Language Overflow

Damkerng T.

00:49

@Færd It's still something just sounds a little fancier than programs to me.

Especially when it's not about "putting to use" but it's a "thing that is put to use", like the code itself.

But now app is everywhere!

CowperKettle

01:38

Swadee khrap

Damkerng T.

03:30

Sawasdee khrap!

2

Q: Twice as short, twice as cheap, twice as slow?

Is it grammatically correct to say: This book is twice as expensive as that one. That book is twice as cheap as this one. This rope is twice as long as that one. That rope is twice as short as this one. UPDATE: Thank you, guys. I really appreciate your answers. The reason I ...

Apparently, some users on ELL feel all right with such phrases as twice as cheap as $50 or ten times as cheap as $50. I can't say what those prices would be, though.

Also, ten times cheaper than $50.

Hmm... maybe ten times cheaper than a book that costs $50 could make sense, if it was compared to another book at a price of, say, $52.

Anonymous

06:28

@DamkerngT. Yeah, it's not always clear.

Anonymous

But I think most people would agree "twice as cheap as $50" is likely to be $25.

Anonymous

I don't know.

Anonymous

One thing's for sure: people really do say things like that.

Damkerng T.

@snailplane I think some people would say similar things in Thai as well, which would give me a good laugh. :P

2

A: 'Shot' or 'Filmed' to overcome its ambiguity?

Filmed seems perfectly natural to me. Interestingly, it's still commonly used despite the fact that cameras nowadays have no film! I've heard videoed but it just doesn't seem to be as common as filmed in my experience. A quick search shows the difference in popularity. Recorded or taped migh...

Some nice charts!

I'm pretty sure caught on Snapchat is grammatical. I'm also sure that it's not in the corpus. :P

CowperKettle

07:33

If we have a set of measurements reflecting the dependence of Optical Density upon the Host Cell Protein content of a sample, can we use the phrase "relating" in this way:

> Figure 1 presents a calibration curve relating optical density and host cell protein concentration.

Cardinal

08:15

@CowperKettle I would use correlating, however it is a good question. ^_^

Also, I would like to construct a more succinct sentence:

> Figure 1 illustrates the correlation between optical density and host cell protein concentration.

2

Avicenna

@CowperKettle relating optical density to host cell protein concentration.

Hi

Cardinal

Hi

@Avicenna nice point

Avicenna

It's OK with and, but I feel it's better with to.

Cardinal

yes, it is a matter of collocation

oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/relate

Avicenna

Correlation is a better choice! Good choice @Cardinal!

Cardinal

08:25

amazon.com/How-Relate-Science-Religion-Multidimensional/dp/…

@Avicenna Thanks, I think we can use the verb "connect", too

Avicenna

The emphsise should be on the dependency of x on y.

Cardinal

nods -- exactly

CowperKettle

08:47

@Cardinal thank you!

@Avicenna Thank you too!

If I have a table cell that says that some parameter is "in compliance" with the requirements - there's only one word in the cell - соответствует - meaning "in compliance" - what is the natural way to put it in English? "In compliance"? Or "OK"? Or "Match"?

Cardinal

@CowperKettle your welcome

I cannot understand this "some parameter is "in compliance" with the requirements"
As matter of the fact that, in compliance means something like obeying some rules or being abide to.

CowperKettle

Exactly.

Cardinal

Do you want something like "compatible"

CowperKettle

The measured parameters obey the rules.

The table says that.

Cardinal

nods- Aha that is a good question

I am wondering that, there may be a column for that goal to determine whether a row is in compliance or not.

CowperKettle

09:10

What?

> solution name | parameter | result | acceptance criteria

Cardinal

I mean, a column with a heading for that purpose

CowperKettle

This is the headline of the table

"Acceptance criteria" reads "RSD below 20%"

"Parameter" reads "RSD of absorbance for 10 test solutions"

Since it would be tedious to write out the numerical values for all the 10 solutions in "Result", the researchers wrote simply "IN COMPLIANCE"

I mean, the "result" cell is too small to put all the numbers in.

Cardinal

I see

CowperKettle

Furthermore, these results are described in another table, on a previous page.

Cardinal

nods, I can only suggest "agreeing"

in addition to what you already mentioned

CowperKettle

09:17

My editor said she uses "conforms"

Cardinal

I see, I think that's a good option

CowperKettle

nods

You think you know English until you venture into a street in London or into a method validation report on your PC.

Cardinal

:))

I am still in lower a level; I don't have the self-confidence to think that I learned English!

CowperKettle

(0:

Avicenna

@CowperKettle I didn't really help. :-)

CowperKettle

09:37

Sorry, Avi, I'm lurking. (0:

I mean translating stuff.

Avicenna

09:52

@CowperKettle I like Avi!

:-)

CowperKettle

10:31

(0:

I wonder if we calculate RSD for 10 solutions or between 10 solutions.

> The relative standard deviation of host cell protein concentration levels for 10 LOQ solutions does not exceed 20%. (??)

Meaning, we have 10 solutions, we measured the HSP level of each solution, and then calculated the RSD for the 10 solutions, showing how much the levels deviate.

Pokemon Go in Russia!

> We zealots, made up of stiff clay,
The sour-looking children of sorrow,
While not over-jolly today,
Resolve to be wretched tomorrow.
We can’t for a certainty tell
What mirth may molest us on Monday;
But, at least, to begin the week well,
Let us all be unhappy on Sunday.

(0:

user208178

11:09

hi all

user208178

@snailplane so why are you visiting a hospital these days if you don't mind me asking? I hope everyone gets well and stays well.

johnchae

12:02

Good evening guys.

Today I learned something new. I always thought that "Here you are" had the same meaning as "You are here", and in the sense of "Here is your thing, take it" you should rather say "Here you go". Turns out I was wrong the whole time :/

Araucaria

13:00

@johnchae That's correct. However, sometimes 'here you are' can mean 'you are here'! So you weren't completely wrong after all :)

"They said you were here. And here you are!"

"Ah, here you are. I've been looking everywhere for you!"

johnchae

@Araucaria Got it! Thank you!

Silly me always correcting people when they said "Here you are" instead of "Here you go" when handing something over to another.

I always thought that "here you are" only had the meaning as "you are here".

:/

By the way, @Araucaria which one do you use frequently when you hand something over to another person?

Here you go or Here you are?

Araucaria

@johnchae Both really. Actually maybe go most often. I also use There you go too :)

johnchae

@Araucaria Thank you!

Araucaria

@johnchae My pleasure!

0

A: How to pronunce letter X in english?

As a rule of thumb, the prefix ex- is pronounced /ks/ when the prefix is stressed.: 'excellent 'exit 'exile 'execute When this prefix is not stressed, then if the first sound in the root (the part after the prefix) begins with a voiced sound, the prefix will be pronounced with /gz/: ex'am e...

@CowperKettle Sounds like a Yorkshireman's poem!

johnchae

Nice! Speaking of which, I once had a hard time trying to pronounce X at the end of a word, like Fox...

Araucaria

13:15

@johnchae Are you Vietnamese speaker?

johnchae

@Araucaria Ah. You forgot me :(

Yes, I am :p

Araucaria

@johnchae Phew, you had me worried!

johnchae

6

Q: "I don't know if they escaped" / "If they escaped, they're long gone" - Conditional protases and interrogative clauses

English, conditional protases [ read "antecedents" ] bear a close resemblance to interrogative clauses. For example, they are often identical to subordinate closed interrogative clauses: If Bertha accepted that offer, she's crazy. I don't know if Bertha accepted that offer. They can be ident...

comparative-linguistics conditionals

@Araucaria May I ask why?

Araucaria

@johnchae It's very difficult for speakers of tonal languages which have very few, if any, consonant sounds at the end of a syllable to pronounce the consonants at the ends of words in English, especially if they are plosive sounds. /ks/ is two sounds together, so it's very difficult indeed :)

Words like crisps are even worse!

Man_From_India

Hi @Araucaria how's life going?

CowperKettle

13:20

@Araucaria Haha

Araucaria

So words like fox can be very difficult for speakers of Thai or Vietnamese, for example. I seemed to remember that you were a Vietnamese speaker :)

@Man_From_India Good cheers! You?

@CowperKettle :D

Man_From_India

@Araucaria fine, it's been busy for the last few days.

Cardinal

@Araucaria Thanks to Persian, I do not share that problem. ^_^

Hi all

johnchae

@Araucaria Actually I sorted the X sound out long ago, after someone in ESL chatroom told me it should be pronounced as the sounds /ks/ just like your answer above. I had always mistaken it with /s/ before.

Araucaria

@johnchae You must be very good at languages then. Most of my Vietnamese speakers (students, I mean) have really big problems with syllable final consonant clusters!

@Cardinal Lucky you!

Cardinal

13:25

@Araucaria Yeah, but I was not very luck with this one: "months" :)

Araucaria

@Cardinal Have you tried this?

2

A: Pronunciation of plural form of words ending in "-th"

Usually, when people pronounce the word "months" there is a process of th cluster simplification. The unvoiced 'TH' sound, /θ/, gets dropped. /mʌnθs/ ----> /mʌns/ However, if you want to make the sound for this word so that it's very native speaker-like, then you need to be careful to make th...

johnchae

@Araucaria Actually, when I've learned that it's pronounced like /ks/, it has no longer been a problem for me. Before that, Google Now always showed me the results of Foss or something like that :p

Cardinal

I was perusing the related materials on the internet two days ago

Including, some very useful threads on WR

Araucaria

@Cardinal You can just leave out the 'th' as long as you make the /n/ on the back of your teeth :)

johnchae

Yeah, I also find it rather hard to pronounce words ending in "th" properly, and words with the r sound. Eg: Part, support...

Cardinal

13:30

The big problem was ( or somehow is! ) /s/ after the /th/

similarly, strengths :)

@johnchae I see, what is your mother language ?

Araucaria

@Cardinal Don't say the 'th'. Almost nobody else does. Same for strengths. There's no need to put a 'th' in there. English has a rule allowing us to drop the 'th' in words like that :-). So the best way to say the word properly is not to say the 'th'. If you leave it out, you will sound like a native speaker!

johnchae

@Cardinal Vietnamese. Let me record myself pronouncing those words. 5 minutes!

Cardinal

@Araucaria nods, almost all of the native said similar things as you

I mean when I was reading the stuff on the internet

@CowperKettle Is RSD the same standard deviation that we use in the maths?

Standard deviation

In statistics, the standard deviation (SD, also represented by the Greek letter sigma σ or the Latin letter s) is a measure that is used to quantify the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of data values. A low standard deviation indicates that the data points tend to be close to the mean (also called the expected value) of the set, while a high standard deviation indicates that the data points are spread out over a wider range of values. The standard deviation of a random variable, statistical population, data set, or probability distribution is the square root of its variance. It i...

CowperKettle

@Cardinal yes, only divided by the mean

In order to give you a percentage

So that you could compare apples and oranges, so to speak.

Cardinal

I am saying that, since standard deviation is a measure which characterized a set including elements. Especially, in research, researchers gather information by sampling an specific event

CowperKettle

13:43

You can compare different study populations, provided you only need to know how far their readings deviate from their means.

@Araucaria Are Yorkshirmen considered gloomy?

Cardinal

Yes, I am heavily engaged with such things

CowperKettle

You are a statistician?

johnchae

Guys, please have a listen to this: vocaroo.com/i/s0gUXAQVAJKa

Cardinal

Nope, but it is extensively used in communications engineering, especially in Wireless communications.

CowperKettle

Ah, cool!

Cardinal

13:48

> The relative standard deviation of host cell protein concentration levels for 10 LOQ solutions does not exceed 20%

This strikes me as they performed 10 independent trials for each LOQ

CowperKettle

I read for about 3 hours yesterday on statistics..

Cardinal

@CowperKettle It's cool

CowperKettle

No, they did it in triplicates, as they use to say (seemingly).

Cardinal

I changed the wording

I think it was ambiguous

CowperKettle

I made up "10 solutions", it was really a triplicate sample investigation.

johnchae

13:51

@Araucaria Can I have your thoughts on this: vocaroo.com/i/s0gUXAQVAJKa

Cardinal

Let me correct my comment

CowperKettle

(A "LOQ solution" here is just a solution used in the LOQ part of the validation study. Just a solution with a particular host cell protein concentration. You take three such solutions, check them using the ELISA technique, and calculate the RSD, which should be below 10%; if it's above that, there's something wrong with your procedure)

BBL

@Cardinal Turns out there's a simple formulation out there

Cardinal

This strikes me as they performed 10 experiments.
In each experiment, several trials have been performed.
Thus, for each LOQ we have a body of experiment and we calculate the SD.

CowperKettle

> Figure 2 presents a calibration curve of absorbance vs. host cell protein concentration. (the "vs." thing is quite concise)

Cardinal

Ok, my previous comment was ambiguous I could not delete it :(

I mean this : "This strikes me as they performed 10 independent trials for each LOQ"

CowperKettle

13:58

No, the trial is done to ensure that the analytical procedure has the required "Limit of Quantification" (LOQ), that is, it allows you to estimate the level of impurities in the drug starting from some specificed concentration of said impurity.

Araucaria

@CowperKettle They sure are. Maybe dour might be a better description ...

Cardinal

nods

CowperKettle

All I knew about Yorkshirmen prior to that was

> Hear a Yorkshireman, or worse, hear a Cornishman converse. I'd rather hear a choir singing flat.

BBL

Araucaria

@johnchae That's not you, is it?

johnchae

@Araucaria It's me :)

Is it that bad?

Araucaria

14:02

@johnchae No, you don't sound very Vietnamese at all!

Damkerng T.

@Araucaria Imagine me saying, "Here ye, here ye! We need later sons to fight the great witch. We need several of such sons, fourths, fifths, sixths, sevenths, eights. And a ninth will lead them all!"

(Now I wonder how many ninth sons we've ever had.)

johnchae

@Araucaria Really? Does it mean it's bad or?

Evening @DamkerngT. May I have your thoughts on this - me pronouncing the r sound: vocaroo.com/i/s0gUXAQVAJKa

Araucaria

@johnchae It's good!

Cardinal

@CowperKettle " 10 LOQ solutions " confused me. I thought there are 10 [LOQ solutions]

Damkerng T.

@johnchae Sounds fine to me. :D

johnchae

14:06

Thank you guys, though they sound a bit off to me, I mean I feel that the way I pronounce those words: support, part is not really properly :/

Damkerng T.

Don't worry too much. As far as I can tell, nobody can really hide their real accent.

Araucaria

@johnchae UK speakers won't have any /r/s in those words because they're coming at the end of the syllable. I can't hear any /r/ in thopse when you pronounce them. Are you using American or British pronunciation as your model?

@DamkerngT. No, very few people can.

Cardinal

@johnchae did you say:
I'm having hard time (find to) pronounce words with the /s/ sound .. ?

Damkerng T.

@Araucaria I doubt that if they really can if they started to change their accent later in life. I mean, sure, 90-99% good, but 100%?, I really doubt that.

johnchae

@Araucaria Unfortunately for me then, I'm following American English. You didn't the "r" sound at all?

Damkerng T.

14:09

But most people wouldn't try too hard to catch the differences, I think.

@Araucaria Then again, if we're talking about, say, one in a million, maybe it's true.

johnchae

@Cardinal I'm sorry, it sounds rather low at the beginning, it should be: I'm having a hard time trying to pronounce words with the /r/ sound properly.

Cardinal

@johnchae It's cool

Damkerng T.

Chinese scientist who makes Americans laugh

►

This video may make you worry less about your accent, typos, mistakes, etc. :D

Araucaria

@johnchae No, but I don't think it's very important. I would worry more about the other clusters in there. For example in the words words, sound. Also you need a lot more aspiration on your /p/, for example in part I thought you were saying bought until I read your comment.

@DamkerngT. I have two Hungarian friends, and when people find out that they're Hungarian, nobody believes them They are always certain they're from London.

@johnchae But your pronunciation is pretty good!

Cardinal

@Araucaria They are my heroes

I admire them

Damkerng T.

14:14

@Araucaria Maybe I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum, i.e., I'm not the one who can change the accent, but can hear it. :D

Cardinal

I think it is a matte of time @DamkerngT.

In Iran we have different accents and languages

johnchae

@Araucaria Noted! Thank you!

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal Well, if you start to speak a language, say, later than 20, I'm pretty sure you can't sound completely native.

Araucaria

@DamkerngT. I think to change it, you need to hang around with native speakers quite a bit

Damkerng T.

But you can sound really, really close.

@Araucaria I'm talking about the same thing in Thai.

I can always hear where people are from.

Even though they speak in the standard accent.

Araucaria

14:16

@DamkerngT. How do you know?

Damkerng T.

There are some qualities in the way we speak.

Let's try something that's not about speaking, say, like the way we walk around.

We can tell a lot about people by just looking at their gates, right?

People think we can hide (the gates), but we can't really hide our gates.

Araucaria

@DamkerngT. Yes, but if you think someone's a native speaker, you're never going to ask them where they're from, right?

Cardinal

It is very common in Iran. We have almost 7 different languages besides Persian. I can pronounce another local language exactly as native persons, in addition to my local language and Persian.

Damkerng T.

@Araucaria No, and I'll admit that some actors are really good at movie accents.

Araucaria

@DamkerngT. Where's this guy from?

Damkerng T.

14:19

(It could be a bit distracting when a character that's supposed to be American speaks in a British accent, and vice versa.)

Araucaria

@DamkerngT. UCL

johnchae

^^

Cardinal

I mean, In fact I have little vocabulary circle, but I can pronounce them very good

Araucaria

@DamkerngT. And when they do it badly it's hilarious!

Damkerng T.

@Araucaria He sounds British.

Araucaria

14:21

@DamkerngT. He's Dutch!

Cardinal

I know many Afghans and Tajiks who can speak with our Persian accent

Damkerng T.

She (first) also sounds British.

Araucaria

@DamkerngT. ucl.ac.uk/english/staff/bas-aarts

Damkerng T.

She (second) also sounds British but from a different place.

Araucaria

@DamkerngT. I think she is too. But I can't be sure :)

Cardinal

14:22

However, there some languages that are not very homogeneous in therms of pronounciations

Damkerng T.

@Araucaria I'll admit that I'm not that familiar with British accents.

I can only recognize the general qualities of a couple British accents, but that's probably it.

Araucaria

@DamkerngT. Bas is native speaker-like. No native speaker would tell that English wasn't his first language!

Damkerng T.

@Araucaria For the same thing about Thai, some speakers can also hide this very well, and we may need to hear them say something long enough or something that's not in their comfort zone.

@Araucaria Nice!

Araucaria

@DamkerngT. Yep!

Got to rum. See you everyone!

Damkerng T.

Have a good time!

user208178

14:39

Sawasdee khrap @DamkerngT.!

Damkerng T.

Salam!

user208178

see, I learned "Sawasdee khrap" from chats here :)

Damkerng T.

Hehe! Our chat room is useful! :D

user208178

yep, very :-)

Cardinal

@Arrowfar Where are you from?

user208178

14:50

Pakistan.

Cardinal

@Arrowfar Nice, Do you use "salam", too ?

user208178

of course. It's a muslim country :)

user208178

many people say something like this:

user208178

" Assalamu Alaykum wa-rahmutAllah wa-barakatuhu (brother)"

user208178

the full version. but it is quite long.

Cardinal

14:53

salam is not Arabic, though

user208178

no it isn't I guess. but the full version I mentioned above is Arabic.

user208178

do you know Arabic?

Cardinal

I see

user208178

I do, basic Arabic.

Cardinal

I know a little Arabic

Almost forgot

user208178

14:54

heh, same here :)

Cardinal

So, what is called your language ? Dary ? I knew that, but I cannot remember now

user208178

"Urdu". Well we have many languages here but the main language is Urdu.

Cardinal

aha

Yep, we were in a same country long times ago, we have many things in common :)

Including having multiple local languages

:D

user208178

Yeah. We also have "Balochi" language here just like in Iran.

Cardinal

Yes yes, that is cool

Amir Khusrow

Ab'ul Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau (1253–1325 CE) Hindi अमीर ख़ुसरौ, (Urdu: ابوالحسن یمین‌الدین خسرو‎;, better known as Amīr Khusraw (also Khusrow, Hazrat Khusrow, Ameer Khusru) Dehlawī (meaning Amir Khusrau of Delhi) (امیر خسرو دہلوی) was a Sufi musician, poet and scholar. He was an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent. He was a mystic and a spiritual disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi. Amīr Khusrau is reputed to have invented certain musical instruments like the sitar and tabla. He wrote poetry primarily in Persian, but also in Hindavi. A vocabulary in verse, the...

@Arrowfar

user208178

15:02

yeah I know about him :)

Cardinal

I wish someday we have a great relationships, I mean Iran, Pakistan and India.

user208178

> Urdu developed under the influence of the Persian and Arabic languages, both of which have contributed a significant amount of vocabulary to formal speech.

user208178

@Cardinal yep, we are all neighbours basically.

user208178

but there is always politics etc. you know.

Cardinal

Yes, but the situation is not very ideal right now, Is it ?

Politics is suck :(

user208178

15:07

yep it does :)

Damkerng T.

15:22

Hey, his name is Bram Stoker! I always thought it was Bram Stroker! Good thing I read (some of the) ELL questions.

user208178

the writer of Dracula?

Damkerng T.

Yes! :D

CowperKettle

@Arrowfar I read about Balochistan a little

user208178

hey!

user208178

yeah it has borders with Iran.

CowperKettle

15:26

Some of them want independence, I read.

user208178

ah well man it is complicated.

user208178

I dunno. I mean politics lol

CowperKettle

I know. I never saw a Balochi, so.. yeah.

(0:

Cardinal

@CowperKettle those are a big problem

for security and peace

skullpatrol

(0;

CowperKettle

15:27

(0:

user208178

(0:

Cardinal

:(0,

user208178

lol

Cardinal

In middle east, people know only one technique to reach their goals and it is through the weapons and war, poor region. This is sad but ture

user208178

yes it makes me sad as well.

user208178

15:34

it sucks.

CowperKettle

> Detestable race, continue to expunge yourself, die out.
Breed faster, crowd, encroach, sing hymns, build
bombing airplanes;
Make speeches, unveil statues, issue bonds, parade;
Convert again into explosives the bewildered ammonia
and the distracted cellulose;
Convert again into putrescent matter drawing flies
The hopeful bodies of the young; exhort,
Pray, pull long faces, be earnest,
be all but overcome, be photographed;
Confer, perfect your formulae, commercialize
Bacateria harmful to human tissue,

user208178

@CowperKettle by the way news is always distorted. I mean you will always hear bad things about Pakistan. The thing is the big media is out there giving us a bad name. I mean muslim countries.

Cardinal

@Arrowfar I dont think so

CowperKettle

The last thing I heard about Pakistan, guess what it was?

Cardinal

There is serious problem with these countries

CowperKettle

15:37

The "honor killing"

user208178

yes there are serious problems but the media only focuses on bad stuff. Let me give you an example.

user208178

I mean, I don't get people sometimes. I was chatting with someone on a therapy site and the guy was from US, he was polite at first, as soon as he found out I was from Pakistan he asked me out of the blue "are you a terrorist?"

user208178

I mean seriously? I had to level with him that he was being a bit of a dick.

user208178

also it is the internet after all :) it sucks.

CowperKettle

This is the Internet.. on the Internet, people are often like that.

Cardinal

15:40

I see, but you cannot deny the fact that when some people do a practice again and again, other will come to have a biased view about them

CowperKettle

You're Russian = you drink vodka and have a pet bear playing balalaika, and you love Putin. This kind of stuff.

Cardinal

@CowperKettle :))

user208178

@CowperKettle yeah lol

CowperKettle

(0:

Cardinal

Hi @StoneyB

By the way, I am not a big fan of conspiracy theories. We must accept there are some serious deficiencies.

CowperKettle

15:47

Yes. The human brain has not evolved to judge other humans adequately, it evolved to propagate genes, so people will always misjudge.

V.V.

Hi, everyone!

user208178

hello!

Cardinal

Hi V.V.

CowperKettle

Dobry vecher, @V.V.!

V.V.

@Cardinal, I have just seen your question, you repeated the first sentence twice.

Cardinal

15:55

@V.V. It would be great if you say which question you are talking about!

V.V.

I saw only the latest

I 'll go and check

Cardinal

@V.V. I think you mean the last question that I edited

0

Q: What is the main difference between these sentences?

Those were the people who have been arrested. Those are the people who have been arrested. Those were the people who had been arrested. Those were the people who have been arrested.

passive-voice perfect-constructions

@CowperKettle What does that mean?

CowperKettle

@Cardinal Good evening, in Russian

V.V.

Right. Read the first and the last sentences

V.V.

16:18

I am sorry, I thought it was your question.

Cardinal

16:56

@V.V. Thats cool

Færd

18:50

It's strange that there are so many questions about the double genitive on ELL and ELU, and there has not been posted a comprehensive answer yet (to my knowledge). These links together could answer some of my questions:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

In every one of those above, the question has garnered about twice (or more) the upvotes of its most upvoted answer, which sorta proves my point.

It'd be a delight to see a comprehensive, well-organized answer by @Araucaria, @snailplane, @StoneyB, or any other knowledgeable user.

Anonymous

19:15

@Færd Note that some linguists prefer to avoid the terminology "double genitive", because that terminology only makes sense if you refer to two very different things as "genitive". One is a kind of morphological case marking (mine), and the other is an oblique preposition phrase (with of). The two are different in form and have different uses, and it only confuses things to give them the same label.

Anonymous

In The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, it's referred to instead as "the oblique genitive construction".

Færd

Thank you for mentioning that. I should look it up in CGEL.

Cardinal

20:36

Is there any problem with using coordinating conjunction "and". I mean is there a situation that we should not use it to relate to sentence? I mean a very misuse of this conjunction that learners often do.

> I think the tendency to music among the human beings stems from the fact that we are emotional and music can serve as a stimulator or pacifier to us.

I wrote this sentence, I am not sure about using this conjunction in my writings. I want my sentences be more idiomatic and legible. I'm afraid of constructing sentences which immediately convey bad-English to the native reader.

music is a _____ .
tool for expressing our happiness or frustration
mean for expressing our happiness or frustration.
medium for expressing our happiness or frustration.

Which one do you prefer?

@JimReynolds Hi

Correction: ...relate two sentences?

user208178

21:55

hello @StoneyB It has been a while. I hope you are well.

Catija

@StoneyB Both (all three) of those questions are spam.

user208178

Howdy @Catija!

StoneyB

@Catija, Yah I figured that out when the third one popped up and flagged it.

@Arrowfar Hi, guy, been a while! Good to see you back.

@Cardinal There's nothing wrong with a judicious use of conjunction. But one of the things that grade-school teachers have to stomp on is the tendency of children to join every clause in a narrative with and: "We went to the beach and I went swimming and then I had ice cream and then we played Frisbee and I went swimming some more and then I had to take a nap BOO! and then I woke and went swimming some more and I my eyes got all red and Mom made me stop BOO! and then " and so on ad nauseam

But I doubt you have to worry about that.

user208178

22:19

@StoneyB I used to write like that when I was little. I would join every other clause with "and". By the way if you notice children they often talk like that. I'm not a native speaker but in my own language I used to use "اور" a lot, which literally translates to "and".

user208178

Then there was a little scold by the teacher.

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