English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

2:17 PM

@RegDwightѬſ道 Also...

0

Q: What do you call a person who is very rigid to his words?

What do you call a person who is very rigid to his words? He/she doesn't listen to anyone. For instance, when I tell my girlfriend not to wear short dress and she refuses and says "I will do what I like".

meaning

and

0

Q: How to avoid redundant repetition?

In German it is frowned upon using redundant repetition. Der Professor betreut die Studenten bei der Ausarbeitung der Bachelor- und Masterarbeiten. instead of Der Professor betreut die Studenten bei der Ausarbeitung der Bachelorarbeiten und Masterarbeiten. I know that repetition in En...

grammar

But they're obvious NNSs, so I want to cut them some slack.

JSBᾶngs

a little slack

i dunno, these are both pretty bad

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Mitch I am about to close that one.

As it stands, it's a non-question. As demonstrated by the answers that boil down to "you avoid repeating the word X by not repeating the word X." Well duh.

JSBᾶngs

when is ELU next slated to have mod elections?

user19161

2:35 PM

Happy V day. I send you all my platonic love.

JSBᾶngs

jasper! you changed your name back

also, i approve of your solid blue square

user19161

@JSBᾶngs Yeah and I have a lovely avatar too.

JSBᾶngs

it's very monochromatic

user19161

I made it by taking a screenshot of my desktop.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

2:48 PM

0

Q: Can short forms be used in writing an article?

When writing an article or a research paper, using short forms such as can't, won't looks embarrassing in passive voice. Am I right? If I am right, is there any popular exceptions to this rule?

writing-style

What's the deal with passive voice there?

Robusto

3:08 PM

@RegDwightѬſ道 The passive voice was being unfairly accused by the OP of causing his articles and research papers to be ruined.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Robusto you mean the articles and research papers were being unfairly accused by the OP of being caused to be ruined by the passive voice?

Robusto

That would appear to be the opinion which was voiced by people who had cause to be involved, even tangentially, in writing projects such as the one alluded to in the posting of that participant.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Not.

Meanwhile elsewhere,

-1

Q: What's a word that can mean both "good" and "bad"?

I've recently read about a word that was defined both as "shockingly good" and "shockingly bad", but I can't seem to recall the word. Does anyone know what it is? As far as I can recall, it was a slang word.

single-word-requests adjectives slang

I think it's "bood". Or is it "gad"?

Robusto

It is "sick."

JSBᾶngs

also "bad"

"wicked"

RegDwight Ѭſ道

3:12 PM

Well your suggestions are boring.

I maintain that "bood" is the one.

Robusto

@RegDwightѬſ道 Not "gad"?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Not on a Thursday.

Robusto

What time zone is Thursday?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Inna gadda da vida.

See, there's "gad" right there.

If Slayer use the word, it must be good. Also, bad.

Robusto

@RegDwightѬſ道 No pandering to ageing hippies in ELU chat.

JSBᾶngs

3:15 PM

@RegDwightѬſ道 that song is not by slayer

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Bajinga!

JSBᾶngs

oh, gawd

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is a song by Iron Butterfly, released on their 1968 album In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. At a little over seventeen minutes, it occupies the entire second side of the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida album. The lyrics are simple, and heard only at the beginning and the end. The track was recorded on May 27, 1968, at Ultrasonic Studios in Hempstead, Long Island, New York. The recording that is heard on the album was meant to be a soundcheck for engineer Don Casale while the band waited for the arrival of producer Jim Hilton. However, Casale had rolled a recording tape, and when the rehearsa...

RegDwight Ѭſ道

See how easy it is to identify an ageing hippy in this chat.

JSBᾶngs

"hippy" is a terrible typo for "metalhead"

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Take it up with Rob.

But hey, since I'm nice and all, I move that if Boney M. use the word, it must be good. Also, bad.

Robusto

3:19 PM

@JSBᾶngs "The track was recorded on May 27, 1968 ..." Can't you just hear the acid dropping?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Gothic Melodic Speed Death Acid.

GMSDA for short.

Which is almost an anagram of GADDA.

Robusto

I'm just saying that Iron Butterfly is a far cry from, say, GWAR.

@RegDwightѬſ道 Better hand over those anagrams before you hurt yourself.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Kids these days can't tell their Skid Rows from their Megadeths.

@Robusto Nice litotes, dude.

Robusto

Apr 22 '11 at 13:22, by Robusto

Litotes anagrams to "toilets" btw.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Mahnax random tried it once. It didn't work out well at all.

Aug 9 '11 at 0:51, by random

This room was placed in timeout for 2 minutes; the topic of this room is "aka The Incomprehensible Room" - conversation should be limited to that topic.

We have our bases covered.

Robusto

3:25 PM

@RegDwightѬſ道 Asses as well.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I dunno whatcha talkin bout. Contrary to popular belief, asses is not an anagram of bases.

Robusto

5 mins ago, by Robusto

@RegDwightѬſ道 Better hand over those anagrams before you hurt yourself.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

And so I did. And now you are hurting everyone.

Robusto

That is jealousy talking.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

You ain't heard no jealousy talkin, son.

Robusto

3:28 PM

I know what I heard, and I ain't your son.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

So many litotae's in one sentence, it boggles teh mind.

Robusto

Your mind. So easily boggled.

Boggle

Boggle is a word game designed by Allan Turoff and trademarked by Parker Brothers, a division of Hasbro. The game is played using a plastic grid of lettered dice, in which players attempt to find words in sequences of adjacent letters. Rules The game begins by shaking a covered tray of sixteen cubic dice, each with a different letter printed on each of its sides. The dice settle into a 4x4 tray so that only the top letter of each cube is visible. After they have settled into the grid, a three-minute sand timer is started and all players simultaneously begin the main phase of play. Eac...

Take that.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

No Gary Barlow in this chat.

Robusto

And oh look: It's Turoff-complete.

Alan Turing => Allan Turoff. Coincidence? I think not.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Once again you go for the lowest hanging fruit and explain it afterwards.

You must be aiming for that Achievement in the Field of Excellence Award. Du Jour.

I think Hasbro should be notified of that online game Martha is playing. It infringes their everything.

And look, it even copies their trademark name. Shamelessly.

wordsplay.net

Robusto

3:39 PM

12 mins ago, by Robusto

That is jealousy talking.

Show me how many Achievement in the Field of Excellence Awards you've achieved.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Seven.

No wait. Actually them was eight.

Robusto

Sour grapes

The phrase sour grapes is an expression originating from "The Fox and the Grapes," one of Aesop's Fables. It refers to pretending not to care for something one does not or cannot have. (Today, the term is often used to refer to someone being a "sore loser". As comedian George Carlin noted, however, it only means "rationalization of failure to attain a desired end. ... It doesn't deal with jealousy or sore losing.") Sour grapes may also refer to: Music *"Sour Grapes" (Leatherface song), a song by English punk band Leatherface (band) *"Sour Grapes" (Puscifer song), a song by Tool frontman...

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Jan 18 at 20:45, by RegDwight Ѭſ道

You misspelled... well, congrats! You actually misspelled everything! There ain't nothing left to misspell no more!

New war in eight minutes.

Or actually, in seven.

Robusto

@RegDwightѬſ道 Really? You're going with that? If there is a level of performance lower than "phoning it in" I think you've found it. Congratulations.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Why thank you.

You are the first person to congratulate me today. For that, I'd like to congratulate you right back.

Robusto

3:45 PM

You're welcome.

Also, David Wallace has odd-looking boogers.

David Wallace (The Office)

David Wallace is a character in the American television show The Office and was the chief financial officer (CFO) of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, before being fired in late 2009 after the company was bought by Sabre. He is portrayed by Andy Buckley. Character history David Wallace was first introduced in "Valentine's Day". Wallace replaced Randall, the former CFO who resigned after sexual harassment charges were brought against him. Wallace's wife's name is Rachel, and they have a son as introduced in "Cocktails". Like Michael, he despises his office's HR represent...

Surely they can't mean this David Wallace.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Spent, commute, laters.

JSBᾶngs

5:27 PM

interesting

theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/02/…

Mitch

@RegDwightѬſ道 ...and in some sense it is more about German than English (or rather knowledge of how things work in German in comparison to those in English). But yes, a 'duh' question, but if all your words stick together like in German then I can see that he might question how to do it in English.

@JSBᾶngs most of my internal monologue answers to the 'very rigid' end up with the girl friend dumping him. That is, whatever the actual language question involved, the motivation was all about some jealousy/ego conflict (maybe appropriate somewhere but not here).

user19161

6:49 PM

@mahnax Boo! Happy V day!

user19161

1

Q: Difference between "inspiring" and "inspirational"

What is the difference between the words inspiring and inspirational? In which context should one choose one over the other?

meaning

user19161

I think this is an interesting question with some subtlety. Checking the dictionary gives pretty similar definitions as adjectives.

Jon Purdy

7:52 PM

@RegDwightѬſ道 Egregious was the first word that came to me.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

8:04 PM

3

A: What's a word that can mean both "good" and "bad"?

The question is an interesting one. If it is about feelings for a thing or person, a formal option could be "ambivalent", if it is supposed to evoke both good and bad reactions / love and hate emotions about a thing or a person. Another interesting case could be a word, that can be interpreted...

I can't make heads or tails of this answer.

Ambivalent is not the word. Ambivalent describes the word.

And no person in his right mind would parse "John gave us fantastic support at the time of crisis" as "John gave us imaginary support at the time of crisis".

Really, this is a non-answer.

Robusto

@RegDwightѬſ道 Ambivalent doesn't even describe the word. It is, in fact, the opposite of the word.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Well yeah.

What I mean is that the answerer misparsed the question.

He didn't read it as "word that means both 'good' and 'bad'", but rather, "word that means 'both good and bad'"

That's why children should learn math. It matters a lot how you nest your parentheses.

Robusto

@JSBᾶngs The whole MDR bacteria thing is pretty scary.

dukevin

Hi, really quick question: When citing an essay in MLA, does the title of the essay go in "quotes", italicized, or underlined?

JSBᾶngs

@Robusto indeed

Robusto

8:11 PM

@RegDwightѬſ道 Some people are born without the parentheses-nesting instinct.

@dukevin owl.english.purdue.edu

dukevin

@Robusto I am aware of that site and only see information on articles, newspapers, but not another essay. Would you happen to know?

Robusto

@dukevin There is a link to the MLA stylesheet on that page. That is what you need.

dukevin

@Robusto I still fail to see where it mentions how an essay should be cited as

Robusto

@dukevin Then you're not looking hard enough. You come in here expecting us to know exactly what kind of work you're producing and how to exactly handle a vague situation regarding that work, and you think we will really have a quick answer for you?

dukevin

I thought it was pretty common knowledge on how to format the citation of an essay

Robusto

8:19 PM

It's also pretty common knowledge how much a house costs.

dukevin

so in other words, you don't know.

Robusto

I know what I would do if I were writing an essay and quoting an article. I don't know what you should do.

dukevin

well, would you tell me what you would do then?

Robusto

Yes. I would go to the MLA style guide, look up the kind of piece I was writing and the use case for the citation, and then see what they had to say about it.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

You guys are hilarious or something.

dukevin

8:24 PM

What would you do if you didn't see any "essay" style guidelines on the mla stylesheet?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I would write a sonnet instead.

I'm flexible like that.

And yeah sorry I know I'm not helping.

Robusto

@dukevin I would find what I needed. I used the MLA style guide for dozens of papers when I was an undergrad, and I never had a problem.

dukevin

@Robusto well if you know, could you please just simply say either "underline, italics, or quoted"?

Robusto

Probably quoted. But you should check anyway.

dukevin

okay, will do. Thanks

Robusto

8:29 PM

@RegDwightѬſ道 Pix or it didn't happen.

simchona

Why are all these MLA questions coming here? Shouldn't they be on Writers?

JSBᾶngs

@simchona it's arguably a gray area, but the precedent is to send them to Writers

simchona

@JSBᾶngs I just don't want to walk into chat and see people being used as an instant reference instead of googling the MLA guide which changes almost every few years

JSBᾶngs

@simchona me, neither. i deal with this problem by refusing to answer questions of that sort. What Robusto does is his own business, though.

Robusto

I didn't really answer his question. I avoided answering his question.

simchona

8:42 PM

@Robusto You've the patience of a saint.

MLA is the EL&U version of RTFM.

Robusto

@simchona Thank you. Nice when people can see my halo.

Anyway, I gotta run. TTYL.

Spare Oom

9:36 PM

Hi @aedia

It's pretty quiet here today.

user19161

@SpareOom Then put on some music!

Spare Oom

Hello @JasperLoy

I'm not particularly in the mood for music, unless you have a good recommendation.

user19161

@SpareOom You can listen to Justin Bieber!

Spare Oom

Never!

user19161

Never say never

aedia λ

9:40 PM

@SpareOom Hi!

user19161

►

aedia λ

Happy Valentine's Day y'all!

user19161

gives flowers to @aedia and @spareoom

Spare Oom

Thanks @aedia.

@JasperLoy No thank you to the JB vid.

aedia λ

10:19 PM

^ a little Vday card for y'all (of course the fantastic Jean Berko Gleason must be credited for the wug)

Spare Oom

Ok, I'd say wugs live in a wugwam.

aedia λ

giggles

What about the tiny wug?

Spare Oom

wuglet

what do you think?

aedia λ

wuggie?

Sounds kind of like snuggie though and I guess those aren't little

I don't think I have a word for a house that a wug lives in. Wughouse, like birdhouse, I guess

Spare Oom

it just sounded too close to wigwam. I had to make use of that.

aedia λ

10:37 PM

Hey one tor, another tor, a torrent :)

Spare Oom

two tors?

aedia λ

Yeah that's what I said initially but then I couldn't resist torrent

Spare Oom

What about the dog with quirks? Quirky or quirkish?

aedia λ

or quirked?

Spare Oom

@aediaλ That actually works too. It didn't cross my mind though. Nor had quirked.

So the plural of lun? I at first thought Luns, but luni works too.

aedia λ

10:43 PM

Even though quirky is actually a word, quirked was the first thing I thought of, I guess because of spotted. Now I'm gonna have to read more about this - I don't remember reading anything about how kids answer the ones that aren't just plurals

@SpareOom I thought luns and then my mind filled in lunch :P

Spare Oom

@aediaλ lol That would be an irregular plural.

16. Plural. One insect, then two. "This is a heaf /hiyf/.
Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are
two ______.”

aedia λ

Heaves?

I'm never going to get anything else done tonight, am I! Now I have to know how the kids answer...

Spare Oom

Apparently there are "correct" answers according to the results.

aedia λ

ok if you haven't found it in childes.psy.cmu.edu/topics/wugs/wugs.pdf p162:

> Since adults responded with both
*heafs and * heaves /-vz/, both of these answers were considered
correct. It must be noted that although 42 % of the adults gave
*heaves as the plural of this item, employing what would amount
to a morphophonemic change along the lines of: knife: knives;
hoof: hooves, only three children out of a total of 89 answering this
item said "heaves; 9, or 10 % added nothing, and an additional
four formed the plural with the wrong allomorph, i.e. they said
/hiyfəz/, treating the /-f/ as if it belonged to the sibilant-affricate

Spare Oom

On that one, I would have said heaf as plural too (maybe).

That was my first reaction.

I didn't think of leaf - leaves.

aedia λ

11:01 PM

It makes sense that there had to be "correct" answers (even if there may be more than one correct answer and it's a little bit fuzzy where the line is on some of the irregular words) to analyze the results and compare child speech to adult grammar

If you like this stuff you might like the videos at pbs.org/wgbh/nova/secretlife/scientists/jean-berko-gleason

> What is of additional interest, is that the last explanation about the handkerchief was also offered by one of the college-graduate adult subjects.

> "A handkerchief is a thing you hold in your hand, and you go 'kerchoo'."

(Berko 1958)

Spare Oom

Yes, that's all interesting.

I keep forgetting to look for NOVA.

If you saw the talking twin babies, it reminds me that I did see or read something a while back about some twins having a secret language of their own.

It might have just been from a movie, though. I don't remember the source.

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