Author Topic: Dear Expert (Read 165424 times)

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #175 on:** October 25, 2010, 11:29:59 AM »

I blame the journalists!

Jonathon · « **Reply #176 on:** October 25, 2010, 11:33:01 AM »

Those fascists!

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #177 on:** October 25, 2010, 11:37:25 AM »

Not to mentions those odious Dental Hygienists.

::bares teeth::

BlackBlade · « **Reply #178 on:** October 25, 2010, 07:36:06 PM »

It makes me crazy just thinking about it. But I dare not see a psycholoist or a psychiatrist!

pooka · « **Reply #179 on:** October 25, 2010, 08:25:45 PM »

I dunno, dental hygienists are kind of extreme with the masks and metal implements. And the asking you if you're flossing every day.

Scott R · « **Reply #180 on:** October 26, 2010, 09:28:24 AM »

I'm a lyricist.

Fear me.

Porter · « **Reply #181 on:** November 12, 2010, 08:16:22 AM »

Do single quotes like 'this' exist in proper written English?

rivka · « **Reply #182 on:** November 12, 2010, 08:29:57 AM »

When nested within double quotes.

Also, the rules for American English differ from those for British English.

Jonathon · « **Reply #183 on:** November 12, 2010, 10:02:35 AM »

Yup. British English typically uses single quotes where we use double quotes. And certain fields use single quotes for certain purposes, as noted in Chicago:

Quote

In linguistic and phonetic studies a definition is often enclosed in single quotation marks with no intervening punctuation; any following punctuation is placed after the closing quotation mark. (For a similar usage in horticultural writing, see 8.129.)

The gap is narrow between mead ‘a beverage’ and mead ‘a meadow’.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #184 on:** November 21, 2010, 04:46:57 AM »

Stop me if I've already talked about this here. Do you capitalize hell? Like, in an actual conversation talking about what people believe about who goes there. The internet is giving me all sorts of conflicting advice from various idiots masquerading as experts.

Porter · « **Reply #185 on:** November 21, 2010, 07:18:21 AM »

If you're talking about an actual place, why wouldn't it be a proper noun?

sweet clementine · « **Reply #186 on:** November 22, 2010, 11:10:31 AM »

because it could be an actual place like a bedroom or an actual place like Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I'm going to hell, the specific location, or Hell the trademarked religious ideological punishing ground.

Jonathon · « **Reply #187 on:** November 22, 2010, 11:40:19 AM »

Quote from: Annie Subjunctive on November 21, 2010, 04:46:57 AM

Stop me if I've already talked about this here. Do you capitalize hell? Like, in an actual conversation talking about what people believe about who goes there. The internet is giving me all sorts of conflicting advice from various idiots masquerading as experts.

The Chicago Manual of Style lowercases it because it's considered more of a concept than a physical place. I guess some people capitalize it if they think of it as more of a real place.

Nighthawk · « **Reply #188 on:** November 22, 2010, 01:27:26 PM »

Quote from: Jonathon on November 22, 2010, 11:40:19 AM

The Chicago Manual of Style lowercases it because it's considered more of a concept than a physical place...

Oh, I beg to differ...

Jonathon · « **Reply #189 on:** November 22, 2010, 01:57:14 PM »

pooka · « **Reply #190 on:** November 22, 2010, 04:00:14 PM »

In my family it always starts a sentence and so is capitalized, cf. "Hell, Margaret!"

Margaret was my grandmother's name.

Hell is the one swear I still say after all these years because my mom felt her father was actually a better Christian than her mother (the church goer) and so I got this idea when I was about 7 that it was okay to say.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #191 on:** November 22, 2010, 04:08:42 PM »

I had an Australian mission companion. It taught me that Christians can say just about anything they want to.

pooka · « **Reply #192 on:** November 22, 2010, 04:38:20 PM »

Don't you think that was more a matter that they'd picked up words from movies they thought were general Americanisms?

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #193 on:** November 22, 2010, 05:15:06 PM »

These weren't Americanisms. In fact, I started using them because they sounded so cute and commonwealthy and she had to explain to me what they meant so I would stop.

(It was mostly damn and hell, though. Apparently, those just aren't a big deal in Australia)

Brinestone · « **Reply #194 on:** November 22, 2010, 09:26:52 PM »

In the ward I currently am in, I have heard two different women use three different swear words inside the church building. Both were women I like a great deal. I'd never heard a Mormon swear before this, and certainly not inside a church. It's kinda funny.

Jonathon · « **Reply #195 on:** November 22, 2010, 09:35:32 PM »

You've never heard a Mormon swear before?

Hell, you've heard me swear before.

pooka · « **Reply #196 on:** November 22, 2010, 10:03:58 PM »

It may make me a hypocrite, but I do try not to swear at church. Besides when I was 14 and asked the Bishop "how it was hanging" and from the look on his face realized I had said something wrong, and instantly deduced what that meant, which had never occured to me before.

Brinestone · « **Reply #197 on:** November 23, 2010, 07:00:45 AM »

Okay, I guess I excluded us, since we see all of the best and worst parts of each other. Probably everyone has a few times in their lives in private.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #198 on:** November 23, 2010, 09:02:24 AM »

I don't swear very often, but I do it so as to punctuate just how annoyed I am. When I discuss swear words though, or quote somebody who was swearing I don't have any compunctions with saying the words rather than words that let the listener know what words were actually used. No darn for damn so to speak.

But I should add that if I am in the company of somebody who would be uncomfortable were the words actually said, I have been known to use darn for damn.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #199 on:** November 23, 2010, 09:06:20 AM »

I actually do say "jeepers", when circumstances demand.