English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Matt Эллен

10:00

we just say mod

so I don't even know!

user19161

I mean the sentence, mod is just an abbreviation for modulo

Matt Эллен

is it?

I thought is was modulus

I would say 10 mod 3 is 1

user19161

I think so. No, not modulus. There are two closely related concepts. I show you Wiki.

user19161

Modulo operation

In computing, the modulo operation finds the remainder of division of one number by another. Given two positive numbers, (the dividend) and (the divisor), a modulo n (abbreviated as a mod n) can be thought of as the remainder, on division of a by n. For instance, the expression "5 mod 4" would evaluate to 1 because 5 divided by 4 leaves a remainder of 1, while "9 mod 3" would evaluate to 0 because the division of 9 by 3 leaves a remainder of 0; there is nothing to subtract from 9 after multiplying 3 times 3. (Notice that doing the division with a calculator won't show you the result ref...

user19161

Modular arithmetic

In mathematics, modular arithmetic (sometimes called clock arithmetic) is a system of arithmetic for integers, where numbers "wrap around" after they reach a certain value—the modulus. The Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler pioneered the modern approach to congruence in about 1750, when he explicitly introduced the idea of congruence modulo a number N. Modular arithmetic was further advanced by Carl Friedrich Gauss in his book Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, published in 1801. A familiar use of modular arithmetic is in the 12-hour clock, in which the day is divided into two 12-hour pe...

Matt Эллен

10:02

oh, well there you go. it is used as a verb in wiki

user19161

Essentially the same thing. Complicated by whether you write mod before or after equals, whether you use equals or equivalent to, but all meaning pretty much the same.

Matt Эллен

10:14

I want this question to go away:

1

Q: On the underground vs in the underground

I travel on the underground / subway to work. or I travel in the underground / subway to work. I'd choose the first option as we say : 'on a bus' , 'on a tram/street car'. This question might be trivial but I want to be on the safe side :)

prepositions

I can't decide if it's a dupe

user19161

Hmm, that's the thing with prepositions.

user19161

If you can't decide leave it alone!

Matt Эллен

but it's a silly question. the answer doesn't matter. the question has been phrased a million different ways, and the answer is that there is no rule. I want people to stop asking about it!

Matt Эллен

10:51

time to hunt and gather

user19161

@MattЭллен Food?

JSBᾶngs

12:43

OMG

i just discovered that we have a tag progressive-tense

that's almost as bad as passive-tense (which fortunately doesn't exist)

i'm retagging manually, but @Reg, can you please create a synonym so that progressive-tense is automatically retagged to progressive-aspect?

oh, lookee here:

6

Q: "I'm lovin' it"

How normal-sounding is the slogan "I'm lovin' it" to native ears? I know it sounded quite odd to me when I first heard it — and it still sometimes does —, but I can't even tell why. Sure, love is supposedly a stative verb, but it's being used in progressive aspect all the time without sounding w...

grammaticality progressive-aspect slogan

it's fixed now, but it DID have progressive-tense

user19161

14:12

@MattЭллен I got 15k!

Robusto

@JSBᾶngs It's easy to forget that @Reg is not a native speaker.

JSBᾶngs

native speaker ain't got nothing to do with it

it's the horrible mistake of calling progressive a "tense" when it's actually an aspect

Robusto

@JSBᾶngs No, my comment isn't about that. I'm reading the question and realizing Reg is asking a question about a very common expression in (American) English. I'm not used to him not knowing that shit.

user19161

I keep hearing I'm lovin it in the McDonalds ads.

JSBᾶngs

@Robusto oh. well in that case i entirely agree. it's always a little surprising to hear that our owly overlord doesn't know everything already

Robusto

14:22

@WillHunting I mentioned that campaign in my own answer to the question.

@JSBᾶngs Yeah. In fact, when I do catch him in a mistake (cf. "Anyhoo, spent and AFK regen, what's with dinner and all") it's not really possible to call it a mistake made from ignorance. It could easily be a typo. You can generally only suss out solecisms when they form a pattern, and Reg's are rare enough that his mistypings occur about as often as (or less than) an educated native speaker's.

Hmm, interesting. As amazing as Google Earth is, it's surprising when it gets things wrong. The blue outline is supposed to represent the outline of the lake just to its right.

Matt Эллен

14:50

@WillHunting congrats! only 5K to go and SE will trust you

user19161

15:04

0

Q: What are word combinations similar to the effect of "Sofa King" are called?

Is there a name for word combination structures that embed other words within them (both verbal or written)? (Any less rude example would be appreciated.)

single-word-requests

user19161

I don't understand this example. I never thought of it as so fucking.

user19161

What came to my mind were the two meanings of sofa king.

Matt Эллен

me too

user19161

It could be a king always sitting on a sofa or sofa that beats all the other sofas.

Cerberus

Morning!

user19161

15:05

@Cerberus Boo!

Matt Эллен

morning @Cerb

user19161

Boo is a very good greeting that can be used in the morning, afternoon, or evening.

Cerberus

Everything all right in here?

Matt Эллен

@WillHunting it made me think of a shop that sells sofas

@Cerberus So far so good :)

user19161

@Cerberus What happened? Why would anything be wrong?

Cerberus

15:07

Nothing.

Robusto

@Cerberus Moin.

Matt Эллен

everything all right out there, @cerb?

Cerberus

A meteor might have crushes on a few regulars. You never know.

@MattЭллен Yup.

user19161

@Cerberus crushed

Robusto

@Cerberus You misspeled "crushes on" ... you know them meteors. Always stalking our regulars.

Cerberus

15:08

Do any of you use a desktop-search program that indexes the contents of your documents?

Matt Эллен

I think windows 7 just does that

user19161

@Robusto misspelled

Cerberus

@Robusto Oops ananas.

Robusto

@Cerberus Why, yes I do. It's called the Mac OS. ^_^

Cerberus

Golly.

And does it work well?

Matt Эллен

15:09

oh, the contents

um, maybe not then

Cerberus

Yes, inside PDFs and such.

Robusto

@Cerberus Better than I usually need.

Cerberus

So does it index all the files on your hard disk?

And does it index PDFs?

What is it called?

Robusto

It's called Spotlight. That search took about 35 milliseconds.

You see that it even searches in my browser history.

Cerberus

Oh haha! You actually save pages with me on them?

Oh.

Bummer.

And does it have a preview pane?

Robusto

15:13

Yes. When you mouse over an entry, a preview panel pops up to the left. I can't capture that because it involves moving the mouse.

Cerberus

@Robusto And can you move from instance to instance within the document inside the panel?

user19161

1

Q: Can we call a person who loses things a "loser"?

Think > Thinker Draw > Drawer Can we call a person who loses thing a loser? Of course, I do not mean that they are not successful or failed but what should I call them?

nouns

Robusto

@Cerberus Those were spreadsheets of Phantom Commando performance when I was trying to help Vitaly.

user19161

Do we really call a person who draws a drawer?

Cerberus

@Robusto Aww.

Robusto

15:14

@WillHunting And someone who bums is a bummer.

Cerberus

And can you restrict your search by file type, date, and size?

Robusto

There's an example of the popover. You can see it searches in PDFs as well as every other document. Even in apps. You click on a category to expand it, and if you want to see all hits you click the link at the top.

Thanks.

Cerberus

OK nice.

@Robusto Are you related to the great man, by the way?

Robusto

@Cerberus Ssshhh.

Cerberus

I mean the tall guy who begs under that bridge in Boston.

Robusto

15:26

Then yes.

Cerberus

Otherwise no?

Robusto

Some of my ancestors came from his neck of the woods, but I have no direct knowledge of any link.

Cerberus

AH OK.

Can you search by date and size like this?

And have the search phrase highlighted?

And a button to go to the next occurrence within the document?

Robusto

You can have as many search criteria as you want. (Note that I blurred the part with my name this time. That smudge is not how the search window normally looks.)

Cerberus

15:43

@Robusto Yay I'm there! So no highlight, and no button to go to next occurrence?

Otherwise it seems equivalent.

Robusto

True. I guess they figure if you want to search within the doc, just open it. That's less useful than your search, mostly, but plenty good enough for a built-in search.

Cerberus

Certainly better than Windows search.

But I do like Copernic (that's my program there).

Anonymous

Hello I want to know that vocabulary is countable on uncountable?

Cerberus

@Anonymous Depends on context.

Sometimes it is countable, sometimes it isn't.

Can you give us a sentence?

Anonymous

If I want to say. "Today I learned ten vocabulary from teacher"

Is it countable or uncountable?

Cerberus

15:47

Oh, no, that's wrong.

Just says words.

Anonymous

thank you :)

Cerberus

And you need to add the or my before teacher.

Anonymous

When should I say vocabulary?

Cerberus

A vocabulary is a collection of words.

You could say "he has a large vocabulary" (knows a lot of words).

Or "our vocabularies are about the same size".

Robusto

@Cerberus You could also say "Different vocabularies contain different sets of words."

Cerberus

15:49

@Robusto Sure.

Anonymous

"he has a large vocabulary" <- in this case it's uncountable right?
and "our vocabularies are about the same size" is countable

Cerberus

@Anonymous That's right.

A vocabulary can also be a book containing a collection of separate words meant for memorizing.

Anonymous

Can I say "My teacher has three set of vocabularies"?

Cerberus

*sets

Yes, depending on what you mean.

Robusto

@Cerb: You can also use Unix grep search commands in a terminal window. For example:

find . –name "*.txt" –print | xargs grep “Exception”

Cerberus

15:52

Oh, cool.

Anonymous

I mean my teacher has three sets of group of words that she taught me in this morning.

Cerberus

I have to use another program for regex search, and it doesn't search contents.

@Anonymous You could say vocabulary sets?

Robusto

@Anonymous A vocabulary refers to the body of words used in a particular language, not a random group of words.

user19161

My vocabulary is very small.

Cerberus

A vocabulary set is a specific set of words within a vocabulary.

@Robusto It can also be a book with a limited list.

Anonymous

15:54

It looks like usually we use vocabulary as uncountable right?

Cerberus

Right.

Robusto

@Cerberus Yes. Or it can refer to a specific technical or dialectical vocabulary.

Cerberus

Yeah.

Anonymous

Thank you @Cerberus and @Robusto for your help!

Robusto

But you wouldn't call a list of ten words from a vocabulary exercise a discrete "vocabulary" ...

No problem Anonymous.

Cerberus

15:55

Good luck memorizing all those tedious vocabulary words!

@Robusto Exactly. Maybe a vocabulary set.

user19161

@Anonymous I usually use it as a countable noun.

user19161

My vocabulary, his vocabulary, her vocabulary are three vocabularies.

user19161

Physics vocabulary, chemistry vocabulary, biology vocabulary are three vocabularies.

user19161

@Cerberus Really? See above.

Cerberus

@WillHunting Certainly, you can use it like that; but "usually"? Isn't it more common as a singular noun?

user19161

16:07

I don't know.

Cerberus

God, I love virtual machines.

Cerberus

16:24

RegDwight Ѭſ道

17:52

What the... english.stackexchange.com/suggested-edits/2025

Mahnax

@RegDwightѬſ道 Hahaha!

What a precious suggested edit...

Cerberus

18:07

@RegDwightѬſ道 Wow! Both are equally bad, but the edit is definitely not an edit, but a new answer.

Robusto

18:19

0

Q: Pronunciation of "honest"

I know that the correct pronunciation of "honest" is [on-ist]. But I definitely hear that people often pronounce it like [*h*on-ist]. At least native speakers from VA, USA do. Is such a pronunciation of "honest" grates on the ear much? Or it is kind of errors that are acceptable in a casual con...

pronunciation

A puzzlement. I've never heard that pronunciation, but what is the question here?

Cerberus

@Robusto Whether it sounds really weird.

Robusto

I just want it to go away.

Cerberus

Or whether it is sometimes heard in casual pronunciation.

Haha.

Matt Эллен

@Robusto apparently the question is "do people dislike it when the h is pronounced?"

Cerberus

At least you're not trying to rationalize.

Matt Эллен

18:27

which is not constructive

Cerberus

I don't know, it is a genuine concern.

If anything, it's GR.

Matt Эллен

but it's overtly subjective with no right answer

Cerberus

I don't know. If someone knowledgeable in a few different dialects answes, "yes, it would sound very weird and, no, it is never heard in casual speech"?

Robusto

This is one of those times when I wish I had a red button on my desk, like Mr. Burns in The Simpsons, so that I could just flush whatever I didn't like.

Cerberus

You can down-vote.

Robusto

18:29

But then I will run myself out of rep!

Cerberus

I think it is acceptable.

Matt Эллен

@Robusto there's the g+ button...

Cerberus

@Robusto I've just given you ten, so your first ten down-votes of the day are on me.

Robusto

Still have never clicked a Facebook, Twitter, or G+ button EVER.

Cerberus

@MattЭллен Yayyy!

@Robusto Jinx!!

Oh, wait, I once advertised the Linguistics proposal on FB.

Matt Эллен

18:30

I have twittered some questions

Cerberus

I don't think I used one of those buttons, though.

Matt Эллен

and the cog sci proposal/beta

Cerberus

I don't use anything other than FB.

And that grudgingly.

Matt Эллен

I use twitter because all the geeks in Oxford do, so it's the only way to keep up!

Cerberus

Hmm with what?

Matt Эллен

18:32

@Cerberus interesting geeky things going on

Cerberus

Hmm like what?

Robusto

Would that be Balliol College? Is that the geek den at Oxford?

Matt Эллен

@Robusto nah, I'm not an alumnus.

I'm a muggle through and through

Cerberus

@Robusto Which isn't?

My brother studied there, and he said it was all extremely geeky.

Robusto

Balliol College, Oxford

Balliol College (), founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Traditionally, the undergraduates are amongst the most politically active in the university, and the college's alumni include three former prime ministers. H. H. Asquith (a Balliol undergraduate and British Prime Minister) once wryly described Balliol men as possessing "the tranquil consciousness of an effortless superiority." Adam Smith, a graduate student of the college, is perhaps its best known alumnus. As of 2009, Balliol had an endowment of £64 m. History The College ...

Doesn't look geeky.

Cerberus

18:34

I don't see people.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus oh, there's the geek nights, the geek jam, talks, conferences, other get togethers

Cerberus

He said all the people in Oxford looked geeky.

Robusto

Exactly. How can it be geeky if there are no geeks?

Cerberus

Then again, he is the opposite, so he may have been exaggerating.

@MattЭллен Yay!

Come to think of it, he has a genral tendency to exaggerate.

Matt Эллен

I look geeky

Cerberus

18:35

Yay!

Matt Эллен

:)

Robusto

@MattЭллен So it's kind of the British equivalent of Comic-Con?

Cerberus

I try to look neutral.

Matt Эллен

@Robusto oh, it's not all at once, things happen through out the year

geek jam is weekly, geek night is bimonthly

other things happen as and when

Mahnax

Hello everyone.

Cerberus

18:39

Yay, my (meagre) stocks when up by 14 % last year.

Hi!

Mahnax

I watched a very, uhm, interesting movie last night.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus ace! drinks on you ;)

Cerberus

Thanks!

Mahnax

I'll have a tall glass of your finest orange juice, please.

Cerberus

@Mahnax The action movie?

Mahnax

18:42

@Cerberus No, a Japanese movie, this time.

Cerberus

Ah.

Arthouse?

Manga?

Mahnax

Hmm, manga is a type of book.

Anime is the correct term, although I don't know if that's the right word to describe this movie.

It wasn't bad, it was just different.

Matt Эллен

@Mahnax what is it called?

Mahnax

@MattЭллен Princess Mononoke.

Brb, vacuuming.

Matt Эллен

@Mahnax ah! studio Ghibli. i've not seen it, but I seen others of their works. Very good

Cerberus

18:46

@Mahnax Hmm I see. In Dutch, it is all called manga.

Matt Эллен

yeah, technically manga are the comic books, anime is the animation

Cerberus

Right.

The latter being French, I presume?

Matt Эллен

probably. it should have an acute accent on the e

Cerberus

Yeah. But you know the Japanese.

Matt Эллен

:D

Mahnax

18:49

@MattЭллен Uhh, like Pom Poko?

@Cerberus Interesting.

Matt Эллен

@Mahnax yeah, and a bunch of others

Mahnax

@MattЭллен Interesting. I happened to miss the Pom Poko watching, but I heard it was terrifying.

Robusto

Manga just means "cartoon art" or "cartoon picture" in Japanese: 漫画

Anime is borrowed from animation, a loan word that the Japanese shortened (as is their wont).

Mahnax

Interesting.

Robusto

アニメ is how it's written. (This is katakana, the written syllabary the Japanese use for writing foreign words.)

Cerberus

18:56

@Robusto Not from animé?

Mahnax

❝I found these things whilst looking through special characters. They are fun.❞

Robusto

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons. While the earliest known Japanese animation dates to 1917, and many original Japanese cartoons were produced in the ensuing decades, the characteristic anime style developed in the 1960s—notably with the work of Osamu Tezuka—and became known outside Japan in the 1980s. Anime, like manga, has a large audience in Japan and recognition throughout the world. Distributors can rele...

Cerberus

> Japanese write the English term "animation" in katakana as アニメーション (animēshon, pronounced [animeːɕoɴ]), and the term アニメ (anime, pronounced [anime] ( listen) in Japanese) emerged in the 1970s as an abbreviation.[16] Others claim that the word derives from the French phrase dessin animé.[3]

So unknown.

Robusto

But I'm right.

Nobody calls it アニメーション over there.

Anyway, gotta go. Laterz.

Mahnax

Bye!

Cerberus

18:59

Bye!

Matt Эллен

cya @Robusto

Mahnax

@MattЭллен Oh, I'm not leaving.

I was saying bye to Robusto.

Matt Эллен

lol, didn't read :S

Cerberus

ɪ'ɱ gɔɪŋg tɔ tɑkɘ ɐ nʌp.

Mahnax

Haha.

@Cerberus How do you do that?

Matt Эллен

19:00

have a good nap @Cerberus

Cerberus

@Mahnax Using my home-made IPA typer!

Thanks!

Mahnax

Oh! I found a phonetic alphabet in my special characters, but I don't know what they mean.

@Cerberus You'll have to tell me about it sometime! Anyways, enjoy your nap!

Cerberus

@Mahnax OK I will next time!

Later!

Mahnax

@Cerberus Good, good.

🕙

1⃣ 2⃣ 3⃣
4⃣ 5⃣ 6⃣
7⃣ 8⃣ 9⃣

Matt Эллен

all unrecognised in my font :(

Mahnax

19:03

Aww.

Just them boxes?



Matt Эллен

aye

washing up, brb

Mahnax

'Tis a shame.

Ah, okay.

Actually, I'm off. We have a guest.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

19:20

@Robusto Downvotes on questions are free, duh.

And anyway, where are everybody's close votes?

user19161

@Mahnax I got 15k, yay!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

You should have closed it before it got the awful answer that it did.

Matt Эллен

user19161

@RegDwightѬſ道 Too late to cast my vote.

user19161

@MattЭллен HB!

Vitaly

19:58

@Cerberus @Matt blog.hartleybrody.com/2012/01/google-python & code.google.com/edu/languages/google-python-class/index.html

Socarsky

@Cerberus Hope that nap would be satisfied for you.

Mahnax

@WillHunting Congrats!

Matt Эллен

20:26

@Vitaly thanks!

Vitaly

and you may have already found this, but still:

0

A: convert ahk to python

I suggest these modules: SendKeysCtypes for any sending of keystrokes and sending shortcuts to a window. SendKeysCtypes is a new and more stable version of SendKeys. I have had issues with SendKeys in the past. PYHK to deal with global hotkeys - receive hotkeys and trigger functions. PYHK is ba...

Matt Эллен

wow!

and to think I was about to reinvent the wheel

Spare Oom

21:46

i.sstatic.net/Cr9Hq.png Notice the popular languages taught in my library's language courses, particularly the one listed at the bottom of the middle column.

Mahnax

-2

Q: Evaluate my simple reply of explaining the issue

I was replying to an email from one of the universities I applied to. I would like from you guys, to evaluate my reply and look for any mistakes. In fact, I've realized that I'ven't written a formal letter/email until I started applying to universities. Since that, I have started improving my En...

formality letter-writing

Kill it with fire plox kthxbai.

Matt Эллен

Fire applied. Burning, please wait....

Spare Oom

@Mahnax Best I can do is down vote. What's fire plox?

Matt Эллен

@SpareOom plox is a colloquialism, probably originating over at 4chan, meaning please

Mahnax

23:00

@SpareOom Kill it with fire + please.

@MattЭллен Merci.

user19161

23:13

@Mahnax Boo! Do you have work later?

user19161

@MattЭллен Boo! Still up?

Matt Эллен

23:27

@WillHunting ohai! yeah just learning about FF extension writing

Mahnax

@WillHunting Yep.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…