Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

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• What are parts of writing like "statement", "assertion", "argument", "hypothesis, etc collectively called?
• Is it a real rule that a list of nouns can share one indefinite article? Where is it written?
• Is there a word/term for how pleasant a word is to pronounce?
• 'A minimum of only' and 'a minimum of'?
• How to describe someone who has extreme and conscienceless actions but do it for the greater good?
• Assertiveness vs Assertion [closed]
• "Red-marked copy": A draft text with changes highlighted?
• Should I use the article: "use the Sendsay platform"?
• What is the meaning of this proverb? Thanks [closed]
• Why do we start the demonym of countries with capital letters? [closed]
• Should I use 'are' or 'were' when talking about event in the past
• I do not understand the last stentence of this paragraph from Dickens' American Notes. Please help
• How to pronounce `two` correctly? [closed]
• What is the plural form of "video's summary"? [closed]
• "would not have been" vs "had not been" – hypothetical future perfect
• Publick or Public? in the 18th and 19th Century Britain
• What's the grammatical or linguistic term for low-value words?
• Is there a word or phrase for a location that everyone would want to go to where you can do a lot of different things?
• Word describing a distinct absence of intellectual curiosity?
• In open questions with "to be", where is the subject?
• What is the right form? Causative
• Good words for "before" and "after" that sort the same, both logically and alphabetically?
• Is there a different word that describes drawings and art in "cartoon" style, made for animation/illustration?
• Writing out scientific symbols
• As of + present perfect continous sentence
• 'Fight + Object' Vs 'fight + preposition + object'
• Delivery at home, at a home, in a home?
• A word to describe taking pleasure in the way a word sounds
• What to call a chandelier's crystal drop?

What are parts of writing like "statement", "assertion", "argument", "hypothesis, etc collectively called? Posted: 19 Apr 2021 10:07 AM PDT Consider the following made up paragraph Suppose I give you a word, any word. Would you be able to make sense of it? Is it even possible to make sense of a word without surrounding context? I do not think it is. But seeing that sentences, paragraphs, and even books are all made up of individual words, it's hard to believe that anything else should make sense. It doesn't make sense. I think we should all come together to abolish words and all language. With my very incomplete and disorganized knowledge, here is how I'd label parts of this paragraph. First Sentence: supposition, question. Entire sentence is a proposition. Second Sentence: rhetorical question, statement. Third Sentence: observation, deduction Fourth Sentence: assertion Fifth Sentence: appeal The entire paragraph: argument We know grammar is made up of word classes/parts of speech which are nouns, verbs, etc. These are the labels we give to individual words. But we can also give labels to entire sentences, clauses, and paragraphs. Is there a collective term to refer to these just like we have parts of speech for labels of words? Bonus question: is there also a term analogous to grammar? grammar is to parts of speech like X is to Y. Where Y is the answer to main question, and Y to this bonus question.

Is it a real rule that a list of nouns can share one indefinite article? Where is it written? Posted: 19 Apr 2021 09:50 AM PDT Is it a real rule that a list of nouns can share one indefinite article? Where is it written? I can't find it in any of the grammar books I have, and still I find the following in some forums: "If the nouns do refer to the same person(s) or thing(s), they can share an article. For example, a singer who is a dancer can be "a singer and dancer". If the overall meaning is no different whether they do or do not refer to the same person(s) or thing(s), they can share an article."

Is there a word/term for how pleasant a word is to pronounce? Posted: 19 Apr 2021 09:39 AM PDT I am familiar with euphony and phonaesthetics, but these both seem to focus more on how pleasant a sound is to hear/perceive. I think there is a subtle difference between this and how pleasant it actually is to pronounce a word, so I was wondering if there was a word for that specifically. It's like mouthfeel, but for pronunciation.

'A minimum of only' and 'a minimum of'? Posted: 19 Apr 2021 08:45 AM PDT Is there any difference between 'a minimum of only' and 'a minimum of'? Here is an example: 'She did not tell him that it would give her a minimum of only three points'. Is it enough for her or she'd prefer to get more than three points? Or she thinks she can get more than three points? Thanks!

How to describe someone who has extreme and conscienceless actions but do it for the greater good? Posted: 19 Apr 2021 07:47 AM PDT Something to describe a dude like Thanos basically, killing half the universe for less resource consumption. thx alot

Assertiveness vs Assertion [closed] Posted: 19 Apr 2021 07:30 AM PDT The sentence is "I have a lack of ()." Which word is more grammatically correct or can they both be used interchangeably in this instance?

"Red-marked copy": A draft text with changes highlighted? Posted: 19 Apr 2021 06:52 AM PDT I always thought of "red-marked copy" as a standard way of referring to a draft text in which the changes from a previous draft are highlighted. After casually using it when talking to a fellow member (BE as first language) of the university lab I am working at and generating confusion, I looked it up on Google and discovered that there are only about 2k results found. So I am wondering: Is "red-marked copy" a common expression? Is there any meaning other than a copy tracking changes by highlighting? Is there a more universally accepted term to refer to a copy tracking changes to a document? Thank you very much in advance!

Should I use the article: "use the Sendsay platform"? Posted: 19 Apr 2021 07:57 AM PDT Let's say I created a new software. It's a platform for marketing automation, the name of which is "Sendsay". Should I use the definite article when I'm writing: "Use the Sendsay platform"? Or should it just be "Use Sendsay platform"? And what about quotes?

What is the meaning of this proverb? Thanks [closed] Posted: 19 Apr 2021 07:58 AM PDT Here is the proverb: The blessings of thy eternal part are health, vigor, and proportion. The greatest of these is health. What health is to the body, even that is honesty to the soul.

Why do we start the demonym of countries with capital letters? [closed] Posted: 19 Apr 2021 09:20 AM PDT We know that we should write the name of countries starting with capital letters because they are proper nouns. But why should the demonym of countries also be considered proper nouns?

Should I use 'are' or 'were' when talking about event in the past Posted: 19 Apr 2021 05:39 AM PDT In this sentence, I'm talking about something that occurred in the past, but it's something cultural so it's a thing that happens every time, like if I am to attend an Indian event in the future I'm going to get free samosa as well. Given that context I wonder if the tenses I used in this sentence is correct: There were free samosa at every Indian event that I attended should I use 'were' or 'are' in this context? thank you.

I do not understand the last stentence of this paragraph from Dickens' American Notes. Please help Posted: 19 Apr 2021 07:45 AM PDT "At the junction of the two rivers, on ground so flat and low and marshy, that at certain seasons of the year it is inundated to the house-tops, lies a breeding-place of fever, ague, and death; vaunted in England as a mine of Golden Hope, and speculated in, on the faith of monstrous representations, to many people's ruin."

How to pronounce `two` correctly? [closed] Posted: 19 Apr 2021 03:37 AM PDT It sounds to me two pronunced more like tyoo instead of t-hoo ? What's the difference between /tu:/ and /tju:/? Is tyoo american accent, or in common english?

What is the plural form of "video's summary"? [closed] Posted: 19 Apr 2021 02:25 AM PDT Can we say for the plural form : "Videos's sumaries" ? I know that this sounds weird, so what is the correct form of this sentence ?

"would not have been" vs "had not been" – hypothetical future perfect Posted: 19 Apr 2021 02:24 AM PDT I'm a near-native speaker with a good ear, and I'm struggling with my writing here: I prefer [When we compensate emissions by planting a tree,] we have to make sure that the tree would not have been planted anyway, but that we in fact pay for additional afforestation. slightly over [When we compensate emissions by planting a tree,] we have to make sure that the tree had not been planted anyway, but that we in fact pay for additional afforestation. I did a search and found that 'would have been' is an increasingly common American localism but not (yet) Standard English ('had been' is). But there is also this answer and I feel that the hypothetical future aspect of my construction demands future perfect + conditional, i.e. 'will have been' --> 'would have been'. With a preference for Standard English, is this correct?

Publick or Public? in the 18th and 19th Century Britain Posted: 19 Apr 2021 10:37 AM PDT The spelling of -ck was more popular than -c in many words in Britain. But in America, Noah Webster proposed around 1800 to replace -ck by -c, which caused the widespread of this -c spelling in US. In the early 18th century, some of the English spellings were inconsistent. One of the important object of publishing an English dictionary was to make these inconsistencies less noticeable. And it can be said that in the 18th century standard English spellings mostly follow Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755). I worked with Samuel Johnson's Dictionary, and came to presume that even in the 18th century public was more widely used than publick among the British people. Of course, it may have depended on the author's style or taste. I made a rough examination of the occurrences of these spellings in his Rambler (1750-52), with only a few instances of -c spelling, but in Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson (1791): publick 324 occurrences vs. public 136, critick 43 vs. critic 42, and topick 93 vs topic 25. Can I have more rigid statistical data or information about the historical transition from -ck to -c in the 18th and 19th centuries in Britain?

What's the grammatical or linguistic term for low-value words? Posted: 19 Apr 2021 08:12 AM PDT What's the term for low-value words, like: and, is, the, of, in, on, or, this, that... For example, in this sentence "Consider the latest transportation vehicle to claim its move to solar energy, namely, the watercraft and tanker industries." The following words are high value; the remainder are low-value: transportation, vehicle, claim, move, solar, energy, watercraft, tanker, industries Where can I find a complete list of such words? Might have been asked, but I don't know the term for it. Obviously, there are gray areas. It's contextual and debatable; some would argue that all words matter, and will accuse me of discriminating against "the". However, i believe that in linguistics, AI, and/or grammar, there's a class of words considered of lower value. No wordism intended.

Is there a word or phrase for a location that everyone would want to go to where you can do a lot of different things? Posted: 19 Apr 2021 03:48 AM PDT I am looking for a word or phrase for a place where you could go talk, learn, play games, etc. I think something like a school would be the best word for this, but I am looking for something different. I am not talking about heaven or a sanctuary just more along the lines of a place where everyone would want to go to hangout with their friends, have a business meeting, etc. Like a club or a coffee shop maybe, but is there another word for a location where you could go to do a lot of different things. thank you.

Word describing a distinct absence of intellectual curiosity? Posted: 19 Apr 2021 07:45 AM PDT Is there any adjective that means "not intellectually curious", but which isn't simply the opposite of a more common word, like 'incurious' and 'uninterested'? I found some ideas from the definition of incurious: Lacking intellectual inquisitiveness or natural curiosity; uninterested. But these tend to be opposites of more common words. Are there any unique words to describe the quality of a pronounced absence of intellectual curiosity?

In open questions with "to be", where is the subject? Posted: 19 Apr 2021 10:12 AM PDT Ex. What kind of fool am I? Ex. Whose sister is she? In these questions, I understand that there is a noun or noun phrase connected by the verb "to be" to another noun. what + kind of fool + are + you whose + sister + is + she In these sentences, where is the subject? And what is the other noun?

What is the right form? Causative Posted: 19 Apr 2021 04:47 AM PDT You will probably get mugged if walk through that part of town or You will probably get yourself mugged if walk through that part of town. Can I use "have" instead of "get"?

Good words for "before" and "after" that sort the same, both logically and alphabetically? Posted: 19 Apr 2021 10:21 AM PDT TL;DR - Silly OCD question looking for better words. I have a list of event labels in a computer program similar to: renderer_before renderer_after before_notify after_notify This is all well and good...those names convey the context of each event succinctly and accurately. BUT! It bugs me that "before" comes after "after" when sorted alphabetically. Same for "pre" and "post". What is a good pair of words that indicates a relative sequence between two things, that just happens to alphabetically sort in the same order?

Is there a different word that describes drawings and art in "cartoon" style, made for animation/illustration? Posted: 19 Apr 2021 07:57 AM PDT The word cartoon evokes images of newspaper comics and amateurish drawings, possibly made by or for little kids. I'm looking for a synonym that describes more professional high quality art, think Disney/Pixar. Alternatively, can you think of another related word that would be good to use in a name/logline of a website that teaches people how to professionally draw in Disney/Pixar style?

Writing out scientific symbols Posted: 19 Apr 2021 04:14 AM PDT How should µeV be written out? Is it microelectronvolts? or microelectron-volts?

As of + present perfect continous sentence Posted: 19 Apr 2021 06:58 AM PDT As of July 2019, how many Indian players have been inducted in the ICC hall of fame? In this sentence, is the month of July included or not?

'Fight + Object' Vs 'fight + preposition + object' Posted: 19 Apr 2021 09:53 AM PDT Often the verb fight is used without a preposition before its object, and sometimes with the preposition against! "...fought the invaders of his homeland". (M-W Dictionary) He fought the disease for three years. He fought against racism. (Cambridge Dictionary) Are both the usages equally acceptable, or is there any special rule as to when to use a preposition?

Delivery at home, at a home, in a home? Posted: 19 Apr 2021 02:44 AM PDT I've read an article and there's a sentence which confuses me: No matter if your delivery takes place in a home or at the hospital... If I rewrite it this way: No matter if your delivery takes place at home or in the hospital ... is it still correct? And if so, what's the difference between two of them?

A word to describe taking pleasure in the way a word sounds Posted: 19 Apr 2021 09:15 AM PDT What is a word that describes one's satisfaction in the phonetics of a word? Like visual appeal of a pictures, but the audible appeal of a word.

What to call a chandelier's crystal drop? Posted: 19 Apr 2021 10:29 AM PDT What's the English name for those drop-like crystal prisms used to scatter the light from a chandelier? I was thinking to buy some on the internet when I realized I don't even know what to search for.

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