English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Kit

00:01

Looks like we run about maybe 40% dupes. That would reduce our numbers significantly.

Of closes are dupes, I should say.

tchrist

Sure.

The question then is what does it do to other sites.

Matt Эллен

I will run up a comparison chart tomorrow

it's interesting to see

tchrist

If The Hobbit had been 10 times shorter and 100 times more honest. . .

Matt Эллен

just one more thing...

what happened last year?

tchrist

You mean their midsummer slump?

Matt Эллен

00:07

I mean the February spike

tchrist

Some release thing, maybe?

Matt Эллен

maybe

user19161

Haha, Kit is still invisible...

Santosh Kumar

01:07

What are some adjective applicable to tea? (tasty probably isn't, I think)

MετάEd

@SantoshKumar Vegetarian.

@SantoshKumar Nonthreatening.

@SantoshKumar Cold. I think I'll add a little hot water.

Santosh Kumar

@MετάEd No no, I want to describe the tea. I liked the tea.

MετάEd

@SantoshKumar I described my tea. Unfortunately your experience of your tea is not present to me.

@SantoshKumar Why do you want to avoid saying "tasty"?

Santosh Kumar

@MετάEd Because tasty sound like being spicy, tea are sweet.

@MετάEd I want any word that describe the taste of tea.

MετάEd

@SantoshKumar teaosophy.com/education/tasting.aspx teadiscussion.com/various/tea-tasting-terminology-explained.php

Santosh Kumar

01:17

@MετάEd These links don't show me any words that describe taste.

MετάEd

@SantoshKumar Those are long lists of words used by tea experts to describe taste, as well as odor and other characteristics, of tea.

@SantoshKumar For example, "astringent".

@SantoshKumar If you just want a word that means "what tea tastes like", then I guess you could say "tealike" or "tea-flavored". But if you want words that describe the flavor of a particular tea, then these sites will be helpful.

tchrist

01:31

@SantoshKumar Tasty means that something tastes good. It has nothing to do with piquantness. Anything that tastes good is by definition tasty. Chocolate is tasty. Casseroles are tasty. Cake is tasty. Margaritas are tasty. Key lime pie is tasty. Mushroom gravy is tasty. Tacos are tasty. Milk is tasty. Brussel sprouts are tasty. Fresh bread is tasty. Ice cream sandwiches are tasty. Jalapeños poppers are tasty. Whisky is tasty. Mars bars are tasty. And yes, tea is tasty, too.

Water, however, and satisfying though it may be, is probably at best metaphorically tasty.

TRiG

> 'Songs she sang to me, words she brang to me...'

brang?

@tchrist 🐵 1F435 and 😼 1F63C work on my home computer (FF, Ubuntu). The others don't.

tchrist

@TRiG From where?

There’s some longer story of bring/brang/brung you can dig out of the OED.

TRiG

@tchrist Neil Diamond, I'm told.

tchrist

It’s hardly standard. Nor uncommon.

Brung has historical precedent.

Brang was added by analogy.

Again, neither is standard.

TRiG

@tchrist The bad poetry conversation, post 36.

tchrist

01:43

Common Teut.: OE. bring-an, brengean (pa. t. bróhte, pple. bróht), corresp.
to OFris. branga, bringa, OS. brengian, bringan (MDutch brenghen, Dutch
brengen), OHG. bringan (MHG. and mod.G. bringen), Goth.  briggan (=
bringan), pa. t. brâhta, pple. brâhts. Beside the type bring-an, the Saxon
group has also *brangjan, brehook.ngian, brengean, brengan, app. after
þankjan; from bringan, OE. had also a rare strong pa.  pple. brungen (mod.
dial. brung), to which later dialects have added a strong pa. t., so as to

MετάEd

@tchrist Certainly water of life is tasty. (whiskey, aquavit, etc.)

TRiG

We also have someone who thinks Horace Smith's Ozymandias is better than Shelly's. Takes all sorts.

And sorry. Neil Diamond is in post 39, not 36.

@MετάEd uisce beatha

tchrist

Forms: Inf. 1 bringan, brengan, 2-5 bringen, 3-6 bringe, bryngen, 4-6
brynge, 4-7 bryng, 4- bring, (3 bringhe, brynke, 3-4 brengen, 4-5 breng,
5 bryngyn). Pa. t. 1-3 bróhte, 2 brochte, 3 broȝte, brouhte, 4 brouȝt(e,
broȝt, broht, browȝt, browghte, (brohut), 4-6 broughte, 4-7 broght, 5
browte, 4- brought, (6 brohute, Spenser braught, 6- Sc. brocht, 9 dial.
brong, brung). Pa. pple. 1-4 bróht, 3 broucht, 3-4 ybroȝt, ibrouȝt, 4
brout, browt, browht, brouȝt, brouht, 4-5 broȝt, (brouth), 4-6 broght,
ybrought, 5 ibrowghte, (bryght), 5-6 browght, broughte, 4- brought, (6

@TRiG Tsk.

MετάEd

@TRiG Exactly.

@TRiG Well, it might be better than Ozyosbourne, anyway.

TRiG

@MετάEd Well, it prompted me to essay an analysis of poetry for the first time since I left school.

Not a very detailed analysis, I grant you, but it doesn't take much detail to demonstrate what I wanted to say.

@Cerberus I am stealing this line and using it as my h2g2 tag line.

Cerberus

02:19

@TRiG You evil thief! Information is property!

You are lucky I don't know what "h2g2" means. shakes paw

tchrist

02:37

I was wondering that myself.

h2g2

Cerberus

It must be some insular thing.

Oh, to live on an island!

TRiG

03:01

@Cerberus It is an insular thing, but it's not my island.

Cerberus

Oh.

If it's surrounded by sea, it's insular.

TRiG

It's British. The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Hence two h's and two g's.

Cerberus

Ah.

I have never read that.

Mechanical snail

@TRiG It has 3 h s. Or 4 counting "the".

Cerberus

I know everybody talks about it all the time.

Just like Harry Potter.

TRiG

03:03

Set up originally by Douglas Adams' company, The Digital Village. Later bought out by the BBC. Then sold off to the community.

Cerberus

@Mechanicalsnail Your line is getting more interesting every time.

TRiG

Based on Douglas Adams' books and radio scripts.

One of the first online communities; one of the first online encyclopedias. Quite technologically innovative, but the BBC put very few resources into it in the ten years they had it, and these days it's quite old fashioned.

Mechanical snail

@Cerberus Finally. U+200A did it.

TRiG

@Mechanicalsnail I don't think the formatting you're looking for is possible. In any case, there are two initial h's.

@Mechanicalsnail Ah. Clever. Would not have occurred to me.

Cerberus

@Mechanicalsnail So...why not write h's? Does that not work?

Mechanical snail

03:09

@tchrist More: chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/8035255#8035255

@Cerberus Apostrophes are evil

Cerberus

Evil?

Consider which room you are speaking in!

MετάEd

@Mechanicalsnail Ah yes, Unicode Character 'HAIR OF THE DOG' (U+200A)

Cerberus

You cannot contradict Fowler in these halls.

@MετάEd Yay!

Mechanical snail

@Cerberus Apostrophe’s are evil

Cerberus

No, no.

The norm is h's.

MετάEd

03:12

Apostrophes are not evil. Neither is apostrophe, for that matter.

Cerberus

Indeed. Apostrophe, thou art not evil!

Mechanical snail

@Cerberus Apo’strophe’s are evil

Cerberus

My dear fellow, where did you get this silly idea?

MετάEd

@Mechanicalsnail Scarequotes are evil though.

Mechanical snail

@Cerberus Shaw? Chaucer used no apostrophes.

Homer used no apostrophes.

Cerberus

03:22

We're not Shaw.

And Homer didn't write at all.

And he certainly used apostrophe!

2

Mechanical snail

@Cerberus Touché.

Cerberus

Great.

Mechanical snail

@Cerberus If yaw not Shaw, then why ah you so insistent?

Cerberus

I'm not specifically insistent.

Just a regular dog.

I don't understand appstrophophobia. Look how ugly it sounds.

MετάEd

Apostrophe ambiguity: dadge.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/apostrophe-ambiguity

Cerberus

03:27

Good example.

MετάEd

It's an interesting case; in the spoken language the ambiguity exists, and you would have to reword to avoid it. But in the written language the ambiguity is eliminated using the apostrophe.

Cerberus

Okay, it's sleepy time.

I don't know...I would probably say Dawkins's talk if that were what I meant.

Mechanical snail

@Cerberus Or rather, Touche̓.

MετάEd

"I tried to borrow an apostrophe, but my boyfriends decided to stop working."

Cerberus

@Mechanicalsnail Haha.

Kick your boyfriends in the behinds, then.

MετάEd

03:36

@Cerberus Get thee behind me.

Cerberus

I shall have to go to bed instead.

Adieu.

Mechanical snail

@Robusto English Russian.

MετάEd

@Cerberus More likely it's French Russian, yes?

Crazy Buddy

03:50

Yes indeed..

Adios...

Watched "We bought a Zoo" now...

TRiG

04:12

@Mechanicalsnail The Guild of Green Grocer's di'sagree's with you.

(That was painful.)

Mechanical snail

Μπαράκ Ομπάμα

TRiG

f

Oiche maith.

MετάEd

Any chance I just answered an NS question? It didn't fit the profile in several ways but now I'm a little ... worried.

0

Q: Altered From Purpose?

There might be some errors with this: source The booster rocket was thereby altered from its original purpose—to serve as a means of propelling the astronauts and their gear toward the Moon—to be reused as a source of energy to search the geology of the Moon using instruments placed on th...

MετάEd

04:36

Yeah, I think I've been had.

Mechanical snail

@MετάEd What's NS? National Socialist?

MετάEd

NS is a user.

Mechanical snail

@MετάEd You mean you think the new question is a sockpuppet's?

MετάEd

@Mechanicalsnail I am suspicious.

Yeah, I was tired and it fit the profile better than I realized.

I'd bet dimes to dollars it's NS.

cornbread ninja

@Mechanicalsnail say what you will about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude. At least it's an ethos.

NS is an abuser.

aedia λ

05:53

@Robusto My snow had nothing on yours. Hope you've been doing ok digging out.

^ the first photo is my current snowfall (well, I've shoveled out the front steps since). The second is the snowstorm that happened after Christmas.

Gigili

07:01

@Kit I thought you were a mod and the fact that they'er able to see emails holds. I overestimated your mod powers, sorry.

TemporaryNickName

09:36

guys

what's the opposite of "give up"?

Johan Larsson

fight your way through? (I don't speak English very much)

Epitorial