English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Ooooh, nice rant.

So that's where @Cerberus got his idea from, that people hate us.

It's pure nonsense, of course.

@RegDwighт One of many examples.

I don't want that question myself, but I'm so tempted to take it just for the irony of Barry's saying that ending up on ELU.

@Cerberus pure nonsense, of course.

4:20 PM

@Manishearth What, you think we are your dumping ground for nonsense? Harrumph, sir!

It's like saying that the big users on Physics really hate plumbers.

@Robusto YEP!

:P

@Manishearth I'm afraid the question is a bit hard to answer. Rules for articles depend on context to a large degree, wouldn't you say? So the OP would have to provide a couple of example sentences I think?

@Cerberus yeah

@RegDwighт On that I will not comment. Just the reputation.

4:21 PM

The current answer says just that

Right.

@Manishearth Just wait till we get an idiot question vaguely related to physics. We'll violate your 2nd Law of Thermodynamics so hard it'll make your eardrums pop.

And in case you were wondering, I'm using violate in the sexual sense.

@Robusto Bring it

:P

@Robusto wait...wha..?

Oh

Too late.

Noooo!

4:24 PM

It's past time that law got a good ass-raping, IMO.

@Manishearth actually I have answered that question on ELU already.

@RegDwighт ah

I'm a big user, too. And a non-native speaker.

So really, I find his rant ofenssive.

@Manishearth: When @RegDwighт says big he means that term figuratively. He's not really big in the other sense.

I also mean "non-native speaker" figuratively. And "answered".

But other than that.

4:27 PM

@Robusto you seem to like emphasizing innuendo ;-)

What else is there?

My mutant super-hero name is Nuance.

Aug 9 at 23:58, by Robusto

OK, in our Mutant Army (EL&U.X-Men), we have four official mutants with super powers: @Reg, aka Twister, who twists your words until you die; @tchrist, aka The Character, who can kill you with codepoints; @Cerberus, aka Hellhound (we haven't figured out if misspellings and syntactical omissions are a super power yet, but we're working on it); and Robusto, aka Nuance, who draws finer and finer distinctions until you're just sick to death of it.

@RegDwighт Aaaand you've lost any chance you ever had.

@Cerberus He can still find redemption. It's in the dictionary.

Good luck.

One need to be redeemed from above.

And he isn't getting any from me.

@Cerberus not sure what you mean.

What chance?

4:37 PM

@RegDwighт Of getting 10 points.

No I haven't.

And, no, simply deleting lines isn't going to work.

Deleting? Who's deleting lines?

Noöne is yet...

But you might be tempted.

Why would I?

4:38 PM

To erase evidence of your crimes.

@bharal: Surely you must mean it is a wrong, smarmy, condescending, horrible, no-good, inadequate, spurious answer. — Robusto 8 secs ago

Funny bharal would show no humor after the OP himself was the first one to show humor.

You never can tell about pineapples.

Okay now you made him laugh.

It just took a little longer.

yeah, but I'm attracting down-votes rapidly now. Did the question hit the MC?

4:43 PM

@Cerberus you know you're the only one who's been polluting the chat with these words, for days on end?

Have I?

@Robusto if it did, your collecting downvotes helps with getting us off of it in no time.

Then bye-bye, dix points for Cerberus.

@Cerberus your message has been hanging all this time on the right-hand side.

It just won't go away.

Blame the wall.

It ain't getting no dix points either.

4:44 PM

It's not signed "The wall". It's signed with your name.

Does a falling tree make a sound if there's noöne there to hear it? Does the tree make a sound every time a recording is played?

Don't try to distract, you polluter.

We're not done blaming you yet.

I'm a tree, not a polluter.

Don't try to distract.

We have to discuss your offense.

holds up paws like branches, moves gently in the wind

Ah, you're trying convergent argumentation to reach the verdict that you shall not receive your 10 points?

4:47 PM

I can't even parse that.

You will be held to your promise.

Worse yet, parse is an anagram of rapes.

Also pears, spear, spare, pares, and apers.

A versatile word.

What kind of reptile?

@RegDwighт By what means?

By not believing any of your future promises, constantly reminding you of breaking your promise, pinging you twenty times a day, flooding your entire country, stuff like that.

Why and who advertises such constructions on ELU?

I don't know the why or the who, but the what is zeugma.

4:55 PM

I went with syllepsis.

In my suggested edit description, that is.

And I gotta run now.

CU.

Windows Vista was running on 2.2 % of computers after two months; Windows 8 is running on 1.8 % of computers after two months.

Bai.

where do you find etymology? I was looking for definition and history of robot but did not like the matches Google gave me.

Etymonline.com

ty

It looks like I'm almost the only one starring things, that gives me more power than I should have

No, no, you deserve it.

5:04 PM

I will obviously abuse my power

@Cerberus but why?

Because you're worth it.

Think l'Oréal.

I'm not a user :)

But the line is quite clever considering the product and the target crowd <- not sure about the end

►

It's totally ridiculous.

That's marketing for you!

Now I have to go.

Later!

I wouldn't mind backing over Mila with a tank (likely poorly translated)

6:51 PM

> One has to marvel at the might—or hubris—of a military force that invades a sand- and rock-strewn country but brings its own gravel. —Evan Wright, "Generation Kill"

True story? Or does gravel mean more than just gravel?

7:35 PM

@JohanLarsson It is gravel used as a foundation for temporary bridging, etc.

Q: Is every sentence in a tense?

2

I know that "tense" indicates time. If that is true, then not every sentence can be indicated of its tense. Please review these sentences: "If I could go to the market , I must have taken breakfast (by now)." "If this great mountain was given my secret, it would have broken." "If she were tall ...

sentence past-tense future-tense present-tense tenses

Is every question of Aleena's more identical than the next?

@RegDwighт so we are blue now?

You're blue. Dabadee dabadeye.

David Wallace

@RegDwighт I see only two, and none of them is identical.

No, my mistake, the first one is.

I did say "than the next". :P

That is, you have to look at it a certain way.

If you look at it any other way, you'll see Goldie Hawn. Or Bill Gates.

David Wallace

7:41 PM

tries to look at Aleena's questions in any other way

Why is my MC broken?

I see a red "1" but if I click it nothing happens.

@RegDwighт You are Russian. You see a red one everywhere you look.

Looks at Robusto. Robusto immediately hears Homeland Security knocking on his door.

Mission accomplished.

Uh, the thing about Homeland Security? They don't knock.

They do knock on your front door to distract from the fact that they are going in from the behind.

Well damn, I can't handle flags, either. Someone's messing with the Javascript again.

Restarted browser, still no cigar.

user19161

8:47 PM

So many zombies in this chat!

user19161

@matt Boo!

hello @JasperLoy

Have you been up to much this week?

user19161

@MattЭллен Nothing special to say. What naughty things have you been doing?

@RegDwighт We don't need no steenkin' cigar.

@JasperLoy I've done no naughty things :D I've been spending time with my family

user19161

8:51 PM

@MattЭллен New family, I see! That's naughty!

but I couldn't get a net connection (stupid old laptop) so I didn't visit EL&U

@JasperLoy New family? no no! Same family as for the last 31 n some years

user19161

@MattЭллен Whoosh!

user19161

Ah, never mind, my jokes are too deep to understand...

apparently ... :Þ

@JasperLoy (DELETE) (DELETE) (DELETE)

8:56 PM

@Robusto Untrue. I’ve done no hat-gathering today. Fever now 102.6; heading for doctor appointment in a short bit.

I am sure it is strep. It feels like it, and I have had it enough to know.

simchona

@tchrist Maybe it's mono

That would be unswell.

I hope you're feeling better soon @tchrist

The thing is, I never quite recovered from my stomach bug (viral gastroenteritis) of exactly two weeks ago. I really must stop associating with human beings. It is the root of all plague transmission.

@MattЭллен Thanks.

We should find this week’s Science Friday segment on cooking for @Cerb.

It was reasonably engaging.

@tchrist You might also stop associating with pets and farm animals. Many of the really annoying human diseases crossed over from domestic animals when we became an agricultural species.

Don't you hate it when you read what you've written and your jaw drops.

9:02 PM

You really shouldn’t be able to get your kitty’s bugs, nor vice versa.

They’re too species specific.

user19161

@tchrist Except for lice.

@Cerberus This one, if you can listed to the audio.

Cat scratch fever. Rabies. Toxoplasmosis.

Every notice that the checkout clerk thinks you’re sick if you buy ginger ale?

Influenza. Smallpox. (moving on from cats to domestic animals in general)

9:05 PM

Look up “Can I catch a cold from my dog/cat?” and observe the answers.

Yes, I know about swine flu and such.

Or kitties bringing home plague or hantavirus.

Plague.

Dogs can, too.

jinx

But you do not get it from the cat.

It's no use telling me things you can't get from this or that animal. That doesn't go to my point.

9:06 PM

I have plague-ridden prairie dogs out my backside. They’re an awful peste.

When we domesticated animals, our life expectancy went way down. It nearly killed off the species. Now we've gotten used to a lot of the diseases that jumped to us from our animals.

It's still clear, though, that many of those pestilences are our fault.

BSE

Yes, and very likely HIV if I remember right.

Stoney got Moshi Moshi, putting him in third place on ELU. Not bad for four months.

Present company excepted, the only other person with that hat is Barrie, who disdains wearing them.

user19161

I turned off hats even after getting the Mariah hat.

9:19 PM

what's the Mariah hat?

user19161

@MattЭллен The one you get for voting on Christmas, the Santa hat that Reg called the Mariah hat.

I see!

user19161

Because Mariah wears it in one of her pics.

user19161

And Reg knows I am Mariah's fan.

saucey!

user19161

9:20 PM

In fact Mariah is right inside my profile now!

user19161

There can be miracles when you believe --- Mariah Carey & Whitney Houston

user19161

There there...

user19161

Ouvert et haut !

Drew Carey and Huston, Texas?

9:40 PM

Jim Carey and Sam Houston.

David Wallace

Somebody needs to tell my upstairs neighbour that when a baby is crying uncontrollably, yelling "shut up" at him/her is unlikely to yield the desired result.