English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

tchrist

17:00

Who said “Most of the books we see nowadays are full of those manglings and abbreviations.”?

Jonathan Swift, bitching about txtspk in a letter written in 1727.

KitFox

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 I used to play that on the fiddle.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@KitFox nice!

KitFox

Oh right. I've been trying to create test data all morning.

tchrist

echo test > data

@Cerberus This oaf is taking your name in vain. :)

0

A: What's an easy way to remember when to use "affect" or "effect"?

Cerberus did well to focus on AFFECT and EFFECT as verbs. While both are also used as nouns, most usage errors that I've seen involve their use as verbs. For example, do we say that attitude and planning affect outcome, or do we say that attitude and planning effect outcome? Do we say that our...

Cerberus

@Mitch You too, dear.

@tchrist Abbreviations like which?

And did he ever bother to look at a Mediaeval manuscript?

tchrist

17:12

heh

I don’t know which ones he was talking about lo these nearly three centuries past.

Oh, and I abbreviated him. He wrote now-a-days.

KitFox

I can't get the Plant v Zombies theme out of my head.

Robusto

@KitFox generatedata.com/#about

KitFox

Sweet, it helps score with girls?

And it does my laundry?

That could be really helpful.

I love clean laundry.

Especially for sleeping on/in.

Johan Larsson

17:28

yeah that is always surprisingly nice, the feel, the smell and almost the sound

KitFox

Swishy.

Johan Larsson

prassliga | frasiga would be swedish words for it I think

KitFox

Oh, those sound nice. "Rustling" is the google-translate for prassliga.

That's a good word.

Frasiga google-translates as "crispy," which is like potato chips.

Rustling is like the sound of walking through a pile of autumn leaves.

Johan Larsson

17:45

Frasiga is more like waffles 'krispiga' is crispy in Swedish

@KitFox maybe clean laundry makes a very soft rustling sound?

that you can more feel than hear

KitFox

Yeah, I can dig it. I like the word rustling. Rustling sounds are very soft and soothing.

Like the gentle stirring of sleepy mice.

Unless mice give you anxiety, like they do me.

Sudhir

17:58

Hi @KitFox

How's your ear?

I hope it would be fine now.

KitFox

Still deaf.

Sudhir

Why?

KitFox

I dunno. Still a lot of fluid, I guess.

Sudhir

@KitFox:For job perspective I've one exam in which 10q of vocab will come. What should I do?

KitFox

What's 10q?

Sudhir

18:03

10 questions.

KitFox

I don't know. Why are there vocabulary questions?

Sudhir

To test our knowledge in English.

KitFox

I guess you should learn English vocabulary then.

Sudhir

But problem is there're lots of words.

I usually forget.

KitFox

Maybe you could ask on ELL.

I don't know how to learn vocabulary, other than just using it.

Sudhir

18:06

That's the thing.

Poignant,Querulous,Perilous, Reverie

You know anyone?

KitFox

Well, I'm rather querulous.

But I was lost in reverie just now. That can be perilous, especially when it evokes poignant memories.

Sudhir

It means you know all

Great.

KitFox

Well, I read a lot. Or I did, when I was younger.

Querulous is the only relatively unusual one there.

Sudhir

@KitFox:Hats off.

You know these words are rocket science for me.

KitFox

But most native speakers would know perilous = dangerous. And probably poignant = painfully nostalgic-ish. Easy if you know "pointy" and that it relates to emotion. And then reverie = dreamy. Simple if you've studied French.

Sudhir

18:12

Haven't seen/heard in my whole life.

KitFox

Querulous is more difficult because it is not common, and it looks like "query" but really means "complain" not "question."

Sudhir

What about Billingsgate, minatory, Obstreperous, Unctuous?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Quarrelous

KitFox

My grandmother described us as obstreperous when I was a kid.

Sudhir

Your mother was native speaker of English?

KitFox

18:16

Unctuous I recognize as something unsavory, but I couldn't define it.

@Sudhir Yes.

Jez

unctuous - that's a really nice find. it perfectly describes a certain work colleague of mine

i'm bookmarking it

KitFox

Children are naturally obstreperous. But that was almost a joke. I don't think many people would know that.

Minatory I don't know, and I thought Billingsgate was a place name.

Sudhir

@KitFox:these words serve as nightmare to me.

Jez

is there a word like "overprofessional"?

i think "unctuous" is close, as is "prudish"

KitFox

Well, a lot of the more cryptic ones can be broken down into components that give you hints about their meaning.

Jez

18:19

overly obsessed with always projecting a "professional" image

Sudhir

it means flattering

KitFox

It's more than flattering. It's oily.

Sudhir

@KitFox:I wonder if you give my exam.

KitFox

Haha. "Like an ointment."

Sudhir

My English is very poor.

Jez

18:21

sadly "overprofessional" isnt even in wiktionary

Sudhir

@KitFox: I wonder if you were my mother.

KitFox

@Sudhir You should probably strive to give a good representation of your English abilities, rather than trying to cram and make it seem as though you know more than you do.

Johan Larsson

@KitFox solid advice imo^

KitFox

You won't do yourself any favors by making it seem like you understand English very well if you don't.

Jez

if you can make it seem like you understand English very well you probably do

Sudhir

18:23

@KitFox: How old is your child?

KitFox

I have two boys. One just turned five, the other is almost three.

Sudhir

So they would be fluent in English?

KitFox

Yes.

Sudhir

Great!!

KitFox

Well, it does make it easier to talk to them.

Sudhir

18:26

You know when I was 5 years old, I didn't know that English is a language.

KitFox

They only know Spanish is another language.

Sudhir

Great

KitFox

(And that our language is English.)

Sudhir

You 're a great mother.

KitFox

I think the eldest knows that French is a different language as well.

Sudhir

18:27

We're taught Hindi language.

KitFox

@Sudhir I try very hard to be.

Sudhir

means?

KitFox

I try very hard to be a good mother.

Sudhir

Oh

they're very lucky.

You know verisimilitude, vicissitude ?

KitFox

verisimilitude = veri (like veritas = truth) + simili (like similiar = appearing) + tude (like the ending of attitude), so having the appearance of truth.

Vicissitude I recognize, but I couldn't define it out of context. It feels like wavering or vibration, but I have no idea if that's even close.

Sudhir

18:35

A change of circumstances or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant

@KitFox: Feeling sleepy

KitFox

?

Sudhir

Its 12:00

midnight

KitFox

Where you are.

I'm at work.

Sudhir

in my home.

I'm from India.

KitFox

You've mentioned.

Also, the Hindi was kind of a giveaway.

Sudhir

18:41

:)

You're so good.@kitty

So you're on FB?

simchona

@Sudhir Jeez, this again?

KitFox

Yes, I have a FB account.

No, I don't share it publicly.

Sudhir

Ok,bye. was a nice talk with you. I'll cramp all vocabs.

Jez

18:59

@KitFox Yeah. I wouldn't admit to it either.

KitFox

Well, I also have a job, a cell phone number, a house, and an email address.

And a car.

All these things are not exactly shocking.

2

WendiKidd

19:14

Stars for @KitFox ;)

Mitch

I for one am shocked, shocked I tell you, that you have -all- of those things. One or two I could explain away by chance, but you must be trying or something.

Cerberus

Yeah, what decent lady has a FB account??

3

Mitch

Actually...they -all- seem to have one, decent or not.

simchona

Well he certainly is trying to chat you up.

Mitch

And everyone in my high school class too.

Yeah the chatting up thing...is...

well, I guess that's how people talk.

simchona

19:16

I think it's creepy how persistent it is

Cerberus

This transcends the realm of creepy, well into the land of inexplicable and beyond.

Mitch

@tchrist who was it who would bitch about the youth of 'today' coming to nothing? Aristophanes?

Cerberus

Aristotle, I believe.

And many before him.

simchona

@cerb you're usually the most forgiving of stuff like this

Mitch

You'd think he would know better. Didn't he have classics to read?

Johan Larsson

19:19

@Cerberus what does?

Mitch

@simchona Yes, stalkerish but I ascribe it to spending all his mental energy trying to compose in a foreign language that he is does not have the cycles to spend on awareness of the social weirdness.

simchona

@mitch but he keeps doing it after repeatedly being told not to

KitFox

You know my opinion on that.

Mitch

@JohanLarsson read the transcript and everything sudhir says.

Johan Larsson

ok

Mitch

19:23

@simchona hmmm...yes...also has difficulty getting the hint, spending all cycles on reading the explicit meaning first.

simchona

@mitch it isn't even hints at this point. It's blatant head knocking that isn't getting through

Mitch

@KitFox actually I can't remember what your opinion is.

KitFox

What!?

Mitch

Yeah...it's weird if you're subtle at first and then later not subtle, it can somehow still not get gotten.

KitFox

I can't figure out why the title of this page is "Employee-facing registry content." Makes me feel a bit...nervous.

Mitch

19:25

@KitFox I can guess it is in the negative/annoying direction, but I was thinking there some nuance that I didn't catch.

Cerberus

@simchona This is something active that he does, and it actively annoys people. It's hard to ignore while you are in chat. He refuses to learn. He continues to do exactly the same thing. All this taken together makes it bad. If you are referring to someone who posts a naïve or off-topic question, that is not something that actively interferes with other people. It can easily be ignored.

@Mitch I rather think it is a lack of empathy.

KitFox

@Mitch I meant "What!? You don't remember all of my opinions like they are god's own gospel!?"

He's probably damaged.

Cerberus

You should have been more judgemental, jeesh!

Mitch

I don't have much chat experience...but he does seem to be an outlier in borderline inappropriateness.

Cerberus

I must say Kit has by far the most patience of us all here.

Mitch

19:27

@KitFox I forget all words and am just left with a vague impression.

Except that time you said...I remember it well but I can't repeat it.

spits

Cerberus

(The bit about judgemental was obviously a joke, a variation on a theme your have introduced yourself.)

No spitting!!

You're ruining the new Bokhara!

Mitch

@KitFox I was going to say young.

KitFox

@Cerberus laughs

Mitch

the first step on it and the price rises!

KitFox

@Mitch Well, I'd think so too except that he's looking for employment and supposedly has some kind of post-secondary education.

@Cerberus Oh which one did you finally settle on?

Or did you build a new city?

Cerberus

19:36

Haha a new city? I haven't decided yet. There's also an auction I might want to go have a loot at.

Oh, that city!

I have been staring at maps of Afghanistan for the past ten minutes btw.

On which Bokhara seems to be a region. But I know it must have been a city too.

KitFox

@Cerberus Looting an auction, eh? I always knew you was no good.

(That's my best film noir dialect.)

Cerberus

Heh.

Is this some other kind of "auction"?

Bokhara.

Magnificent? Yes. Beautiful?

KitFox

Are you describing me again?

Cerberus

Is your real name Bokhara?

Curvy.

@Mahnax Remember, long ago, when bitcoins were still at $ 100?

They're now over $ 200.

Should I buy bitcoins?

bites nails

KitFox

My husband asked me if I'd heard of bitcoin just a couple of days ago.

Mitch

19:57

@tchrist: re: english.stackexchange.com/questions/110884/…

KitFox

I think that is a good question and deserves some positive attention.

Mitch

now I have data to peeve against. It has always annoyed me how people say 'Oooh, English is so great, look how many words they have for X. In my language they only have 'Xito' but in English they have 20 different words. It's like there aren't any thesauruses in those languages!

Johan Larsson

@Cerberus I think it is going to be an explosion now, been following btc for about a year and now it is really becoming hyped. But I would be surprised if it is not banned/regulated pretty soon as so many powerful entities don't make money or even lose money on it. States, banks etc.

Mitch

Oh sure, it's a fine question...what is the nuance behind words for water flowing out of an opening.

KitFox

And now I go. Bye-bye.

Johan Larsson

20:01

bye

Mitch

@JohanLarsson There's some group of Ayn Rand enthusiasts in a startup on Wall Street ready to totally destroy the economy over future options on bitcoining mining operations.

Cerberus

@Mitch What it means is just, "ohh I'm learning a foreign language and I see so many new words! I rarely encounter such exotic words in my own language, so foreign language x must have more!".

@JohanLarsson That is a possibility...

And it is thesauri.

Mitch

@Cerberus that's what I figure too, not seeing the complexity in ones face.

Cerberus

Com-what?

OMG English!

Mitch

thesaurata

Cerberus

20:04

No!

Mitch

thesaurapodes

Cerberus

Maniac.

Mitch

what? No, that's not it.

Cerberus

Stoecheoclast.

Mitch

You take that back! You have insulted your mother for the last time!

Cerberus

20:07

I would have used a feminine form, then...

Cerberus

20:21

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 While I generally like Armando, this has got to be the worst introduction to Android phones ever for those who have never owned a smartphone: thedroideffect.com/buying-your-first-android-phone

He goes on about GUIs and ROMs and OEMs and "code".

Without proper introductions.

Jez

21:14

@Cerberus euck. white-on-black. fucks up my eyes.

Robusto

OH NOES someone said the f-bomb! In chat!

My virgin ears.

Putin likes topless protests

Mitch

"The Russian leader added that the protesters were "pretty girls" and said he couldn't hear what they were screaming."

Ярослав Рахматуллин

Who doesn't ?

Robusto

Sounds like an Irish toast: "May all your protesters be topless young women."

tchrist

21:35

@Robusto Nice to preserve a final unviolated frontier — or bolt-hole — for one’s old age.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Cerberus no. They're being douchebagged by the douchebaggery that fucked our economy.

Johan Larsson

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 who are the bags?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@JohanLarsson speculators.

Johan Larsson

I was hoping that finance would be frowned upon after 2008 like the nazis were frowned upon after ww2. I don't love the idea on making money on money and transactions etc.

Think it is the root of much that is fkd up

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@JohanLarsson I concur

Johan Larsson

21:50

but nothing is going to change cos people are just interested in reading about what time some celebrity or someone they don't like at all woke up and if they had breakfast (Facebook)

tchrist

@JohanLarsson No gas chambers; only suicides.

RegDwighт

@KitFox what is shocking is that you do share some of them publicly, but not others. Inconsistency!

I estimate that I am shocked about seven times as much as Mitch.

Cerberus

@JohanLarsson Oh! Oh! What celebrity? Tell me about it!

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 I don't know...the scale is too small to attract real stock brokers or private equity, meseems.

RegDwighт

22:06

@Cerberus Rafael van der Vaart.

Who is now sleeping with his wife's best friend. Who looks exactly like his wife.

tchrist

Lord Fart?

Johan Larsson

@tchrist yeah maybe it was not spectacular enough

RegDwighт

From left to right: either Sylvie van der Vaart or Sabia Boulahrouz, either Sylvie van der Vaart or Sabia Boulahrouz.

Johan Larsson

Soccer player in Ajax?

RegDwighт

I think he hasn't played for Ajax for like seven years. Maybe eight.

Johan Larsson

22:08

ok that is about how up-to-date I am with soccer

RegDwighт

They could be twins. If they weren't twins.

tchrist

Hm, is that one Ajax or two? I see two Aeantes.

RegDwighт

In fact Rafael van der Vaart must be obsessed with all things twins.

tchrist

No porn shots in this chat.

2

Johan Larsson

@RegDwighт I don't see why not!

RegDwighт

22:11

Note how remarkably silent @Cerberus is all of a sudden. That's because this is of immense interest to him and he is listening closely and eagerly.

@tchrist yeah, a valid complaint.

Cerberus

@RegDwighт /sarcasm

And why do you know this stuff?

Johan Larsson

and why let us know you know?

RegDwighт

@Cerberus Ah there you are, back from twittering what I just posted.

Cerberus

Oops I didn't know you knew my Twitter nest.

Or what is it called where you tweet?

RegDwighт

I even know your flickr nest.

tchrist

22:13

@RegDwighт s/(?=listening)/g/

Cerberus

That I know.

RegDwighт

And now you know more still.

Cerberus

Indeed.

RegDwighт

@tchrist what is this grammar?

Cerberus

Then again, you are a bird. Of course you would know.

You spy on my twitter nest or tree or whatever while I sleep.

tchrist

22:14

@RegDwighт Just a regex lookahead. Use s/(listening)/g$1/ if you prefer more copying.

@Cerberus The treetops, all the night long.

Cerberus

Not I.

RegDwighт

@tchrist I'm not sure I understand what it is doing to my sentence.

tchrist

@RegDwighт Making the dog glisten.

Cerberus

I truly cannot understand how people can talk on and about network sites—nay, transform their entire phone into one—all the time without embarrassment.

It is a secret sin, at best.

RegDwighт

Well you are talking on a network site right now, about another network site. In fact you are talking about all network sites.

Cerberus

22:16

Oops...

RegDwighт

2 l8

Cerberus

How is this a network site anyway?

I'm not networking. I have no friends list here.

It doesn't revolve around networking mechanics.

RegDwighт

Wait, you think everyone on FB has friends?

Cerberus

Of course not. A friends list. Entirely unrelated to friendship.

RegDwighт

I am on FB and I don't have a friends list. I don't even have a password.

Cerberus

22:18

You have lost it?

RegDwighт

I don't remember.

Cerberus

OK.

RegDwighт

Perhaps I didn't have it in the first place.

Cerberus

Then you might as well not be on it.

RegDwighт

Actually I googled my name today, what's the term for this, vanity googling? So anyway I googled myself today only to find that an incredible amount of newspapers have published stuff of mine.

Johan Larsson

22:19

@Cerberus meh, the group of regs is pretty consistent here. The similarity to a list of friends is bigger than the difference imo'

RegDwighт

I wasn't aware that I was a published photographer in Austria and Turkey.

Johan Larsson

waiting for puppy to wake up so I can walk him and then go to sleep

Cerberus

Oh! So not only have you forgotten your Facebook account, you have also forgotten your foreign triple-lives.

tchrist

@RegDwighт What, you’re not a Danish porn star? I thought everybody was.

Cerberus

@JohanLarsson None of my real friends are here.

That I know of.

A chat room really isn't a network site.

Johan Larsson

22:22

you are my friends for sure

Cerberus

The point is, a network site has no topic. No common interest. It's just an empty shell.

Eh thanks!

tchrist

0

Q: Can I use lardy-dardy to describe a man's gay lisp and gesture?

If this is not OK, 1.how can I ever use lardy-dardy? 2.What is the better way to describe it?3.Is there a new generation of buzzwords to use? Thanx!

Cerberus

But I have never met you.

RegDwighт

@Cerberus which is true of life as well.

tchrist

Uh oh.

Cerberus

22:23

Yes, but at least it is real, instead of on a website.

And zealous networkers are incredibly annoying btw. Really against every rule of etiquette ever conceived.

Johan Larsson

@Cerberus that is the best part

Cerberus

Is it?

That's not very nice...

cries in corner

Johan Larsson

did not mean it like that

RegDwighт

@Cerberus posting on a website is life. It will be deduced from your lifetime.

Cerberus

@JohanLarsson I was joking.

@RegDwighт Meh.

By the way, since when is "camp" specifically gay?

RegDwighт

22:25

@Cerberus see, you just spent another second of your life on that.

Johan Larsson

@Cerberus I'm tired

Cerberus

To me, camp =~ tacky.

tchrist

I think it was from the summer of sixty something.

RegDwighт

Why did I say deduced, I meant deducted.

Johan Larsson

camp is some first person shooter strategy also

tchrist

22:26

Camp (style)

Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing or humorous because of its ridiculousness to the viewer. The concept is related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy". When the usage appeared, in 1909, it denoted: ostentatious, exaggerated, affected, theatrical, and effeminate behaviour, and, by the middle of the 1970s, the definition comprised: banality, artifice, mediocrity, and ostentation so extreme as to have perversely sophisticated appeal. American writer Susan Sontag's essay Notes on "Camp" (1964) emphasised its key e...

Cerberus

@RegDwighт At least I'm not looking at drunk pictures of you and reading your daily stories about how hung over you are.

Johan Larsson

do you camp in a tent?

RegDwighт

@Cerberus but you are.

tchrist

> Celebrities that are associated with camp personas include drag queens and performers such as Dame Edna Everage, Divine, RuPaul, and Liberace.

Not like them’s gay or anything.

Cerberus

Camp is not a sensibility...it is a perceived property of a thing observed.

RegDwighт

22:27

You are reading stories about Rafael van der Vaart, and looking at his pictures.

Cerberus

@RegDwighт Then you are too subtle.

I looked away as soon as possible.

RegDwighт

@Cerberus Never once was I accused of any such thing.

tchrist

> In the Season 8 episode 'Homer's Phobia' of American animated comedy series The Simpsons, gay secondary character John (played by gay director John Waters) defines to Homer Simpson the meaning of the word 'camp' to be tragically ludicrous, or ludicrously tragic: Homer gives a misinterpreted example of 'camp' as 'when a clown dies'.

Cerberus

@tchrist The 1970s description sounds most like how I perceive it.

Dolly Parton is the ultimum of campness.

@RegDwighт My swear words can be excessive like that.

tchrist

@Cerberus -ma

RegDwighт

22:30

Halle Berry is pregnant. At 46.

Cerberus

I mean, an ostentatious, effeminate gay man can be camp. But so can a dress.

@tchrist I believe it is mostly plastic by now, so...

Johan Larsson

@RegDwighт stop? (It was fun though)

RegDwighт

Actually I should be sleeping, so I am about to stop.

Also I am working on a shark.

Cerberus

Good night.

Scary!

A white shark?

RegDwighт

So I am kind of too busy to be wasting time on Dutch football players.

Cerberus

22:34

A hammer-head?

Then why...?

They should interest you even less than me.

RegDwighт

Also I am helping my wife with a jigsaw puzzle.

I am way too busy right now.

Cerberus

She needs help with that?

Very hectic.

Good luck.

RegDwighт

Well there are like fifty pieces left that all look exactly the same.

I am the specialist for that.

tchrist

> Malian authorities will give French President Francois Hollande another camel after the one they gave him in thanks for helping repel Islamist rebels was killed and eaten by the family he left it with in Timbuktu, an official in Mali said. A local government official in northern Mali said on Tuesday a replacement would be sent to France.

RegDwighт

So off I go.

Over and out.

tchrist

22:36

Off with you then.

Cerberus

Bai.

I'm sure the Élysée could use another camel in the courtyard.

Johan Larsson

22:52

puppy still has a perfect record of peeing indoors 0 times (Facebookish share)

Cerberus

Thanks!

Johan Larsson

sry

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…