English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

4:01 PM

@JasperLoy I meant, when I named myself after Star Wars characters, the only possible first impression is that I am a Star Wars geek.

@JasperLoy Whereas aedia can be at least: a moth, backwards a idea, end of encyclopaedia.

Grace Note

@aedia Ooh, moths?

RegDwight

0

Q: Collective agreement: "their risks" or "their risk"

"Individuals with high LDL cholesterol levels increase their risk of developing coronary heart disease." Would it be "their risks"? Does each individual have a separate risk...therefore "risks"? Or do they collectively have a risk? Similarly, "Most Americans eat more than enough protein in th...

grammar

3

Q: "on their back" or "on their backs"?

After the therapy, eight children (43%) became able to crawl/move on their back. Or should I use "on their backs"? Singular because each child only has one back, or plural because we're dealing with eight backs?

concord

10

Q: "Only those who qualify will be awarded a certificate" or "Only those who qualify will be awarded certificates" ?

In my life, I always confused with choosing plural or singular form to represent one-one correspondence notion. Only those who qualify will be awarded a certificate. or Only those who qualify will be awarded certificates. ? Another example, let us consider the following: "Each stud...

grammar grammatical-number

2

Q: Do two people have "breaths"?

In some books, I see the use of the word "breaths" in the phrase "they held their breaths". Is this correct? And if it is, should I go by the Ngram (below) in spite of grammaticality? Or are both correct? (If so, I would go with the more popular "held their breath".)

word-choice grammaticality grammatical-number popularity

I gotta commute. Laterz.

aedia

@GraceNote Sorcerer is my favorite:

Grace Note

That's... a lot of matching questions

aedia

Aedia leucomelas

The Eastern Alchymist, Sweet Potato Leaf Worm or Sorcerer (Aedia leucomelas) is a moth of the Noctuidae family. It is found in large parts of the world, ranging from Europe all over Asia up to Japan. The subspecies Aedia leucomelas acronyctoides is found in Australia. The wingspan is about 35 mm. The moth flies from June to September depending on the location. The larvae mainly feed on Convolvulus species, including Convolvulus sepium, Convolvulus erubescens and Convolvulus arvensis, but also on Ipomoea pes-caprae, Ipomoea batatas and perhaps Chondrilla juncea. References Externa...

Grace Note

4:04 PM

@aedia Hee! So cute! ♪

aedia

I have stumbled across some other aedias, though, including somebody's diary and some sort of furniture company. So I'm not that unique.

Grace Note

@aedia As it were, there is the occasional confusion between my current name of choice and a particular company by the same name.

Rhodri

@GraceNote Once again, you have a strange definition of cute!

Grace Note

@Rhodri Par for the course.

Rhodri

Somebody had to say it, and Reg wasn't here.

aedia

4:21 PM

@GraceNote So there is. I never even thought of that. I suppose wordstickingtogethering is the trend.

Grace Note

@aedia I was always a fan of spaces, myself

Mana

Oh my god, why does everything about the English Stack Exchange look so cool?

Rhodri

@Mana Cool? Damn. Someone change the wallpaper, we're supposed to be incomprehensible, not cool.

Grace Note

@Mana Have you seen the Security Stack Exchange?

user19161

@Mana You mean the chat? We are here to practise English you see...

Shog9

4:31 PM

@Mana Blockquotes don't. Not anymore...

Mana

I even get four replies at once!

That's at least four more than I'm used to handling.

Rhodri

@Mana We can ignore you if you'd prefer. We're flexible like that.

Mana

@GraceNote Oh man, that banner is crazy. Jin really gets into this stuff.

@Rhodi You sound like this chat's badp. Are you this chat's badp?

Grace Note

@Mana Not really, no

Mana

tsk

Rhodri

4:37 PM

@Mana Not as such. I'm just standing in while no one else is prepared to be mean :-)

user19161

Just a reminder to everyone: I think it is good practice to make the question body self-contained and the title a summary of that, not chop the question into two parts in the title and body.

Rhodri

@JasperLoy Chopped questions like that are fair game for editing, IMHO.

user19161

@Rhodri Yes, but there are just too many here. If one edits all of them, they can get the copy editor badge. :) Are you Italian? Your name sounds very exotic.

Rhodri

@JasperLoy I'm half-Welsh, which is where the name is from.

Rhodri the Great

Rhodri the Great (in Welsh, Rhodri Mawr; occasionally in English, Roderick the Great) (c. 820 – 878) was King of Gwynedd from 844 until his death. He was the first Welsh ruler to be called 'Great', and the first to rule most of present-day Wales. He is referred to as "King of the Britons" by the Annals of Ulster. In some later histories, he is referred to as "King of Wales" but he did not rule all of Wales nor was this term used contemporaneously to describe him. Lineage and inheritance The son of Merfyn Frych, King of Gwynedd, and Nest ferch Cadell of the Royal line of Powys, he inhe...

Grace Note

Randomly and not really related, but badp is Italian.

Mana

4:49 PM

@GraceNote It's all related. I've added that to my flowchart of connections between Rhodri and badp already.

RegDwight

1

Q: What exactly is meant by this statement?

Someone on a forum wrote this: This is not to say its not a bad system. With some context: This is not a component system. This is not to say its not a bad system, but in this case you should be able to cast the pointer to any of the interfaces (or just cast it to a Gun object and it sh...

meaning word-choice word-usage

Mana

Mistaken for Italian <--> Actually Italian

RegDwight

0

Q: What exactly is meant by this statement?

http://hubpages.com/hub/How-many-Days-can-a-Man-stand-without-Sleep: “If you can't sleep, don't count sheep. Talk to the shepherd.”

meaning-in-context

Jul 11 at 9:43, by RegDwight

Another awesomely descriptive title.

Alenanno

Italian? What? lol

@RegDwight ahah hey Reg

Grace Note

@RegDwight Is it fair to make the title What does “If you can't sleep, don't count sheep. Talk to the shepherd.” mean??

RegDwight

4:51 PM

It's a must.

Rhodri

I'm beginning to wonder about Pacerier. His question style is awfully.... awful.

user19161

@Alenanno The dri makes it possible, but not the rho though.

Alenanno

@JasperLoy Yes, Rho is not italian at all

:)

Grace Note

@Rhodri Oh, I didn't even realize that was Pacerier. I haven't gotten to memorizing that rhino

RegDwight

@Rhodri Note how he also copied all three tags from that other question.

Mana

4:52 PM

That's kind of hilarious.

user19161

@Alenanno Right, I used to sing Italian opera. I can pronounce the words though I don't understand them.

Alenanno

@JasperLoy Really? Great!

Rhodri

@JasperLoy "Rh" is a very Welsh phoneme, like "Ll" :-)

user19161

@Alenanno Nessun Dorma - Vincero!

Grace Note

@RegDwight It seems the question has been deleted.

Alenanno

4:53 PM

@JasperLoy thumbs up lol :D

Grace Note

Oh, nevermind. Someone just submitted an edit. Or something.

I would touch up the body, though. It's otherwise quite... um... lacking, so to speak.

Mana

I don't think any one is in a position to touch up the body with extra details that aren't redundant, except for the author him/herself.

Grace Note

I could prepend something like "I do not understand the meaning of this phrase, as shown in <link>". It doesn't do all that much for redundancy, but it does make it still something more than just repeating the same thing now mentioned in the title.

Mana

Fair enough.

Odinulf

"The Incomprehensible Room"?

Really?

Alenanno

4:56 PM

@Odinulf You'll understand soon enough :D

Mana

Yeah man.

Odinulf

I get it

It's funny

Rhodri

►

Odinulf

Interesting

Does anyone actually watch that?

Alenanno

Well, if you like the music...

Rhodri

4:57 PM

@Odinulf Which that?

Odinulf

Hmm

Rhodri

PS2OS?

Odinulf

Sure.

I personally like classic rock

Everyone's taste in music is different

But hey

Rhodri

As a musician, I find it fascinating watching pop stars have to use actual vocal technique :-)

Odinulf

Those are pop stars?

Rhodri

4:58 PM

Oh yes.

Odinulf

That's why its interesting to people.

user19161

@Rhodri Very pop style of singing, and I must add that the aria was truncated.

RegDwight

Mar 12 at 2:03, by RegDwight

►

Odinulf

Oh

aedia

@GraceNote The link doesn't even give context. It's some sort of saying...

But this isn't one of them.

Rhodri

4:59 PM

@JasperLoy Yes, they truncate everything. Partly this is because the performers only get a week to learn it.

Grace Note

@aedia Given what little I hear about the user in question, that's... not surprising, honestly.

Odinulf

youtube.com/watch?v=B1BdQcJ2ZYY&feature=player_embedded

user19161

@RegDwight That was not my cup of tea, but I am having one now!

Rhodri

@JasperLoy By strange coincidence, so am I.

I am not @JasperLoy. Honest.

Grace Note

I'm having hot chocolate, though I seem to have been a bit light on the "hot" part, so it's more of "chocolate milk with marshmallows" right now

user19161

5:03 PM

@Rhodri Yes I believe you because I really am having tea. But I think it was truncated more to fit in to the time slot.

user19161

@GraceNote Yummy...

aedia

►

I may have mentioned that I had an odd childhood. I was also raised to sing along with Swann and Flanders.

Rhodri

@aedia Nothing wrong with that.

Grace Note

@aedia Not that I know Swann and Flanders, but that doesn't sound like an odd childhood as much as an enriched one

Rhodri

@GraceNote You quite possibly do, actually. They single-handedly (double-handedly?) changed the accepted pronunciation of "gnu" for one thing.

Flanders and Swann

The British duo Flanders and Swann were the actor and singer Michael Flanders (1922–1975) and the composer, pianist and linguist Donald Swann (1923–1994), who collaborated in writing and performing comic songs. Between 1956 and 1967 they performed some of their songs in their long-running two-man revues At the Drop of a Hat and At the Drop of Another Hat. Both revues were recorded in concert along with several studio-based tracks. Musical partnership Flanders and Swann both attended Westminster School—where in July and August 1940 they staged a revue called Go To It—and Chr...

More famously, the Hippo song: "Mud, mud, glorious mud"

Grace Note

5:10 PM

@Rhodri I recognize naught from their discography

Rhodri

Ah well. Such is culture :-)

Grace Note

Peter and the Wolf was one of the more memorable culture elements of my childhood

user19161

For those interested, this is my favourite version of Nessun Dorma. youtube.com/watch?v=ONOejTl0WQE

Grace Note

Not sure whether that's just typical or not, though.

aedia

@Rhodri The Reluctant Cannibal, too... "Me, chief assistant to the assistant chief!"

Rhodri

5:13 PM

"I won't eat people!" "COMMUNIST!"

Grace Note

I feel like I'm missing out on yet another thing that should've been in my childhood.

aedia

@Rhodri "I won't let another man past my lips!"

@GraceNote I love Peter and the Wolf too.

Rhodri

@aedia "Have you been talking to one of your mothers again?"

Cerberus

Interesting, that pop-opera show.

Grace Note

@aedia High five ♪

Cerberus

5:14 PM

Fascinating, how much more attractive those people become when they sing opera.

Watching then move about and speak in their own accent afterwards is quite a discomfiture.

Mana

I liked Thomas the Tank Engine.

Cerberus

Che cosa?

Grace Note

> And so he chanted, 'I think I can, I think I can!' But alas, he only thought he could.

And once again, I find myself thinking about Brave Little Toaster.

Rhodri

@GraceNote There is a certain similarity. Thomas is a good few decades older than the Brave Little Toaster, though. Positively venerable.

Grace Note

@Rhodri Quite so, quite so

Mana

5:19 PM

sips tea

Cerberus

same

Rhodri

Looks at @Mana and @Cerberus suspiciously.

Cerberus

We aren't suspect; we're just sipping tea...

Mana

But...I fit in so well here. Why would you look at me that way?!

Rhodri

@Mana That would be exactly why I look at you that way :-)

Mana

5:23 PM

►

I find that this song goes well with lounging in this chatroom.

aedia

@Mana Your useless trivia for the day: Thomas the Tank Engine and Winnie the Pooh were both invented by dads for sons named Christopher.

RegDwight

@Mana Too mainstream for my tastes.

Feb 2 at 14:26, by RegDwight

►

Mana

@aedia Thank you for that useless trivia. It will become my next pickup line.

Alenanno

@RegDwight nice one

user19161

Talking about milo the drink yesterday, there really is a user called milo!

user19161

5:30 PM

We should now merge this chat room with the one at Musical Practice and Performance...

aedia

@Mana Only one child continued his father's work. The other felt exploited and died estranged from his parents. I do not recommend you make your dates guess which. It may shatter their childhood memories.

GnomeSlice

@aedia That's a risk I'll have to take.

Mana

Please don't tell me the latter was Christopher Robin @aedia

user19161

@GnomeSlice Hello! Lots of gamers here tonight.

Mana

NOT CHRISTOPHER ROBIN :(

GnomeSlice

5:33 PM

@JasperLoy I hang out in English from time to time. =]

Grace Note

@Mana We won't tell you, then ♪

GnomeSlice

It's @GraceNote, everyone hit the deck.

Grace Note

@GnomeSlice This isn't the Bridge, there is no deck.

simchona

morning all

Grace Note

There's probably a fancy porch, though

G'morn, @simchona

GnomeSlice

5:35 PM

@GraceNote I should hope so.

Matt Ellen

@GraceNote I like to think of it more like a jungle gym

hi @simchona!

GnomeSlice

►

Good lord, what have I done. I can't turn it off...

Grace Note

@MattEllen It wasn't until I was too tall that I ever learned what the purpose of monkey bars were.

GnomeSlice

@GraceNote Monkey bars were the bane of my childhood.

Matt Ellen

@GraceNote :( that's sad. Monkey bars are great fun!

Grace Note

5:37 PM

@MattEllen So are swings. Long legs are a curse as much as they are a blessing.

simchona

Submitted my morning flag

user19161

@simchona What did you flag?

simchona

1

Q: What does "to yield something" mean?

Example sentences: ...applied to the incoming object coordinates to yield eye coordinates. ...applies the projection matrix to yield clip coordinates. Should I rephrase this, and what does "yield" mean in such contexts?

phrases phrasal-verbs

on the basis that searching for "yield" in google gives the answer

Mana

Can someone please tell me how to optimize eating the contents of a yogurt cup with a spoon? I'm trying to improve my yogurt consumption technique.

simchona

the OP asks what the verb means, which is what the dictionary gives

Grace Note

5:41 PM

@simchona It is a dictionary question, through and through

simchona

@Mana use a smaller spoon

GnomeSlice

Use a knife, like a real man.

user19161

@Mana Or use a bigger cup.

Grace Note

@Mana Gain the ability to draw food into your mouth like a vacuum. Certain monster corpses are likely to provide this kind of mutation. Afterwards, well, it's easy.

6

GnomeSlice

@GraceNote slurp

Mana

5:43 PM

@GnomeSlice I'm thinking one of those hunter knives. Agreed?

GnomeSlice

@Mana Yes, of course.

simchona

@GraceNote I want to star that but does that help the transcript?

GnomeSlice

@simchona I believe it does.

simchona

@GnomeSlice starred it is

GnomeSlice

The English SE transcript is too responsible anyway.

Grace Note

5:44 PM

@simchona The current starred posts involve: poop, pestering @Robusto, pickup lines, and a youTube video. It'll be in good company.

user19161

@GraceNote And breasts.

simchona

and here I am trying to be good

Grace Note

@JasperLoy I was figuring there would at least be some delay before someone obviously piped up with that.

Matt Ellen

and sighing

Grace Note

Yay @nohat!

simchona

5:45 PM

he was waiting for it

@GraceNote were you refreshing the question too?

Grace Note

@simchona That I was

simchona

@GraceNote I think we're going to get along just fine

GnomeSlice

simchona

PORTALLLLLLLLL

Grace Note

@simchona I look forward to a wonderful and colorful friendship ♪

RegDwight

5:47 PM

Methinks new gravatar Gnome hez.

GnomeSlice

@RegDwight Haha, hello again, and yes.

Grace Note

@RegDwight Didn't we spend months changing the first one?

GnomeSlice

@GraceNote And I didn't even use any of your suggestions. You guys suck.

RegDwight

Apr 29 at 23:00, by RegDwight

This is clearly the wrong site. You must ask over -----> there

simchona

on a side note, why is there no way to PM anyone without making a public room?

Grace Note

5:49 PM

@GnomeSlice To wit, I never actually visited that room. But I would've suggested something with more cannons.

user19161

@simchona Because this is not a matchmaking site.

GnomeSlice

@GraceNote That does sound like a good idea...

Shog9

@simchona Ask @Jez

RegDwight

@GnomeSlice See how often your "You guys suck" got starred? That's right my dear, zero times. See how often F'x's "You guys rock" got starred? That's right my dear, over 9000.

simchona

@JasperLoy neither was neopets

Matt Ellen

5:50 PM

@RegDwight He's more powerful than a farmer with a gun

Shog9

92

Q: Any way to send a personal message to another user?

There has been quite a few times that I wished I could send a message to another user on SO - not ask a question for everyone to see, but just a short message informing them of something or requesting them to do something. Are there any plans to allow this to happen in the future? Related: Ho...

feature-request status-declined stackoverflow messaging

aedia

@simchona Aww, I kinda miss neopets.

RegDwight

Which proves at least two things: a) ELU is superior to grace and b) rock is more popular than suck. Brb drawing an Ngram.

Rhodri

@simchona But we enjoy telling people to get a room.

Grace Note

> The consistent response to this is that it's a bad idea, because: (1) It could hide information from the community: useful information transmitted privately is unavailable to other readers, subverting the core purpose of the site. (2) It could be used to harass other users ("Answer my question!", "Accept my answer!", "Yer momma so fat she overflows the stack!", etc...)

simchona

5:52 PM

"It could be used to harass other users ("Answer my question!", "Accept my answer!", "Yer momma so fat she overflows the stack!", etc...)"

lol

they saw right through me

i was brushing up on my yo mama jokes, using high level vocabulary

user19161

@simchona Actually you can comment to ask the questioner to accept your answer.

GnomeSlice

Haha.

RegDwight

@simchona Yo mama so dawg...

simchona

@JasperLoy And then be flagged as inappropriate

Grace Note

@JasperLoy Yes, but comments are public. We can have people see this. It's a lot different from private pestering

Shog9

5:53 PM

@JasperLoy so gauche!

user19161

Hmm, now I wonder who @simchona wants to PM and what the real purpose is...

Grace Note

Yes, any system that employs private messaging expects these risks but employs it because they feel the benefits outweigh those risks. But we don't get nearly the same benefit, because it doesn't mesh with how our site generally operates.

simchona

to be honest? @GraceNote

Grace Note

Hejudas, it took 2 years just to get chat, that's how anti-social-networky we were

@simchona Yes?

simchona

oh, no I was answering Jasper's question

user19161

5:55 PM

@simchona This is getting too cheesy.

simchona

-.-

aedia

@simchona Not inappropriate if you merely tell new users how to accept an answer :)

simchona

@aedia "You see that checkmark? Click the one next to my answer. No, not that guy's answer. Just mine."

Also, where are you all located? You're always up before me

user19161

But just to allay everyone's fears like I did yesterday, there is no speed dating going on in this room!

Grace Note

@simchona You should ask @MichaelMyers about some of the more brazen posts with arrows and everything pointing at the checkmark

@simchona Western Massachussetts, US.

Shog9

5:56 PM

@JasperLoy The fact that you needed to state it twice seems to suggest it might not be entirely true

simchona

Hawaii, US

aedia

@simchona UTC -4:00 does that.

simchona

(we get the short end of the GMT stick)

Rhodri

@Shog9 Hey, Kit's not here, it's probably true. At the moment.

Shog9

"There's no speed-dating here, I've stated it thrice: what I tell you three times is true!"

simchona

5:58 PM

quartice?

Grace Note

@simchona I can only think of one reason that would actually warrant a private message to contact me, and if you had that one reason, I don't think you'd want to send me a private message.

simchona

@GraceNote ... color me confused

user19161

@GraceNote That is a brilliant reply.

Shog9

"GraceNote, I didn't want to embarrass you publicly, but... We're all really sick of mushrooms."

Grace Note

@simchona If you're confused then that's all the more reason why I know you don't have that reason and so you don't need a private message to tell me or ask me whatever. ♪

Mana

5:59 PM

badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger

Grace Note

@Shog9 For 10 years I hated mushrooms, actually.

simchona

MUSHROOM MUSHROOM

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…