English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

00:09

Hi.

Where are you all?

Out and about?

Heeding the city's calls?

Spare Oom

Grocery shopping. Just got back.

Cerberus

00:32

Oh, that's fun...

Buy anything good?

Spare Oom

Cheese?

Well, cheese dip.

Cerberus

Cheese is good.

So about this Facebook thing, when do companies make you do things on Facebook as a customer?

@Robusto You're crazy. How can I find my true self if people don't know which brands I buy? Where to find Meaning?

2

Spare Oom

Oh, no. The place I work at is a non-profit organization.

Cerberus

So what were you thinking of?

Spare Oom

I'm at the middle because I already had a facebook account, and when my boss deleted her's took over posting updates, but I have to go in through my account.

I'm kind of in the middle. I was kind of encouraged to add the organization as a page or group. I had been on the way out of Facebook when I was assigned the update duty.

Cerberus

00:38

Okay.

But what was this scenario you described about customers having to do something on Facebook?

Mitch

@SpareOom exactly. WTF? this is just an idiotic question altogether. What is being asked here? All I get out of it is that 'with' is ambiguous.

Spare Oom

@Mitch And they what they said about the research was exactly from their last question.

@Cerberus I have to check what I said. That was hours ago.

But I think it had something to do with Facebook subscribers are Facebook customers, sort of.

Cerberus

@SpareOom Oh, never mind.

It was not important.

Spare Oom

-4

Q: “exhaustive search” vs. “exhausting search”

Both exhaustive and exhausting link up with the verb exhaust, but I’m not sure which one is preferable by native English speakers in the following sentences: I did an exhaustive search before asking here. I did an exhausting search before asking here. Search results suggest that the choice ...

differences

@Cerberus That is true! lol

Cerberus

nods

Spare Oom

00:48

@Mitch ^that

And if he did exhaustive and exhausting research for the with question, it wasn't demonstrated in what he posted.

KitFox

thinks about killing them all with one bullet

Spare Oom

Hi @KitFox. Been busy?

KitFox

Yes. Yes, I have.

And yourself?

Spare Oom

Not at all.

Mitch

@SpareOom ...which then XVH praised. Gah!!!

Spare Oom

00:56

Apathy isn't a name that encourages confidence either.

KitFox

Apathy, apathy. Hmm. That's a synonym of torpor, innit? Funny that.

Mitch

@KitFox hmmm... but really is the writing alike?

tchrist

01:18

It’s time for our regular Saturday Night Sock Hop at ELU.

Robusto

@Cerberus I would hate to take away your brand identity.

cornbread ninja

@tchrist it's finally cool enough for socks.

Robusto

01:35

@cornbreadninja You could have worn socks with your sandals. That would have been uber-kool.

tchrist

¨

Cerberus

@Robusto Thanks.

I do appreciate it.

Robusto

What are friends for?

Cerberus

01:50

Friends are for Liking my brands.

D'oh.

Robusto

I won't take away your brand identity, but I refuse to Like your brands on Facebook.

Cerberus

As long as you Like the places I check in every day, I can live with that.

A friend of mine did this yesterday when we were at this party.

I was shocked.

I laughed hard in his face.

Hey, Turkish uses this letter:

> İ

A capital i with a dot.

No doubt because otherwise there would be no contrast with capital ɪ.

tchrist

Are you baiting me?

Cerberus

I don't get why they picked ɪ for their schwa.

Baiting?

tchrist

They didn’t.

That’s the wrong codepoint.

Cerberus

01:58

I may have used the wrong character there.

But that wasn't the point.

I have the IPA ɪ ready, not the Turkish one.

tchrist

The Turkic-I issue is a notoriously nasty one.

Cerberus

Why?

tchrist

Upper- and lowercase are supposed to not care about what language you are in.

Cerberus

And why Turkic? Is it used in other Turkic languages too?

tchrist

And alone of > 100,000 characters, this one is a problem.

Yes, in others, too.

Cerberus

02:00

Perhaps Turkish i should be regarded as a separate letter, then.

Separate from ordinary i.

tchrist

 ı  0131        LATIN SMALL LETTER DOTLESS I
        * Turkish, Azerbaijani
        * uppercase is 0049
 İ  0130        LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH DOT ABOVE
        = i dot
        * Turkish, Azerbaijani
        * lowercase is 0069

Cerberus

Ah.

tchrist

Do you see that? 0049 is I, 0069 is i.

So when you are in a Turkish or Azerbaijani locale, you have to use a different rule for casing.

You don’t have to do with with any other codepoints.

Cerberus

Right.

No doubt there are keyboard layouts that change that.

tchrist

In a Turkic locale, I doesn’t downcase to i, nor does i upcase to I.

Probably.

But it is a real pain.

Even something like ß will upcase to SS no matter where you are.

Cerberus

02:03

I wonder why they picked ɪ anyway. It seems a bad choice. Unless pronunciation changed considerably since Atatürk.

tchrist

I cannot read that without thinking Attaboy!

Cerberus

?

tchrist

No bells?

It’s ... hm, something like a cheer.

It’s I guess a shortening of that's a boy, or something.

Synonym might be accolade.

So take an ataboy and s/boy/turk/ for ataturk.

It is hilarious.

It’s like "You go, girl!" for a Turk.

at·ta·boy/ˈatəˌboi/
Exclamation: An informal expression of encouragement or admiration, typically to a man or boy.
Noun: A piece of encouragement or congratulations, esp. a letter: "our boss will write you guys an attaboy".

OED follows:

attaboy /ˈætəbɔɪ/, int. slang (chiefly U.S.).

Also at-a-boy, ata boy.

Etymology: Said to represent careless pronunc. of that’s the boy! (boy sb.1 2 c).

An exclamation expressive of encouragement or admiration. Hence attagirl, etc., as nonce-wds.

Cerberus

I am not very familiar with slang.

tchrist

This is why Atatürk is so funny.

It’s more than 100 years old, and still current.

P.G. Wodehouse used it.

Mahnax

02:10

Good evening.

tchrist

Hi M..ax.

Mahnax

How are you all?

tchrist

I have been trying to teach @Cerberus what an attaboy is.

Cerberus

Hello.

Spare Oom

I imagine a slap on the back with an attaboy.

Mahnax

02:11

Since October 17, I have failed to visit EL&U once. And that was due to a skiing trip.

tchrist

Yup!

Mahnax

@tchrist Oh, interesting.

Cerberus

> The abandonment of the Arabic script was not merely a symbolic expression of secularization by breaking the link to Ottoman Islamic texts to which only a minor group of ulema had access; but also Latin script would make reading and writing easier to learn and consequently improve the literacy rate.

sceptical look

I guess it was the vowel issue.

tchrist

I doubt vowels are connected to literacy.

Cerberus

@Mahnax And now you didn't get this badge?

@tchrist Why?

Spare Oom

02:12

@Mahnax Addicted? Loyal?

Mahnax

@Cerberus I've had the badge since before February, IIRC.

@SpareOom Uh… Yes.

I've now visited 203 days in a row, but that number would be well over 300 had I not gone skiing.

Spare Oom

@Mahnax How many days in a row gets what badge?

Cerberus

Ah OK.

Mahnax

@SpareOom 100.

Spare Oom

I'll never get it.

tchrist

02:18

I didn’t realize how often they omitted short-vowel diacritics.

Mahnax

@SpareOom there can be miracles / when you belieeeeve

Spare Oom

@Mahnax Are you taunting me? :P

Mahnax

@SpareOom Nah.

I'm just trying to summon Jasper with Mariah Carey lyrics.

tchrist

Try Maria Callas.

Spare Oom

@Mahnax I don't know that one.

Mahnax

02:22

I guess it was Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.

Spare Oom

@tchrist Yeah, summon her instead.

Mahnax

►

tchrist

►

Spare Oom

Mom's favorite opera.

tchrist

This one has French subtitles:

►

This one you had best not play if you have any glass in the room:

►

Mariah Carey, eat your heart out!

Spare Oom

02:35

@tchrist It doesn't matter. I don't speak French.

Yeah! lol

tchrist

That’ll knock you socks off.

> The relationship ended two years later in 1968, when Onassis left Callas in favour of Jacqueline Kennedy. However, the Onassis family's private secretary, Kiki, writes in her memoir that even while Aristotle was with Jackie, he frequently met up with Maria in Paris, where they resumed what had now become a clandestine affair.

Poor Jackie.

The very famous high note at the end is an E♭.

cornbread ninja

@Mahnax this is my 200th day.

oh, he's gone.

tchrist

Here’s a bunch of them:

►

Spare Oom

@tchrist Sure enough! That's almost an octave higher than my highest.

tchrist

Are you a girl?

Spare Oom

02:51

Yes, indeed.

That would be funny for a guy. lol

ajax333221

hello, what is wrong with

Spare Oom

@tchrist Female anyway, girl is kind of stretching it.

tchrist

Oh, that explains it then.

cornbread ninja

Maybe Roy Orbison could have hit that.

tchrist

@SpareOom Ya think? Check it out:

►

cornbread ninja

02:55

@SpareOom o rly

Spare Oom

I forgot about that.

cornbread ninja

<--- girl

Spare Oom

@cornbreadninja I knew that somehow.

Cerberus

@ajax333221 There's nothing wrong with using a preposition at the end of a sentence, but some pedants object to it (I think they're wrong).

Notice that where...at is colloquial, but that is not because the preposition is at the end.

Spare Oom

@tchrist youtube.com/watch?v=f7vLOjzG4no

Mahnax

02:59

@cornbreadninja I was AFK.

Spare Oom

Comment: Justin Beiber...

tchrist

Er?

Spare Oom

Oh, there was a Justin Bieber comment in the video with Scholl.

cornbread ninja

►

Spare Oom

youtube.com/watch?v=6WpD2Cspn6g shows the other extreme. How do you get the videos to display the picture instead of the link?

Mahnax

03:05

Paste only the link.

tchrist

Ah.

Just put it by itself on a line.

Spare Oom

Thank you.

@tchrist Explains it?

tchrist

Yah.

►

Mahnax

This isn't really related, but it's what I've decided to listen to:

►

cornbread ninja

@Mahnax > im a 3 week old egg waiting to get fertilised and already im right into this band i cant ait to get showered in you know... what... so i can get hatched and listen to the full album as my 17 year old dad s premature and my mum is still into justin beiber .. like who gives a fuck

Spare Oom

03:13

►

cornbread ninja

these youtubers and their age comments, and consequently their anti-age comments.

Mahnax

@cornbreadninja Silly YTers.

ΜετάEd

@Mahnax I want to know the prizes for Third, Second, and First.

Mahnax

@ΜετάEd Go ask God.

2

Sheesh.

cornbread ninja

laytors

Mahnax

03:21

Bai.

cornbread ninja

waves, yawns

Spare Oom

@cornbreadninja Bye.

ajax333221

04:44

what have they done to this song?

►

...

Mahnax

Ooh, I like Nightwish.

ajax333221

I do, but not that song

Mahnax

I like it.

What about it do you not enjoy?

ajax333221

do you like haggard, sonata arctica, eluveitie?

idk, it doesnt sound right

Mahnax

I haven't really listened to those bands much.

I don't enjoy Sonata Arctica too much, but I guess they're alright.

Where are you from?

ajax333221

04:46

whats ur fav bands ?

mexico

Mahnax

Ah, Mexico! Neat.

I currently like Gojira, Metric, An Cafe, Queen, Pink Floyd, The White Stripes, and the Raconteurs a lot.

My musical interests are quite varied and change often.

ajax333221

mine dont go outside metal

folk metal, powermetal, symphonic metal

Mahnax

Ah. Do you like Gojira then?

ajax333221

I dont know that yet, wait around 20 minutes

Mahnax

If you haven't heard them, try listening to their song Flying Whales.

@ajax333221 Oh, what's happening in 20 minutes?

ajax333221

04:49

after 20 mins I will have listened about 3-4 songs :D

Mahnax

Aha, OK.

May I recommend a couple?

ajax333221

yes

Mahnax

Alright. So there's Flying Whales, Blow Me Away You(niverse), and The Art of Dying.

That's a good mix of songs from different albums.

Those three songs will take roughly 23 minutes.

ajax333221

wow, they are above the average

an av song should be 3-5

Mahnax

Yeah. Many of their songs are quite long—one of their songs is 17 minutes long.

Another is 12 minutes.

ajax333221

04:55

try some symphonic metal youtube.com/watch?v=_r9WgDmqyDM

in the meantime

Mahnax

Symphonic metal is nice in moderation.

Have you heard of Sunn O)))?

ajax333221

nop :(

but I watch my little ponny show

I am a brony

Mahnax

Go back to 4chan, whence you came.

Hehe.

ajax333221

is whence a word? I will google it xD

Mahnax

"from what place or source"

ΜετάEd

04:59

It means "from where".

ajax333221

Gojira sounds good, but I might not start listening to them

it depends whether I fail to find new bands or not

Mahnax

That's your decision, I suppose.

ajax333221

I need some new music, I am tired to hear the same songs over and over

Mahnax

Try to expand your horizons, beyond metal.

That will open so many doors musically.

ΜετάEd

Pete Seeger.

ajax333221

05:05

nah, I will stick with ponies and metal youtube.com/watch?v=XaeYbqEJI7g

ΜετάEd

@ajax333221 Yes, well I too admit to enjoying the carousel calliope.

Or perhaps you are alluding to the use of the bugle at a horserace.

ajax333221

I like poines from my little pony show only

but well, I got to go, bye guys

Mahnax

4chan calls, I see.

Have fun.

tchrist

13:22

Where are our Janitors this morning?

We have a Nortonn sock with five questions!

Jez

13:46

What do you think of my logo?

tchrist

13:57

Sticky & drippy, but sweet.

cornbread ninja

@tchrist I miss all the socks lately. Hmpf.

tchrist

I am getting tired of the way he always wheedles answers out of it.

Because there is no general policy to delete his questions. I can see arguments against it, though.

cornbread ninja

I found them.

@tchrist It's hard to communicate to posters like Barrie who never come in to chat and may never read meta.

tchrist

Right, I don’t like leaving that kind of thing as a comment.

I can’t believe these people who have never heard of a coney before.

Do they live in a cave?

0

Q: Coney and rabbit - what is the difference?

Are the words "coney" and "rabbit" full synonyms in English? Are there any slight differences in usage or meaning? Are there any cases when one word is more appropriate in the modern writing or speech than another one? Merriam-Webster and Wiktionary reference to "coney" as a rabbit (especially, ...

meaning word-choice word-usage

Plus the OP is wrong about the OED not having any further note.

He must have looked at some reduced thing, because the real OED has a quite a huge whole lot about coneys.

0

A: Coney and rabbit - what is the difference?

As all readers of J.R.R. Tolkien know, a coney is an old name for a rabbit, as Bilbo observes when interrogating Gandalf about Beorn the skin-changer, and which Sam later cooks up in a stew: ‘What! a furrier, a man that calls rabbits conies, when he doesn’t turn their skins into squirrels?’ ask...

I was trying to figure out how Sim got 250 Norton flags, and now I see: he fires off a barrage of questions from a new sock while everyone is asleep.

Jez

14:14

Slightly modified

cornbread ninja

@tchrist He used to start a little later in the day. I have around 100 Nortonn flags m'self, but he and sim are in the same time zone.

@Jez I like it. I'd like to see it on a black background with 'software' in white or light grey.

researches coney island

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coney_Island_%28ca._1940s%29.ogv

Jez

eugh, black backgrounds? no way :-)

doesn't look too bad on a black BG but my site will be white so there's no way it would fit in

tchrist

@cornbreadninja See here.

cornbread ninja

@Jez okay, okay :)

Jez

14:32

i might make the palette darker though

so it works better on white

that was my concept before i started in GIMP :-)

cornbread ninja

Yeah, I like it darker.

Is this your company?

Jez

well it's the name i planned. i havent started a company yet... but if i start releasing any software seriously i'll probably call it that

cornbread ninja

@tchrist I can't find the film.

tchrist

Dunno.

cornbread ninja

@Jez I likes it.

@tchrist but hey, the My Lai film is available.

Jez

14:35

it's a play on GUI because i have some programs that are GUI versions of unix tools

tchrist

16:02

Ick:

-1

Q: What are some words to describe men who don't get women

How do you refer to men who are unable to get women for courtship.

word-choice

Cerberus

Since when do you speak Middle Dutch?

tchrist

¿Cómo?

You mean the Island?

Cerberus

You don't need to apply every question to yourself.

tchrist

Sure I do: I’m the lens of the world.

Cerberus

Island? No.

*ick doe

tchrist

16:04

Then you should give context.

Cerberus

Given above.

tchrist

“Middle Dutch” tells me nothing.

The closest I’ve seen to Dutch of late was Konijn Eilandt.

Cerberus

2 mins ago, by tchrist

Ick:

tchrist

It is an icky question.

And not constructive.

It’s asking for a list of loser-names.

Like asking for a list of words that mean fallen woman.

Not nice.

Ick is a natural word for fish dead a week in the sun.

Cerberus

gtb.inl.nl/iWDB/…

tchrist

16:08

@Zairja Your comment-answer to the "men who can’t get women" question made me laugh.

@simchona Good morning!

simchona

@tchrist Good morning

Zairja

Aye, didn't want to come off as mean-spirited or anything, though. Just kidding around. :)

Cerberus

Hello.

simchona

Well, I must be off. Meeting a friend for lunch.

tchrist

Ic or ik were Middle English, too.

Cerberus

16:11

Bai.

Then you should have known better.

tchrist

It didn’t make sense there.

One wouldn’t start it with “I:”.

Cerberus

One would.

In fact, one did.

tchrist

Cut it out.

cornbread ninja

16:42

tchrist

16:58

coney-fogle: to ingratiate oneself, to cheat by bewildering [The Salamanca Corpus: Provincial Words and Expressions Current in Lincolnshire (1866)]

Now, how d’yall reckon in came to mean that one, eh now? :)

And we have honey-fuggle as possibly being derived from coney-fugle, and also meaning to trick or dupe.

user19161

@cornbreadninja That looks like the ghost in Ghostbusters.

cornbread ninja

@WillHunting ha!

Gigili

17:49

Anybody there?

[echoes]

Hey, how can I transfer money by WU?

> You can transfer the money by Western Union on the name:

I found this site westernunion.com/Home

Is it reliable?

cornbread ninja

yes

Andrew Leach

@tchrist Glad to see SimpleMind was identified. He makes an effort to be different and then lapses back into a familiar style. Hopefully he got a bit spooked by my last comment to him.

cornbread ninja

but there should be a place near you that handles WU transactions, such as a grocery store

@Gigili westernunion.de/WUCOMWEB/…

tchrist

@AndrewLeach I think he’s incorrigible, in all senses.

cornbread ninja

don't you forget about me / I'll be alone / dancin', you know it, baby

tchrist

17:58

Sim didn’t delete one of them:

-3

Q: The Rank Increased