Author Topic: Dear Expert (Read 165313 times)

BlackBlade · « **Reply #550 on:** August 31, 2012, 04:20:02 PM »

If you can say, "That affects my argument zero" or "I haven't changed my mind one iota." Why don't we say "That affected my argument three," and "My view changed a few iotas."?

Jonathon · « **Reply #551 on:** August 31, 2012, 07:22:04 PM »

You're asking about negative polarity items. These are words or phrases that only occur in the context of a negative. (There are also some positive polarity items, as discussed in that Wikipedia page.) Some common ones in English are words or phrases like any or at all. You can say "I don't have any" or "I don't like it at all", or you can ask "Do you have any?" or "Do you like it at all?", but you can't say "I have any" or "I like it at all". It's basically just a type of grammatical agreement that goes along with the affirmative/negative polarity. For some reason, questions get lumped in with negatives. Don't ask me why.

It's interesting to note that in dialects that allow multiple negation, negative polarity items are often simple negatives. Thus you get "I don't have none" where Standard English has "I don't have any".

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #552 on:** September 13, 2012, 08:27:21 PM »

Shouldn't the name of the letter ð be pronounced [ɛð] and not [ɛθ]? Drives me nuts.

Jonathon · « **Reply #553 on:** September 13, 2012, 09:34:40 PM »

Um, it is.

pooka · « **Reply #554 on:** September 13, 2012, 11:33:32 PM »

What he said.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #555 on:** September 15, 2012, 01:17:07 AM »

Wikipedia said otherwise.

Jonathon · « **Reply #556 on:** September 15, 2012, 08:50:17 AM »

Are you referring to this?

Quote

In Icelandic, ð represents a voiced dental fricative like th in English "them", but it never appears as the first letter of a word. The name of the letter is pronounced [ɛθ], i.e., voiceless, unless followed by a vowel.

I think that's referring to the name of the letter in Icelandic.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #557 on:** September 16, 2012, 06:57:35 AM »

Ahhhhh!

Ok, everything is better.

Ela · « **Reply #558 on:** September 24, 2012, 11:30:31 AM »

Is this a correct use of "whom"?

"That depends on whom you ask."

Doesn't sound right to me, but I have problems with who/whom.

Jonathon · « **Reply #559 on:** September 24, 2012, 11:34:01 AM »

Yes, it's correct, but you're right that it sounds odd. "Whom" is the object of the verb "ask" (in non-question syntax, it's "you ask whom"). But it's a colloquial enough expression that using "whom" sounds kind of stilted.

Ela · « **Reply #560 on:** September 24, 2012, 11:35:14 AM »

Does the answer mean you would use "who" instead of "whom" in this context?

Jonathon · « **Reply #561 on:** September 24, 2012, 11:49:56 AM »

Yeah, I think so. It depends on how formal the rest of the writing is, but that one sentence doesn't sound very formal.

rivka · « **Reply #562 on:** September 24, 2012, 01:28:51 PM »

I would make it "who" as well, unless it is meant to be formal. In which case I'd make the phrase "depends upon whom".

Ela · « **Reply #563 on:** September 24, 2012, 01:31:04 PM »

Yeah, it's not formal. So I'm thinking "who" is better.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #564 on:** October 05, 2012, 07:39:18 AM »

Dear Expert,
Is it just me or is Speak Good English's description of this rule incorrect?

Jonathon · « **Reply #565 on:** October 05, 2012, 10:26:08 AM »

They're right that "whereby" is the equivalent of "by which", not "in which", but their examples of how to use "whereby" are strange. "The rules whereby you must follow"? You don't follow by rules—you follow rules. But "the rules whereby you must abide" sounds fine to me.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #566 on:** October 05, 2012, 12:43:37 PM »

What about "the rules whereby you must play"?

Jonathon · « **Reply #567 on:** October 05, 2012, 12:45:16 PM »

It works, though it sounds pretty stilted to me.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #568 on:** October 14, 2012, 12:56:01 PM »

Dear Expert,
Why do we prevaricate, but we cannot varicate after having prevaricated?

Inquiring minds want to know.
-BB

Jonathon · « **Reply #569 on:** October 15, 2012, 09:21:57 PM »

Prefixes and suffixes often have a more figurative meaning. In Latin prevaricari meant "to make a sham accusation, deviate", from prae 'before' and varicare 'straddle'. I don't know how those pieces add up to get that meaning, but that's often how it is.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #570 on:** October 15, 2012, 09:23:10 PM »

Ah, I see. Thanks!

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #571 on:** October 17, 2012, 12:26:50 AM »

Hey, what do we all think of the use of IPA to teach English pronunciation? A lot of textbooks in China do it. It's rather broad as far as transcription goes, and from what I can tell tends to favor British pronunciation to American, but it seems like a rather helpful thing overall, especially since huge proportions of English learners here will never meet a native English speaker, much less study with one.

Good idea/bad idea?

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #572 on:** October 17, 2012, 12:27:45 AM »

I guess I shouldn't even specify a native speaker. Many students will never have a teacher that speaks English in class.

Brinestone · « **Reply #573 on:** October 17, 2012, 06:40:53 AM »

I don't know why we wouldn't use the IPA to talk about pronunciation when teaching second/third/whatever languages.

Jonathon · « **Reply #574 on:** October 17, 2012, 10:35:54 AM »

I think using IPA to teach pronunciation of a foreign language is great, but you have to give students some sort of crash course in it first.