Thursday, June 24, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Word for converting grades from one system to another?

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 11:46 AM PDT

Say I attended high score in country A, where students are given grades in the form of letters (A–F). I want to attend university in country B, where high school grades are in the form of numbers, say 1–20. I will be required to transform my grades to their equivalents in country B's system.

What is this process called?

Example

I almost have everything ready for my university application, I just need to proceed with the ____________ of my grades.

Words I considered

  • conversion (too broad)
  • mapping (this word is used with this meaning only in mathematics and related fields)
  • standardization (sounds best, but I do not have any evidence that this word is used like this)

What does a "weary room" mean?

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 11:53 AM PDT

A Pink Floyd song titled "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" starts with this line:

"A restless eye across a weary room"

I started looking up the various meanings of "weary" to see what it means in combination with room, but I didn't find anything that makes sense here. I just came across the same combination used in some hotel ad and that was all.

Would somebody in the know kindly help?

Term for when seemingly-random or loosely-related words form a unique, descriptive sentence or phrase?

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 10:22 AM PDT

Is there a term for when a series of words come together to form a unique, descriptive sentence or phrase?

A few examples I can think of:

  • XKCD comic about strong passwords: As an example of a strong but easy-to-remember password, Randall Monroe uses "correct horse battery staple", which is something that was unique, possible to imagine, and rather whimsical.
  • Guided by Voices song titles: The band Guided by Voices (and their frontman Bob Pollard, in particular) are beloved for their arcane song titles. Some examples: "The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory", "Father Sgt. Christmas Card", and "Big Chief Chinese Restaurant".
  • Early Spam Subjects: In the 2000s, a lot of spam emails had subject lines that appeared to be randomly generated and vaguely familiar to try to circumvent spam filters. (Or at least that's my theory.) Some examples: "Baby Hungry Weakness", "Her Bridal Lace to Drink", and "Bacon Aspiration".

Perhaps there is no defined term for these creations and it's just another example of our brains automatically processing words into something more meaningful. But I've always found them pleasing to read or hear. I would love to learn if there's any kind of science or culture around them.

I've researched this on the Internet and this Stack Exchange but haven't gotten a clear answer, only more examples, like using a Markov chain on the song titles above to generate more.

What does Nope in the sentence exactly mean? [closed]

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 09:42 AM PDT

First of all have a look at the following passage.

Getting ready every day can be a drag. Brushing your teeth, combing your hair, and that whole annoying business of showering—it's impossible to multitask while doing that stuff, right? Nope! Aside from wanting to look (and smell) your best, the time you spend getting ready is prime time to be aware of everything you're doing. If you usually zone out while brushing your pearly whites in the morning, instead try thinking of all the ways you're helping yourself by having a sparkling smile—the least of which will mean fewer trips to the dentist. The goal here is simply focusing on the task at hand. Instead of whipping your comb through your hair in the morning like a madman, just focus on the act of brushing, not thinking of the ten other things you have to do to get ready this morning. What's the rush? Okay, well, you need to make sure you don't miss the bus. But beyond that, there's a lot of merit in diligence and focusing on personal hygiene.

What do you think Nope (in bold) means?

  1. impossible
  2. possible
  3. (my wild guess) Nope to the first sentence "Getting ready every day can be a drag". I thought so because following "Nope", it talks about how getting ready every day cannot be a drag.

"get" or "got" in a past tense sentence [closed]

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 08:21 AM PDT

Which of these sentences is correct?

  • She told him to wait until she gets back home.
  • She told him to wait until she got back home.

In my opinion, both sentences sound normal with "gets" and "got". What do you think? Thank you for your opinion.

What's a word combining appease/placate and encourage?

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 08:48 AM PDT

There's a word in the back of my mind that I just can't quite bring to the surface. It is generally used with negative connotations and it means something along the lines of appeasing/placating/pacifying someone to the point of encouraging bad behaviour.

Edit:

A sample sentence:

Stop [word]ing Clive, he's just going to get worse.

What do you call a male child of your female cousin? [duplicate]

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 11:28 AM PDT

OK, a nephew is a male child of your siblings.

But what do you call a male child of your female cousin?

  1. A cousin nephew?
  2. A nephew cousin?
  3. ...?

What would the opposite of "orthopedic" be?

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 04:38 AM PDT

So, I'm wondering, what could the opposite of "orthopedic" be? More precisely, if a force is "orthopedic" in nature (so it would give a correct posture), what would a force that causes bad posture/bad bones position be called?

The closest I could come up with would be "skoliopedic", but that sounds like something that would be specifically about the spine/a twisted change.

I'm looking for something more general, which would mean "crooked bones" or something among those lines. "Kurtopedic" (from kurtosis) could also be an option, but again it seems to address more a twisted/curved shape than a generic badly-shaped/badly-positioned one.

What is the meaning of "I listened to the frogs and the crickets and the cicadas" [closed]

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 01:39 AM PDT

What is the meaning/logic behind this sentence?

I listened to the frogs and the crickets and the cicadas.

Why is the word "ordinance" lowercase in this sentence? [closed]

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 01:33 AM PDT

The ordinance establishing the special tribunal for the trial was passed by a remnant of the House of Commons alone from which all dissentients were excluded by the army.

I noticed that the name of a specific trial is not stated, so if it was, would ordinance be a proper noun then?

Question: Can you state why specifically ordinance is lowercase in the sentence and how the sentence would have to be written in order for ordinance to be a proper noun?

breakage vs breaking in "X denotes the spontaneous breakage/breaking of rotational symmetry"

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 06:07 AM PDT

In the sentence " X denotes the spontaneous breakage/breaking of rotational symmetry.", which is the best word to use in its context?

Correct verb form of review? [closed]

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 12:47 AM PDT

In the following sentence which form of the word "review" would be correct?

She must ensure she review/reviews the material.

What do you call a person who is opposed/hates the entirety of LGBTQ+?

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 01:46 AM PDT

Someone who hates homosexuals is a homophobe, someone who hates trans people is a transphobe, but I don't know a good word to describe the people that just hate anything related to progressive gender/sexuality. Maybe bigot, but the official definition doesn't sound fitting and it isn't restricted to just LGBTQ+

Relative pronoun usage [closed]

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 10:49 AM PDT

Is it correct to say, "we identified different types of words emerged"?

Better expression for the "non-increasing property" of a quantity such as negative entropy? [closed]

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 11:46 PM PDT

I am currently writing an academic paper in physics. In that field, it is well known that a quantity called negative entropy is non-increasing.

I would like to write a sentence in my paper that means something like this

Theorem 1 guarantees the non-increasing nature of the negative entropy.

Unfortunately, the phrase "non-increasing nature" seems to be rarely used in academic papers; a Google scholar search yielded only 275 results.

I was wondering if you could give me an alternative, more frequent and formal phrase to "non-increasing nature".

"As pets being welcome, she stayed at the hotel with her dog." [closed]

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 11:31 PM PDT

I know that the the following two sentences are validly structured.

Pets being welcome, she stayed at the hotel with her dog.

and

As pets were welcome, she stayed at the hotel with her dog.

The following sentence combines elements of the first two sentences. Is this third sentence grammatically valid, and if not, why not?

As pets being welcome, she stayed at the hotel with her dog.

What kind of constituent grammatically is the phrase 'to Hyundai' in this sentence?

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 11:18 PM PDT

So important is the Australian market to Hyundai these days that we were chosen as the first in the world to receive this new SR model.

Is the phrase 'to Hyundai' a complement of the adjective word 'important'? Or, is it an adverbial modifier of the verb 'is'?

Thank you!

Reported Questions

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 05:02 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!

Term for allowing implausible scenario in argument

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 08:40 AM PDT

What is the term for allowing an implausible scenario in order to be as generous as possible to the claim one is about to knock down? Example:

Acme Acres recorded 2,000 births last year, but the town has only 500 women. Even if they are all of child-bearing age and each had two deliveries last year, it is still virtually impossible that they gave birth to 2,000 babies. Either out-of-towners were flocking to Acme Acres to deliver or the statistic is wrong.

It's a little like "giving the benefit of the doubt" "for the sake of argument", but I don't think "doubt" is the right word here (the allowed scenario is almost certainly false). There should be a precise term or expression from this kind of argumentation, at least a Latin one from law or a Greek one from rhetoric.

What is/are the word(s) for the overwhelming feeling of relief?

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 02:04 AM PDT

I am describing in a college app essay the feeling I felt when I finally did not experience overwhelming anxiety when presenting in front of the class. I have only felt this way when presenting topics surrounding math and science.

I need a word that encapsulates the feeling of utter relief. One example of this could be when someone finds out their loved one is not going to die. The cold, unrelenting grip of worry is released from the shoulders and lungs and that overwhelming sense of relief is felt. The lightness of the shoulders. The newfound ease of breath. What is a good word that encapsulates this?

Usage of appostive phrase

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 11:07 AM PDT

I came across this sentence when reading a newspaper.

  • An information systems specialist who set up his own mobile app development company, Edward established Web Organic in 2019 and tapped contacts in the industry for help.

In this sentence, "an information systems specialist who set up his own mobile app development company" is placed at the beginning (in front of the subject)

In what conditions can an appositive phrase be placed forward? For instance, are the sentences below grammatically correct? (They both sound weird to me but I couldn't figure out their difference with the aforementioned sentence)

  • 1 The president of the United States, Trump waged a trade war against China.

  • 2 A fan of Michael Jordan, Jack flew to the US to watch his match.

A technical word to describe the correct contact between a wheel and a rail

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 02:01 AM PDT

I am translating an Italian technical manual, and I'm having problems translating one word in particular: "planaritá". The literal translation of the word is apparently "planarity" but I've never heard of planarity before and from online research it doesn't appear to be a common engineering term for wheel/rail contact.

The direct translation of the relevant section is:

problem = incomplete wheel contact

solution = restore wheel and/or rail planarity

I wonder whether "alignment" would work instead. Is there another more technical/engineering term to describe the relationship between wheel and rail?

Which noun was referred to after comma?

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 01:38 AM PDT

I am reading a paragraph in English. English is obviously not my first language. I like to confirm my understanding of a sentence.

This is the sentence.

Copernicus had offered his replacement for the old Ptolemaic astronomy, moving the sun to the center of the solar system and letting the Earth, now just one of a number of similar planets, circle round it.

In the sentence, "moving the sun to the center of the solar system and ....." refers to "replacement" not "the old Ptolemaic astronomy".

Am I right? Could you tell me which one it is referring to?

Implicit "that/which is/are" in nonrestrictive relative clause

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 09:03 AM PDT

Is it grammatically correct to leave off "that is" or "which is" in a nonrestrictive relative clause? Is there a term for this? Is this actually a different phenomenon? It (sometimes?) seems to apply to the whole sentence, not any individual noun. For example:

Today I [verb], (which is) [comparative adjective] than [gerund].

I have [object], (which is) [comparative adjective] than [object].

I have [object], (which is) [comparative adjective] than [subject].

Why Cosmonaut, not Astronaut?

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 04:53 AM PDT

An American space traveler is called in English an astronaut. A French space traveler is called in English an astronaut (not l'astronaute). A Japanese space traveler is called in English an astronaut (not uchū hikō-shi). A Chinese space traveler is usually also described in English as an astronaut. So, why are Russian space travelers called in English cosmonauts?

What are buildings used for recreation and lounging near marinas called? Something like a club house but only for private use

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 05:11 AM PDT

What are buildings used for recreation and lounging, near marinas called? Something like a club house but only for private use. Generally owned by very wealthy people with yachts. The words coming to my mind are "lounge" and "outhouse", but I'm thinking of something on a grander scale.

Why do we say that someone “practices” law or medicine?

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 05:32 AM PDT

I'm wondering why we refer to providing legal or medical services as a practice of law or medicine, respectively. For example, we say that a lawyer practices law or a doctor practices medicine. This makes these fields sound like they're some special art, but what is the historical origin of the usage of the word practice in this context?

What is the antonym of the prefix retro-?

Posted: 23 Jun 2021 11:18 PM PDT

A coworker and I are discussing the word "retromingent", which means urinating backwards. We are wondering what the opposite would be: the word that means urinating forwards.

What is the opposite of the prefix "retro-"?
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