English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

12:47 AM

ru ru raggy?

Q: From Agatha Christie, two questions

12:59 AM

-4

From Agatha Christie, two questions: what do music-hally and a full meed mean?

meaning

I can't do anything right.

Joseph Weissman

3:08 AM

knock knock

lɪŋˈgwɪstɪks

General discussion for linguistics.stackexchange.com

1

Lacan was mentioned.

KABOOOM

Hello!

Just came by to say hi.

But I have to go to bed...

How are you, fellow dog?

3:36 AM

reasonably well

considering i hurt everywhere thanks to the overenthusastic instructor at the state mandated fitness crap

State mandated?

You have my sympathy, with your suffering.

Adieu, bed time!

David Wallace

8:56 AM

@Mahnax Where I come from, that's a porch.

Q: Correct usage of (n)fold, where n is any integer greater than or equal to one?

9:21 AM

duplicate ahoy, mateys!

1

Q: The problem is twofold?

The problems are threefold. The problem is threefold. Which is the right way to use the -fold suffix?

grammar idioms

3

Writing a rhetorical piece for my high school english class, I wanted to emphasize the sheer increase from 10 million to approximately 2 billion. Conveniently, 10 million is 200 times smaller than 2 billion. That makes a nice, clean number to work with, even though it really doesn't have any si...

meaning word-choice

oh

perhaps they're not duplicates

12:05 PM

Holla

yo

12:20 PM

morning

Writers chat today at noon. What should we talk about?

hey @cerb, here's a language innovation for you: to verse: "verb (versed, versing) Sport (especially in children's language) to play against in a game or competition: who are we versing this week? [backformation from VERSUS (understood as a verb form verses, with the infinitive verse)]"

@KitFox writing?

David Wallace

My son says that all the time. It irritates me immensely. But so do all his friends.

@KitFox differences in writing for text and graphic novels?

David Wallace

"Which team are we versing this week, Daddy?"

12:22 PM

@MattЭллен Sounds good.

how long until noon?

three and a half hours.

in The Overlook Hotel, 40 secs ago, by KitFox

My eldest has been making up songs lately. His favorite is:
Ducks, ducks, flying through the air
Ducks, ducks, fly up to the tree
They see some squirrels
WHAT!? I *hate* squirrels!

2

ah, thanks. Will be cycling home at that point :D

@KitFox lol

Oh right. Same reason you couldn't make it last time.

I know, I'm full of excuses

12:30 PM

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Right, I am familiar with this verb. What's your opinion on it?

@MattЭллен Well, so what if we have it a little later?

And do we know anyone who can talk about the differences in writing for text and graphic novels?

It is a bit silly, but it is actually a correct kind of back-formation, so I would not spank my children for using it.

I'm quite OK with it.

You shouldn't spank your children anyway.

Goon.

What if I'm just frustrated from work and all?

Well, don't be.

12:31 PM

What if my wife is giving me a hard time?

Should I hit her, then?

Yes, but not in front of the children.

But we live in a single-room apartment.

@KitFox I don't know. I'm afraid I don't know anything about it

Perhaps we should get pets.

@MattЭллен Well, then maybe we'll think of something else.

12:33 PM

Like a boa constrictor maximus.

@KitFox probably for the best

@Cerberus get a pit bull and beat it, then act surprised when it attacks you

@Cerberus theonion.com/articles/…

@MattЭллен Hmm good idea, that should allow us to let off some steam.

@Cerberus I think my inner prescriptivist would find it annoying. But my outer descriptivist laughs at my inner prescriptivist and finds it amusing.

@KitFox Haha, that poor dog. Truly exceptional.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I am rarely annoyed by anything in very informal language. There is a place for everything.

12:40 PM

@Cerberus so the hoi polloi can say whatever they want, as long as it's informal?

Yes.

@Cerberus so should that be "Mr. Shiny and New versus Cerberus" or "Mr. Shiny and New versing Cerberus"?

Pick whichever you want.

so who's going to rush out and buy a MS Surface tablet?

shifts awkwardly as tumble weed blows by

12:45 PM

It looks like they've done a decent job on the hardware

@MattЭллен (Try the caps lock)

:D

OH YEAH. I AM SO COOL NOW!

I am about to read about this new tablet.

I still don't see the usefulness of tablets, really.

I mean, there is some marginal usefulness.

But if you already have a slim notebook and a 720p phone?

@Cerberus I have yet to think of a use I could justify buying one for.

Exactly.

12:49 PM

Oh man, I love my tablet

@MrShinyandNew安宇 is it extacy?

This, perhaps?

@MattЭллен not exactly. But I want to carry it around everywhere, like a glassy, flat teddy bear

That says it all.

Having an object with you that you need to have a bag for and that can easily break or be stolen sounds like so much fun!

@Cerberus well, I don't actually carry it with me everywhere.

12:53 PM

@Cerberus awww bless!

@Cerberus OK. That's actually pretty cool.

but it's a really great device

I suppose if you have a netbook you probably don't need a tablet. But I like the usability of the tablet a lot more than a notebook. I don't use it for the same tasks. And anyway my tablet has an optional keyboard that transforms it into a netbook so you have the best of both worlds if you want that.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 But you would like to!

@KitFox Cool is the first word you think of? Hmm...

@MrShinyandNew安宇 But then you don't have the keyboard where you need it at the right time.

I am getting an iPad.

I am padding a GET

12:57 PM

I would prefer a thin netbook where you could pivot the screen all the way to the back of the keyboard.

Hee hee.

Then you could use it as a tablet or a notebook at will.

I particularly liked the tablet I had when I was in grad school. It made CAD so much easier.

@Cerberus If you are the kind of person who buys the keyboard in the first place, likely you just "close" it like a notebook when you take it travelling.

I like my wacom tablet

12:58 PM

@Cerberus There are tablets like that.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 But then...

@MrShinyandNew安宇 All right, then they're just notebooks!

it's not super fancy, but it makes drawing on computer easier

@Cerberus well, hardware-wise, the main difference is that they have touch-screens and touching the screen is meant to be the primary input method.

By the way, I was just about to read a review of the MS tablet on Ars Technica when you started about it, and it strikes me how the first half of the review is only about the colour of the frame, the rounded corners, the way it looks...all about appearances.

@Cerberus does it run Windows 8?

1:00 PM

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Oh, sure, but I assume future notebooks will have touch screens too, I should have mentioned it.

@MattЭллен Yes I believe so.

arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/06/…

@Cerberus That's because future notebooks will be tablets.

Or the other way around.

In the future, there will be robots.

@Cerberus ah, then the only functional difference between that and a windows 7 device is the metro interface

@KitFox eeep!

@KitFox There are already robots. Some friendly robots made my car for me.

1:02 PM

Nah, it's a GTA Vice City reference.

Yeah probably. I know nothing about tablets. Except that I have handled a few Ipads, and they just don't seem practical to me. At home, I have my computer; when I'm somewhere else, I don't want to be carrying around a bag and/or having to watch over it.

@KitFox oh god yeah! lol I remember now. with the manatee :D

@MattЭллен rofl

binary solo

I particularly like that part

1:04 PM

I was just going to post that

@MattЭллен Damn I forgot about the manatee!

@Cerberus at home I have a computer. But now I use my tablet for half the things I used to use my computer for.

It's great because it's designed (along with all its apps) to be keyboard-free. So the whole thing is smaller than a thin notebook and it doesn't have a keyboard to get in the way. It's portable in a way that no notebook I've used is.

And you can just slide it into your purse!

@KitFox exactly!

But I like to keep my purses tiny!

1:08 PM

Plus it runs all the same apps as my phone, including the one or two that I paid for

Don't you miss the keyboard?

They make tiny tablets too. Some tablets are so small they are really just "phones" that have no phone-call capability

@MrShinyandNew安宇 like the iPod Touch?

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Exactly, so I would rather have a large phone, as long as it fits into my pocket. Like the Note.

@MattЭллен yes, but I was thinking of the Archos line of 3" tablets

1:10 PM

I see

@Cerberus once I tried writing a long document (blog post, I think) on the tablet using the on-screen keyboard. It was annoying. But I can buy the keyboard for this tablet, or pair it with my bluetooth keyboard if I really need to.

Just get the Samsung Galaxy Note!

Hey! I watched Star Wars last night.

the Note is too big for a phone in my opinion and too small for a tablet.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 ...and we're back at the foldable touch-screen notebook!

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I don't know...people who use it say it is perfect.

1:11 PM

I like to use my tablet to watch videos. Watching videos on a tiny screen like the Note is not that fun for me.

@KitFox what version? Did you enjoy it?

It doesn't need to be foldable. It just needs to have a projected holographic keyboard.

My main concern is that typing with one hand would be hard.

@Cerberus except that they keyboard is removable

"Mr. Shiny and New vs. Cerberus" is much easier to type

1:12 PM

@MattЭллен It was pretty OK. It was the newest BluRay version.

@Cerberus have you seen Asus's line of tablets?

But removing and attaching keyboards would be annoying to me.

I know very little about tablets.

Oh no!!

@Cerberus It depends on how often you want to do that. Like you, I have computers with keyboards here, I don't need another one. but the tablet isn't doing the same job as the desktop

@Cerberus that time again?

Bwahahaha.

1:14 PM

Sorry, the pop-up escaped.

@Cerberus oh! time for some spring cleaning

Hello everyone.

What disaster!! Boy, am I glad Windows sent me an emergency pop-up. Especially since I haven't added any icons today, so I might forget about this dire business.

Hi!

@Mahnax hello

Do you find this excessive?

1:15 PM

@Cerberus I think you need to be reminded once in a while.

So Asus has the Transformer which is a tablet that transforms to a notebook, the Slider which is a tablet with slide-out keyboard, and the PadFone which is a phone that transforms into a tablet that transforms into a notebook

@Mahnax I suppose...

I have 6 icons on my desktop. and 5 pinned to my task bar

I could probably get rid of all the ones on my desktop

@MrShinyandNew安宇 More than meets the eye!

1:17 PM

@Cerberus yes and no. I keep my desktop very minimal, so, yes, but no, for most people that's not excessive. But I think it's just based on how long it's been since it warned you and if there are icons you haven't used in that time.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Slider looks nice. But I heard the software is subpar compared to the Ipad, alas.

@KitFox exactly! It's really a very well-made device

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I really don't care, because I don't use my desktop for anything. I never use any icons there.

@Cerberus I dispute that the iPad has better software than Android.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 My husband used to put everything on the desktop. I still have to clean it up periodically. It makes me insane.

1:18 PM

@Cerberus if you don't use the icons there, then it makes sense that Windows is saying "you have unused icons", doesn't it? :)

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I hate to have to defend anything Apple, but...

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I'd prefer it if it didn't. I have my icons the way I like them. Just because I've not clicked them in a while I don't care what windows thinks. Is there a way to turn the notification off?

Anyway, I think the PadFone would suit your mentality, Cerb. It's really more of a "one device" kind of thing. You have your phone, and when you need more you just "expand" it into a tablet. you don't have a dedicated tablet lying around doing nothing.

Hola.

(He starts bashing the Asus after about minutes btw ^.)

1:23 PM

Buenas Tardes

@MrShinyandNew安宇 I don't know, it seems more like a "fun" gadget than something I really need. I would buy a good phone first.

But I have to run, bye!

Bye!

CU @Cerb

@MattЭллен You're the only polite user in this room. I'm proud of you.

Thanks! My parents raised me well.

1:30 PM

Can you hear me now?

I read you

The entire campus just lost power.

bummer

@KitFox Darn.

I'm on mobile with no way to goof off!

1:32 PM

but how can you work without power?

I can't.

so there's no way for you to goof on :D

I have to wait until the servers come back up.

Oh!

There we go.

Geezis, that was fast.

I think they rebooted the main cluster in less than ten minutes.

@Cerberus So in a 13 minute video he spends the first 5 minutes explaining how the Asus tablet is superior to the iPad in terms of hardware. Then he spends the next 2 minutes complaining about the default zoom of the Android browser, when visiting sites that have not been optimized for tablets. Then he whines that some websites incorrectly identify the Android tablet as a phone, and don't show an ipad-optimized version of the site. Then he finally gets around to complaining about 3rd party apps.

Well, then again, I'm in the same building as IT...

1:35 PM

So flagging a post doesn't make much sense since Reg is not available and other mods don't bother.

It might help. What are you flagging?

@Gigili Other mods do. I had a few flags acted on recently by waiwai

Of course the iPad has more tablet-specific apps; the iPad has been around longer and the iPad market is bigger than the Android tablet market. For now: the Kindle Fire is the top-selling tablet right now.

on a related note: please close this:

0

Q: Deny, Repudiate, Refute

He denied the existence of ghosts. He repudiated the existence of ghosts. He refuted the existence of ghosts. Could all three mean the same?

differences

@MattЭллен Done

1:36 PM

thanks!

A sockpuppet was de-puppeted last night

Anyone we know?

english.stackexchange.com/questions/71600/…

[10k only]

@KitFox The "I were" question, I usually flag them as something since I cannot vote to close.

@Gigili Do you have a link?

1:40 PM

In sum, one user posted the exact same question word for word within a day

@Gigili Oh. This one?

@simchona With two different accounts?

That's interesting.

@KitFox Yes--click the dupe link at the top of the deleted question

@KitFox Uhum.

@Gigili What's your close reason?

It seems a bit not constructive

1:46 PM

The subjunctive question?

> But somehow it's being used many times, I don't know the situations any idea guys??

Yeah, the subjunctive one

> I was taught since ever that etiquette is plural as fish does.

what?

I think he just needs to be told that it is the subjunctive, or whatever non-controversial designation is appropriate. It seems we must have a thousand dupes of that very same thing.

@MattЭллен "I have always been taught that 'etiquette' is plural, like 'fish' is plural."

Yeah, it's just so non-native it's like a pencil in my eye

2

Can't you read pineapple?

@MattЭллен Yes! I've started a trend!

1:52 PM

:D

Speaking of, I should write a little more.

What happens next?

@KitFox reading pineapple is easy as fish does

-2

A: Past, Present Tense

But suppose somebody broke into my house. The act of burglary happened in the past, so I don't think I could say "Somebody BREAKS into my house."

@KitFox does the company encourage communal lunches? To foster a friendly social environment?

@MattЭллен No, they are not that nice. But I suppose there isn't much reason for a programmer to talk to a designer.

2:00 PM

maybe Ada isn't a stereo typical programmer. maybe she's forthright about making friends?

Hello my friends.

@MattЭллен I've got an idea. Let me try it out.

Hi Carlo

@KitFox yay!

@Carlo Hello.

I'm learning English language, but I'm not able chatting with you.

2:04 PM

do we make learning English difficult?

@Matt No, absolutely no.

oh, ok I misread you :)

@Matt However, I'm pleased following your conversations.

jolly good :)

English is a hard, ball-breaking language to learn. Even native speakers screw it up so much that it looks like a cow that got hit by a truck after five days of rotting on a Texas roadside. And that's the Disney version. The truth is even worse.

7

2:09 PM

blows kisses @Robusto

blows them back

@Robusto At least it has only a single writing system, which uses an alphabet, and the spelling makes some sense, even if it's not completely logical or uniform.

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Did you mean speling?

Spehlihng

@Robusto no, that would change the pronunciation of the E

2:11 PM

Did you mean cense, sense, or cents?

> even if it's not completely logical or uniform

@simchona No gratuitous diphthonging in chat.

@simchona That's how I am speaking today, with lots of h's in my words, because I am trying not to cough

hhhAnd soho I'hm wheezing ha bhit

I'hm goihng to ahdd ahs mahny h's ahs I wahnt

Old ha bhits die hard.

2:17 PM

I'm not sure if "I'm pleased following" is grammatical. Probably, I would have say "I'm pleased to follow". Is there someone who can answer?

It depends on what you mean.

Do you have a situation in which you'd like to use this? It's hard to answer just off the cuff

I'm pleased following commendations from above would be grammatical.

@Robusto - Thank you Robusto and Simchona

@Carlo_R where you said

12 mins ago, by Carlo_R.

@Matt However, I'm pleased following your conversations.

I think it ould have made more sense to write

> I'm pleased to follow your conversation

2:19 PM

@MattЭллен That sounds a bit too much like a butler

I would prefer happy in that context.

> I'm pleased to be of service

"Pleased" is a little dated

because I think you meant that you're happy to read what's going on, and not necessarily participate

What do you mean by "following your conversation"?

I wish to share this tweet with you all.

2:22 PM

I smell socktwittering!

I'm not pretending not to be me!

user19161

@MattЭллен I prefer to have a sweet instead.

to each his own

user19161

@MattЭллен I see you have the tadpole avatar there. It looks better than the green goblin.

I don't know what the Green Goblin's got to do with anything, but thanks!

$user image$

what does that mean? does it mean element of the reals?

or does it mean element of positive reals?

2:32 PM

It means Zorro is an element of the Reality-Squared set.

of course! I should have known. Such a master swordsman

@MattЭллен Which are n-tuple.

@Gigili oh! What does that mean? could you show me an example?

HI!

HI!

2:48 PM

That reminds me of how my son was traumatized by Alan Thicke.

@KitFox who's wasn't?

I've not heard of him, so I'm the only one

HI!

Alan Thicke

Alan Thicke (born Alan Willis Jeffrey; March 1, 1947) is a Canadian actor, comedian, songwriter, and game and talk show host. He is best known for his role as Jason Seaver, the patriarch on the ABC television series Growing Pains. Early life Thicke was born in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada, the son of Joan, a nurse, and William Jeffery, a stockbroker. His mother later married Brian Thicke, a physician. He graduated from Elliot Lake Secondary School in 1965, and was elected the homecoming king. He went on to attend the University of Western Ontario, where he joined the Delta Upsilon fr...

not traumatised by Alan Thicke

@KitFox so what happened?

2:53 PM

What? Oh. Well. I think I've told the story before. Let me see.

Jul 6 '11 at 14:04, by Kit

Well, Alan Thicke didn't know he terrified my son. He just happened to say "Hello, everybody!" on TV at the exact moment my son turned the volume to maximum.

lol

Jul 6 '11 at 14:05, by Kit

His eyes got huge, he plopped down on the floor, and started crying and shaking uncontrollably.

user19161

@MattЭллен It just means that z is an element of n-dimensional Euclidean space. For example, (3,2,1) is a point in 3-dimensional Euclidean space.

Jul 6 '11 at 14:05, by Kit

Damn that Alan Thicke! giggle

Still makes me laugh to think about it.

Poor kid.

@JasperLoy oh! thanks :)

user19161

2:55 PM

@MattЭллен You never came across this notation in programming?

nope. it's a very mathsy notation. programmers tend towards keeping it ascii

user19161

Nowadays some questions are deleted so fast that I can't even read it the second time. The absolute vs relative one just disappeared.

user19161

I guess the OP decided to remove it.

yo us coderz r keepin' it ascii.

yo

2:57 PM

lol

user19161

@cpx Oh you are the OP!

OP?

should I add in an indian-english

aww, I missed the flag

Please don't lol except when you really have to.

user19161

@cpx Original poster.

2:58 PM

oh, there already is one!

user19161

@Gigili LOL.

Can I do 'lulz'?

@Gigili Does anyone LOL when they DON'T have to?

user19161

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Yes, I just did.

@MattЭллен I think the comment is still there. Shall I fetch it for you?

2:59 PM

@KitFox nah, it's OK. thanks. I'm just nosy :)

Well, then, let's invade The Bridge.

@JasperLoy That's exactly what I said.

@Gigili it's not, though, is it?

user19161

@Gigili If I can't LOL (laugh out loud), then I should SOS (smile out soft).

@JasperLoy you were forced to type that by your brain's programming

3:02 PM

@MattЭллен Not really, but still.

:D

@JasperLoy Good for you. You can whateverOwhatever but not LOL.

user19161

@Gigili I thought you would star that. LOL/SOS is just so amazing!

@JasperLoy see? your programming forces you to bait Gigili no matter what she writes

I don't laugh very often. Maybe just once a day.

3:05 PM

@cpx spend more time in this room; we're all comedians. Except Jasper, who's an unintentional comedian :)

2

user19161

@cpx Laughing is a good exercise, HAHAHAHAHA!

Smiles.

cornbread ninja

3:20 PM

lolsauce

3:38 PM

@cpx Hey, I was joking. You can LOL AMAP.

Or AMAIPY, even.

LOLAMOP

cornbread ninja

I want to slap this word