Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Question about subject of participle clause

Posted: 25 May 2021 09:21 AM PDT

I've read a sentence from New York Times:

"Every new year brings curiosity and excitement. There is often a collective commitment from people to shed the toxic habits we developed the year before, while pushing to unlock the door of possibilities for the year to come."

What is the subject of the clause-while pushing to unlock the door of possibilities for the year to come? It seems to be people, but it also feels like, grammatically, the subject is collective commitment.

What's a word or phrase to describe something that quite literally assimilates from its surrounding

Posted: 25 May 2021 09:32 AM PDT

I'm trying to talk about fashion as art/science. What could a be good word/phrase to say it's omnipresent and you see it everywhere around you.

(i want to mention how fashion accommodates every vocation, that as an industry you will find it around you in some shape or form eg. trends forecasting, visual merchandising, big data collecting user information)

Sample sentences: Like many, I thought of it as insubstantial; as its stereotypical preceding reputation of being frivolous or vain. But fashion draws/absorbs/assimilates from life around it. The clothes we wear on our backs carry stories from around the world.

Term for "to undermine scrutiny/conflict by going beneath something"

Posted: 25 May 2021 08:13 AM PDT

I'm looking for a word that describes "to undermine scrutiny/conflict by going beneath something."

I'm looking for something like:

  • Galileo word-ed the prevalent idea of Geocentrism by formulating his the blasphemous Heliocentrism in secret and proposing it as a result.

I thought the word "subvert" means exactly this because it has "sub" (under) in it; it turns out I was wrong.

Readings from 'The Mill on the Floss'? [closed]

Posted: 25 May 2021 05:31 AM PDT

I recently read The Mill on the Floss by George Elliot. To research and explore more, I need some alternate readings of the text. So far I know of Feminist, Modern or Victorian Romantic readings of the book but couldn't find any suitable text in this regards.

I was hoping to find the best readings for these or any other alternate perspectives of the novel.

Thank you :)

Urgently or desperately wanting something to happen [closed]

Posted: 25 May 2021 09:32 AM PDT

examples:

  • "urgently want" a pizza
  • "desperately and urgently want" to arrive to a destination.

Is there a single word to express this?

Can anyone kindly help by saying what the two words the speaker uses are after 'environmental' at 13:58 of this video clip? [closed]

Posted: 25 May 2021 04:30 AM PDT

Please use the link below to access the video content related to my question.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4OBcRHX1Bc

"may not do"/"you may abstain from doing"

Posted: 25 May 2021 04:24 AM PDT

"May do" grants permission to do. "may not do" seems to deny permission, or at least not give permission to do. How do you give permission to abstain from doing something that was otherwise expected to be done? Is there a more concise way than saying "you may abstain from doing"?

Reported Questions

Posted: 25 May 2021 04:31 AM PDT

I have a question about the use of reported speech.

" Who were with you", asked Tom.

If I have to change the above question into a reported question, should the answer be

  1. Tom asked me who I had been with. Or
  2. Tom asked me who had been with me.

Thanks!

Why is the second t in "aptitude" aspirated?

Posted: 25 May 2021 03:42 AM PDT

As far as I've understood there are these following rules for aspirating a plosive consonant:

  1. When it's word initital
  2. When it's in a stressed syllable

And it's not aspirated when:

  1. When preceeded by another consonant like s
  2. When followed by a fricative or a plosive

So by which rule is the second t in aptitude aspirated?

Is [bʊt] (Northern England) analyzed as an allophone of /bʌt/?

Posted: 25 May 2021 03:02 AM PDT

In some/most Northern England accents, words that have [ʌ] in RP (or standard varieties of English) are pronounced with [ʊ]. So hut, cut, shut etc are pronounced with /ʌ/ in Southern British English but with /ʊ/ in Northern English accents.

Are Northern accent classified as separate accents and have been assigned a separate phonemic inventory or are they analyzed as a dialect of the Southern English accent and those pronunciations are analyzed as allophones of the pronunciations in Southern English?

In short, is [bʊt] analyzed as an allophone of /bʌt/ or does it have a separate status of phonemic transcription and analyzed as /bʊt/?

Can the word 'trafficking' mean 'freight transportation' without conveying the meaning of being illegal ? (Especially in the following sentence)

Posted: 25 May 2021 03:47 AM PDT

"The Agency's performance and various measures adopted to manage the temporary increase in certain types of trafficking, in particular that of cereales". I checked COLLINS, the only dictionary where I found a definition of the word trafficking but it seems to corroborate the meaning of illegal activity.

Why the "ones" in this sentence "French students have to work harder than British ones." is incorrect whilst in another is correct? [closed]

Posted: 25 May 2021 05:20 AM PDT

Here are the sentences that I'm looking at right now, from The Longman Dictionary of Common Errors ("New Edition" p244):

one

  1. ✗ British children have more opportunities than Tunisian ones.
    ✓ British children have more opportunities than Tunisian children.
    ✗ Young people learn more quickly than older ones.
    ✓ Young people learn more quickly than older people.

Ones is usually used to refer to things: "Rechargeable batteries are more expensive than ordinary ones." "The red ones are fine, but I prefer the white ones." Ones may also be used to refer to particular people: "The older children laughed but the younger ones were scared."

In general statements about groups of people, ones is usually avoided: "French students have to work harder than British students."

In particular...

Right:"French students have to work harder than British students."
Wrong:"French students have to work harder than British ones."

Now, I understand that the "ones" from above is wrongly used, because, as the book explains that the word one/ones usually refers to things, such as "The rechargable batteries are more expensive than ordinary ones." It totally makes sense to me, though.

What puzzles me is the "ones" from this sentence, which is correct:

"The older children laughed but the younger ones were scared."

As what the book says, if the word refers to things, why the "ones" from this sentence is correct whilst the "British ones" sentence above is wrong? Doesn't it contradict? Is this usage related to any linguistic matter. If so, what is the phenomenon?

Any valid explanation would be much appreciated!

Is the question 'When to remind you about the meeting?' correct? [closed]

Posted: 25 May 2021 01:28 AM PDT

I saw this question and it seemed a bit strange, the 'when to' part mostly.

In the American dialects that have monophthongization of [eɪ] and [oʊ], what's the rule on when to use the diphthongs and when to use monophthongs?

Posted: 25 May 2021 02:09 AM PDT

Does it have something to do with closed and open syllables? Like sometimes I can hear /e/ and /o/ instead of their diphthong forms.

What is the adjective form for the noun accismus? accismatic?

Posted: 25 May 2021 02:06 AM PDT

I've been looking for a word in English that expresses the following meaning: The state of wanting something but feigning disinterest because you want the other party to insist, ask more forcefully/affectionately, etc.

So far, the best word I've found is accismus. Now I'm wondering if it also has an adjective I can use. Unfortunately, dictionaries haven't been of much help. If there is no such word, do you think accismatic can be a welcome addition to English vocabulary?

What are time words doing when they occur after a noun?

Posted: 25 May 2021 02:50 AM PDT

Examples:

  • People these days have it easy.
  • People back then didn't know about germs.
  • The news today makes up for the news yesterday.
  • The meeting Monday will complete the agenda from the meeting Friday.

In some cases it can be parsed as an adverb modifying the verb or whole sentence, but not always. And it often seems very tightly tied to the noun.

Since the times can usually be moved into a prepositional phrase (usually of/from), my best guess is a noun adjunct, but noun adjuncts that occur after the noun are supposed to be extremely rare (the only examples I've seen were all names).

I found this post but the only answers that make sense are downvoted.

"Please certify that I am not aware..."

Posted: 25 May 2021 01:12 AM PDT

I need to sign a document to clarify I am not aware of something. The negative statement on the document goes like this:

Please certify that I am not aware ...    [YES]         [NO]

So which one is correct? I was thinking either of them are meaningful.

  • Yes, I certify.
  • No, I'm not aware.

Word for using something good for an evil/bad purpose?

Posted: 25 May 2021 02:35 AM PDT

For example, a man using pleasing words and kindness to use a lady for his selfish reasons.

Kindness in itself is good. But it is being used for a bad purpose/evil intention.

I thought of deception or trickery but neither seem to fit quite exactly.

larger than life-sized

Posted: 25 May 2021 12:32 AM PDT

Can I call a chair that is about 13 feet tall (a statue) 'life sized'? As in 'she is standing next to a life-sized chair'? Seemed appropriate to me at first, but then I realized (after checking its definition) 'life sized' would mean the chair is of a normal chair's size, which isn't correct. But it does sound right. Is it appropriate to use 'life sized' here, or is there a word for 'larger than life-sized' that's more suitable here?

I have vague recollections of hearing 'life sized' used to describe a much larger replica of a small object. As in a 'life-sized' apple to mean an apple (statue) that's literally as big as a person. Could it be acceptable in some cute/sarcastic sense?

If 'life sized' is not appropriate, is there any way to describe it (the chair) without making it seem like I'm complaining that the chair is too big, or bigger than it should, or suggesting anything negative?

Word/ expression/ idiom for "when you realize the good deeds someone has done after their departure/ death"

Posted: 25 May 2021 06:43 AM PDT

Oftentimes there are people that do good and people don't respect them (and/or rebuke them), but when they leave the place or die, people realize that they were a good person and that what they did was great and good.

Examples:

  1. There was an employee (A) in a shop who used to keep the shop organized and tidy but the owner of the shop wouldn't respect it and would rebuke him. After A left the job and the owner assigned his job to someone else B, the B wasn't so organized and the shop would always be messed up, the owner realized that the first employee A was much better and what he did was good and he was a nice employee.

  2. Sometimes there are wise people that people don't respect much but when they die, people realize how kind and wise they were.

Is there an idiom in English to convey/express that?

Edit: I am not sure as to how my question lacks details. I have provided two examples and have explained the situation. Can the close-voters explain how else could I explain and clarify my question?

Is there a word or phrase to say that someone's opinion carries more weight because they aren't biased to say it anyway?

Posted: 25 May 2021 07:10 AM PDT

For instance, it's easy to dismiss Larry Summers' worrying about inflation because he is always worried about inflation. On the other hand, Jerome Powell expressing concern about inflation would be considered more alarming because he's more balanced about things.

Is there a word or phrase to express this in English?

A situation where the adjective being used to describe the noun is actually the opposite of the adjective being used

Posted: 25 May 2021 05:53 AM PDT

Forgive me, for I am not very eloquent.

If someone were to tell a bad joke but in the given scenario it got some laughs and could be recounted as a "good joke" then the joke was _____.

On the surface and out of context, the object of the sentence (in this case the joke) was bad, but in the given situation it was actually good, what would be a word to describe that?

When something could be described as one thing, but in a certain situation it is exactly the opposite. It would be _____.

Is "may or may not" a correct way of negation of "may"?

Posted: 25 May 2021 04:18 AM PDT

In my paper, I wrote this sentence:

Individual fitness then may or may not project into the population-level demography rates.

Now I started to doubt if it is correct! Because if I look up the meaning of "may not", it is actually a prohibition! So perhaps the "correct" way should be "may or need not"? Or "may or doesn't have to"? Yeah, sounds weird, but that's what you would expect, grammatically.

But I've been looking here in some other questions, and from this it seems like "may or may not" is correct.

So my question is:

  1. Really? Is this correct?
  2. Why? Is it some "inconsistency", an exception, that "may not" in this context means "doesn't have to"? Whereas in other cases it means a prohibition? Is it an exception because "may or may not" reads better?

Is "surroundings" a plural noun or a mass noun that just happens to take the form of a plural?

Posted: 25 May 2021 04:54 AM PDT

I personally interpret "surroundings" as at least a plural-only noun but possibly just a noun whose plural form is much more common than its singular form in modern usage.

But on a forum I frequent, a user is claiming that it's actually a mass (uncountable) noun.

I admit that this one is a bit harder to analyse than other words I've thought about, so I'd like to see the thoughts of the English language experts here.

Which is more correct: T-shirt or t-shirt?

Posted: 25 May 2021 07:33 AM PDT

Can we use small letter, while writing: T-shirt? What is correct and why: T-shirt or t-shirt?

Thank you.

How to best describe a raging sea [closed]

Posted: 25 May 2021 09:19 AM PDT

What are the best adjectives describing a chaotic and uncalm sea? I mean, when there are horrifyingly tall waves.

Idiom or expression for describing a situation in which you cannot easily reject a request

Posted: 25 May 2021 04:44 AM PDT

Suppose someone (like a boss, friend, cousin,.., to whom you can not say "no" easily) has a personal request for you which you find difficult to decline, but you cannot bring yourself to say no, because you feel embarrassed or too shy to say no (i.e. you do not feel free to say no), or just simply don't like them to feel offended or hurt.
What is the expression or idiom that would convey this meaning: "to accept a request in this situation, unwillingly but under your own moral pressure or just out of shyness".

I have found this idiom: "to put somebody on the spot", can I use it in this situation?

For example:

My mother-in-law asked me to accompany her to the market, and I was actually put on the spot by her request so I went shopping with her despite having a severe headache.
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