Saturday, May 8, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Correct to use "index" for marking "first occurrence"

Posted: 08 May 2021 09:49 AM PDT

I found that several studies have defined the first occurrence of hip fracture diagnosis as "index hip fracture" (https://www.google.com/search?q=%22index+hip+fracture%22&rlz=1C1CHBD_enEE888EE888&oq=%22index+hip+fracture&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i57j35i39j0i22i30l3j0i390l3.3229j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8).

However, when checking the meaning of "index" then such meaning is not that clear.

Should I use the same approach or are there better options?

“Try on some of them” or “Try some of them on”?

Posted: 08 May 2021 09:44 AM PDT

I've learnt that some phrasal verbs such as "pick up" or "try on" require us to put the object, especially when it is a pronoun, between the verb and preposition. Is it also possible to say "You should try some of them on before buying"? Or is it better to say "You should try on some of them"?

I'm looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you in advance.

Is 'lamented' a dialogue tag?

Posted: 08 May 2021 09:17 AM PDT

In these sentences,

  • "I miss having breakfast every day," he lamented.

  • "I miss having breakfast every day." He lamented.

is the first correct? I would say lamented is a dialogue tag, since if I use the verb said or responded instead, then it would be a dialogue tag:

"I miss having breakfast every day," he said.

"I miss having breakfast every day," he responded.

Is there a word for somebody who enjoys making other people feel anxious over any situation? [closed]

Posted: 08 May 2021 09:09 AM PDT

No matter what you bring up in conversation the person you are talking to will say things to make you worry or feel anxious about whatever it is you are talking about. What is a word for people who make other people worry/anxious?

Is there a term for sharing a word between multiple lines of a poem/song?

Posted: 08 May 2021 09:26 AM PDT

In Jonathan Coulton's "Sticking It To Myself," the first word or phrase in one line (bolded) often also serves as the last word in the next line without repetition:

And I heard everything you said
Those things to try to get inside my head
Is full ...

Sticking it to my-
Self-control
That's not the only thing I lack
A plan
Just my own gun against my
Back down now and let this hostage
Go away

This is as opposed to the chorus of The Wanted's "Glad You Came," which does something similar but repeats the word on the next line:

Turn the lights out now
Now I'll take you by the hand
Hand you another drink
Drink it if you can
Can you spend a little time?
Time is slipping away
Away from us, so stay
Stay with me, I can make
Make you glad you came

What The Wanted's "Glad You Came" does by repeating the last words of one line in the start of the next line is called anadiplosis, but the name of the rhetorical scheme or literary device I'm seeking is that of the first example where the words at the end of one line are not repeated but instead themselves become the words that start the next line. Is there a name for this rhetorical scheme or literary device? If so, what is it?

Is "stranded" a past participle or an adjective?

Posted: 08 May 2021 08:25 AM PDT

Definition of the " leave" :to make or allow sb/sth to remain in a particular condition, place, etc.

  1. Leave the window open. (verb + object+ adjective)
  2. I Left the headlights on. ( verb + object + preposition)
  3. Don't leave the water running. (verb + object + verb-ing)
  4. He left the children to sleep in class. ( verb + object + to-infinitive)
  5. The hurricane left hundreds of tourists stranded at the airport. (verb + object +?)

Example 1 to 4 can be found in Oxford English Dictionary, Cambridge Dictionary or Collins Dictionary, yet Example 5 doesn't appear in these dictionary. Is "stranded" a past participle or an adjective?

I am looking for information about the influence of Yiddish on the English language [closed]

Posted: 08 May 2021 07:38 AM PDT

English is influenced by many languages. I would like to know the influence of Yiddish on the English language. How much of English uses Yiddish? What is the root of this influence?

Is there a name for a non-ambiguous statement that contains unresolved ambiguous details?

Posted: 08 May 2021 07:47 AM PDT

Yearless dates can be ambiguous. "04/07" for instance is understood as "April 7" by Americans, but as "the 4th of July" by most other nationalities. This ambiguity is frequently resolved by the context it was written in, but often not.

I recently wrote something using this date format, saw that it would be ambiguous, and then immediately realized that it didn't matter. The two dates were individually ambiguous, but together they weren't:

Each year, 05/09 and 09/05 fall on the same weekday.

It doesn't matter whether one reads these as MM/DD or as DD/MM; the sentence is equally correct, even though the two dates each remain ambiguous.

Is there a name for this phenomenon of ambiguous details that together produce a non-ambiguous result?

Is there a word for "considering multiple view points" [duplicate]

Posted: 08 May 2021 05:39 AM PDT

We know how different sources of media can bias how they present information.

So I want a word that says I will take into consideration "all" those different viewpoints.

For example a sentence:

"...different media, whether distinguished by country, culture, or politics often portray the same event in different ways. Because of this, I'll be taking a more [word] view analyzing the event."

I was thinking of the word "holistic" to take place of [word], but would that be accurate?

Thanks in advance.

What does to be featured mean [duplicate]

Posted: 08 May 2021 05:34 AM PDT

In the "About the author" page of a book published by Wiley (for dummies) there is a sentence about Joelle Jane Marshall, the author of the book, like this: Jo has been featured in "The Career Stylist's Inspiration Lounge" and has held workshops for "Girl Summit" alongside "Childline" and the "NSPCC"

My question is: What is "The Career Stylist's Inspiration Lounge"? Is this a name of a magazine? Or sth else? And what do we mean when we say somebody has been featured in ....?

I would be very grateful if you help me.

meaning of "draft prospectus" [closed]

Posted: 08 May 2021 05:10 AM PDT

Every mortgage bond came with its own mid-numbingly tedious 130-page prospectus. ...Burry spent the end of 2004 and early 2005 scanning hundreds and actually reading dozens of them, certain he was the only one apart from the lawyers who drafted them to do so—even though you could get them all for $100 a year from 10KWizard.com. As he explained in an e-mail: -The Big Short by Michael Lewis

I've looked for "draft" and it says "writing for the first time". Is that the right meaning?

How do I see the equivalence of these two definitions of risk homeostasis?

Posted: 08 May 2021 05:26 AM PDT

These two definitions should be equivalent, but correct me if I'm wrong.

Definition 1. Risk homeostasis is that when something becomes less risky, the more risk is taken, in order to keep the expected risk constant. (Source: Wikipedia article on Risk Homeostasis)

Definition 2. Risk homeostasis is that people at any moment of time compare the amount of risk they perceive with their target level of risk and will adjust their behaviour in an attempt to eliminate any discrepancies between the two. (Source: BMJ)

What does "I do duz machines" mean? [closed]

Posted: 08 May 2021 05:50 AM PDT

I have found this sentence:

I do duz machines.

It is a sentence from the Ninja Turtle Donatello and it refers to his passion for building any kind of machine (his online nickname is "duz_machines_84").

I would like to know what "duz" means here. Someone says it means "does", so assuming this, the sentence would turn into "I do does machines.", but this can not be correct. If it were, how can it be from the point of view of grammar?

About the meaning, I believe that this sentence means "I do build machines", with emphatic use of "do". Is this correct?

More context

This sentence is taken from an American comic book. Donatello is talking to a scientist who has projected a machine. Donatello gives him some tips to make it work better. The scientist asks him if he likes machines and Donatello replies "Well, I do duz them". I have written "machines" and not "them" because I thought it was clear. I'm sorry if it wasn't.

originate and sell subprime mortgage lender [closed]

Posted: 08 May 2021 04:45 AM PDT

I wonder what the form of grammar "originate and sell mortgage lender" is? There is verb in front of the word "mortgage lender" and I wonder if I should look at them as whole noun?

how does “the biggest decreases in X” relates “the average X in a period of time”

Posted: 08 May 2021 05:38 AM PDT

My problem is about the following LSAT passage:

From 1996 to 2004, the average family income in a certain country decreased by 10 percent, after adjustments for inflation. Opponents of the political party that ruled during this time claim that this was due to mismanagement of the economy by that party.

The task of the question is to find an answer choice that undermines the opponent's claim. Here is the answer:

The biggest decreases in family income resulted from policies enacted before the ruling party came to power in 1996.

My problem is how this answer choice actually addresses the opponent's argument. Since the answer choice does not offer any time frame for "the biggest decreases", I can only regard it as referring to the biggest decreases ever and so far. Thus, I can't see how it relates to the average family income from 1996 to 2004.

Especially, in LSAT, I can't make an unwarranted assumption about the time the biggest decreases occurred unless there is a textual or logical basis.

I can't really figure out what I missed. Would you please help explain what I missed? Thank you very much for your time.

Regards, Leon

Word for a very nimble boat?

Posted: 08 May 2021 05:14 AM PDT

I'm writing a metaphor describing a switch from a very static environment to a very dynamic one.

Instead of trying to turn the Titanic, it'll be like steering a <boat here>

What kind of boat could go into the metaphor?

The best I came up with was "power boat"

A relative clause including Pied-Piping and Extraposition

Posted: 08 May 2021 03:27 AM PDT

We are deeply touched by the story you just told about which we never heard.

Please parse this sentence and point out what typical errors should be noted when I am writing a sentence relating to both Pied-Piping and Extraposition.

Here is another example,

"We never heard the story about Fred, by which we were deeply touched. "

What happens to the syntactic structure of this sentence？

Usage of “pretensions” [closed]

Posted: 08 May 2021 03:02 AM PDT

What is the meaning of pretensions from the Composition "Describe someone whom you initially misjudged".

The meaning given by author is "snobbish airs". I even do not know what this means.

It was the start of my new course at the university. It was the time that I met Aleia. I found that he had enrolled in the same course as myself at the university. He was a most amicable young man and loved to laugh loudly at the most inane jokes. I thought it was extremely annoying at first. I found out later that it was merely his way of venting his frustration. Aleia was kind, honest and straightforward.

He had none of the pretensions and the only time when I felt that he was a genuine person was when he rushed a child who was having a fit of vomiting when we were at a fast food outlet to the hospital.

Definitions from Oxford are:

  1. a claim or assertion of a claim to something; a claim or aspiration to a particular quality.

  2. the use of affectation to impress; pretentiousness.

  3. apply tension to (an object) during manufacture or prior to some other process.

Similar words for pretension from Oxford are:

aspiration claim assertion pretence profession purporting

affectation affectedness ostentation ostentatiousness artificiality attitudinizing airs posing posturing hypocrisy snobbery show pomposity pompousness floweriness grandiosity grandness grandiloquence magniloquence elaborateness extravagance heroics flamboyance ornateness bombast turgidity rhetoric pedantry la-di-da side guyver fustian

what i thought was mis conceptions about Aleia.

What would be a word that means pushing someone to their limit in a negative form

Posted: 08 May 2021 04:18 AM PDT

I'm currently writing a story about a young man who was took everything from him and that died for the causes he fought for, I'm looking for a word that means taking everything from someone and more.

To be featured and some proper nouns [closed]

Posted: 08 May 2021 05:28 AM PDT

In the "About the author" page of a book published by Wiley (for dummies) there is a sentence about Joelle Jane Marshall, the author of the book, like this: Jo has been featured in "The Career Stylist's Inspiration Lounge" and has held workshops for "Girl Summit" alongside "Childline" and the "NSPCC"

My question is: What is "The Career Stylist's Inspiration Lounge"? Is this a name of a magazine? Or sth else? And what do we mean when we say somebody has been featured in ....?

I would be very grateful if you help me.

Tense in subjunctive sentence

Posted: 08 May 2021 09:06 AM PDT

The divorce won't affect the money that has already been given to the foundation trust, but the couple may devote less money to it over time than they would have if they had stayed together.

The tail end of the sentence, from a news article, after than describes a contrary-to-fact situation in the past tense (not about the verb form) as the divorce is already set in motion. The author apparently sees this section as a past event, a perspective that I cannot wrap my head around.

But I wonder whether it is possible to describe the situation in the present tense--they would if they stayed together. Indeed, I feel the present tense is more appropriate in this subjunctive sentence.

Could you please explain why the past tense is applied here?

When speaking of an archetypical kind of person, should plurals use "s" or " 's "?

Posted: 08 May 2021 09:24 AM PDT

What's the best way (for reader experience) to achieve the following? Let's say I am defining some kind of archetype, based on Eduardo Saverin (Facebook cofounder) ,and I call it an "Eduardo".

I want to repeatedly say:

  • Eduardos do xxy.
  • There are a lot of Eduardos in your company.
  • You'll encounter Eduardos every day.
  • Don't be an Eduardo.

"Eduardos" might be grammatically correct, but just is hard on the eyes. Eduardo's seems a little better but I think is grammatically incorrect.

I don't want a work-around, not right now. I am interested in opinions or experience with this kind of writing issue. It seems to be worse if the name ends in a vowel or if the name is uncommon. So if I used "Karen", then "Karens do xyz" is less awkward.

Correct way to say apply powder on skin of child

Posted: 08 May 2021 08:04 AM PDT

What is the proper way to say I'm applying talcum powder on my child's body? I always wonder whether 'applying powder' is correct in this sense.

Is the possessive "its" or "their" after "all of the country's states and territories"?

Posted: 08 May 2021 07:48 AM PDT

Which statement is correct?

  • All of the country's states and territories imposed travel restrictions on its residents.

  • All of the country's states and territories imposed travel restrictions on their residents.

Is "its" or "their" correct in accordance with the meaning?

Is there a single word for two phrases which are synonymous with one another?

Posted: 08 May 2021 05:02 AM PDT

Is there a single concise word for two phrases which have the same or nearly the same meanings as one another? Lately, I have found myself Googling phrases like "loath to admit synonym" or "take for example synonym," in the hopes of findings phrases of a similar construction and of a similar meaning. This feels imprecise.

Though Webster's Dictionary defines a synonym as:

one of two or more words or expressions of the same language that have the same or nearly the same meaning in some or all senses

I can't help but feel as though I am not living up to my full Googling potential. Any help?

Is "in the years to come" only used as a verbal expression?

Posted: 08 May 2021 09:04 AM PDT

I want to use this expression in my writing but my teacher said it's a verbal expression. However, I have seen it in some formal speech. Please tell me if my teacher is right.

Do we need to add a comma before "as"

Posted: 08 May 2021 03:00 AM PDT

Do we need to add a comma before "as" in the following sentence?

I am writing to inform you that I would not able to attend the course from 19 February as my new shift timings match the course timings.

Why is 'harmful' the correct choice in this 'fill in the blank' situation?

Posted: 08 May 2021 09:26 AM PDT

Although gossip is not h______ chat that can make conversations exciting, it can also be a way to spread something untrue about other people.

The above sentence is taken from a larger text on the topic of 'Netiquette' - internet manners.

The text is part of an example high-school entrance exam for Chinese students from back in 2016.

Each blank must only be filled with one word. The first letter of the word is provided to help students narrow down the number of possible word choices.

According to the answer sheet, the blank is to be filled by using the word harmful, which (to me) makes very little, if any, sense at all in this structure.

I have double-checked the example's punctuation and ran the "Although gossip is not harmful chat..." search string and its permutations through both Google and Bing, in the hopes of landing a hit that could confirm or refute the usage of harmful - all to no avail.

Below is an excerpt from the text including the sentences surrounding the problematic blank.

The manners also i(nclude) not looking through others' phones and not gossiping about others over mesasges, e(specially) when you choose "reply all" to send a message to a group of people.

Although gossip is not h(armful) chat that can make conversations exciting, it can also be a way to spread something untrue about other people. Gossip can be even stronger on social media than in real life, so it's b(etter) not to gossip.

Other than this being simply a case of Chinglish, is there another explanation as to why the usage of harmful is correct here?

Feminine equivalent to mate

Posted: 08 May 2021 04:44 AM PDT

I am seeking a feminine equivalent to mate. Lets say I am walking in a hallway and bump into a male college; I would say something along the lines of

Sorry, mate/lad/pal.

However when I bump into a female, I just say "Sorry" which I feel is a bit lacking.

Is there a feminine equivalent to mate?
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