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English & Linguistics / Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...

« on: November 09, 2012, 10:51:27 AM »

Quote from: Porter on November 08, 2012, 10:55:23 AM

It boggles my mind that it made it through every single editor, etc.. into the final movie.

Not great technical writing, sure. But if you're trying to script the way real persons actually talk, I think it works. (No idea if that was what they were trying to do there, though.)

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English & Linguistics / Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...

« on: November 07, 2012, 05:34:48 PM »

"No [official] word yet on the fate of Chancellor Cohaagen, but we are [receiving unconfirmed reports] that he perished along with his forces."

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English & Linguistics / Re: Quotes from work

« on: October 16, 2012, 06:31:52 AM »

I've never seen anything quite like that before. In fact, I think it disadvantageously adds a lot of ambiguity.

The point of interrogatories and requests for admission is to back people into corners. The only time you want to be really broad is with requests for production (usually documents).

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English & Linguistics / Re: Funny English and Linguistics stuff...

« on: October 14, 2012, 07:41:18 AM »

I like it!

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English & Linguistics / Re: Strange Proununciations

« on: October 05, 2012, 09:06:58 AM »

I pronounce debacle deh-buh-kuhl.

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English & Linguistics / Re: The random etymology of the day

« on: September 24, 2012, 02:22:09 PM »

Speculating: "That's why something happens."

(Such as John Wayne deciding to duel you. It's a shorthand linking the previously expressed cause, with the effect.)

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English & Linguistics / Re: Quotes from work

« on: September 11, 2012, 06:07:17 PM »

Quote from: Jonathon on September 10, 2012, 12:23:45 PM

"Every female who has not been placed, can, by proper arrangements, demand to be married."

That's a "be careful what you ask for" situation if I ever saw one. (Particularly if you live in the shadow of a psychiatric hospital.)

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English & Linguistics / Re: The random etymology of the day

« on: August 29, 2012, 06:37:28 PM »

Quote from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/right%20on

right on

An exclamation of enthusiasm or encouragement, as in You've said it really well right on! This interjection has a disputed origin. Some believe it comes from African-American slang (it was recorded in Odum and Johnson's The Negro and His Songs , 1925); others feel it is a shortening of right on target , used by military airmen, or right on cue , theatrical slang for saying the right lines at the right time. [Slang; first half of 1900s] Also see way to go.

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English & Linguistics / Re: Dear Expert

« on: August 01, 2012, 08:38:34 PM »

So would you have used quotor or quoter, and why?

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English & Linguistics / Re: Dear Expert

« on: August 01, 2012, 08:06:55 PM »

When quoting a source, brackets are typically used to signal that the quotor^† has modified the original material.

But what if one is quoting a source that has itself quoted a source? How do you eliminate ambiguity as to who added the brackets? And then, what if the first quotor has already added brackets, and the second quotor wants to add its own too?

This isn't a purely academic question, since I'm asking this from the perspective of legal writing (where minutiæ like this might actually matter^‡).

I think different color brackets would be a neat solution, especially when you got into levels of bracketing beyond two. Unfortunately color printing availability and cost would be prohibitive. Any other suggestions? (At least for the two-level scenario?) Perhaps a clumsy parenthetical sentence along the lines of (First brackets in initial quotation, second brackets added.) ?

^† I used the -or suffix over the -er suffix because quote is of Latin origin. I hope you're impressed.

^‡ That reminds me—tomorrow at work I have to find this "awesome" case where the court decides that and means or. Note to self.

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English & Linguistics / Re: The random etymology of the day

« on: July 19, 2012, 06:13:44 AM »

Dibs (as in "first dibs").

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

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English & Linguistics / Re: I hate journalistic writing

« on: March 27, 2012, 08:58:17 AM »

Quote from: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/01/news/la-heb-prescription-drug-overdose-deaths-20111101

Overdose deaths from abuse of prescription painkillers in the U.S. now outnumber deaths involving heroin and cocaine combined, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday.

(Which is why I prefer a good speedball to an 800mg ibuprofen any day.)

In all seriousness, I think that article should've been written something like "now outnumber combined deaths involving heroin and cocaine." I don't think the combination of the two drugs at once (a speedball) is what they meant.

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English & Linguistics / Re: Dear Expert

« on: March 13, 2012, 06:53:37 PM »

Of course, at least in the States, there's only one e in judgment. So both are wrong.

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English & Linguistics / Re: New column-type thingy

« on: March 05, 2012, 03:03:20 PM »

Learning Spanish had an incredible impact on my understanding of English.

English came so naturally to me, as I was raised around it, that I never really paid too much attention in class. Then, very on early English class moved from the rules of the language to literature and all that fancy stuff.

Having to learn a second language later really caused me to think about the functions of words within a sentence.

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