Author Topic: New column-type thingy (Read 112559 times)

Ela · « **Reply #850 on:** September 21, 2016, 10:24:09 AM »

Sounds interesting.

rivka · « **Reply #851 on:** October 27, 2016, 03:23:07 PM »

Quote from: rivka on November 30, 2015, 01:08:02 PM

I showed it to a couple of my co-workers -- one of whom got a huge kick out of it -- and hung it up. It is far enough away that I can't actually read the text, but I keep grinning when I look up and see it.

That flowchart (the one about using quotation marks) is still up on the wall in my office. It's far enough away, and the text is small enough, that I cannot read it from where I sit. But I was standing up to deal with something else on that wall, and happened to read it again.

Big grin on my face again. Because it's still awesome.

Jonathon · « **Reply #852 on:** October 27, 2016, 03:24:27 PM »

Thanks, Rivka.

Jonathon · « **Reply #853 on:** October 31, 2016, 01:41:04 PM »

Stupidity on Singular They

Kate Boots · « **Reply #854 on:** November 01, 2016, 08:00:06 AM »

That was a really wonderful column-type thingy. Well done.

Jonathon · « **Reply #855 on:** November 01, 2016, 08:38:57 AM »

Thanks, Kate.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #856 on:** November 01, 2016, 08:58:09 AM »

I kind of feel a little bad for Josh. You gave him quite a thrashing.

Jonathon · « **Reply #857 on:** November 01, 2016, 09:12:40 AM »

Sometimes I feel a little bad when I write take-downs like that, but if you're going to characterize the opponent's point of view as a stupid misunderstanding made by stupid people, well, I don't feel too bad. And if he'd argued that singular they was bad on stylistic grounds and that he or she was better, I'd have been a lot more understanding.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #858 on:** November 01, 2016, 09:52:03 AM »

I know he was wrong, but that's his right. Poor dear is ignorant and pompous, and that's a tough combination to pull off.

Jonathon · « **Reply #859 on:** November 01, 2016, 11:00:34 AM »

I try to aim for gnorant and pompous.

Jonathon · « **Reply #860 on:** November 15, 2016, 12:33:33 PM »

Whence Did They Come?

Dobie · « **Reply #861 on:** December 09, 2016, 12:12:33 PM »

Quote

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.

Jonathon · « **Reply #862 on:** December 09, 2016, 12:31:47 PM »

Prescriptivism and Language Change

Jonathon · « **Reply #863 on:** December 09, 2016, 12:32:17 PM »

Quote from: Dobie on December 09, 2016, 12:12:33 PM

Quote
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.

Where does that quote come from, Dobie? (I know Steve, and he's a pretty great guy.)

Dobie · « **Reply #864 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

Jonathon · « **Reply #865 on:** December 13, 2016, 08:11:39 AM »

Thanks!

Jonathon · « **Reply #866 on:** May 20, 2017, 10:24:36 AM »

For Whomever the Bell Tolls

rivka · « **Reply #867 on:** May 21, 2017, 01:14:13 AM »

Jonathon · « **Reply #868 on:** May 21, 2017, 09:26:45 AM »

What's that for?

rivka · « **Reply #869 on:** May 21, 2017, 11:24:50 AM »

I thought I knew how to follow sentence diagrams. But those are over my head.

Jonathon · « **Reply #870 on:** May 22, 2017, 09:40:02 AM »

I actually find trees a lot more intuitive than Reed-Kellogg diagrams, but I can see how they might not be clear to someone who hasn't had a linguistics class. Maybe I should try to explain a little better.

rivka · « **Reply #871 on:** May 22, 2017, 01:32:28 PM »

Oh, it's not you. It's me.

Jonathon · « **Reply #872 on:** June 01, 2017, 08:23:32 AM »

Cognates, False and Otherwise

rivka · « **Reply #873 on:** June 02, 2017, 01:07:54 PM »

Quote

The German word is essentially just a highly narrowed sense of the word: poison is something you give someone. (Well, hopefully not something you give people.)

Just myself.

(Food poisoning.)

Literal LOL anyway.

Jonathon · « **Reply #874 on:** August 23, 2017, 10:35:57 AM »

Politeness and Pragmatics