English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

tchrist

3:00 AM

The only thing the Brit liked was smores.

And he couldn’t figure out how to get graham crackers there.

So the American gave him the whole box.

Thai hot-dog crêpes.

Why does every country have its own take on what mustard is?

cornbread ninja

@tchrist good man.

@tchrist hmm.

tchrist

Dec 17 '12 at 1:50, by tchrist

Rather than parsing out metaposts and weighing the justice of the matter, it is far more entertaining to watch an Englishman trying to gross out an American feeding him Brit food, and then the same pair doing the reverse. Blame @MattЭллен for putting me onto all this silliness. :)

How does he know tinned corn beef tastes like dog food? How does he know what dog food tastes like?

Cerberus

My mother's friend once served cat food on toast.

When they were students.

Noöne knew and noöne complained.

tchrist

Well, so long as it was made with fresh cats, I suppose it was ok.

cornbread ninja

@tchrist that was hard to put down.

Cerberus

3:12 AM

You would eat cute kitty-cats?

tchrist

I find it funnier to watch the Brit try to eat American food, but the marmite and mustard experience was funny.

Cerberus

I bet he did the marmite on purpose.

tchrist

Doubt it. Seems pretty unclued in the ways of England.

Robusto

Going to bed. Work tomorrow ... can you imagine the insult to my system having to get up and go in the dark freezing cold? Well, later.

Cerberus

And of many other countries. People here know marmite...

Robusto

3:14 AM

Thanks for the script, etc., btw @tchrist.

Cerberus

Night!

I pity you.

tchrist

Night.

Cerberus

Does that help at all?

tchrist

Cheese whiz.

cornbread ninja

night

tchrist

3:15 AM

He thinks that the root-beer flavored topping tastes like medicine. Isn’t that weird?

@cornbreadninja Isn’t it? Culture shock is so funny to watch.

cornbread ninja

@tchrist that, and I thought they were going to start making out.

tchrist

Um, no. Sam is straight.

►

I leave you to your own as far as DaveyWavey’s videos go. :)

This is where @MattЭллен got his helicopter-sex moving gif from:

►

It is funny, not raunchy.

Cerberus

@tchrist I don't believe it!

He's just acting or something.

tchrist

@Cerberus Well, I could be wrong.

Cerberus

By the way, I think I remember that girl from one of those accent videos we posted a while ago.

tchrist

3:28 AM

Yes, I think maybe.

The same faces show up in multiple places.

This is a funny one: coming out to Siri.

►

Cerberus

3:43 AM

Hah. Hah.

tchrist

Once you get used to him, he can be really funny. I do find he talks incredibly fast sometimes. You just have to let it wash over you.

Cerberus

He is less annoying than one would expect.

He sort of semi-makes fun of himself, which saves him.

And he says some things that are sensible enough.

But I bet he is the kind of person that irons his underwear. shudders My friend dated someone who did that.

tchrist

3:59 AM

Self-deprecating is a lifesaver.

You think he irons his underwear even if there is to be outerwear to cover it? Never heard of that.

Cerberus

Some people even iron socks.

What goes on in their mind must be...little.

tchrist

I cannot ever see finishing that job. I would just wander off, having lost interest and realization of what I was even trying to do.

simchona

Wow, that guy is ripped.

If only he were straight.

tchrist

He does excerise videos. People who do exercise videos, or underwear models, basically have to work out superhard for at least 5 hours a day.

Um, bad choice of words. Sorry.

simchona

Or good choice of words.

tchrist

4:09 AM

It was unplanned, and unnoticed until rereading.

Sometimes these little things just poke their way up through your subconscious, no matter what.

> Scientists have used imaging tests to show for the first time that fructose, a sugar that saturates the American diet, can trigger brain changes that may lead to overeating.

simchona

I'm sure some of the not-so-little things poke up too.

tchrist

My bêtes noires.

Or bestias fieras, which need not be different things, I suppose. :)

@Sim Did you get around to reading that paper yet? If so, interesting wasn’t it?

tchrist

4:34 AM

Here at last is how people sneak in to post answers after they have been closed:

4

Q: Post answer after question closed and banner shows

Reference : Question Answered After it was Closed? I was able to reporduce this problem myself. Here is how I did it. I was in the middle of editing a question when it was closed. I hit the save button and I got the banner saying I could not post because the question was closed. A comment ...

bug

user19161

6:43 AM

@tchrist Wow, I think he looks hot. I like him.

David Wallace

7:01 AM

@JasperLoy Is this going to become one of those chat rooms?

MετάEd

7:26 AM

0

Q: What do you call words that are typed the same way on a phone keypad?

Words that are pronounced the same are homophones. Words that are spelled the same are homonyms. What do you call words that are typed the same way on a telephone keypad? (you have to watch out for them when typing text messages!)

single-word-requests orthography telephone

The question which this is a duplicate of was deleted:

english.stackexchange.com/q/91004/14073

Would it be better to undelete and dupe, or should I repost the answer?

For now I have reposted the answer.

MετάEd

9:07 AM

Peter Daines

1

errors verbs

This user describes himself as a linguist but has actually written only one post. Maybe a person worth contacting to see if he would like to contribute a short article to the blog?

user19161

9:28 AM

@MετάEd I was upvoting several of your answers just now, those for which you just edited the question.

MετάEd

@JasperLoy I saw your beg and did the right thing.

user19161

@MετάEd Yes, I am not only a star whore but a rep whore.

MετάEd

@JasperLoy In that case, what exactly are you willing to do for a star or an upvote? :-)

user19161

@MετάEd He is unregistered. That is unwise, because it is easy to lose the account that way.

Gigili

Does the following sentence make sense to you:

> Goal: Familiarity of students with the how-tos of the sport activities played by people with disability

@Reg, @Mετά

RegDwighт

9:38 AM

Um, I guess.

Gigili

Thank you.

user19161

Geezis, so many comments on my latest answers... People really love to talk to me!

user19161

-1

Q: can I use Yonggang Chen as my English name?

My Chinese Name is Yonggang Chen(Family Name: Chen), so I try to find a English name which has the same pronunciation as my Chinese name. But, I wonder whether it is OK to use Yonggang Chen as my English name? Any one have good idea? Any help will be appreciated!

meaning word-choice pronunciation pronouns proper-nouns

user19161

OT

MετάEd

@Gigili Perhaps you are looking for "familiarization".

It depends on whether you are describing the teacher's goal or the student's goal. The way you have expressed it, it seems to be the teacher's goal you mean.

user19161

9:47 AM

@MετάEd Well, familiarisation is what the teacher does, and familiarity is what the students should have. They are both goals of the teacher and students!

MετάEd

@JasperLoy Yes, it is quite good when teacher and student goals align.

@jez.

Jez

?

RegDwighт

Mkay, who is favoriting every single incoming question within a minute of it getting posted?

MετάEd

@Jez I was kindly acknowledging your presence.

@RegDwighт Somebody with no opinions, evidently.

user19161

10:10 AM

Also, why are people so stingy with upvotes these days?

user19161

More upvotes, more!

MετάEd

@JasperLoy There are some nice shiny badges you can get for voting.

user19161

@MετάEd Yes, and yet people are stingy! Sad!

RegDwighт

Post something upvote-worthy.

tchrist

@RegDwighт I was wondering that like last week. They do it with even the dumb questions.

RegDwighт

10:20 AM

One of the questions got favorited by the OP himself. But no idea who's favorited the rest.

David Wallace

@Gigili ... people with disabilities.

Jez

I see things like Petville are being retired by the creator company. Sad... like seeing a kitten die or something

tchrist

> Employers in California and Illinois will be prohibited from demanding access to workers' password-protected social networking accounts and teachers in Oregon will be required to report suspected student bullies thanks to new laws taking effect in 2013.

> In California and Illinois, laws that take effect at 12:01 a.m. local time will make it illegal for bosses to request social networking passwords or non-public online account information from their employees or job applicants. Michigan's Republican Governor Rick Snyder signed a similar measure into law earlier this month that took effect immediately.

> The Michigan law also penalizes educational institutions for dismissing or failing to admit a student who does not provide passwords and other account information used to access private internet and email accounts, including social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

I cannot believe that that kind of crap was not previously illegal. It seems like unlawful something or other.

From here.

* In California, prison workers and peace officers will now be prohibited from having sex with inmates and prisoners in transport.
* In Illinois, sex offenders will be prohibited from distributing candy on Halloween, or playing Santa or the Easter Bunny.
* In Oregon, employers won't be allowed to advertise a job vacancy if they won't consider applicants who are currently out of work.
* In Kentucky, residents will be prohibited from releasing feral or wild hogs back into the wild and Illinois will ban the possession and sale of shark fins.

Gotta love state laws.

No more playing the Easter Bunny, you sex offenders!

tchrist

10:45 AM

> Also, why is that that some English grammar books claim there are three different moods in English: subjunctive, imperative, and indicative, while others say there are at least five? Why the discrepency? Why can't English grammar get its act together?

0

A: Use of the subjunctive for verbs other than "to be"?

Is there a good book on the English subjunctive out there? I've been looking at some English textbooks on grammar, and these textbooks just briefly touches , it at all, on the subjunctive. Also, why is that that some English grammar books claim there are three different moods in English: subjun...

RegDwighт

🐶

What is this?

I can't see it.

Jez

icon of a dog or something

RegDwighт

Was in an "answer" to the homophone question.

Noah

Hi

iCon of a dog.

RegDwighт

11:10 AM

What it similarly bother you if someone said that the special apples were not red? Would you want them to be reds instead? — tchrist 15 hours ago

You pronounce "would" as "what", @tchrist?

Jez

11:50 AM

When someone offers you something for free, might you ask "what's this in aid of?" I've forgotten the common expression; temporary brain freeze

David Wallace

Looking a gift horse in the mouth?

Jez

i'm asking what you might ask

David Wallace

How is "what's this in aid of" not what you want?

I'm just trying to understand your question here.

Jez

it might be. it just doesn't quite sound right for some reason but it probably is

i think I actually said "what's this in honour of"

David Wallace

What have I done to deserve the honour?

Jez

11:55 AM

mmm that too i guess

tchrist

12:39 PM

@RegDwighт Seeing does not matter, if you do the play-by-numbers game:

macbook# uniquote -v
uniquote: reading from stdin, type ^D to end or ^C to kill.
🐶
\N{DOG FACE}
macbook# uniquote -x
uniquote: reading from stdin, type ^D to end or ^C to kill.
🐶
\x{1F436}

RegDwighт

I wonder what made him use a dog face for punctuation.

tchrist

It also has Age=6.0 and Script=Miscellaneous_Symbols_And_Pictographs properties, so many systems do not have a font for it. That is why I suggest Symbola from George Douros to people.

@RegDwighт Some sort of emoticon, but what does dog-faced mean?

I hope it wasn’t being catty.

RegDwighт

Yeah my first guess was it would be a smiley.

tchrist

Is this in a post I can see?

user19161

I have used up all my delete votes and votes for the day.

tchrist

12:45 PM

It is hard to use up all one’s delete votes in a day.

user19161

I went to the delete queue in 10k tools.

tchrist

I still cannot do it.

Those are all mine. :)

RegDwighт

@tchrist I can't find it anymore.

tchrist

Ok then.

All my Unicode-tool perl scripts run fine on Cygwin on the work-email-box, although I have never tried them on some sort of more “native” Windows port.

RegDwighт

Ah, here it is.

english.stackexchange.com/posts/96378/revisions

tchrist

12:48 PM

Oh, I understand now.

Look at his username.

He is an Apple Dog.

So he was using a dog glyph as a sort of paw-print, if you would.

RegDwighт

Then where's the apple?

tchrist

At least, that’s my theory.

Well, everyone uses apples, but few use dogs.

Plus Mac is adjectivallish. The head of the NP is dog.

I do not know that I like double l’s there.

RegDwighт

I must find out which Unicode character is the least used ever, and claim it for my signature.

tchrist

You would have to install Aegyptus.

Use a hieroglyph. Some are quite well-drawn, if you blow them up a bazillion percent.

RegDwighт

Yeah but those are too geeky, read: too popular.

tchrist

12:52 PM

Akkadian has cunieform.

Would you like some Byzantine Musical Symbol?

RegDwighт

Actually my money is on some hanzi. Something everyone knows but never uses.

tchrist

It is both easy and hard to get per-codepoint frequency distributions.

For example, I always get a goodly few CJK in my all-of-PubMed analyses, but that is from author names; the rest is in English.

And there are two Privage Use Area codepoints there, way up in the high astrals. No idea what those are. They are the rarest.

In that corpus.

Cuneiform scripts most any printing scheme that mixes scripts, because some of them are so very long.

The one with the guy dancing with the unicorn-enfletched lion is kinda cute.

RegDwighт

So where's the code point for the Mona Lisa?

tchrist

smiles

Here is a whole pageful of snakes. Some are really cute.

Then we have the strange pissing man:

He’s second from the right, second from the top.

RegDwighт

I actually know that hieroglyph.

It's for diarrhea.

I saw it on a papyrus with medicine recipes.

tchrist

1:05 PM

Really? Wow!

The three to his left all look same-sexed, but I doubt they are intended that way.

RegDwighт

They don't have names? Certainly you'll be able to look up their names...

tchrist

Alas, no.

RegDwighт

Huh.

tchrist

‭ 𓀀  13000      EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH A001
‭ 𓀁  13001      EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH A002
‭ 𓀂  13002      EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH A003
‭ 𓀃  13003      EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH A004
‭ 𓀄  13004      EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH A005
‭ 𓀅  13005      EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH A005A
‭ 𓀆  13006      EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH A006
‭ 𓀇  13007      EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH A006A
‭ 𓀈  13008      EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH A006B
‭ 𓀉  13009      EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH A007
‭ 𓀊  1300A      EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH A008

See the problem?

RegDwighт

How very helpful.

tchrist

1:07 PM

That looks like sporting things, and spanking a child?

It is a weird two-headed horse.

I found the fucking hieroglyph:

Also, it is now clear what the genders are.

Presumptive of me though this may be.

Bunnies!

Starman:

RegDwighт

►

Found the exact place in the exact documentary. The Internet has everything.

tchrist

Wow. I am impress.

RegDwighт

That would be the Ebers papyrus.

Ebers Papyrus

The Ebers Papyrus, also known as Papyrus Ebers, is an Egyptian medical papyrus dating to c. 1550 BCE. Among the oldest and most important medical papyri of ancient Egypt, it was purchased at Luxor, (Thebes) in the winter of 1873–74 by Georg Ebers. It is currently kept at the library of the University of Leipzig, in Germany. The manuscript The papyrus was written in about 1500 BC, but it is believed to have been copied from earlier texts, perhaps dating as far back as 3400 BC. Ebers Papyrus is a 110-page scroll, which is about 20 meters long. Along with the Kahun Gynaecological Papy...

tchrist

They had flying cats:

I think.

RegDwighт

I was wondering what that crocodile had on its head.

Looked like a chopped-off arm.

tchrist

1:18 PM

There is also a water buffalo(?) and a jackal(?) with that piece.

There are a lot of hieroglyphs with severed limbs.

More weird critters:

These must have descriptions somewhere.

Cuts of meat?

Robusto

> Half an onion and the froth of beer was considered "a delightful remedy against death.

Only if you weren't already dead and couldn't drink it, I imagine.

RegDwighт

A flying brontosaur. And a hare.

tchrist

@Robusto See my "tide&time waits" posting, and "the president and CEO is".

RegDwighт

@Robusto even then, they should look up "delightful".

tchrist

I find the flying lizard weird.

Cows doing bad things to people:

Second-to-the-bottom row.

Robusto

1:23 PM

Just getting back for all the cow-tipping, I should think.

I didn't know they named people after cars these days.

KitFox

Ford Prefect.

Robusto

I mean, sure, Ford Madox Ford. But Nissan Ratzlav-Katz?

tchrist

Bear sniffing flower?

Robusto

I am not complaining. He (or she) gave me a good comment on my article.

tchrist

Note head on ass above.

Robusto

1:26 PM

@tchrist Also bear puking.

tchrist

I think that that buffalo up there has vulture wings.

Egyptian paperclips:

Robusto

With legs.

tchrist

High tech:

But what sort of machinery those mean, I have no idea.

It looks like a butt-plug with a horned snake in it.

Infinite boats:

RegDwighт

Steampunk is Rob's domain.

tchrist

Can you imagine these at 10 points?

RegDwighт

1:37 PM

I can imagine these at 3 points.

tchrist

The ancient Aegean “glyphs” just don’t impress in comparison:

Robusto

@RegDwighт Bioshock Infinite, out in March. Booyah.

RegDwighт

@tchrist same difference at Long Primer.

@Robusto still haven't played the first two.

@tchrist I like the one that says "OBJECT".

Robusto

First one was great. Second got panned, because all the original devs left.

RegDwighт

Is that a noun or a verb?

Robusto

1:41 PM

@RegDwighт I object to that line of questioning.

tchrist

Lots of great Greek ligatures for @Cerb here in Anaktoria:

RegDwighт

@Robusto No, you not object. You robot.

tchrist

Very chancery.

Robusto

@RegDwighт Я работаю.

RegDwighт

Aug 20 '12 at 12:00, by RegDwight АΑA

Robusto, robustes, robustamon, robustski, robuspeliamos.

KitFox

1:43 PM

I Robutoya? I left my Cyrillic cheat sheet in my office.

RegDwighт

Uh. An A is an A. Ask Cerberus.

KitFox

Oh really? I keep getting that confused. How odd.

RegDwighт

And hello.

KitFox

Hiya.

RegDwighт

An A is an A, an O is an O, and an E is an E. What will they invent next?

KitFox

1:44 PM

I rabotaya? Is that a ya? I can't remember.

RegDwighт

Probably something with T or M.

@KitFox Now I am offended.

Robusto

@KitFox First person singular. Conjugate!

Matt Эллен

@JasperLoy I preferred it the way it was, is all. I kept your title.

RegDwighт

I told you that the ya was the one in my name. How can you not remember my name?

KitFox

How long have I even looked at Cyrillic? Twenty minutes?

Matt Эллен

1:45 PM

Robustski? Robuttski more like!

RegDwighт

The question is, how long have you even looked at my name.

KitFox

@RegDwighт Well, I remembered the part where it was in your name, but I couldn't remember the which was in your name.

Robusto

@KitFox FCK: The only thing missing is ю.

KitFox

Oh.

Like chrch

Robusto

No. ю and you are pronounced the same.

RegDwighт

1:46 PM

Работаю, работаешь, работает, работаем, работаете, работают.

NOЮ.

KitFox

Ow, ow, ow.

Robusto

@RegDwighт There. Now write that 100 times and it better be finished by morning.

KitFox

I rabotayu.

RegDwighт

Feb 20 '11 at 16:08, by RegDwight

@Robusto Oh sorry, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto, Robusto

KitFox

Oh. I get it now. Funny.

RegDwighт

1:47 PM

Done.

Robusto

@KitFox Ya rabotayu.

KitFox

Well, I translated the part I knew.

RegDwighт

Eto ya rabotayu. Vy ni figa ne rabotayete.

KitFox

swoons

@RegDwighт Less than twenty minutes.

I can say three words in Russian, but I can't type them on this keyboard.

It would be funnier if I knew how to type "three words in Russian" in Cyrillic.

RegDwighт

Борщ, Горбачёв, высокоавтоматизированный.

There, now you can just copypaste.

KitFox

1:52 PM

When people ask me to say something in Chinese, I say 东西, which means 'something' in Chinese. @Mr.Shiny would laugh, I bet.

@RegDwighт Uh. I...

Thanks.

tchrist

Not to mention déjà lu and déjà bu, déjà fait and déjà fou, some of which could be said to better apply here. — tchrist 37 secs ago

Bet he won’t get the joke. :)

user19161

@MattЭллен I see. I am overly formal in my writing on SE, I guess. But how about the use of "wonder" without "about"? Is that even allowed?

tchrist

@JasperLoy Already answered.

Matt Эллен

@JasperLoy have you read Andrew's question on the matter? Apparently I am old fashioned

user19161

@tchrist Exactly, which is why I included "about". But it is alright.

user19161

1:54 PM

@MattЭллен Yes, I have!

tchrist

Ok, who here owes me a hat-vote? :)

13

Q: Time and tide wait for no man

In the old proverb: Time and tide wait for no man. Our first record of the proverb is from St Marher in 1225: And te tide and te time þat tu iboren were, schal beon iblescet. When it was already considered ancient. EDIT: As near as I can make out, the Middle English proverb quoted ab...

idioms proverbs middle-english nuance

Two more and I get the 15-question-vote hat.

RegDwighт

You don't have that one?

tchrist

Which I never expected to get. No change for the 30-questions hat.

user19161

@KitFox Indeed. Strange that it is the concatenation of "east" and "west"!

RegDwighт

Even I have the 15-question-vote hat.

tchrist

1:56 PM

@RegDwighт Nope.

RegDwighт

And I have like three hats.

tchrist

When did you recently ask a question that got 15 votes!?

Those are all old, no?

RegDwighт

Twas on MSO.

tchrist

Oh, there.

I guess I might be able to get the 500 views hat out of that question, but gosh that would take a lot of campaigning over the next 36 hours or whatnot.

387 out of 500 so far. Long ways to go without a multicollider hit.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…