English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Robusto

4:00 PM

I think it would depend more on the prepositionody.

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 OK. It should be that 'questions' is -not- the subject, right?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mitch Well, in that sentence, "questions" is not the subject, Team is, right? We all agree on that. Except for those who don't.

it's funny. I want "questions" to be followed by "are" because they are in such close proximity and I have no problem with "team" being both singular and plural, whichever is more convenient.

But when I try to reshape the statement a bit I start getting uncomfortable.

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 yeah...I have no connection to the plurality of team. Both questions is and questions are sound OK to me.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

what question is your team going to answer
? what questions is your team going to answer <- I have to agree that it's grammatical but it sounds funny to me
? what question are your team going to answer
what question are they going to answer

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 hunh. maybe team does sort of become plural.

tchrist

4:05 PM

@Mitch What questions are you asking?

@Mitch What question are you asking?

@Mitch What questions is he asking?

Mitch

@tchrist what question are you asking?

Oh. sorry. that question.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

henceforth just call them Grammar Balrogs and get it over with.

5

Mitch

That's not nice

exactly.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

So my phone has a "draw pattern to unlock" feature. But I have oily skin so after drawing the pattern you can still see it.

Mitch

@tchrist there's worse and worster

Cerberus

4:07 PM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Then those people are wrong, wrong!

0

A: Form of copulative verb

Let's strip the non-essential elements from your construction (and add a bit of context to make it seem natural): Dwarves? What they are is giants, not dwarves Clever? What I am is mad, not clever. (Notice that I have removed the inversion from your sentence, because it obscures the co...

What do you think?

Is there more to it than this?

Robusto

Everything is relative. A set doesn't have to have any good members, but it can have members that are worse than other members.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus of course they're wrong. That's the whole point of this discussion.

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 that's called social hacking. social engineering can fix it.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mitch and worcestershire.

@Mitch I have to engineer myself to always wipe off the screen before ever letting anyone see it.

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 worcestershire is the worsted.

Cerberus

4:09 PM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Oh, I thought you bore their mark too...

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 wipe off their eyes.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mitch what has been seen cannot be unseen.

but I gotta run, meeting time

Mitch

@tchrist Yes, that 's the standard correct right answer. but the complexity of the bigger sentence is messing people up.

Cerberus

Bai.

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 yeah you can. poke em in the eye. they'll forget real soon.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 stupid meetings.

Mahnax

4:16 PM

@cornbreadninja I think small would be good—how many Coffee Crisps would you like?

cornbread ninja

@Mahnax alrighty. I think 3-4 would be good for now. How many bags do you wish?

Mahnax

@cornbreadninja Well, it's only fair for the value to be equal, right?

I think Coffee Crisps are about $1,50 here, but I could be mistaken.

I'll have to look.

cornbread ninja

Coffee Crisps will be heavier to ship.

ΜετάEd

@Cerberus I think I'd upvote ... if I had any left.

Mahnax

@cornbreadninja Hmm. Well, when there's just a few of them, the difference will likely be negligible.

cornbread ninja

4:22 PM

k.

Cerberus

@ΜετάEd OK thanks.

Mahnax

I'm on the UPS site right now looking at things.

ΜετάEd

@Mahnax Remember that UPS is pronounced "oops".

Mahnax

@ΜετάEd Ah yes.

Cerberus

UPS, DOWNS, what does it matter?

We all have them.

Mahnax

4:25 PM

Ha.

simchona

@Roaring Fish please, vote up first; then I can clarify a bit. — Torpour 7 hours ago

Mahnax

Ha.

Mitch

Is that how it works? I've been doing it all wrong.

Cerberus

Haha.

It's always nice to be instructed how one must vote.

simchona

And we're now openly discussion suspensions apparently:

-1

Q: The Great Injustice

Hello, I'm writing in reference to your English Language and Usage - Stack Exchange account: http://english.stackexchange.com/users/24531/xavier-vidal-hernandez Due to many moderator flags on your questions, we have elected to suspend your account for 7 days. Your quest...

discussion

tchrist

4:36 PM

@simchona That bodes not well.

cornbread ninja

It's the Great Injustice, Charlie Brown!

tchrist

He needs more flower power.

0

A: How many syllables are in the word 'hour'?

People who are born to power Lack the time to spare an hour Smelling rose or other flower, Be it sweet or be it sour. Since those lines of iambic tetrameter all rhyme with each other on the last foot, hour needs must contain two syllables.

cornbread ninja

@tchrist oh, has your family tried 'em, King Biscuits?

Cerberus

@simchona Good stats on the deleted questions.

simchona

@cerb thank you. I added answer stats too.

Cerberus

4:40 PM

Ah, even better. That should make it clear to him.

Should, but won't, I bet.

Mitch

@simchona but...how did he do that if he's suspended?

tchrist

Meta != Main

Mitch

Was waiwai's email mostly automatic/boilerplate?

simchona

@mitch do what? The suspension ended.

Mitch

Oh.

that makes sense then. So he's coming in -after- his suspension period to ask why?

I am sorta glad he posted the email, because now I know what people get when they are suspended.

simchona

4:44 PM

He's coming in after to complain. He's not constructive; he just is all "OMG THESE MODS"

Mitch

Oh totally.

right he thinks its somebody else's fault not his own.

he should learn rather than complain.

Cerberus

@Mitch Looks too specific too me.

ΜετάEd

@cornbreadninja I thought that was Powdermilk.

cornbread ninja

@ΜετάEd it most certainly is.

Mitch

maybe some text and stats are produced progrmmatically and then some personalized insult^H^H^H^H^H^Hreasoning is added.

cornbread ninja

4:52 PM

We talked about that earlier, so I adapted it for King Biscuit Flower Hour.

Cerberus

@Mitch Yeah, probably.

simchona

@tchrist he mentioned you in that Meta question

How is that calculation done? I'd want to see it on his overall questions

waiwai933

@Mitch 100% boilerplate.

Mitch

@waiwai933 wow 100%? That's great.

So a rational but paranoid person should accept that.

Robusto

5:26 PM

King Biscuit Boy

Richard Alfred Newell (March 9, 1944 – January 5, 2003), better known by his stage name King Biscuit Boy, was a Canadian blues musician. He was the first Canadian blues artist to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S.. King Biscuit Boy played with artists such as Muddy Waters, Joe Cocker, and Janis Joplin. Career Newell was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and played guitar and sang, but was most noted for his harmonica playing. His stage name was taken from the King Biscuit Flour Hour, an early American blues broadcast. He was given the name by Ronald "Ronnie" Hawkins, a pioneer...

tchrist

5:48 PM

@simchona Yes, I know he mentioned me. I only give data on the last/current 50 newest questions, which is sometimes negative in the mean, although not right now.

Site                                 N    Sum Min  Max    Mean  Median  Stdev  Mode
=======================================================================================
English_Language_and_Usage          50     48  -7   11    0.96   0.5    3.27   10 × 0

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…