Saturday, June 12, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

"If you or your mother need help" or "If you or your mother needs help"? [duplicate]

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 03:54 PM PDT

I've been stuck on this for quite some time and my mind's foggy because of the overthinking.

I would like to check which of these are correct:

  1. If you or your mother need help...
  2. If you or your mother needs help...
  3. If you or your partner is experiencing...
  4. If you or your partner are experiencing...

#1 and #3 sound the most "natural" to me. But according to grammar rules, when "or" is concerned, the verb in the sentence should be singular, as per the last noun. Taking this into consideration, #1 would technically be wrong.

I think the use of "you" is throwing me off. Things seem to be more straightforward when inanimate objects are concerned. For example:

  • If your laptop or computer shuts down without warning...
  • If your pillow or mattress is causing discomfort...

Word that means using a falsehood which can be used as a weapon to advocate for and execute something else

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 03:33 PM PDT

What is a word that means using a falsehood which can be used as a means, as a weapon to advocate for and execute something else

The politician claimed that the government budget had a deficit to defend cuts in welfare and local services like libraries and nurseries. However this deficit did not exist so the politician was being ______

Guinness adverts once claimed that guinness is good for you and will help you be alert if you're driving, studying or doing manual labour. This made it marketed as a health drink which then could be an means to sell it in gyms.

Kyle claimed that his bank account was overdrawn and that he didn't want to receive a daily overdraft fee, which then allowed him to borrow £200 which he otherwise would not of been lent the money if he had been honest about his financial situation. This lie made meant he was ________

Noun for a deep person that always speaks in lots of idiomatic expressions or quotes [closed]

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 01:52 PM PDT

What are the nouns or synonyms for a deeply intellectual person, that always speaks in idiomatic expressions or quotes or phrases.

A person like Panos Panay.

Looking for two synonyms for success/failure which rhyme

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 03:17 PM PDT

I'm looking for two words with the following conditions:

  1. Word A is a synonym of "success" (or is the word "success").
  2. Word B is a synonym of "failure" (or is the word "failure").
  3. Words A and B rhyme.
  4. Words A and B are antonyms (note: you can probably ignore this requirement since I'm pretty sure condition 1 & 2 all but guarantee this condition.)

It might be easier to explain with a hypothetical example… imagine the English language contained the word:

Pizaster | Noun

  • great success

We could then have the solution "Pizaster/Disaster" since they satisfy all 4 conditions: Pizaster means success, disaster means failure, they both rhyme, they are both antonyms.

Unfortunately (or rather fortunately) I can't just add words to the English language like this, so I'm looking for an existing pair of words that actually exist.

If there's nothing that's a perfect synonym for success/failure but still captures the same essence of good/bad, I'll still accept it as an answer. Also the final solution could totally have the word "success" or "failure" in it as well (e.g. if there is already a word which means failure and rhymes with success, then we could have the solution success + this word you're thinking of)

Difference between inculpate and incriminate?

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 12:53 PM PDT

While they appear to have the same meaning, is there an actual difference between the two words?

Are there situations where one is preferred over the other?

Humble v. Humility [closed]

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 12:09 PM PDT

Are "humble" and "humility" from the same root word?

If so, I found it odd that the "b" was dropped from "humility." Not sure if "humbility" looks right either, but was wondering if there's some rule dictating that the "b" would be dropped here in the spelling of "humility."

Five children and it novel.= [closed]

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 11:50 AM PDT

The keeper felt pleased with himself, and owned himself a bold man when he threw open that door>

What does it mean "And owned himself a bold man"

How do you call it when someone makes faces while trying to remember something

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 04:51 PM PDT

I'm writing a book, and I'm trying to describe that the girl is making faces as she's trying to remember something. I'm not quite sure how to describe that. (Seen from the point of view of another character in the book.)

So far, I've got this, but I think my sentence doesn't make sense.

She was trying to remember where she'd seen my aunt. She was making faces while thinking, which made her look so cute.

I thought about "grimaces" but that's not it, since grimace is usually in disgust or disapproval.

Why is the word "pockets" used when referring to certain sections of places in a large area?

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 04:13 PM PDT

Recently, I was reading about something related to geography. And then, I came across the word "pockets" which actually refer to some small areas in a larger area.

But can anyone tell me, why is the word "pockets" used when referring to certain sections of places in a large area.

Word for a person who interprets everything to their advantage

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 04:14 PM PDT

Is there a word for a person (or an attribute to describe a person) who habitually interprets facts and words in such a way that their interpretation proves their argument is correct while others wrong. In other words, a term for a person (or an attribute for a person) who always makes the most self-serving interpretation of the facts to benefit themselves the most.

Example of such person:

  • Politicians who always interpret facts to prove they are correct and to prove that the opposition are not.
  • In quarrels (say between two partners, not just legal quarrels, but say between husband and wife), one may keep saying that opposition's interpretations of facts are wrong and provide his / her version of interpretations (interpretations which will comforts him / proves opposition wrong and him / her correct).

What is the origin of "set" (noun) as used in "television set"? Tubes?

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 05:06 PM PDT

The colloquial (and mostly archaic) term "television set" invokes a narrow use of set (noun). Merriam-Webster defines this as:

(22) an apparatus of electronic components assembled so as to function as a unit

(With "television set" being the only example)

The Cambridge Dictionary offers an even more narrow definition, where set has the specific meaning of "television set".

I am wondering what the etymology of this term is here, and I have a guess: I believe that because televisions--and radios before them-- were constructed principally using a set of vacuum tubes that the set is a sort of metonym.

"Radio set" is easily found as a common term in historic text back when radios were larger standalone devices, or in the context of CB or ham radio, both of which grew from vacuum-tube-based equipment.

And I observe that contra the Merriam-Webster definition, no other kind of "apparatus" I can think of gets this shorthand. We don't speak of a toaster set or a dishwasher set or a personal computer set. The only examples I know of are devices that originated with sets of vacuum tubes.

Maybe I'm overthinking this. Can anyone enlighten the tracing of etymology there? Why are (were) televisions known as television sets?

The "as done by/ through" construction confused me a lot

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 02:02 PM PDT

All these sentences with "as done..." format have been confused me because why not just omitted "as" in these sentences?

Mr. Miller has said he does not support a mandated federal test but does favor public reports on how college students are learning as measured through testing.

The New York Times

It seems to me that "...how college students are learning measured through testing" is enough to express the meaning of it, and it meets my perception of English grammar. Why is there an as?

With his wife he went to Mexico to sample psychedelics at their practical source, as administered by the curanderos and curanderas of the Sierra Mazateca. The New York Times - Magazine

"With his wife he went to Mexico to sample psychedelics administered by the curanderos and curanderas of the Sierra Mazateca at their practical source."Can this sentence be written like this? It seems to me it's a structure used to put clause used to moderate objective in end of the sentence, with an "as" leading the clause.

And the Transportation Department would set new vehicle mileage standards as required by Congress.
The New York Times

We could've just make the sentence "...new vehicle mileage standards required by Congress". Could haven't we?

Why the "oo" in "noon" is pronounced sounding like "you" while the word "moon" isn't? [closed]

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 09:41 AM PDT

I was taught to pronounce the oo in either afternoon or noon as /u:/ ~~the oo in nook~~ until I found some native speakers pronounce the noon sounding like new-n (videos). But the AmE IPA in the dictionary labels it as /nu:n/, instead of what I thought it as /nju:n/ if it's pronounced new-n. To my surprise, the IPA of new is /nu:/ rather than /nju:/. If /u:/ is equivalent to /ju:/, so why the word moon, whose IPA is /mu:n/, is not pronounced as mew-n?

Where does "Whatcha" & "Didja" come from?

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 09:34 AM PDT

Does anyone know where "Whatcha" and/or "Didja" originate from?

Watcha: What did you? Didja: Did you?

Edit: I cannot find these words in my English Grammar books and they are not in my English dictionaries. I don't know enough about them to even ask sensible questions. I myself use them. Yet, when asked about them by a non-native English speaker, I found myself clueless as to why English dropped the word "you" for a sound that had no resemblance to the word "you".

How to understand the meaning of "in which" and "on which" when seeing them standing at the beginning of questions?

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 12:01 PM PDT

I'm doing an IELTS listening sample test and finding confused when seeing two questions below:

In which two ways are the lines distinguished from each other?  On which forms of transport can a one-day travel card be used?

I'm still confused about them. I'm hopeful that you guys can give me a clear explanation of my problems. Thanks you guys a lot.

"more massive"?

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 03:00 PM PDT

I stumbled upon this sentence in Wikipedia:

Titan is 50% larger than Earth's moon and 80% more massive.

I struggle with the "more massive" part. I find some books do use that phrase. Is it correct, pedantically? Do you recommend using it? Do you use it oftentimes, especially if you are an astronomer?

Which one do you prefer: "more massive" or "more in mass" or just "heavier"? Any other alternative is welcome.

Correct use of adjectival forms for countries

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 11:05 AM PDT

I sometimes proofread documents for my (Dutch) supervisor. When he refers to something that comes from the Netherlands he would, for example, write: the Netherlands windmills as opposed to the Dutch windmills. I have sometimes seen this weird form written elsewhere, but I was wondering if this is really a correct way of saying this.

The spelling "ui" and the pronunciation /uː/ in juice, fruit, bruise, cruise, sluice, suit, nuisance, recruit, bruit

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 09:42 AM PDT

The words juice, fruit, bruise, cruise, sluice, suit, pursuit, suitcase, lawsuit, nuisance, recruit, bruit are spelled with ui and pronounced with the IPA phoneme /uː/.

Full pronunciations from OED:

nuisance: Brit. /ˈnjuːsns/, U.S. /ˈn(j)us(ə)ns/
juice:         Brit. /dʒuːs/, U.S. /dʒus/
cruise:      Brit. /kruːz/, U.S. /kruz/
bruise:      Brit. /bruːz/, U.S. /bruz/
suit:           Brit. /s(j)uːt/, U.S. /sut/
recruit:     Brit. /rᵻˈkruːt/, U.S. /rəˈkrut/, /riˈkrut/
fruit:         Brit. /fruːt/, U.S. /frut/
sluice:       Brit. /sluːs/, U.S. /slus/
bruit:        Brit. /bruːt/, U.S. /brut/ (In sense 5 also) Brit. /ˈbruːi/, U.S. /ˈbrui/

The pronunciation differs from some other similar words spelled with ui like guise, disguise, guide, cuisine, suicide.

Full pronunciations from OED:

guide:       Brit. /ɡʌɪd/, U.S. /ɡaɪd/
guise:       Brit. /ɡʌɪz/, U.S. /ɡaɪz/
cuisine:   /kwiːˈziːn/
suicide:   /ˈs(j)uːɪsʌɪd/

Ruin is kind of an exception to an exception because the pronunciation is different in British English and American English:

Full pronunciations from OED:

ruin: Brit. /ˈruːɪn/, U.S. /ˈruən/, /ˈruˌɪn/

Note: There can be other similar words I might have missed and there can be dialectal/regional differences also.

When I checked the etymology of the word sluice in OED, I found this note:

The spelling with ui (compare juice) did not come into general use until the 18th century.

In fact, when you check the older (pre-1600s) spellings of the word sluice in OED, you can see that it is mostly spelled with u instead of ui. (Of course, there are other irregular spellings also). In OED, the first citation where the word is spelled with ui is from 1611. The word is written as sluice which is same as today and the citation is from Randle Cotgrave · A dictionarie of the French and English tongues · 1st edition.

In OED, the etymology of the word doesn't mention the ui spelling also (except the current Dutch word sluis):

< Old French escluse (-clusse , -clouse , etc.; modern French écluse ), = Spanish esclusa , Portuguese esclusa , late and medieval Latin exclusa (also sclusa , etc.), feminine singular of Latin exclūsus , past participle of exclūdere to shut out, exclude v.
Old French is also the source of Middle Dutch sluse , sluyse , sluus (Dutch sluis , West Frisian slús ), Middle Low German sluse , sluze (Low German slüse , slüs , German schleuse ), Danish sluse , Swedish slus . For the English forms which represent the late Latin clūsa see clow n.1

Historical spellings of sluice from OED:

α.
1340: scluse
1449: Scluces
c1480: scluse
1558: sklus
1583: scluse
1609: scluces
1665 : Scluse
β.
1533: slewssis
1541–2: sloweses
1582: sleuss
?1677: slewces
γ.
1538: sluse
1568: slus
1577: Sluse
1611: sluce
1648: Sluses
1695: Sluces
δ.
1596: Sluyce
1611: Sluice
1699: sluice
1745: Sluices
1785: sluices
1839: sluice
1879: sluices
1794: sluices

You can see a similar pattern for juice, bruise and somewhat cruise also.

In OED, the first citation where juice is spelled as today is from a1626.

Etymology of juice from OED:

< French jus, < Latin jūs broth, sauce, juice of animal or plant. The β forms are normal from French; with the others compare those of duke, flute, jupe, and bruit, fruit.

OED has the note below in the etymology of cruise:

The word is thus ultimately identical with croise v. and cross v.; the current spelling with ui seems to be after Dutch; but the vowel sound is as in Spanish and Portuguese.

Although there isn't an exact pattern, the historical spelling change pattern explained above differs in the words like suit, fruit, recruit but the question and the answer might cover them also. The words in the question is mostly the ones where it has the ui spelling followed by ce and se.

After all these historical notes, what is the question?

Why was ui spelling introduced in words that used to be spelled with u and where the pronunciation is with IPA phoneme /uː/?

Why did it become more prevalent after 18th century?

Note: I know that historical "why" questions are hard to answer. English has a lot of irregularities and changes throughout the history also. There isn't an exact pattern or rule in spelling and orthography; but the spelling is mostly fixed in the traditional orthography.

  • The answer might be related to the English spelling reforms or how Dutch influenced the spelling of the words in these reforms or in the history.
  • Or is there any influential person or publication that might have affected these spellings?
  • Or might the spelling of the word fruit or any other word have influenced the words like juice, sluice? Fruit is an older word but it has historical spellings like frut and the first citation with fruit is from 1549 in OED.
  • Was there a need or a proposition of indicating longer u sound in the spelling reforms?

Replacing "When" With "For / Since" In A Question?

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 04:08 PM PDT

Does "for" or "since" work in place of "when" in this sentence?

Why do you keep buying plants when you just end up killing them?

If not, why?

Thank you.

Do Americans pronounce "transient" as \ˈtran(t)-sh(ē-)ənt\?

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 09:41 AM PDT

Merriam-Webster pronounces "transient" as \ˈtran(t)-sh(ē-)ənt\.

However, most Americans pronounce it as \ˈtran-zē-ənt\.

Is the pronunciation difference between “BrE deuce” vs “AmE deuce” systematic?

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 09:35 AM PDT

While checking the exact pronunciation of the term deuce, I noticed that there is a clear difference between BrE /djuːs/ and NAmE /duːs/.

While it is true that pronunciation has more exceptions than set rules, I'm surprised by the missing "e" (/j/) in the AmE version.

Is it just another exception, or are there other similar examples that might suggest a sort of pattern for similar clusters of letters?

What do people mean by "measurable definition?"

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 01:06 PM PDT

What is the definition of "measurable definition?" What does that mean? I have interns who are victims of verbose, academic language, and they frequently use terms that I don't think they even understand.

In an online pdf titled "A Measurable Definition of Resiliency Using 'Mission Risk' as a Metric" I read this in the abstract, "Part of the problem...lacks a clear definition that supports measurable metrics that would allow two like systems to be compared against each other."

It seems there is no such thing as a "measurable definition," rather there is a phenomenon that can be defined and measured.

Why does Tom Hanks pronounce "stupid" as "st-you-pid" in "The Bonfire of the Vanities"?

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 09:34 AM PDT

This may or may not related to my previous question. In this movie (which is based on another one of Tom Wolfe's novels, The Bonfire of the Vanities), Tom Hanks plays the lead character who is an Ivy League graduate. He doesn't make much of an effort to imitate any of the Harvard, Yale, or Princeton speech patterns and tones, but he does insist on pronouncing the word "stupid" as "styoopid." Why? Where do they speak like that?

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He's not trying to copy or parody the so-called Mid-Atlantic accent: one, it was already out of vogue in the 1990's, and, two, that's not how Mid-Atlantic sounds, anyway. What is he doing? What point is he trying to get across?

“kinda”, “sorta”, “coulda”, “shoulda”, “lotta”, “oughta”, “betcha”, "tseasy" etc. What are these?

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 09:43 AM PDT

In linguistics, is there a term describing this phenomenon, i.e., when the syllables of two words are slurred together in the spoken language? They are not contractions. While contractions are acceptable in any register, this combination of words is very informal and hardly ever found in formal writing.

kinda (kind of)

sorta (sort of)

coulda (could have)

shoulda (should have)

lotta (lot of)

oughta (ought to)

betcha (bet you)

lemme (let me)

tseasy (it's easy)

willya (will you)

Inasmuch as English Language speakers (just like the speakers of any natural language) have a tendency to join word sounds in speech, examples abound and a complete list would be hard to produce .

I'm looking for a word or phrase describing this linguistic phenomenon as it occurs in speech.

Why the does 'tu' get pronounced 'tyu' in British English?

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 09:36 AM PDT

Despite being a native Brit, I've always found it an oddity that words like "tutor", "tube", "tumour", and "duty" are pronounced as "tyutor", "tyube", "tyumour", and "duty" in British English. For me, this doesn't seem phonologically simpler/easier at all, and given that it seems to be absent in American English (possibly other forms of English too?) for these sorts of words (beginning with "tu" or "du"), I would suppose it's a somewhat recent innovation in historical linguistic terems, almost surely after the Middle English period. So that's my first question: when and where did this pronunciation originate, and as a bonus, why?

Now, there are certain words that have this "y" sound inserted even in American and other forms of English, though I can't think of any where it's inserted in the "tu" or "du" sound. e.g. "beautiful", "cute", "futile". Notably, this pronunciation seems much more natural to me in these cases, unlike in the "tu" and "du" cases. Of course, the pronunciation of these words in the original Latin (or even the intermediary French when applicable) suggests that this innovation happened within English, and most likely within England itself. (N.B. I can't think of any Anglo-Saxon words with this mode of pronunciation right now, but quite possibly there are some too.) So, my second question is: is there some clear linguistic/phonological reason why the insertion of the 'y' sound is more natural in the non-"tu"/"du" cases, and did this phenomenon originate earlier in the English language?

Are what-cha and arent-cha examples of elision?

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 09:38 AM PDT

Are these words examples of elision? What effect do they create? If a child says them what does this suggest about their language development? Thanks for any help!!

What is the name of the phoneme produced in an upper-class Briton's pronunciation of the word "Duke"? What's different in the articulation?

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 09:40 AM PDT

When someone with a Received Pronunciation accent pronounces the word duke, as in The Duke of York, he doesn't pronounce it with a "hard" 'd', as one might pronounce the word duh, but a softer type 'd', which I can only spell phonetically as "dj", so as to pronounce duke somewhat like "djuke."

My question is composed of two parts:

  • What would a linguist call this phoneme?
  • What is the difference in articulation between it and a "regular" /d/?

How do you pronounce 'news'?

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 09:35 AM PDT

My coworker and I have been having this discussion for a day or two...

What is the most correct way to pronounce 'new' or 'news' ?

Does it rhyme with 'few' ? or 'snooze' ?

Does 'new crew' rhyme?

I know both 'noo' and 'nyoo' are correct, but what are the origins of the two different pronunciations?

Asking around the office, it seems that 'nyoo' might have a British English origin, but I would like to know if anyone is more knowledgeable on this topic.
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