Sunday, April 18, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

A mathematics career but a journalist-ic career?

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 09:47 AM PDT

My question pertains to the rules, and more specifically the ostensible violation of the rules on the modification of nouns into adjectives.

I sometimes experience difficulty of knowing when to adjective-ify nouns when (1) the adjective immediately precedes the noun in question and (2) the adjective version of the noun exists and is spelled differently.

Take the two examples I came across, surfing on the web:

a) "A journalistic career"

b) "A mathematics career"

Both phrases convey the same relative semantic idea and an almost identical construction bar one detail : in (a) the adjective version of journalist is deployed however in (b) the noun form of mathematics is left unaltered even though it acts as an adjective.

Is there a rubric or custom to distinguish when to adjective-ify nouns in these contexts? Or is it completely optional and both camps are valid?

Edit: another illustrative example : Is it correct to say "a gallery of cow pictures" or "a gallery of bovine pictures"?

What is the original intentional use of the phrase 'systems thinking'?

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 08:33 AM PDT

I have found references in 1963 which seem to be the 'first published that google knows about', but it seems from this that the phrase was in fairly common use by then:see here and here.

(see my research at stream.syscoi.com)

Meaning of "against"

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 09:42 AM PDT

I have a question about the meaning of "against" in the following sentence:

"These communications should be in writing and delivered against receipt."

I don't understand why "against" is used here or what it exactly means.

I'd appreciate your help. Thank you!

I cannot understand the meaning of the following sentence fron Dickens' Notes of America

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 07:29 AM PDT

The last sentence from the following paragraph from Dickens is ambiguious for me; "He was only twenty-five years old, he said, and had grown recently, for it had been found necessary to make an addition to the legs of his inexpressibles. At fifteen he was a short boy, and in those days his English father and his Irish mother had rather snubbed him, as being too small of stature to sustain the credit of the family. He added that his health had not been good, though it was better now; but short people are not wanting who whisper that he drinks too hard "

Which is grammatically correct? "My test is the next day" or "My test is on next day"?

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 06:46 AM PDT

I want to know that whether both the sentence are same or one is wrong? "My test is the next day" or "My test is on next day"? I know perhaps it is a very basic question but still I want to know so please answer.

When someone asks a question but actually just want to answer it themselves

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 05:30 AM PDT

Is there a term for when someone asks a question but you know it's only because they either want you to ask them it back, or they want to answer it themselves?

Hope I've explained this properly!

A phrase meaning a drawback turned out to be an advantage

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 05:57 AM PDT

I remember having heard one before but can't say how it went. The phrase says that what initially seemed like a disadvantage — became an advantage.

If anyone knows anything even similar to this definition, it'd be much appreciated.

What does 'to be a story' means?

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 06:14 AM PDT

Could you explain to me, please, what the expression "You are a story" means, used in the following dialogue:

A: "You mustn't pay any attention to old Addie," she now said to the little girl.
B: "She's ailing today."
A: "Will you shut your mouth?" said the woman in bed. "I am not."
B: "You're a story."

How is this example an adjective?

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 06:01 AM PDT

The New Oxford American Dictionary defines one sense of drag to be:

Clothing more conventionally worn by the opposite sex, esp. women's clothes worn by a man: a fashion show, complete with men in drag | [as adj.] a live drag show

Now that second bit saying that it is an adjective raises my eyebrows a bit, because that example doesn't look like an adjective to me. I parse that as

a     live  drag show  det.  adj.  noun compound

And I feel this interpretation is vindicated if we contrast sentences like

The show will be so extravagant.

with

*The show will be so drag.

Here I replaced an adjective (extravagant) describing a "show" (the same noun in the sentence provided by the dictionary) with "drag" and got a sentence that seems to me to be ungrammatical. If "drag" were being used as an adjective in the example sentence then it should be separable from the noun it modifies, and it seems to not be. And this evidence is completely congruent with a noun compound understanding of the phrase.

Now to be a little less naïve, I do definitely see how one could think that drag is an adjective in the sentence. My perspective is quite different from a monolingual English speaker who did not spend a large amount of time in school diagramming sentences. It is a word right before a noun that modifies it, which is basically how adjectives work most the time. And I could definitely see it being a pragmatic choice on the part of the dictionary to cater towards a simpler more approachable understanding. However the issue I see with this is that English allows noun compounding with basically all nouns. And the NOAD does not list every noun this way. So there must be something special about the word it is trying to tell me, but I don't know what it is.

So my questions here are: What's going wrong? Have I misread the dictionary? What is the dictionary trying to tell me.

There's no dessert like this vs. There's no such dessert as this

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 05:01 AM PDT

I was wondering if the following statements mean the same.

There's no dessert like this.

There's no such dessert as this.

It seems obvious to me that the second one could mean something like: There's no such thing as this in the world of desserts or I've never seen it in the world of desserts.

The first one, however, sounds ambiguous to me because it could not only mean the same as the other, but also mean like: This is the best dessert I've ever enjoyed.

I know "like" implies comparison. Does the first sentence sound ambiguous to you too or does it only have one meaning?

I need to know the meaning of the following sentence: we will have this boat fixed

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 04:54 AM PDT

"We'll have this boat fixed." Doesn't it sound like they are gonna employ someone do this job? But here is the thing they are themselves doing this job. So what does it mean?

Have started to do something OR be starting to do something?

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 03:22 AM PDT

I have come across such sentences many times but it is difficult to understand the difference between these two types.

Examples:

"It has started to rain." OR "It is starting to rain."

"I have started to hate iPhones." OR "I'm starting to hate iPhones."

Is there any difference?

Is this sentence correct: "What is correct in exercise 4"?

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 02:52 AM PDT

is that sentence correct: "Which one is the correct answer in exercise 5? A, B or C?"

Or: "In ex. 4 the correct answer is..."

Is the perposition "in" correct? Is there a better way to express the same?

Did "A F" exist as an intensifier prior to social media?

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 06:24 AM PDT

"A F" is short for "as fuck". It popped into my lexicon a few years ago, when I started hearing it in Youtube videos.

The earliest entry in Urban Dictionary I can find is from 2011.

Looking at USA Google Trends for "A F", "A. F." and "as fuck" show "A F" has been used for something (possibly Air France?) since at least 2004, which is pre-Twitter, but post MySpace. It also shows an uptick in "as fuck" from around November 2009, which might coincide with the introduction of "a f" as an intensifier. The "a. f." line is pretty low.

Google Trends chart of "a f" vs "a. f." vs "as fuck"

This seems impossible to search for in Google Books, because A F are initials. Using the ngram viewer with "A F_ADVERB" gets no hits.

It doesn't appear in the OED online, and Greens Dictionary of Slang lumps it in with "as fuck". I'm at a loss for where to look.

Is there any evidence out there that "A F" was coined before the advent of social media? Perhaps in military slang?

What is a word for someone who is speaking in a way to gain sympathy from you?

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 06:31 AM PDT

If someone was trying to persuade you to do something, you might say "he spoke convincingly."

What is a similar word for someone who is speaking in a way to gain sympathy from you?

Hope this makes sense.

What is the term for a special service a firm rolls out to secure a sale?

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 08:07 AM PDT

Is there a standard word to describe something a seller does to secure a sale, particularly an add-on service or package? Like when a car dealer adds a package for new wheels or detailing or a dedicated service support line as encouragement to close soon. A "closer"? "Sweetener"? "White glove"? Value-added service?

Etymology of "had better"

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 08:53 AM PDT

Hadn't ought: "ought not —usually used with to ": you really hadn't ought to do that.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hadn%27t%20ought

Is this ''had'' the same as the one in had better? How'd these expressions come to be?

Is there a word for when something looks correct when wrong?

Posted: 17 Apr 2021 11:57 PM PDT

Is there a word for when something looks correct when wrong? For instance in art, drawing something that technically would be wrong in reality, but drawing it correctly actually looks wrong and drawing it wrong looks correct.

I used to perform magic and I thought there was a term for this.

List of people including non-restrictive appositive

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 09:54 AM PDT

I'm editing a book with this sentence:

'Viroj, his wife, Pranom, Joan and I were duly ushered into an audience room at Chitralada Palace.'

Viroj's wife is Pranom so Pranom is set off with commas as a non-restrictive appositive (Viroj has only one wife). Thus there are four people going to the palace. However, if you do not know that Viroj's wife is Pranom, then you could read the sentence as there being five people going to the palace.

Should I separate the names with semi-colons as so:

'Viroj; his wife, Pranom; Joan; and I were duly ushered into an audience room at Chitralada Palace.'

It looks a little odd to me but I believe it is correct?

Is "You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!" still considered a compliment in English?

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 09:34 AM PDT

I grew up hearing the phrase, "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!" used as a compliment, a genuine expression of admiration, fairly self-effacing at the same time.

I have to admit that, while I knew from context that it was meant as praise, I long ago forgot most of the poem it came from, remembering just that Gunga Din was heroic on the battlefield. Hence the admiration.

I was about to use the phrase when I realized that the person I was addressing might be too young to get the reference, so I skipped it, but went back to read the poem. It is (to me) shockingly racist, with lines like

An' for all 'is dirty 'ide
'E was white, clear white, inside
When 'e went to tend the wounded under fire!

Researching it a bit, it seems the poem is not taught anymore, much like some of Mark Twain's works in the US.

So, is it still a compliment or have the racist overtones made it obsolete?

Edited to add: The last stanza refers to meeting up with Gunga Din in hell someday. [Again edited to add] I realize that the meeting in hell was a compliment - once again - to Gunga Din. The author calls him, "You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din!" In the Bible, the Rich man (in hell) asks to let Lazarus (in heaven) give him water: 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' While the Biblical answer is 'Nope', the author has so much faith in the goodness of Gunga Din that he believes Gunga Din will bring him - and others - water not only on the battlefield, but also in hell. (I think...) Thanks to @Michael.

Sorry, I realize this has some POB aspects to it.

Brackets and comma usage

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 08:59 AM PDT

In the following sentence

Check out our newly created (by people) directory for quick and easy to access information.

should I be using a comma after the closing bracket and after the word quick? Or should there be any commas used?

That is what …. . This is what …. Can these be used interchangeably here?

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 03:57 AM PDT

I've been wondering if "That is what….," and "This is what ….," in the following passage (taken from Fieldfish.com) can be used interchangeably.

Imagine you are an unmarried couple who have been trying to conceive for years. With the help of a well-established fertility clinic and donor sperm you undergo IVF treatment, and have your much desired child. In the course of the fertility process you are told both parents need to sign consent forms that once signed will confer on both the biological parent and the non-biological parent, the same rights of parentage without needing to go to court after the birth to get a declaration of parental responsibility, nor adoption orders. Then some months later the clinic calls you to tell you that due to an admin error, the forms were not completed correctly and the non-biological parent is not legally the child's parent, and probably the only solution is to go through the adoption process.

That is what happened to many couples in the UK who have had fertility treatment using donor sperm and eggs. This is what happened to a family in 2013 and it prompted the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (the HFEA) to require all clinics to audit their cases to see whether there were any other failures by clinics of having failed to get the family to sign both consent form or, having lost or misfiled these legal consents.

"That" and "This" here seem to be almost the same. It is my understanding that "that" indicates a previously stated idea and "this" suggests the idea and something new about it. Is that correct? How does that affect how they are being used in the above passage?

“The tongue in a certain state will cleave to the roof”

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 01:50 AM PDT

While looking for synonym comparison of "stick-cleave-adhere", I came across this in English Synonyms Explained in Alphabetical Order:

To stick expresses more than to cleave, and cleave than adhere: things are made to stick either by incision into the substance, or through the intervention of some glutinous matter; they are made to cleave and adhere by the intervention of some foreign body: what sicks, therefore, becomes so fast joined as to render the bodies inseparable; what cleaves and adheres is less tightly bound, and more easily separable.

Two pieces of clay will stick together by tho incorporation of the substance in the two parts; paper is made to stick to paper by means of glue: the tongue in a certain state will cleave to the roof: paste, or even occasional moisture, will make soft substances adhere to each other, or to hard bodies.

What does "the tongue in a certain state will cleave to the roof" mean?

Comma after a year question

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 01:53 AM PDT

Would there be a comma after the year here? As this is a series of prepositional phrases, I am uncertain that the comma should be inserted.

The composer was alleged to have said this to his secretary in 1940, about a seasonal song.

placement of descriptive clause in the sentence?

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 05:57 AM PDT

S1. X can be done to handle the unsavory practice by Y, which limits growth.

S2. X can be done to handle the unsavory practice, which limits growth, by Y.

In this sentence the descriptive clause "which limits growth" is supposed to apply to the unsavory practice. Does that mean S1 usage is incorrect?

Question update:

What's the best way to rewrite or express the idea that the non-restrictive clause applies to unsavory practice?

I see both S1 and S2 confusing and not easy to read. Furthermore, this problem seems to be very common whenever some X has both a descriptive thing and a restrictive clause and you want to express it in just one sentence. For example:

John grew up with a brother who worked in construction and was John's only healthy sibling, and another brother who worked in government.

"who worked in construction" is restrictive clause. "John's only health sibling" is non-restrictive.

Another way to rewrite it is:

John grew up with a brother, John's only healthy sibling, who worked in construction, and another brother who worked in government.

Both of these ways to express the idea are clumsy. Any better way?

Quantifiers "most" vs. "most of"

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 02:58 AM PDT

I came across this exercise in one of Oxford books.

Most / Most of flowers bought at airports are safe, about 90%.

Shouldn't we use "most of the" when we are talking about a specific set of something?

I will be grateful for any help you can provide.

Everybody had a different opinion. Is there an idiom for this?

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 02:20 AM PDT

I'm searching for an idiom (in a negative sense) that means that a group of people have different opinions, so it's difficult for them to solve a problem, to decide on something or agree on something. Example:

  • They couldn't decide where to go, because everyone had a different opinion.
  • Since the members of the political party have different opinions about its name, we'll have to wait before designing the campaign.

What does "don’t pave the cow path" mean in this context?

Posted: 18 Apr 2021 07:21 AM PDT

I came across a new phrase while reading description section of a webinar topic on Operational Best Practices in the Cloud here.

Excerpt:

Don't pave the cow path. Cloud infrastructure is very different from traditional infrastructure and requires different approaches to really harness cloud value. From dev/test/prod lifecycle management to deployment automation, patch management, monitoring and automation for autoscaling and disaster recovery...

What does don't pave the cow path mean, in general and in this context?

I couldn't even find the meaning or an idiom entry in The Free Dictionary.
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