Messages

1

English & Linguistics / Re: Quotes from work

« on: February 08, 2020, 01:36:35 PM »

One of my clients likes to write really complex sentences that don't actually make much sense or at least don't really say that much:

Is it really accurate to say that the gospel brings the promptings and inspiration, or does the Lord or the Spirit bring those things?

Your opinion on the accuracy of a statement really has nothing to do with whether the statement makes sense or "says much".

Thank you for creating the life-affirming hope that comes to those who now have the ability to become self-reliant in spiritual and temporal matters.

What does it mean for this hope to be life-affirming? Why do we have to say that the donor created the hope and that the hope then came to those people? Why can't we just say that the donor gave them hope? But if we just say that the donor gave them hope by helping them become self-reliant, which is the most direct way to say it, then it kind of undercuts the message that these people are self-reliant, because they relied on someone else to become self-reliant.

"These people are self-reliant," is present tense; it means they are self-reliant now.
"They relied on someone else..." is past tense; at some previous time they presumably were not self-reliant.
I don't see the contradiction.

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English & Linguistics / Re: A Very Important Poll

« on: January 22, 2020, 03:23:31 PM »

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, parentheses is the plural of parenthesis.

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English & Linguistics / Re: New column-type thingy

« on: October 25, 2019, 11:22:52 AM »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIyAUR87aVU&t=30m37s

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English & Linguistics / Re: I hate journalistic writing

« on: October 01, 2018, 04:07:39 PM »

Police in Kansas say a Good Samaritan was shot multiple times when he stepped in to help a woman who was being attacked in a Wal-Mart parking lot before another Good Samaritan fatally shot the suspect.

Is it just me, or does the second one really stretch the definition of "good Samaritan" beyond recognition? The good Samaritan didn't kill the guys who beat and robbed the man; he just went out of his way to help him.

link

The first, unarmed "Good Samaritan" tried to help the woman without killing the attacker; he not only didn't save the woman, he ended up in critical condition himself. Both he and the original victim would likely have been killed if the second "Samaritan" had not shot the original attacker. I fail to see what makes him "Ick"-y or "maybe not such a good one".

5

English & Linguistics / Re: New column-type thingy

« on: May 11, 2018, 12:40:56 PM »

Well, I'm glad you think so, because I'm having a LOT of arguments on Twitter with editors who don't seem to have read the whole thing.

Referring to people who argue on Twitter, "who don't seem to have read the whole thing" is redundant.

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

« on: March 30, 2018, 03:13:15 PM »

That's why I said it represents a vowel by default. Both w and y can represent semivowels at times.

As Dobie's video points out, it is part of a vowel ("aw") in many words.

I didn't actually watch the video, but I think this is one reason why it's important to distinguish sounds and the way we represent those sounds. Strictly speaking, vowels and consonants are sounds, not letters. A word like awl has one vowel and one consonant, despite its spelling.

And even when w and y represent semivowels in Welsh, it's always as part of a diphthong, so you could still consider those instances to be part of one vowel.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vowel

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

« on: March 29, 2018, 04:27:22 PM »

In many Welsh words in which w precedes another vowel, the vowel sound of the w is so short that it sounds like an English w. ("Anwyl" sounds more like "on wheel" than "on oo eel".)

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

« on: March 27, 2018, 10:11:45 AM »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNpjxakqtqk

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English & Linguistics / Re: You keep on using that word

« on: March 06, 2018, 10:21:00 AM »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT5hoymUjio

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

« on: April 28, 2017, 10:25:51 AM »

11

English & Linguistics / Re: New column-type thingy

« on: December 10, 2016, 11:28:38 AM »

An interview on local talk radio.

http://media.wilknewsradio.com/a/117624603/steve-kleinedler-exec-editor-american-heritage-dictionary.htm?q=dictionary

12

English & Linguistics / Re: New column-type thingy

« on: December 09, 2016, 12:12:33 PM »

People have been using "they" in this sense for literally centuries, and I mean literally in the literal sense.

-Steve Kleinedler, Executive Editor, American Heritage Dictionary.

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English & Linguistics / Re: Literal translations

« on: October 30, 2015, 11:22:45 AM »

Yeah, German likes to mash together single words to make new ones.

I'm a nurse.  German for nurse is "Sister"  ("Shvester").  Actually, it's "Krankenschwester" -- "Sickness Sister", but sometimes they say "Schwester" for short.  And I know in Yiddish, the word for "nurse" is "Shvester" -- "sister".

And hospital is Krankenhaus -- sick house.

English, too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruAAOytfgiQ&t=7m58s

14

English & Linguistics / Re: New column-type thingy

« on: May 18, 2015, 12:51:55 PM »

You should have written it like this:

You're not Dr. Seuss.
You cannot write verse.
The rhythm is awful.
The meter's perverse.

So stick to your job.
Write your press releases.
Here's hoping that all
Of your "poetry" ceases.

15

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

« on: March 27, 2014, 03:14:12 PM »

Like everything else in life, it was done better on "I Love Lucy".

16

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

« on: February 03, 2014, 04:28:29 PM »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNyMxwW8r1Q&t=5m20s

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English & Linguistics / Re: Quotes from work

« on: September 26, 2013, 06:31:34 PM »

...or do you just have to grit your teeth and endure it?

18

English & Linguistics / Re: Dear Expert

« on: September 26, 2013, 01:11:25 PM »

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English & Linguistics / Re: Dear Expert

« on: September 24, 2013, 04:01:19 PM »

I never knew all Chinese people had knighthoods.

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English & Linguistics / Re: Dear Expert

« on: September 24, 2013, 03:32:16 PM »

Chinese uses no prepositions for dates and times.

Japanese uses the particle "ni" for specific points in time. (It's the same particle that means, "in," "at," and "to" in other contexts). You use it in phrases like "I'm leaving AT 8:00" or "I was born ON June 1st" or "He died IN 1980." But you wouldn't use any particle to say things like "tomorrow," "today," "this year," etc.

So there's your input from some non Indo-European languages.

So if a samurai tells you the time does that make him one of them?

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English & Linguistics / Re: Word and phrase misuse

« on: August 29, 2013, 11:53:13 AM »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc6cfJztR8A

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

« on: August 09, 2013, 06:24:28 PM »

Is this still about the pornography?

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

« on: May 04, 2013, 08:49:52 AM »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph5-dRuTrDU

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English & Linguistics / Re: Quotes from work

« on: April 05, 2013, 04:49:32 PM »

I guess if the Returned Missionary can be in a beer commercial the Three Nephites can go into a bar.

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English & Linguistics / Re: Quotes from work

« on: April 04, 2013, 06:10:14 PM »

Three Nephites who had become hardened and impenitent and grossly wicked, insomuch that they did reject all the preaching and prophesying which did come among them, walk into a bar...