological gaps more than you are lexical ones.
The verb beware is defective.
For probably obvious reasons.
No inflections.
Nobody has ever died for never bewaring the gap.
I bewore of the dog as I went past. I've beworn of that dog many times and not regretted it once.
Let's see, are there actually any verbs that go -are, -ore, -orn?
Yes of course, many.
There's bear, tear, wear, swear, but those are spelled differently.
Care, core, corn?
Venite adoremus.
adore
None to compare.
He dare say nothing more.
Stop glaring at me like that.
I've been poring through examples like all getout.
Do not suborn the grammar of the Englishes.
You have to prepare for these things.
And the full moon glew like it had never glown before.
Prepare, prepore, preporn. I don't think I was adequately preporn for this.
01:11
I bet I can shoehorn a few more in if you let me.
But I was asking for verbs that end in are in the present tense, ore in the simple past and orn in the passive participle.
Surely it cannot have been but ereyesterday when she bad you enter.
(Which is, unfortunately, sometimes called the "past participle.")
@TerranSwett Oh I misunderstood.
People aren't fond of bad as the preterite.
That's too bad.
01:15
I long ago decided I dursn't add to your misery.
shear, shore, shorn
Dare is the only irregular -are verb.
nod
So I must have been thinking of bear, tear and swear*—as well *wear, whose past tense should have been weared, but people decided to make it wore instead.
shear was originally a strong verb in Germanic.
One of several irregularities that have snuck into the English over time.
Um, tear was never weak.
It was a strong class 4 verb.
Unless you mean for the zero-derived lachrymous tear from the noun.
Present Ic tere, preterite Ic tær.
Bishop Ælfric, Genesis xxxvii. 29 — Ða tær he his claðas [L. scissis vestibus].
c1325 Deus Caritas 25 in Early Eng. Poems & Lives Saints (1862) 127 Crist was toren vche a lym.
That's the past participle.
Or passive as you like it.
Middle English featured forms like Whan þey were i-tore.
I wouldn't try to resurrect that one.
But atorn might work, and means the same thing with the y- > a-.
The story with swear is more complicated. It was generally strong but sometimes weak.
Middle English had any and all of swarid, sward, gesworen, isworen, ysworen, ysworn, yswered and plenty more besides.
Old English did have swor. Don't you miss the days when people knew how to spell?
And Old English had sworen for the participle.
That's not the infinitive, which was swerian.
But Old English also had swerede as the weak past competing with normal swor.
He done gone and sweared imself up a storm e did e did.
> Origin: A word inherited from Germanic.
Etymology: Common Germanic strong verb (sporadically weak) with j- present stem: Old English swęrian , swór , rarely swerede , -swaren , usually -sworen , = Old Frisian swaria , swera , also swara , swora , Old Saxon swerian , -swôr , -sworen , (Middle) Low German sweren , swôr , swâren , swôren , Middle Dutch sweren , (Dutch zweren ), Old High German suuerian , suuerran , suôr , gisworan (for *giswaran ), Middle High German swern , swûr , swuor , dialect swerete , gesworn , geswarn (German schwören , schwur , †schwor , geschworen ), Old Norse sverj
NB the last paragraph about bear influence.
And if you think to bear is ursine in English just look at that verb in Latin: fero is incredibly more irregular than any form of bare bear bier in English shall ever be.
It was one of those wicked suppletive verbs with multiple origins, like be and go in English.
As in Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.
02:22
@tchrist: I really like how economically Spanish expresses reciprocal actions. Manuel y Anita se pelean vs the much more cumbersome English way: "Manuel and Anita are fighting with each other."
@Robusto "Mom and Dad are fighting again."
Hmm. But they could be fighting with the neighbors. ^_^
How about Manuel y Anita se aman. You can't say that without "love each other."
@tchrist And, really, that may be true for Mom and Dad, but not for two random names. "Bill and Ben are fighting again" does not necessarily imply "with each other."
02:43
"Bill and Ben are marrying again."
What, again?
They could be
- marrying each other
- both getting married but to other people
- officiating marriages ceremonies together
- officiating marriages separately
I'm sure we could work out some more.
An even better one would be Maria y Juan se entienden. In English you can't just say "Maria and Juan understand" or even "Maria and Juan are understanding." You have to use "with each other" to establish the reciprocal arrangement that Spanish handles in two letters.
Yes.
03:32
Polish is interesting in that it has a reflexive pronoun that's used for all persons. Compare Spanish, which only has a reflexive pronoun for the third person (otherwise you use the regular pronoun), and English, which has separate reflexive pronouns for each person.
So Polish is like: I look at self, she looks at self, you look at self.
The reflexive pronoun is also used with possessives. You don't say "I got into my car," you say "I got into self's car" (or probably just "I got into car").
 
2 hours later…
05:30
@TerranSwett That's not how I would characterize Romance reflexives. Me llamo Juan. Je m’appelle Jean. Perché non ti lavi le mani? Tu madre y yo nos queremos muchísimo.
Note that those are reflexive clitics in all cases, and that only the French has an actual subject pronoun.
Why don't you wash yourself the hands?
Your mother and I love each other very much.
I call myself John.
Of course "wash yourself the hands" is literal for "wash your hands".
¿Por qué no te lavas las manos?
Same thing.
Se me rompió el cenicero is literally that the ashtray broke itself to/on you (dative of interest) but really means that you somehow let it get broken but are avoiding saying so directly. :)
Like, probably you broke it.
Se me cayó el vaso is that the glass dropped itself on/to you, but in fact, it just means you dropped it.
Si sono innamorati is they fell in love with each other.
In Italian. Se enamoraron in Spanish and Se apaixonaram in Portuguese where you don't have to admit to them not being both female as you had to in Italian. :)
Si sono innamorate would be all female.
 
2 hours later…
07:44
Guys i had a question regarding the present continuous, how do i know that it has a present implication not a future one ? Like in this example , “Im placing a new order right now”
does this example necessarily imply that the speaker “is placing the order right now as in they are already in the middle of the process” or that “they are going to place a new order right now as in the immediate future”
 
2 hours later…
09:46
@AhmedHossam The usual interpretation of "I'm doing it right now" is that the action is currently being performed. There are contexts where it can mean "I'm about to start doing it" but the context is usually one where someone has been caught out not doing something they were meant to be doing
 
1 hour later…
10:47
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Blacklisted website in body, potentially bad ns for domain in body (100): How to make carpet clean? by Daniel Pham on english.SE
@SmokeDetector shoulda called it carpet diem
11:43
Thinking about chili? This might be a garden path sentence /haz ə 'kɪdni biːn dɪˈtɛktɪd/
 
3 hours later…
14:19
@tchrist But for the first and second persons, at least in Spanish, you use the same pronouns whether it's reflexive or not, don't you? Me llamo Juan, te llamo Juan, me llamas Juan, te llamas Juan.
I call myself Juan, I call you Juan, you call me Juan, you call yourself Juan.
 
2 hours later…
15:57
0
Q: English Language & Usage

Ben A.Am I right that "English Language & Usage" is the short form for "English Language & Its Usage" or "English Language & The Usage of It" rather than for "English Language & English Usage"? Why do I ask? Well, if the latter option were true, we would have "English language", where "English" is an ...

Finally someone takes the same issue with our stupid site title that I've always been having.
That's the same difference as between me and the sun. I only think about fusing atoms to release energy, the sun actually does it
 
2 hours later…
17:44
Hello people :-) Could you please tell me which of the following is correct? Actually I was thinking and suddenly this construction came to my mind.
If I had not gone to the party she would have thought that I had been (was) busy working.
18:04
Here's another one.... Basically I'm confused about whether or not to use had. I'm sorry if it's wrong but I feel that using had feels a little better. I'm not sure if this is correct or not. Please help me. I'm totally clueless. "He might have thought that I wouldn't understand his gestures even if he (had) continued using them."
 
2 hours later…
19:59
@MattE.Эллен As Neil DeGrasse Tyson is tirelessly reminding us, Carl Sagan used to tirelessly remind us that we're all made up of stuff ejected from stars.
Which makes me somewhat nauseous.
And also nauseated.
A little uncomfortable.
@user8718165 Both are natural ('idiomatic') English. Using 'had been' is a little more formal, and 'was' is less formal and a bit more natural in speech.
'had been' is what they teach in schools, but 'ws' is probably more common nowadays (I'm not sure if 'was' is more popular in writing nowadays...a quick NGrams should inform.)
@Mitch nice effort carrying on the torch, but we just won't put you in the same gallery as Sagan and Tyson.
I am very sorry.
Maybe we can put you in the same gallery as Schumann. If you finally finish your stupid symphony. And acquire tinnitus. And break both your hands.
@RegDwigнt I don't think I've ever said that before.
Also, I got a little winded just typing all that out.
See, that's a pun on 'tirelessly'.
@Mitch that's very good, because I don't think I've ever listened to you before.
So I've missed nothing.
@RegDwigнt Same.
@RegDwigнt Schumann is so dead to me now.
Also lots of people that were alive at that time.
You see, it was a long time ago.
Very unlikely for any of them to have survived.
We'd totally know about it if they did.
It'd be in all the papers.
That's just science.
The kind that Carl Sagan and NDT like to talk about.
It's unfair, isn't it. Schumann is dead, but we still remember his name. Yet once we die, the asshole won't even know or care that we existed.
Hey Schumann! Wake up, notice me, then die again. Kthxbai.
20:15
@RegDwigнt I don't think he'd have cared alive or not. Or even had the inkling of a thought about us.
Dick.
No, Robert.
Bob is not your uncle?
Also nice.
Though careful mate, "she's just a woman" is the kind of talk that will get you banned these days. Or made President of the US.
> When I was standing there microwaving my food and someone I know came to the kitchen at school but I’m not friends with them so we just stand there awkwardly not talking then I immediately ran from the kitchen when my food was done.
Holy fuck. What grammatical name and function is this.
Who writes like that.
Also, sorry, but after Led Zeppelin I'm not listening to Jay-Z.
In fact I won't listen to Jay-Z at all until I've found whatever gangsta coined the practice of going “uh, uh, yeah” in place of lyrics, and pushed a small volume of Shakespearean sonnets down his windpipe.
@RegDwigнt For the past two days I've been gong through all the Led Zeppelin albums sequentially. And really, side by side, yeah, it's hard to compare. with JZ.
Oh it's exceptionally easy to compare with Jay-Z. Jay-Z fucking sucks.
@RegDwigнt JZ has a lot more to say content wise, but musically there's just an infinity more to LZ.
the uh uh yeah stuff is just filler in between all the poetry.
Starting 'Houses of the Holy' now.
@Mitch I've listened to all of gangsta rap and hip-hop since the NWA days. All of it. So my opinion is very, very, informed. I do not have any prejudices. Only judices.
20:35
All the good music was done in the 70's
@RegDwigнt uh... you should wind that back up about ten years.
@Mitch Well NWA came a bit later but was still good.
Also, I still have all my techno and dance floor CDs sitting right next to me as I'm typing this. That shit was awesome.
If you're high
The musical world lost me at around the bit where Linkin Park and System of a Down and Korn became a thing.
hm... that's about the case for all music
@Mitch I wouldn't know, I've never been. Marijuana is wasted on me. I am never wasted on marijuana.
@Mitch and yes, I was just about to say how if anything, that's only more true of Led Zeppelin.
20:39
Ooh... I think maybe next week binging on Pink Floyd... again!
You'll need some stronger shit for that.
I once tried to listen to all of Gang of Four in one day.
That explains a lot.
That hurt my ears.
Never try Klawfinger, then.
20:40
Noted.
Or are they spelled with a C actually.
Or rather -not- noted because I would never need to be reminded to not listen to something with such a name.
I've already forgotten what we were talking about.
It's even funnier in German where "claw" means "toilet".
Toilet finger.
Was it the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
Did we resolve that yet?
Who cares.
20:41
@RegDwigнt If that's what makes German laugh then they're pretty funny.
Oh it's not a wordplay. Them's not German. That's a Norwegian band.
I'm just saying I happened to discover them in Germany.
In around 1996.
They're still very much alive and kicking today, mind.
Now everything is starting to make sense.
Not really. I'm just saying that to be polite. I'm smiling and nodding on the outside but on the inside it's very dark and squishy.
@RegDwigнt I hear the Beatles are thinking of going back on the road again.
Hm. I just tried migrating a question from our meta to the main site and it didn't work.
Some changes in the lineup but it's mostly the same music
Stop ruining things, SE!
20:45
@RegDwigнt I think I'm seeing where the mistake lies.
-1
Q: Driver’s license vs. motorcycle riding license

Behzad FalahatiWhy “ Driver’s License” and not “Riding License” is used when one refers to the license used for riding a motorcycle?

Well it's this one.
It does not belong on meta. Belongs on the main site.
But there's no migration path. So I just entered the site manually. And it came up in the list. And I clicked on it in the list.
But then it didn't get migrated but just closed and auto-downvoted.
Why park on the driveway and drive on the parkway?
There should be question about that.
@RegDwigнt stupid programs
@Mitch go for it
I think the SE platform is the most elaborate and well-designed Q&A site and still it is crap because people.
@Mitch there are like twenty.
20:48
@skullpatrol uh... I was kind of hinting. throwing a glance, so to speak. Putting it out there for someone to run with.
make it 21
What did you say about Putin?
Putin is not out there. Putin is a solitary man.
and a gangsta
@skullpatrol Well he does play a sick piano.
20:50
@RegDwigнt He should get that fixed
Every Russian is good at the piano. And chess. And vodka.
@skullpatrol Nope. Charles de Gaulle.
@Mitch the top question actually say "highly active question" lol.
@Mitch Gaul is German for "stallion".
It shall be on this day of today that you learn all of German.
And some French on the side. Did you know that the French word for "today" is "on the day of today"?
@RegDwigнt I blame google.
20:53
Oh I can tell you what Gugl means, too.
@RegDwigнt Oh France.
Der Gugelhupf ist ein Kuchen aus Hefeteig, oft mit Rosinen. Ursprünglich wohl in einem rundlichen Napf oder kleinen Kessel zubereitet, wird er heute in einer typischen, hohen Kranzform aus Metall, Keramik, Glas oder Silikon mit einer kaminartigen Öffnung in der Mitte gebacken, die klassischen Puddingformen ähnelt und den Teig gleichmäßiger garen lässt. Besonders in Österreich ist Gugelhupf allerdings keine Bezeichnung für einen bestimmten Teig, sondern für die charakteristische Form. == Namensherkunft == Der erste Wortteil von Gugelhupf wird vermutlich von Gugel abgeleitet, weil die Backform dem…
@RegDwigнt Irish Soda Bread
You're Irish Soda Bread.
Why thank you!
20:54
Irish don't have bread. They have potato.
You're full of compliments today!
Is it my hair?
@RegDwigнt The bread they do have is made out of potatoes
It is always your hair.
@RegDwigнt blushes
Have you seen your avatar in the mirror.
I've even seen myself in the mirror.
20:55
@Mitch that's not bread, then. That's potato.
That's how mirrors work.
You can't take potato and call it a bread. That's not how it works.
@RegDwigнt Oh.
Well...
Oh.
But...
It's shaped like bread?
What is the shape of bread?
I am not familiar with that song of Ed Sheeran's.
But I'm sure he'd just say it's shaped like potato.
Ed Sheeran is no Led Zeppelin
Or JZ
Or Mariah Carey
20:57
How would you know? Have you seen them all in a room together?
Or Pat Benatar.
Well that you just made up.
There sure a re a lot of people that Ed Sheeran isn't.
Those are not letters that exist.
@Mitch yes, for example: a pilot, a mathematician, a singer.
Die Gugel, mittelhochdeutsch auch: gogel, kogel, kugel (aus althochdeutsch cucula, zu lateinisch cucullus „Tüte“, „Kapuze“, „Kappe“), ist ein ab dem Hochmittelalter nachweisbares Kleidungsstück, das von Männern und Frauen getragen wurde. Sie war vermutlich Namensgeberin für den Gugelhupf. Die Gugel war eine kapuzenartige Kopfbedeckung oder auch Helm, die auch die Schultern bedeckte und aus verschiedenen Stoffen, vor allem aus Wolle, angefertigt wurde. Die Limburger Chronik erwähnt die „großen Kogeln“ zum Jahre 1351, dann sagt sie von 1362: „Die jungen Männer trugen meistlich alle geknäuffte Kugeln…
OK. Led Zeppelin I through IV are all excellent, every single song. LZ V is pretty good but noticeably a step down from I-IV. Presence (VI) is pretty good but only for LZ lovers. and whatever shit that came after that is shit.
20:59
This just in: oldest actual photo of Google.
That is a universally accepted analysis.
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