English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

15:00

NOU

By next year, everyone in Britain will be behind a filter against "all" porn by default.

Preposterous.

And ISPs are doing this "voluntarily", under great pressure from that stupid Cameron.

RegDwighт

Huhuh, you said behind, huhuh.

Cerberus

Perv!

filters you

Robusto

15:16

@Cerberus Who does the Parliament think it is, the US Congress? Stealin' our stupidity ...

Cerberus

@Robusto What Parliament? It's "voluntary"...

Not even Americans are as prudish as the Brits.

Robusto

> Everything that is not mandatory is forbidden.

Cerberus

*as two people in Britain, who have foisted this thing upon the country

@Robusto Yeah, that's the problem.

Robusto

@Cerberus Well, I don't know about that. I'd put my money on a Bible Belt fundamentalist Christian for prudishness any day of the week.

Cerberus

Heh.

@Robusto And yet, your Internet censorship is centred around copyright rather than puritanism, as opposed to Britain.

Robusto

15:23

@Cerberus That's because Jesus was a corporation.

Cerberus

Umm...

Robusto

You know it's true.

Cerberus

I thought only evangelical churches were corporations.

Robusto

They are not-for-prophet corporations.

tchrist

@Cerberus The one with the positive slope is the good one.

Alraxite

15:39

Does anyone know the meaning of 'whip-happy'?

Cerberus

@Robusto But rather for-private-pockets corporations?

@tchrist Umm...

@Alraxite Someone who enjoys using and therefore often uses a whip.

tchrist

glares

Cerberus

That's what it would mean outside context.

Alraxite

Oh, you're correct! The person about whom it is said does indeed love to whip people with a rope. Thank you!

Cerberus

Yay!

Alraxite

15:47

@Cerberus But how did you figure that out? Is it supposed to be obvious that appending the word 'happy' after 'whip' would mean that a person likes to whip people? I mean, it's not obvious to me...

Cerberus

@Alraxite Yeah, that's what "-happy" has come to mean. It's idiomatic.

dictionary.reference.com/browse/-happy

Look, Dictionary.com has it too.

It's like a child that's happy with a toy. He uses it all the time.

Alraxite

@Cerberus Oh thank you. You really know about this stuff!

Robusto

@Cerberus It can also refer to someone who is dazed from the effect of something: cf. slap-happy (the original meaning).

Cerberus

@Alraxite You're welcome!

@Robusto Hmm but doesn't that only apply to that specific combination?

Robusto

@Cerberus No, it can be used apart from that.

Cerberus

15:54

Right.

tchrist

17:16

-2

Q: Have there been any movements/tendencies that to remove definite and indefinite articles from English in the recent history of English?

My question is if there were some "movements" that propose to remove definitive and indefinite articles completely in the last 100 or 200 years (or even more older). E.g. "a book" will be just "book" "the book" will be just "book" If you think this is weird, well, for a non native speaker of...

Oh just fricking close it.

We have Czech speaker arguing that he can say English sentence better without article.

As you see, my previous sentence above sounds like pidgin English.

Joseph Weissman

17:30

"Trigger-happy"...

I can't really call to mind too many other -happy formulations in general circulation

--Though it's often used as an 'extender' for one-off constructions. "He's salad-happy this week" or whatever.

(Sort of a vapid/meaningless usage but definitely one I hear with some regularity.)

Johan Larsson

@tchrist I saw Pica pica catch an Anguis fragilis today

tchrist

18:08

@JohanLarsson You saw a magpie catch an eel?

I suppose I should look up the eel.

Your eel is a reptile. How odd!

I’m highly unclear on the difference between legless lizards and snakes. They’re both Squamata.

But it looks like an eel, so there. :)

I quite imagine a magpie would eat a lizard here if he could.

But I normally think of roadrunners as the lizard-hunters.

French for eel is l’anguille and Spanish is la anguila. That’s why I figured it was an eel.

Not that la anguila blanca and el águila blanca have stresses on different syllables, which is how you tell them apart.

Johan Larsson

@tchrist I think the difference is that it can drop its tail, don't remember what it is called. But he sure looks and quacks like a snake.

tchrist

Snakes have tails, too, but they aren’t disposable.

You know where a snake’s tail starts, right?

Glass lizard

The glass lizards or glass snakes, are a genus, Ophisaurus (from the Greek 'snake-lizard'), of reptiles that resemble snakes, but are actually lizards. Although most species have no legs, their head shapes, movable eyelids, and external ear openings identify them as lizards. A few species have very small, stub-like legs near their rear vents. These are vestigial organs, meaning they have evolved and are no longer in use. These animals are also known as jointed snakes. They reach lengths of up to , but about two-thirds of this is the tail. Glass lizards feed on insects, spiders, other s...

> Their common name is because they are easily broken; like many lizards, they have the ability to deter predation by dropping off part of the tail which can break into several pieces, like glass. The tail remains mobile, distracting the predator, while the lizard becomes motionless, allowing eventual escape.

Johan Larsson

18:24

@tchrist no

tchrist

@JohanLarsson At its anus.

Johan Larsson

ok makes sense

tchrist

We don’t have your Anguis genus here.

Apparently we do have some Anguidae in the American Southeast though.

The English seems to be "slow worms" for Anguis.

Hm.

First they’re eels, then they’re worms. Poor lizards!

> Slow worms can be distinguished from snakes by several features: their eyelids, which snakes lack entirely; their small ear openings which again snakes lack; and their tongues, which are notched in the centre rather than completely forked like a snake's.

Yeah, like that makes them easy to tell apart.

Johan Larsson

slow worm is a pretty good name though, they seem pretty relaxed. They don't even move when one walks past them.

maybe not the worm part, no need to add more confusion, a lizard that looks like a snake let's call it a worm

tchrist

But not a spineless worm.

HaLaBi

19:21

guys...

what do you call the fence in stairs..

u know, the fence at the side of the stairs so you won't fall from the stairs?

@tchrist hi

Mitch

19:45

@tchrist dude, cleanup in aisle ELU!

Yeah I thought it should have been closed with prejudice at first.

But there's something of interest there.

@HaLaBi railing.

also for balconies and external walkways.

But what if it is thicker? like, not see through?

It's not a fence then but may be... a wall?

tchrist

@Mitch I liked your previous comment on your own answer.

@HaLaBi Railing.

Mitch

@tchrist I really thought that Czech had articles before names like German. Oh well.

@tchrist what is it if it is as thick aas a wall, like not see-through?

tchrist

Then it’s a wall.

Matt Эллен

@HaLaBi bannister

tchrist

20:08

Well yeah.

Derfder

20:35

Could you suggest some institute in the UK or US that I could contact in this issue (dropping articles movements)? Which English language institute could have such informations? I would like to find something like Ústav pro jazyk český Akademie věd ČR ujc.cas.cz Could you help me?

@tchrist "he can say English sentence better without article." I am asking if there has been such a movement. Why should such question be closed? Is question about history and evolution of English not allowed on this website? Sorry, but you attitude is very impolite. I would expect more open-minded approach from a user with 77k points.

Mitch

21:13

@MattЭллен oh yeah, right. it's not really a railing inside a house.

what is a balustrade?

I mean, I think I know what a balustrade is, but doesn't it apply here?

Matt Эллен

welp, I've only just heard that word. Wiktionary tells me it's a type of railing on a parapet or balcony.

Mitch

@Derfder There's no such -government- sponsored institute like the Academia Francaise. There are academic things, like individual professors of linguistics (having a specialty in English), quasi-academic things like dictionary makers (OED, Merriam Webster, etc), and non-acadmic language authorities like style guides. Oh yeah the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (CGEL) (and similar).

@MattЭллен yeah, I was thinking it was the thick thing I mentioned, a railing is the 'see-through' fence on a balcony, but if it is made out of concrete or not see through it is a balustrade, right?

@Derfder except for direct contacts with linguists and historians of English, I can't think of institute you can just ask like that.

I think there's some difficulty with your line of questioning based on your choice of words. You keep mentioning 'movement' and that has a meaning I'm not sure you intend (you may well intend it, but it is not clear). 'movement' makes it sound like an intentional drive to purge articles from English (which is what I think could explain the downvoting and argumentation against you.

I think you really are interested in simply a 'trend', an unintentional historical change, like the regularization of verbs.

I think a style guide is your best bet....look up things about articles in them and you'll see if there is a trend about them.

Cerberus

23:22

@JosephWeissman I don't know, I mostly encounter "-happy" some some kind of weapon or instrument.

Like "close-happy" on this very website.

Happy to use the instrument of closure on questions.

Joseph Weissman

23:52

Sure. Heh.

Cerberus

Do you have any friends without smartphones?

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