English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Robusto

20:00

I can't view it because I'm not over 18.

RegDwight

You are over 9000.

Move to a free country, FFS.

Robusto

Peter Gabriel in Suit of Zoot and Shoes of Disco.

RegDwight

Actually he looks a little like a recently released LEGO minifig.

Robusto

But yeah, I know that song. It's off of Us.

His videos kind of marked the golden age of music videos.

Except I don't the part that implies if you are Shaking the Tree it means you will get babies.

@RegDwight — I picture you in a little Lego house with sky of blue and clouds of Lego floating overhead. Occasionally the odd block falling off.

RegDwight

That's how I picture myself, too. But my wife insists that that's not how I picture myself.

Robusto

20:09

Just out of curiosity, which language do you speak at home?

RegDwight

Russian.

Robusto

Without blacking out?

RegDwight

That's kinda how I learned it again.

I had almost forgotten all of it.

I would read Russian books, but speaking was next to impossible.

Robusto

So you got yourself a hiki-jibiki.

RegDwight

And even in them books, I would occasionally come across words where I would go WTF.

And them weren't words like sophomore. More like lamp.

@Robusto if you say so.

Robusto

20:13

I do.

Kennst du "hiki-jibiki"?

RegDwight

Nein, deswegen sage ich ja: "whatever you say".

I am like Schwarzenegger. He wouldn't pass as a native speaker of English. But he wouldn't pass as a native speaker of German, either.

Though I am also the opposite of Schwarzenegger, in that he has a strong and easily identifiable accent in every language.

I don't have an identifiable accent.

In any language.

I have an accent in every language, however slight, but you can't pin it down.

I've been deemed a French, a Lithuanian, you name it.

Robusto

hiki-jibiki is Japanese for "living dictionary" — it refers to a Japanese woman (usually) who is in a relationship where she provides language tutoring services for her paramour. Often the guys will wind up using feminine forms, which is not kulturny, and so hiki-jibiki is sometimes used in a derogatory sense.

RegDwight

Heh.

Like the female form of I.

Whatever it is, I forgot.

Robusto

Atashi, usually.

RegDwight

Ah yes.

Robusto

20:21

Children say that too. It's a cuteness thing.

Formally, referring to oneself is watashi or watakushi, but informally men say boku or (rougher) ore.

RegDwight

I think I've heard the former but not the latter.

Though probably I just wasn't paying attention.

It's hard to pay attention to something you don't know exists.

Robusto

Yeah. Ore is pretty rough. I never heard ore or omae until I started listening to Nobu at the noodle shop.

RegDwight

What's its purpose, then?

I mean, I have seen Brother etc.

Brother (2000 film)

Brother is a 2000 film starring, written, directed and edited by Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Kitano. It is also his fifth collaboration with renowned Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi. This was also Kitano's first collaboration with designer Yohji Yamamoto. The French title for the film is Aniki, Mon Frère (lit. Aniki, My Brother). Plot Shot in Los Angeles, California, Takeshi Kitano plays Yamamoto, a lone yakuza officer. Defeated in a war with a rival family, his boss killed, he heads to L.A. As time passes, Yamamoto and his new gang emerge as a powerful force, gradually expanding their ...

Robusto

Japanese speak a different language to each other than they do to foreigners.

Mmm ... talking about noodles is making me hungry. Oh, btw, check this out. If you haven't seen Tampopo you have to get it. This is one of many great scenes.

►

RegDwight

Watching...

Kosmonaut

20:28

@RegDwight Thanks, you saved me from embarrassment.

RegDwight

I'm here to save.

@Robusto Now I am hungry.

Robusto

Yeah. That's the thing I miss most about Japan. You can't throw a rock without hitting a noodle shop. And it's all good.

I can't watch that without my mouth watering. But it is definitely such a great satire.

Uh-oh, another phrase I should be getting royalties for:

0

Q: Where did the phrase "I don't give a rat's ass" come from?

I'd love to know the origin of this saying. Thanks!

phrases

RegDwight

Indeed, you were the first one to mention it in this room, methinks.

Robusto

Check this one out too.

►

RegDwight

I think someone doesn't pass the NNS test on meta.

0

A: List of common abbreviations (NOAD, ESL, PIE...)

1) A suggestion: you can use abbreviations as long as you write what it represents at the first instance or at the end of the answer/question. 2) A list of abbreviations somewhere on english.stackecxhange is a good idea, though it mainly helps who are aware about it . 3) I disagree with "Googli...

See point three.

I am pretty sure a native speaker would understand what I'm talking about.

He, on the other hand, seems to think that I'm just bashing furrinerz.

Robusto

20:38

Me likes PIE.

RegDwight

Mmmmmmhhhhh... MWDEU...

@Robusto Thank you for that one. That man in the first scene is so me.

I love movies but I hate going to the movies.

Robusto

You really need to see the whole film.

RegDwight

It's a freaking restaurant.

Everybody munching popcorn and slurping coke.

Gah.

If you want to eat, cook. If you're in a movie, watch.

Robusto

D'accord.

RegDwight

And yes, I definitely need to see the whole film.

Um, @Kosmonaut, we need to keep an eye on this one:

5

Q: "If it were I" or "If it were me"?

I'm fairly sure it's the former, but it sounds even more stilted than the usual cases in which "I" is less common, but more correct.

word-choice diction

A new answer was posted out of nowhere by a new user and promptly climbed to the top.

And I don't think it's the best possible answer.

Robusto

20:51

Foreign rep-farmers, out to sell rep on the black market.

RegDwight

This question:

0

Q: Are you comfortable with who(m) he is?

Are you comfortable with him? <- good Are you comfortable with whom he is? <- ? You're comfortable with whom he is.<- seems right Are you comfortable with who he is? <- ? You're comfortable with who? < good Why does adding 'he is' change the usage of who/whom? I understand the ...

whom case

reminds me of this one:

6

Q: Can I Help Who's Next

This seems to happen every time I go to my local bagel shop. Everyone is waiting in a line, and when the cashier is ready to help the next person, he/she asks, "Can I help who's next?" or "May I help who's next?" This seems wrong to me, shouldn't it be "Can I help whomever is next?" or "May I hel...

word-choice

z7sg

21:12

When will they hurry up and abolish whom for good?

RegDwight

Them's working on that.

Robusto

Pity vote for @Cerberus. He tries so hard, and he's so cute when he wags his tail.

RegDwight

@Robusto And now you have to pity-vote Jon Purdy.

But remember, you only have 30 pity votes per day.

Robusto

Wah!

But I am filled with so much pity!

RegDwight

Yeah. You only get miles. No votes.

And you don't even get miles.

Robusto

21:23

Well, I've never seen John Purdy wag his tail, so I can't tell how cute that would be.

I suspect he can't do that at all.

RegDwight

2 days ago, by RegDwight

It's never hard to speculate.

God, that was two days ago? Time flies like a banana.

Robusto

Well, just so my stance is clear: no tail-wagging, no pity vote.

RegDwight

I will tag that faq.

F'x

0

Q: How would you name this phenomenon? (about presidents' popularity)

Whenever a new president comes, he is always more popular in the beginning than at the end of his term. No matter how good he is and how successful he has been, there will always be more negativity and criticism toward him from the people of his country toward the end of his rule...

phrases terminology

@Robusto: jinx

Robusto

It's almost a law of nature. There should be something higher than a tag.

F'x

21:26

by 7 seconds

Robusto

@Fx — Huh?

RegDwight

He means your answers. Them's 7 secs apart.

F'x

@Robusto on the aforequoted question

Robusto

Oh. I didn't even see he had answered that one.

RegDwight

Where do you get those questions anyway?

@Fx Jinx!

Robusto

21:27

I just did a drive-by, as usual.

RegDwight

I haven't even seen that one, and there's already answers.

Robusto

So who beat whom by 7 seconds?

F'x

@RegDwight well, you wouldn't know how to answer anyway, it's about democracy

(hope that got past your evil filters)

RegDwight

Ah. How is that different from dictatorship? I keep getting them confused.

F'x

@Robusto of course I did :)

Cerberus

21:29

@Rob: I will happily accept your pity!

RegDwight

You have to wag.

Robusto

Lies!

RegDwight

So he keeps pitying you.

Robusto

Oh wait ... I got me maths wrong.

F'x

no pity for me… I could do with a Pythia, though

Cerberus

21:31

wags

Robusto

Hey, I already pity-voted you. I can't do it again for 30 minutes.

Them's the rules.

RegDwight

@Robusto Hahahahaha.

Cerberus

drools

Robusto

Anyway, my answer is better and more to the point. Plus I have an extra bonus answer embedded within the answer. And I said it all in half the wordage.

So suck on it, Rive Gauche!

F'x

@Robusto I believe your tracking device is malfunctioning, because I have long since crossed the river

RegDwight

21:33

I have no idea what you're talking about, so I just upvoted everyone.

Robusto

My spies will find you.

RegDwight

As in, every answer, question, and comment on this site, ever.

So put it in a pipe and smoke it.

Robusto

@RegDwight — Well, if you can't wag your tail for approval, I guess there has to be some way for you to get pity.

And it worked! Now I pity you!

RegDwight

No idea who you talking at.

Robusto

Meanwhile, I need to stop this madness and go home. TTYL!

RegDwight

21:36

CU.

Feb 22 at 18:45, by RegDwight

Madness? This is ELU!

Cerberus

Bye @Rob!

RegDwight

0

Q: verb phrase, grammatical explanation

So i'm doing a grammatical assignement for my english grammar class, and i was just wondering how would you explain the verb phrase appear to have been removed (i don't need the meaning, but what tense, voice, etc.)

grammar phrases verbs passive-voice

Wat it dat?

I wonder why it's tagged passive-voice.

Actually, I wonder a few things beyond that.

JSBangs

hi everybody

i removed the grammar

RegDwight

Wholesale?

Kosmonaut

@RegDwight Argh

RegDwight

21:47

Yes, argh indeed.

Kosmonaut

Isn't that question a dupe of something?

JSBangs

yes, all of the grammar. there is no more grammar. i eated it.

RegDwight

@Kosmonaut I pointed to a possible candidate in a comment, which Claudiu then stole verbatim for his answer, so that's where you should look now as I deleted that comment of mine just today.

8

A: Who wants ice-cream?

Generally speaking, in English, accusative (also known as “objective”) pronouns (like me) are the “default” form. That is, unless there is a specific syntactic rule requiring use of a different case, such as nominative (I), genitive (my/mine), or reflexive/intensive (myself), in English you use t...

@JSBangs thank God there's still grammer.

JSBangs

@RegDwight grammer is allowed because of spelling

RegDwight

You are very generous.

Kosmonaut

21:53

argh

RegDwight

Apr 8 at 13:41, by RegDwight

Well, we could always go with 8ritish-3nglish.

JSBangs

lulz

RegDwight

@JSBangs That was a rather important discussion, actually, in case you missed it.

Apr 8 at 13:35, by RegDwight

http://www.google.com/search?q=defense+defence+site%3Aenglish.stackexchange.com

JSBangs

i've been off, so what was the actual importance?

RegDwight

Look at the capitalization.

Click the Google link and behold.

Apr 8 at 13:36, by RegDwight

I don't like the light in which it puts us.

JSBangs

21:57

capitals are for bourgeois capitalist running dogs

RegDwight

Just why did I know you would say that.

JSBangs

that's why they call it CAPITALism

Kosmonaut

It's because RegDwight speaks German and they love capitalizing stuff.

RegDwight

Mar 14 at 16:22, by Robusto

I'm a Capitalizationist. I Thought You Knew That.

@Kosmonaut Yes, I capitalize stuff when speaking. <rolls eyes>

Kosmonaut

@RegDwight That's cool!

RegDwight

22:00

You're cool.

No. Wait.

That's not how it works.

Kosmonaut

Sounds right.

RegDwight

You're right.

No. Wait.

Hmpf.

JSBangs

@Kosmonaut broke @RegDwight. he wins the chat room!

RegDwight

You wouldn't know how right you are, he actually broke me with his "you're an anagram".

I was rolling on the floor laughing.

Apr 8 at 18:23, by Martha

(Around here, we have the concept of "breaking" someone. This usually means making them laugh so hard that they practically can't breathe.)

Kosmonaut

►

RegDwight

22:04

2 days ago, by RegDwight

But you are beautiful.

Kosmonaut

Necromancer!

RegDwight

You're a necromancer.

Kosmonaut

Yes, exactly.

RegDwight

And who has helped you become a necromancer? Who, I ask you? Who?

Kosmonaut

I'd like to thank the little people who made this possible

First and foremost, I'd like to thank God for giving me this talent

RegDwight

22:11

I wonder if you would get a Necromancer for answering the idiocracy question again.

Kosmonaut

I'd like to thank my wife for always standing beside me

And RegDwight also helped in some intangible way.

RegDwight

9 hours ago, by Kosmonaut

I bought a gift for my wife at the chemisetrie.

Now just buy me a gift at Lego.com and we can call it quits.

Kosmonaut

RegDwight

Old.

Kosmonaut

Everything is old.

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."

RegDwight

22:20

►

Kosmonaut

wow

neat

RegDwight

900.000 bricks.

Half a ton.

I also liked the Frankfurt/Main central station.

►

20×26 ft.

Kosmonaut

Also wow

RegDwight

Brickset tells me I barely have 100.000 pieces... sniff.

Must go with a smaller cathedral, I guess.

Though they don't have piece counts for all my sets.

Kosmonaut

100,000? That's it?

Cerberus

22:32

Wow. That Dom ist wahnsinnig.

RegDwight

@Kosmonaut Well, I also have a few thousand loose pieces, off eBay&Co.

Kosmonaut

I have 9 million bricks, give or take.

RegDwight

But nowhere near 900.000. And not all of them in old grey, light bluish grey, and dark bluish grey.

Cerberus

Whaaat...

Kosmonaut

Kidding... but I do have a Harry Potter lego keychain that we use for a spare key.

So there's that.

Cerberus

22:35

Oh.... I see.

RegDwight

I was looking at some Harry-Potter LEGO sets just today.

Awfully expensive.

Worse than Star Wars.

And I probably dislike Joanne K. Rowling more than I do George Lucas.

So I try to avoid paying them huge monies.

Cerberus

Aww why hate them?

Kosmonaut

I can understand George Lucas

RegDwight

But hey, I just got all Toy-Story LEGO sets at a 60% discount.

@Cerberus Obviously, I'm exaggerating.

Then again, when you have to pay 23 cent apiece, when it's usually more like 3-7...

And them's the same pieces.

Cerberus

I just got the RegDwight LEGO set at a 90% discount. It has the weirdest blocks.

RegDwight

22:38

You misspelled "weirdest bollocks".

Kosmonaut

@RegDwight highly-disturbing

RegDwight

2 days ago, by Kosmonaut

@RegDwight That is truly disturbing.

Jan 5 at 0:27, by Kosmonaut

That disturbs me on more than one level!

Kosmonaut

This chat room is clearly unhealthy.

RegDwight

0

A: My wife and I's seafood collaboration dinner

No. Not only for the reason given by Tragicomic, but also because the phrase "My wife and I" is an incorrect usage, except as the subject of a sentence, because I can only be the subject of a sentence, not an object. Try turning it around to: "The collaboration dinner of my wife and I"; and turn...

Cerberus

Bullocks?

RegDwight

22:42

That's what we get for stirring up the waters.

Cerberus

Wow that is one of the worst answers ever.

-1

RegDwight

If "my" is the possessive form of "me", I wonder what the possessive form of "I" is.

Cerberus

Ice.

Kosmonaut

@RegDwight Nobody knows for sure.

Cerberus

Or possibly eyes.

Kosmonaut

22:43

It's one of those mysteries of the universe.

Cerberus

Universe Man, Universe Man...

RegDwight

I don't think that "of me" is correct.

Not any more than "of I".

Cerberus

@Reg: Are you seriously wondering?

RegDwight

It should be "of mine".

@Cerberus No, just making a list of all the things that seem to have gone wrong.

Cerberus

Oh you found someone who's wrong on the Internet, huh.

RegDwight

22:45

No XKCD plz.

Cerberus

Fine.

Does one generally add garlic to guacamole?

I usually do...

RegDwight

Does one ever not?

Cerberus

OK. Just checking.

RegDwight

Not that I'm a cook.

At least not by European standards.

Cerberus

Does one generally add Parmesan to pesto? I think not.

RegDwight

22:47

Only afterwards.

When you serve it.

Cerberus

Agreed.

Sometimes these things are less universal than one thinks.

Does one add coriander to guacamole?

Kosmonaut

Speaking of food combos, time to make dinner.

Cerberus

My friend tells me that they do it in Mexico, and I do it too whenever I have it.

RegDwight

Food and Cooking – cooking.stackexchange.com

Launched Q&A site for cooks, chefs, anyone who can make a dish that can objectively be described as "mean"

Cerberus

@Kos: Have fun!

RegDwight

22:49

Seconded.

I actually know a guy who can't cook at all.

Not even spaghetti without sauce.

Not even fried eggs.

Kosmonaut

au revoir

RegDwight

Seriously.

Cerberus

@Reg: I know the site! It is just that all their questions already have answers when I pass by, and the ones that might need betters answers are too specialised for me.

@Reg: That is pretty cool.

RegDwight

I know that you know it.

Cerberus

Oh I didn't know that you knew I knew it.

RegDwight

22:50

It was more of a hint that I don't know everything.

Cerberus

I know more women who can't cook than men.

RegDwight

Well, most cooks are men around these parts.

I've only ever seen a female chef on Friends.

Which is not to say that my mom and my grandma aren't the greatest cooks ever.

Cerberus

Yeah, professional chefs are usually men... but the classical troglodyte male cannot cook, whereas women lack an equivalent stereotype.

I know two guys who can't really cook, they just hate it. I know many similar women, including my mother.

RegDwight

It's funny how I can tell who asks a question just by seeing the first comma.

Cerberus

Hmm... is my comma usage typical?

RegDwight

22:54

Yoichi-san likes to begin his questions with "I found the word, ".

Cerberus

Ah.

RegDwight

Where's @Robusto when you need him.

Cerberus

I don't think I have noticed any such patterns. Most of the time I don't pay much attention to who's asking.

RegDwight

At least I now understand this question:

0

Q: verb phrase, grammatical explanation

I'm doing a grammatical assignment for my English grammar class, and I was just wondering how would you explain the following verb phrase: appear to have been removed I don't need the meaning, but what tense, voice, etc. it is.

phrases verbs passive-voice

I didn't realize there was a quote in there.

Cerberus

The virtues of punctuation.

I don't know what to answer. I can parse the verb phrase; but what does he want to know about it?

It is not simply classifiable.

RegDwight

22:57

If it's homework, he should first explain what he's tried so far.

5

A: How to deal with homework questions

Draft, based on the StackOverflow policy This is an attempt to reconcile two extreme positions in a way that is acceptable to the majority of the community: Some might feel it's irrelevant that it's homework:we should always provide a complete answer. Others might feel this site is not the pla...

Cerberus

Yeah my reaction was similar.

RegDwight

I think I'll leave a comment.

Cerberus

Good.

RegDwight

Done.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…