English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

RegDwight Ѭſ道

12:00 AM

I think I actually close voted that one as well, no?

David Wallace

Carlo, I look back here, and I see you making many insults too.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Ah, I was too late to that party.

Carlo_R.

Yes, Mahnax has provocated me

Mahnax

What?

David Wallace

Look, there are two sides to every coin. I can see why Mahnax thinks it's a bad question, although I don't agree with him. Either way, is it necessary for the discussion to degenerate into a series of personal remarks?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

12:01 AM

The question has been edited substantially.

Never forget to look at the edit history.

David Wallace

OK, I'll go and do that now.

Mahnax

I'm going to say one last thing about my reason for being angry. Carlo was not satisfied with my answer, he told me to ask Reg how to answer, that I was too young to answer, and to to go study.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

The original version, which was the one I saw as well, was indeed a totally different beast.

Mahnax

That is all I have to say on the matter.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

No need to paraphrase, I have read all the deleted messages.

You should all just go to bed. Collectively with one another.

Mahnax

12:03 AM

Well, David didn't get to see those or the comments on my answer, so, you know.

@RegDwightѬſ道 yech

David Wallace

So, from now on, maybe Carlo makes allowances for Mahnax being young, and Mahnax makes allowances for Carlo being foreign. Is that too much to ask?

Mahnax

Allowances?

Why?

Argh.

David Wallace

To prevent this kind of fight from happening in the future. Nobody likes to see this.

Carlo_R.

Ok. Allowance to Mahnax. Really

Jez

@RegDwight Apparently, "Einiges" can mean few, some, or a lot. How do I tell which? :-)

RegDwight Ѭſ道

12:04 AM

I really think we should just let the dust settle for now.

in War Metal Tyrant, Jul 11 '11 at 22:30, by RegDwight

As the Russian saying goes, "The morning is smarter than the evening."

@Jez context.

David Wallace

Or you can just both ignore each other, and not answer each other's questions, and not comment on each other's answers.

Jez

OK, the context is: "I need some advertising contracts for my channel. What do you have to offer?"

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Note how in English, "quite a few" doesn't mean "totally few", but rather "quite many".

Jez

"Einiges... Wenn Sie mal schauen wollen."

Mahnax

I'm not really angry anymore, dinner was too delicious for me to be angry.

Jez

12:06 AM

@RegDwight yeah, but that's with quite, the intensifier

David Wallace

@RegDwightѬſ道 Interesting. A friend that I went overseas with once sent another friend of ours a postcard, in which he said "Dave has few revolting habits". She read it as "Dave has a few revolting habits", which is kind of the opposite. :-)

Mahnax

@DavidWallace Haha, that's good.

Carlo_R.

@DavidWallace - Thank you so much. I have understood your suggest. Thanks again.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Jez that would mean, "quite some", as in more that one would expect. Thus, "do have a look".

Jez

ok

"Quite a bit... if you'd like to browse."

perhaps?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

12:09 AM

Yeah, that's nice.

I can't find that question about few vs. a few.

Wo ist sie hin?

Mahnax

11

Q: "A few" vs. "few"

I have few friends. I have a few friends. I thought "few" means just one, two or even none. "A few" typically means more than two. However it seems to me some people say "few" when they really mean "a few", am I right?

That one?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Yeah.

I got it now as well.

By using the SE search, go figure.

Mahnax

I searched for "few" and it was the first result.

Jez

yeah I hadn't considered that. Do you have few friends, a few friends, or quite a few friends? :-)

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Mahnax Same here.

Mahnax

12:12 AM

@RegDwightѬſ道 GMTA.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

But before that I had tried like OVER 7 googlings.

Mahnax

Wow, that's a lot.

David Wallace

@Reg why don't you try googling "a vs an"?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@DavidWallace that one actually works.

As opposed to an SE search.

David Wallace

Hehe, you're right. Who would have guessed?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

12:14 AM

Well, that's why everybody here uses Google for hunting down dupes.

And that's why I'm surprised to see it fail.

And see the SE search succeed at the same time.

David Wallace

Maybe there should be no stop words for the search on English.SE. Other SE sites should retain their stop words.

Jez

these guys like saying "doch mal" a lot

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Jez the thing is, if that's just with "quite", the intensifier, how do you explain that "quite a few" is not the opposite of "quite a lot"?

The quite doesn't intensify "a few" to mean even less, it intensifies both "a few" and "a lot" into the same direction.

Jez

@RegDwightѬſ道 Yeah, I thought you might raise that

RegDwight Ѭſ道

It doesn't do that with, say, "great" and "rubbish".

Jez

12:19 AM

as was said in the German chatroom... because Fuck you!, that's why.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Well, that is the answer to all things language.

Jez

Mahnax

@RegDwightѬſ道 Haha, pretty much.

David Wallace

See my starred comment about Ser/Bos/Cro numbers. I think it actually happens in all Slavic languages; not sure.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Jez never tell them about Finnish, or even just Turkish.

Jez

12:20 AM

why?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@DavidWallace in Russian the forms for 20 and 21 would be the same.

David Wallace

So 21 is plural in Russian?

Mahnax

Finnish in general is ridiculous.

2

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Jez because 15 cases > 4?

@DavidWallace that part is the same. But there's no suppletion for 20.

Jez

RegDwight Ѭſ道

12:23 AM

@Jez Augenkrebs.

Jez

@RegDwight Any idea what "Cha Hum Ser Sex" might stand for there?

I think I know Sex.

3

Mahnax

Haha.

David Wallace

But you could give a Russian noun for which 20, 21 and 22 all require different forms?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Jez hey I was going to ask you that!

David Wallace

Charm? Humour? Serendipity?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

12:24 AM

Charakter? Seriosität? Humbug?

Jez

i was hoping it might be obvious. oh well.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@DavidWallace It's German. Which Jez is trying to translate.

Jez

ahh

they have em elsewhere

David Wallace

@RegDwight - English and German have a recent common ancestor, and therefore many cognate words :-)

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@DavidWallace well different endings do not really count as different forms for me.

Jez

12:25 AM

Charisma, Humor, Sexappeal, and Seriosität

respectability?

gravitas?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

No, really more like seriousness. As in, how reliable they are. I guess you could say reliablility, in fact.

David Wallace

@RegDwightѬſ道 Yes, but to a native English speaker, it's downright bizarre that 20 people, 21 people and 22 people are different enough to require different endings.

Jez

ah right

David Wallace

Suppletion aside.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@DavidWallace then just take a noun off the top of your head and it should work.

20 yablok, 21 yabloko, 22 yabloka.

David Wallace

12:27 AM

Thank you, that was what I was asking.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

At 25 it changes again.

This is just a legacy feature.

Dual.

They used to have dual in Old Church Slavonic.

David Wallace

My problem with Russian is that the only things I know how to say are "yes", "no", "thank you", "good-bye" and "I'm fucking your mother". There's a limit to the conversational usefulness of this collection.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

If there's a limit I don't see it. Millions of Russians make do with just the last one as we speak.

David Wallace

@RegDwightѬſ道 retained for backward compatibility.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

It's only cool when you have vowel transposition on top of that, 20 otzov, 21 otez, 22 otza.

Jez

12:39 AM

I'm liking this. As I translate from DE-EN, I re-patch and copy the file over. Each time, it decreases by a few hundred bytes.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

You should see the Dutch translation. It's just six bytes.

David Wallace

@RegDwightѬſ道 fathers?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Yes.

20 lzhey, 21 lozh, 22 lzhi.

David Wallace

S/B/C has 20 očeva, 21 otac, 22 oca for fathers.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Sounds logical to me.

In fact the only slight difference is the case ending -a for 20.

And seeing how different the case endings can really get between South Slavic and East Slavic, that's really nothing.

Jez

12:45 AM

What does this mean?

> Hmm... So wie ich das sehe, ist der Mülleimer leer.

David Wallace

I see that the rubbish needs to be emptied?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

> Hmm, the way I see it, the dustbin is empty.

Pretty straightforward, actually.

David Wallace

"is empty", not "is to be emptied"?

Jez

ok

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@DavidWallace That would be "muß geleert werden".

David Wallace

12:47 AM

Isn't there some kind of gerundive in German?

I'm not querying what you say, of course (take note, KitFox); only trying to learn.

Jez

> Ich benötige noch Spezialeffekte.

Does "noch" basically translate to "some" there?

apparently it can mean "yet/still"

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@DavidWallace I am not too saddle-fast when it comes to gerundives. In primary school, that's what they'd teach us the -ing form was called. It took me quite some time to unlearn that, but I never learned the proper meaning in return.

@Jez either "still", as in that's the only thing that's left, or "on top of that", in addition.

Jez

Hmm.....

In this context "still" seems unlikely.

Mitch

@Carlo_R No, they are not the same to me. Of course they have some overlap, but I would never think of one to replace the other.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Holy moly, it's 3 AM already.

Jez

12:56 AM

Like, he walks up to the guy straight up and talks

there's no "still" about it

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Then just say, "I could use some Special Effects", and be done.

Ima get me sleep.

Over and out!

Jez

bye

David Wallace

до свидания

Mahnax

That was a lovely nap I had just now.

Mahnax

4:41 AM

Hey @Sonic.

Sonic The Hedgehog

Hey. Can't chat now; busy...

Mahnax

Okay.

Sonic The Hedgehog

Sorry.

Mahnax

Ah, it's okay.

I have stuff I should be doing too.

user19161

5:10 AM

@SonicTheHedgehog You must be in Korea already!

user19161

@Mahnax I saw the chat room was rather exciting just now. Relax!

Mahnax

@JasperLoy I'm fine now.

I was tired and angry and felt like roaring.

That's no justification, and I apologize to Carlo for calling him a rude name.

Sonic The Hedgehog

@Jasper Nah, not yet. not until school's over, we decided.

@Mah what happened?

Mahnax

5:27 AM

@SonicTheHedgehog Eh, Carlo said something demeaning to me when I answered his question, and we got into an argument.

Sonic The Hedgehog

permalink me! smacks lips

Mahnax

I deleted the answer because I knew the question would be closed, but I can link you to a screenshot if you so desire.

Sonic The Hedgehog

sure.

Apr 5 at 23:01, by Will Hunting

@Mahnax His Chinese name is Chen Long.

Mahnax

Deleting soon.

Sonic The Hedgehog

I believe you are wrong, Jasper; his Chinese name is Chang Cong San(not exact spelling, from memory) I believe.

@Mah Ouch, low blow.

Mahnax

5:30 AM

@SonicTheHedgehog Uhuh. Anyways, what's done is done, and there's no need for further discourse.

Sonic The Hedgehog

Meh :P

Mahnax

Meh what?

Sonic The Hedgehog

I should probably delete my ageism comment I made 20 seconds ago, that would be considered as "spoiler", wouldn't it?

opps, now I have to delete that one because it has that word in it.

Shoot, too late.

I hate 2 minute rule.

Mahnax

It's okay, I don't think anyone will care too much.

Sonic The Hedgehog

I love Chrome Spell checker. 50% of chat I am writing now would be in wrong spelling if it weren't for that checker.

Mahnax

5:35 AM

Yay, the brokenness works.

David Wallace

@SonicTheHedgehog He changed it. Used to be Chan Kong Sang; now it's something different. We had a long discussion about it here recently.

Sonic The Hedgehog

Not saying I misspell words, but As Korean, we have natural tendency to be impatient.

@David he changed it? Well, wikiped- opps, I forgot...

Link me to the discussion.

I missed alot.

opps.

a lot*

Mahnax

Yurgwaah!

David Wallace

Oh, I don't know. Right here 3 days ago, I think.

Search for Kong Sang.

Sonic The Hedgehog

here?

or google?

David Wallace

5:38 AM

Search this room.

Sonic The Hedgehog

alright...

5 minutes later...Needs more "Long".

Huh?

?huH

A joke.

.ekoj A

OK, I'll stop.

Sonic The Hedgehog

5:41 AM

more like inverse saying, I use the saying "Needs more ____" in place for the meaning that the ____ is used too much.

David Wallace

Start at 10:47am on April 6 (UTC).

Sonic The Hedgehog

Hence, "Long" was made too much.

or said.

or typed.

etc.

I am going to sleep. 1:45 am here.

Cya.

Mahnax

Bye!

Robusto

1:09 PM

0

Q: Why do bass sound like base?

Can someone explain why bass is pronounced like base? If bass sounds like base, why isn't ass pronounced as (nearly) ace instead?

pronunciation

What's our policy on these?

I guess it's a legit question.

My immediate first thought was, "Because English spelling makes no sense. Okay?"

Mitch

1:46 PM

@Robusto I agree (in that my first inclination is to answer 'because that's the way it is' and that there is some description that turns out to be explanatory). Sorta like "why does 'bow' have so many pronunciations and meanings?".

Robusto

@Mitch Exactly. The OP's phrasing make the question seem supercilious, but it's actually interesting.

@Mitch: But why is Carlo_R addressing you in comments to my answer?

Gigili

2:17 PM

RegDwight Ѭſ道

hah

Mitch

@Robusto I think a lot of close votes (mine?) are in reaction to the wording of the question.

Jez

@RegDwight you know the translation? what do you make of

> $TPC$TMO$TF3Eingangsportal

user19161

@Jez What language is that?

Jez

German

Mitch

2:31 PM

@Robusto I can't speak to Carlo's inner motivation or his understanding of the '@' behavior (it is not obvious), but it seems that he's taken me to be some sort of arbiter of closing, since recently his questions are being closed. He also gave an inflammatory comment similar in nature to what he gave to Mahnax in his deleted answer to the 'futurible' question.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Jez entrance, main gate.

user19161

@Mitch I just understood what you are talking about. Yeah that addressing you in another question is quite weird. At first I thought you were still talking about his question yesterday. Well you should be happy that he seems to like you!

user19161

@Mahnax The title overshoots the rectangle.

Mahnax

@JasperLoy Ayup.

user19161

@SonicTheHedgehog Maybe it is the kimchi effect.

Mahnax

2:37 PM

And someone downvoted two of my questions while I slept.

Oh well.

user19161

@Mahnax It's OK. There are more important things such as KFC.

Mahnax

@JasperLoy KFC is less important.

Gigili

@Mahnax It wasn't me, seriously.

Mahnax

But there is one question that I would really like to delete.

@Gigili OK.

Hey!

You've voted twice today, and I got two downvotes…

user19161

@Mahnax Well, two is everywhere.

Gigili

2:41 PM

@Mahnax Look, it wasn't me.

Mahnax

@JasperLoy It's probably a coincidence.

@Gigili See previous message.

Gigili

@Mahnax Meh.

Mines were upvotes.

And I'm not Carlo.

user19161

I gave someone presents today, but on another site.

Mahnax

Ah.

Which site?

user19161

@Mahnax Hmm, fitness.

Mahnax

2:44 PM

@JasperLoy I see.

user19161

@Mahnax I also see like you.

Mahnax

@JasperLoy Good, we wouldn't want you to be blind.

user19161

@Mahnax Some things are blind, like love.

Mahnax

Eh.

Gigili

3:14 PM

Should it be "could be transmitted from mother to fetus" or "can be transmitted blabla"?

Really?

Jez

3:27 PM

@RegDwight This is the current state of play with the translation: pastebin.com/D7sveHLw

Could do with your help from f4470c24-28cd-4785-827a-a353846818bc onwards.

GnomeSlice

3:58 PM

Quick question, since I've asked inappropriate questions for the site before:

would a question about how to use 'who's' vs 'whose' be on-topic here?

Robusto

►

user19161

@GnomeSlice So what is the question exactly?

user19161

@Robusto Wow, very clever tactics!

Gigili

@JasperLoy Did you read what he said?

user19161

@Gigili I did.

Gigili

4:05 PM

Try again.

> How to use 'who's' vs 'whose' .

user19161

@Gigili Maybe you should try again.

Gigili

I don't have any problems, you failed to understand his question.

I can try again if it helps you feel better.

user19161

@Gigili Nope, you failed to understand mine. QED.

user19161

A question about who's vs whose could mean many things. I was clarifying his exact intention.

Gigili

Every question could mean many things. If you're asking him to narrow it down, you need to be more direct.

In any case, you are the one who failed to understand.

user19161

4:11 PM

Reg closed the testicle question before I even finished reading it.

user19161

4:23 PM

Hello @carlo! What's up?

Carlo_R.

I was still wondering why my futuristic question has gained -8. I am surprise.

user19161

@Carlo_R surprised, not surprise

Carlo_R.

I forgotten. I did not know Etymology Dictionary on line.

Gigili

@Carlo_R Most of them are because of your unreasonable demands.

user19161

@Carlo_R Yes you should check that first for etymology questions.

Gigili

4:28 PM

Don't upset my favourite user next time.

Carlo_R.

However, after 14,535 questions, it is more difficult asking a new thing!

This is the reason of unreasonable demands. @Gigili

Said that, I see that other stupid question are leaved open. The mine are closed instead (very quickly).

user19161

@Carlo_R left, not leaved

Carlo_R.

Ok, thanks :) I am learning English.

You should appreciate my efforts asking the questions from other and new perspective.

Mahnax

Hello everyone.

Carlo_R.

To close my question you cannot have one sauce for the goose and one for the gander. When I ask a stupid question you close that quickly, when other ask a stupid question you do not do the same thing.

Mahnax

4:37 PM

Give us a stupid question to close, then.

Examples or it didn't happen.

Gigili

Wait, I insulted you? When exactly and where @CarloR?

GnomeSlice

Anyway, I figured it out on my own, but thanks guys. =]

user19161

Let's try to be more constructive people.

user19161

@GnomeSlice Exactly, just coming to this room solves the problem. There is power in this room.

3

Carlo_R.

'Ello Manax. You have insulted me because you have said that my futuristic question did not had sense. Indeed it has a deep sense (and this is not an illusion as you said) @Gigili

'Ello @Mitch, did you have already down-voted my new question?

or are you going to do that?

@Mahnax try to close this english.stackexchange.com/questions/49101/…

Mahnax

4:47 PM

@Carlo_R Low blow, but how is that stupid?

Carlo_R.

It is stupid because the answer can found everywhere in internet.

Mahnax

How many of those sources are reliable?

And [almost] all of the answers here are found on the Internet.

So your point is invalid.