Author Topic: Funny English and Linguistics stuff... (Read 204151 times)

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #725 on:** July 02, 2013, 11:03:14 AM »

Quote from: Tante Shvester on July 02, 2013, 10:06:14 AM

I hadn't realized how much "veterans" can sound like "Bedouins" until I misheard my son talking about how the veterans need more access to therapists, and our conversations got more and more skewed and screwy until we managed to sort out the problem.

I think we all should get paid time-and-a-half for working on Bedouins Day.

Porter · « **Reply #726 on:** July 12, 2013, 10:25:03 AM »

Quote from: Jonathon on March 13, 2013, 11:48:21 AM

OK, that was funny.

Jonathon · « **Reply #727 on:** July 16, 2013, 02:06:44 PM »

BlackBlade · « **Reply #728 on:** July 17, 2013, 07:02:56 AM »

Quote from: Porter on July 12, 2013, 10:25:03 AM

Quote from: Jonathon on March 13, 2013, 11:48:21 AM

OK, that was funny.

Annnnnnd I just got it after 48 hours.

pooka · « **Reply #729 on:** July 26, 2013, 04:50:18 PM »

That's okay. The rest of us were primed with "I saw Nixon flying over the grand canyon" in Linguistics 101. Linguists love it because it demonstrates people's ability to jump to the preferred interpretation.

Porter · « **Reply #730 on:** August 01, 2013, 03:02:28 PM »

Quote

The rest of us were primed with "I saw Nixon flying over the grand canyon" in Linguistics 101.

Not I. That's the first I've heard that one.

Jonathon · « **Reply #731 on:** August 02, 2013, 09:36:04 AM »

Presumably because you didn't take Linguistics 101.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #732 on:** August 02, 2013, 11:03:18 AM »

I still don't get what principle that statement demonstrates.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #733 on:** August 03, 2013, 05:07:40 AM »

Ambiguity. Who was flying over the Grand Canyon?

BlackBlade · « **Reply #734 on:** August 03, 2013, 07:56:26 AM »

Err, Nixon?

edit: If the implication is that you could also be flying over Grand Canyon and see Nixon I think the statement is unnaturally phrased to include that possibility.

Jonathon · « **Reply #735 on:** August 03, 2013, 09:53:51 AM »

Quote from: BlackBlade on August 03, 2013, 07:56:26 AM

If the implication is that you could also be flying over Grand Canyon and see Nixon I think the statement is unnaturally phrased to include that possibility.

Yeah, but linguists love that stuff anyway. One common example of a garden-path sentence is The horse raced past the barn fell, which might be syntactically possible in some strict sense but is semantically and pragmatically improbable for at least a few different reasons.

Porter · « **Reply #736 on:** August 05, 2013, 09:20:01 PM »

Quote from: Jonathon on August 02, 2013, 09:36:04 AM

Presumably because you didn't take Linguistics 101.

This is true.

I didn't get interested in such things until the time for taking 101 classes was long past.

Porter · « **Reply #737 on:** August 06, 2013, 12:29:18 PM »

Here's an ambiguous sentence I found today:

Quote

The Independent reports that Eric Eoin Marques, a 28-year-old Dublin resident, appeared before a judge last Friday to answer charges of distributing child pornography originating from the FBI

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #738 on:** August 06, 2013, 09:16:22 PM »

Explain it to me, please. I'm not understanding the ambiguity.

Brinestone · « **Reply #739 on:** August 06, 2013, 10:09:13 PM »

The charges, not the pornography, probably originated from the FBI, but it isn't clear.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #740 on:** August 07, 2013, 09:10:05 AM »

No, I read about the case in the news. The pornography did originate with the FBI. It was the bait in a trap.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #741 on:** August 09, 2013, 07:51:21 AM »

Are people in their 20's and 30's familiar with "Do not fold, spindle or mutilate", instructions that used to come on the punch card that came in your bills? I haven't seen or heard that phrase in a while, and I don't know if it is still in the common parlance.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #742 on:** August 09, 2013, 08:17:57 AM »

Quote from: Tante Shvester on August 09, 2013, 07:51:21 AM

Are people in their 20's and 30's familiar with "Do not fold, spindle or mutilate", instructions that used to come on the punch card that came in your bills? I haven't seen or heard that phrase in a while, and I don't know if it is still in the common parlance.

I recall seeing it, but can't say when the last time I did was.

Jonathon · « **Reply #743 on:** August 09, 2013, 08:57:03 AM »

Same here. We haven't gotten bills in the mail in several years.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #744 on:** August 09, 2013, 01:31:22 PM »

Quote from: Tante Shvester on August 09, 2013, 07:51:21 AM

Are people in their 20's and 30's familiar with "Do not fold, spindle or mutilate", instructions that used to come on the punch card that came in your bills? I haven't seen or heard that phrase in a while, and I don't know if it is still in the common parlance.

Not at all.

pooka · « **Reply #745 on:** August 09, 2013, 03:50:39 PM »

Young uns.

Jonathon · « **Reply #746 on:** August 09, 2013, 03:58:56 PM »

I had to look up "spindle" to see what it meant in this context.

Dobie · « **Reply #747 on:** August 09, 2013, 06:24:28 PM »

Is this still about the pornography?

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #748 on:** August 11, 2013, 12:02:52 PM »

The spindle is the spike that you stack paid bills on. You shouldn't spindle the punch card because then it would have a new hole in it, and it would mess up the computer.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #749 on:** August 11, 2013, 02:06:22 PM »

Aha! That makes sense now. I knew someone who impaled their receipts like that on their desk and I thought it was really odd.