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Cerberus
Cerberus
12:22 AM
@Xanne De is part of the sentence that is the title; the preceding abbreviation is probably entirely separate from it.
 
Xanne
Xanne
1:12 AM
The book (actually a reproduction of it) is available on Amazon.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
1:29 AM
Word of the day: milk receiving station
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@Xanne I think my uncle has an (original) copy of the other one.
Old books are fairly cheap.
 
 
1 hour later…
Xanne
Xanne
2:57 AM
Entire text.
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
3:47 AM
Cool.
 
 
5 hours later…
Færd
Færd
8:26 AM
@FaheemMitha Good question!
I also find it interesting that Karl Marx did indeed engage in stock market speculation and took it seriously too. Maybe imagining a distinct enemy was a way to excuse this engagement.
 
Faheem Mitha
Faheem Mitha
8:38 AM
@Færd Stock markets are hard work if you want to consistently make money. Because if it was easy, everyone would be rich. Which is, of course, mathematically impossible. Supposedly Keynes had much success in such endeavours. But he did have the advantage of being an economist and also being very smart.
Apparently back in the day value investing wasn't as well understood as it is now.
That would be an interesting article to read. But paywall. Sigh.
 
Færd
Færd
9:19 AM
@FaheemMitha Even with a limited number of people in the stock market, it's almost a zero-sum game, as some economists maintain, since a security is sold and bought at the same time, and the profits and losses cancel each other out in aggregate.
@FaheemMitha Interesting. Maybe use Sci-Hub to relieve the enemy of its money? (am I breaking any rules saying that out loud?)
 
Faheem Mitha
Faheem Mitha
@Færd In the short term it's zero sum, yes. The only way to make money reliably is to buy and hold. Unless you're one of those rare people who can make money consistently on speculation.
@Færd I was just thinking of that, actually. Though I can't remember if I had ever used it before.
Though I don't think JSTOR is the enemy.
I could perhaps get access to the article, with some difficulty. I probably know people who have access.
But life is short, and I'm not going to do that.
 
Færd
Færd
@FaheemMitha That part was a joke.
 
Faheem Mitha
Faheem Mitha
@Færd Right.
 
SmokeDetector
SmokeDetector
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in link text in body, potentially bad ns for domain in body, potentially bad keyword in body (71): written mistake in paragraph writting by user3347416 on english.SE
 
 
3 hours later…
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
12:26 PM
@Færd Every once in a while, SciHub and piracy come up at Chem
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
I love SciHub
I have installed Tor Browser specifically for SciHub, because Russia is blocking SciHub
But somewhy lately it seems that there more articles are published under the Creative Commons license
I don't know why
It is extremely warm today
> Electric car sales in Russia
2019: 353 cars
2020: 687 cars (+95%)
 
Færd
Færd
1:27 PM
@M.A.R. It's a commonplace topic of discussion.
@CowperKettle You could also use Chrome extensions like UltraSurf and CyberGhost. They work in Iran, at least. Tor can take you to a whole nother level of anonymity, of course.
 
tchrist
tchrist
1:54 PM
Just as adjective ordering restrictions are secret grammatical rules of English that everyone learns as a child yet are never learned through instruction, so too is the monosuffix constraint a secret rule of English grammar which is never taught but always learned as a child, and always obeyed. Isn't that fascinating?
 
Matt E. Эллен
Matt E. Эллен
2:09 PM
interestingly people are fine with dressingless salad
nothing for eveningless, but beginningless seems acceptable
 
Andrew Leach
Andrew Leach
@MattE.Эллен And beginninglessness seems OK too (browser spellcheck doesn't like it, though)
 
Matt E. Эллен
Matt E. Эллен
the article says ness can attach to anything, so perhaps that's to be expected :D
@AndrewLeach even an entry at definitions.net
meaningless should have been the first thing that came to mind
 
Andrew Leach
Andrew Leach
Perhaps I should add it to the browser word list. Meaningless and meaninglessness are both fine.
 
Robusto
Robusto
2:47 PM
Beginninglessness sounds like a word James Joyce might have used in Finnegans Wake.
 
paul23
paul23
I have a very minor question regarding a word - probably too specific for the site. But what are the words for someone who "enrolled for an event" and the corresponding "someone who handled the enrollment of that person"? Like "employee - employer" is there "enrollee - enroller" in english?
 
Robusto
Robusto
@paul23 You could use those and be understood, but most likely the person taking a person's enrollment would be an official.
 
Matt E. Эллен
Matt E. Эллен
@paul23 would registrant and registrar be any good to you?
 
tchrist
tchrist
@MattE.Эллен It can't attach to -ly if it creates a manner adverb. Hence friendliness and kingliness are ok, but quickliness and carefullyness are impossible. And yet earliness is okay, and you can use it on other monomorphemic adverbs as well, such as nowness and seldomness. It’s really quite odd despite and perhaps because of the absence of realliness.
 
Andrew Leach
Andrew Leach
@paul23 Enroller could be a person on either end of the transaction.
 
Matt E. Эллен
Matt E. Эллен
2:57 PM
@tchrist so I am interpreting table IX correctly! I think it's odd then that they chose dressingless when the table shows that -less can attach -ing. Or was the point that the word isn't recorded despite being possible?
 
tchrist
tchrist
 
Matt E. Эллен
Matt E. Эллен
I think I'm having trouble with their use of base. are they saying dress is the base, or dressing?
 
tchrist
tchrist
> In Table IX (Germanic bases), we count only bases that are themselves
truly suffixed. So, for example, we do not count every word ending in the
orthographic sequence -erdom, but only words where the base of -erdom
is a word (bakerdom but not butcherdom).
But they definitely don't think dressingless exists/is-allowed.
> In the English case at hand, both -ing and -less are class 2 suffixes (neither one affects the stress of its base). Since lexical phonology does not have anything to say about the combination of two suffixes belonging to the same class, the ungrammaticality of *dressingless cannot be explaine
You can have running water but never runningless water.
I think what's happening with dressingless salads is that it has been lexicalized.
You can have dressing rooms but I question having dressingless rooms.
 
Matt E. Эллен
Matt E. Эллен
but you can have meaningless rooms
 
tchrist
tchrist
Salads can come with or without salad dressings.
@MattE.Эллен Yeah.
 
Matt E. Эллен
Matt E. Эллен
3:05 PM
and isn't the base of meaningless mean?
 
tchrist
tchrist
Yes.
 
paul23
paul23
@MattE.Эллен Isn't that very formal? "Registrants have to agree with the terms of service set by the registrars"? - In that sentences it's used. (Though it's used elsewhere as well, and I'd like to get a single term I can use everywhere so that the manual gets a consistent terminology).
 
tchrist
tchrist
They said they found -less attaching to -ing in like 6 cases.
 
Matt E. Эллен
Matt E. Эллен
ah
I see. so it's otherwise restricted
@paul23 yes, it does sound formal
 
tchrist
tchrist
> Table IX contains the word-forming suffixes that attach productively to Germanic bases.18 Most of these suffixes are of Germanic origin, the exceptions being -able, -ee, and -ess. -able is unique among English suffixes in that it attaches ...

18 We have excluded -ing. This suffix ambiguously forms either a participle or a gerund (both of which we take to be inflectional) or a derived nominal, which we take to be derivational. There is no way to distinguish the derived nominals in the OED except on a case-by-case basis (and each decision is a delicate task), and the OED lists 25,434 words…
Native speakers unconsciously follow completely different rules for Germanic suffixes as we do for Latinate suffixes.
That's a big take-away from that article.
 
Matt E. Эллен
Matt E. Эллен
3:09 PM
aye
 
tchrist
tchrist
Native speakers unconsciously follow rules for Germanic suffixes that are completely different from the ones we follow for Latinate suffixes.
 
Matt E. Эллен
Matt E. Эллен
mean and begin are both Germanic, while dress is Latinate, so perhaps that's relevant too
 
tchrist
tchrist
I can never figure out how to phrase those sorts of comparisons. They seem to always come out of my mouth in an ugly way the first time through.
The problem is that these rules are learnt as children, and children have no access to history.
 
Matt E. Эллен
Matt E. Эллен
*this bottling factory is bottlingless
 
tchrist
tchrist
> It does help to distinguish the Germanic from the
Latinate vocabulary and thus might be useful in acquisition, but this raises
the further question of why a language should partition its vocabulary
in this way. And how does a child learn the distinction between the vocabulary types? We have used etymology as a rough guide to the division,
but no child has access to history.
 
Matt E. Эллен
Matt E. Эллен
3:13 PM
I would guess classism
 
tchrist
tchrist
They earlier hypothesize that it's about stress.
Latinate suffixes are stress-shifting. Germanic ones are not.
A child will perceive that difference without knowing Latin or German.
I was also intrigued by their musings that "adverb" may not be a word class in its own right, only a subtype of adjectives.
Or that -ly may be inflectional not derivational.
 
Matt E. Эллен
Matt E. Эллен
You speak French if you're (Norman) royalty or aspiring middle class. You speak Anglo-Saxon otherwise.
 
tchrist
tchrist
Many of these are just possibilities they throw out there for further consideration, not assertions.
Also, words like wisdom and witness are now perceived as monomorphemic, even though they really didn't start out that way, and have recoverable bases.
A witnessless trial may not be a sign of witlessness, only of of wisdomlessness. :)
 
Matt E. Эллен
Matt E. Эллен
:D
 
tchrist
tchrist
I find secret grammar rules incredibly intriguing. Even Horn says we still don't know diddly about how negatives work, and he should know.
And yes, he really did say "diddly" there. It was part of his point.
 
Matt E. Эллен
Matt E. Эллен
3:22 PM
disnonunshouldn't he
 
tchrist
tchrist
I can tell you're a frontend man.
 
Matt E. Эллен
Matt E. Эллен
I would have thought, from that display, you can tell I'm not :D
 
tchrist
tchrist
heh
 
user489849
Hello, I hope I'm not intruding. I'm wondering why [definite-article] isn't the main tag instead of [definite-articles]. Since there is only one, shouldn't we drop the *s*? I've had to use the tag and it always gets converted to the more inaccurate main tag.

From a practical standpoint, does it matter which is the main tag? Is changing this mapping worth proposing on meta or even workable?
 
tchrist
tchrist
@niamulbengali No. We use plurals in tags.
 
Matt E. Эллен
Matt E. Эллен
3:26 PM
ah, but it's the before a consonant sound and the before a vowel sound ;)
 
tchrist
tchrist
Tags that are nouns should almost always be in the plural.
Pick a tag: uniquity, uniquities.
Sometimes it's weird. How many ubiquities can there be?
As many as there are happies, I suppose.
So you need to have definiteness not definitenesses.
But as article is a count noun, it works better as a plural in the tag.
We should not be thinking of math here.
 
user489849
@tchrist My main argument is that there's only one. Also, are common misspellings good tag synonyms?
 
tchrist
tchrist
The 1.0 definite articles that English possesses are sometimes trickily justified.
The tag discusses definite articles.
We have no the-queen you know.
 
user489849
What about [antedecents] which is a synonym of [antecedents]? Is it useful?
 
tchrist
tchrist
And yes, common mispellings make lovely tag sinonims.
 
user489849
3:33 PM
@tchrist Okay, thanks.
 
tchrist
tchrist
@niamulbengali Clearly. People were typing them.
 
Robusto
Robusto
I wonder if people looking for uniquity ever get iniquity instead.
 
tchrist
tchrist
Speaking of sinonyms.
 
Robusto
Robusto
They must be sinners qua non.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
 
Robusto
Robusto
3:40 PM
I wish headhunters would stop hounding me to get a job. I quit Linked In over a year ago, but I'm still getting emails. Lately one employer emails me every couple of days saying I'm highly recommended and my CV is perfect for their startup. I don't reply.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
@Robusto Just add them to "Spam"
 
Robusto
Robusto
Yeah. I do that eventually. But new ones keep springing up.
I wonder where they get my résumé.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
> Where do you want to work when you grow up?
> I want to work???
 
Robusto
Robusto
Haha. I understood ya khochu rabotats? (or words to that effect).
 
M.A.R.
M.A.R.
@CowperKettle That's a good thing, no?
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
4:00 PM
@M.A.R. Yes, it is great, I translated some into Russian
 
Robusto
Robusto
This is interesting ^
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
Starship might soon hop to 10 km
 
Robusto
Robusto
If what he's saying is true, some of the tenets of natural selection could need to be reexamined.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
4:50 PM
Word of the evening: resistance artery
 
Andrew Leach
Andrew Leach
5:01 PM
@CowperKettle Otherwise known as the M11
 
Faheem Mitha
Faheem Mitha
5:51 PM
@AndrewLeach I thought that was the M25.
 
Andrew Leach
Andrew Leach
@FaheemMitha Ah, but that's not an artery, however sclerotic it might be.
 
Faheem Mitha
Faheem Mitha
@AndrewLeach Ah.
@AndrewLeach Supposedly living hell to drive on.
 
Andrew Leach
Andrew Leach
@FaheemMitha Can be. The top-down run I did at midnight one February with a load of other MG-owners was quite enjoyable. (The temperature drop when the street-lights stopped was really noticeable!)
 
Faheem Mitha
Faheem Mitha
@AndrewLeach Actually, I have no idea where the M25 is, but I did read "Good Omens" once. Or tried to. I don't think I got that far.
 
tchrist
tchrist
@FaheemMitha Think of the M25 is the world's biggest roundabout qua racetrack qua parking lot encircling the London Eye.
 
Faheem Mitha
Faheem Mitha
6:02 PM
@tchrist It sounds like fun. Do they race motor cars on it, then?
 
tchrist
tchrist
Oh yes, but if they catch you going over a hundred you have to walk home.
 
Faheem Mitha
Faheem Mitha
@tchrist Spoilsports.
That reminds me, I should check out the "Good Omens" TV series. Apparently Gaiman adapted it himself.
Assuming it's still on Amazon Prime, that is.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
6:17 PM
 
Robusto
Robusto
6:53 PM
@FaheemMitha Amazon Prime wants me to pay extra for the new season of Gaiman's American Gods. So far I'm resisting.
 
Faheem Mitha
Faheem Mitha
@Robusto Extra? They don't seem to have a mechanism for that here.
 
Robusto
Robusto
My wife and I watched Good Omens. It was good, but not as good as Gods.
@FaheemMitha Can you get the new season of AG for free then?
 
Faheem Mitha
Faheem Mitha
@Robusto I don't know. Which season is that?
 
Robusto
Robusto
Season 3
 
Faheem Mitha
Faheem Mitha
@Robusto Ah. I checked, and it looks like it's just Season 1 available here. Is Season 1 only 6 episodes?
Is American Gods good?
 
Robusto
Robusto
7:02 PM
@FaheemMitha Yeah, it's pretty fine. The book is better, but that's always true.
@FaheemMitha Looks like 8 episodes: imdb.com/title/tt1898069/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
 
Faheem Mitha
Faheem Mitha
@Robusto Ok. I don't think I've read either book properly.
@Robusto Sorry, I was confused. I was looking at "Good Omens".
The third season of "American Gods" is showing up here as available for viewing. But there are only 3 episodes listed.
 
Robusto
Robusto
American Gods was that rare book that I literally had to read it in one sitting. Which sitting included the couch, the dinner table, and even the toilet.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
 
Faheem Mitha
Faheem Mitha
@Robusto I used to read books like that as a child. These days they don't quite cast the same spell.
 
Robusto
Robusto
@FaheemMitha As I said, rare.
I too used to read just about every book like that when I was a child.
 
Faheem Mitha
Faheem Mitha
7:12 PM
@Robusto Right, rare.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
7:31 PM
 
Robusto
Robusto
My brother, who's younger than me, got vaccinated already because there were leftover doses from no-show appointments.
I'm going to try that trick today. Wish me luck.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
@Robusto I used to read books nonstop as a child. Once we were at an airport, and I was reading a book while we walked on the pavement near the airport. I did not notice a crack in the pavement and fell. So I had to stop reading the book at least until we went inside and sat on the benches in the airport.
 
Robusto
Robusto
@CowperKettle Haha, the hazards of being a bookworm. ^_^
I used to read under the covers with a flashlight so my parents couldn't tell I was violating bedtime.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
@Robusto Is there an electronic queue in the US? I got into an electronic queue, and the clinic just called me on the phone on Saturday and said that my number was nearing.
 
Robusto
Robusto
@CowperKettle There is. But my number probably won't come up for at least another month or two.
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
7:35 PM
In Russia, the antagonism towards vaccination is so high that one can even go and get a shot without a queue in Yekaterinburg, in some clinics.
 
Robusto
Robusto
People are stupid.
2
As the saying goes in this country, "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."
 
CowperKettle
CowperKettle
I have a friend, a girl, who said she would never get vaccinated against tick borne encephalitis, even after I got into an emergency unit with TBE, and my vaccination saved me. She says: "if God wills so, I will die".
She goes to hiking trips to tick-infested areas every summer.
She says that vaccination is unnatural, and dying from encephalitis must be natural.
shrugs
 
Robusto
Robusto
@CowperKettle I rest my case.
3 mins ago, by Robusto
People are stupid.
@CowperKettle Yeah, and drowning is the natural result of being over your head in water for several minutes. Those who intend to reproduce offspring will surface and breathe.
Something is weird with the badge system. I just received two new gold badges for reviewing, but I already have those badges.
This appears to be a surfeit of stewardship that is beyond the call of duty.
 
Mitch
Mitch
8:15 PM
@CowperKettle That god is a bit fat jerk
 
Robusto
Robusto
How stupid are people? Here's one look:
 
Robusto
Robusto
8:28 PM
I love the way he uses the Frank & Nancy Sinatra song at the end. Priceless.
 
 
2 hours later…
Gigili
Gigili
10:27 PM
@Robusto I am diametrically opposed to covid vaccination, but good luck!
 
Cerberus
Cerberus
@CowperKettle Lots of islands.
 
Robusto
Robusto
@Gigili Why do you oppose that?
 
Gigili
Gigili
Lack of trust...
 
Robusto
Robusto
10:47 PM
In ... ?
 

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