Sunday, July 25, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Questions on the first paragraph of Virginia Woolf: “Middlebrow”

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 09:30 AM PDT

As far as I understand, didn't Virginia Woolf frown upon the reviewer for posting her address on the newspaper? However, the last sentence seems to express that she thought it is necessary to add the writer's postal address. Could anyone tell me whether she thought it is necessary?

To The Editor of the "New Statesman"

Sir,

Will you allow me to draw your attention to the fact that in a review of a book by me (October ) your reviewer omitted to use the word Highbrow? The review, save for that omission, gave me so much pleasure that I am driven to ask you, at the risk of appearing unduly egotistical, whether your reviewer, a man of obvious intelligence, intended to deny my claim to that title? I say "claim," for surely I may claim that title when a great critic, who is also a great novelist, a rare and enviable combination, always calls me a highbrow when he condescends to notice my work in a great newspaper; and, further, always finds space to inform not only myself, who know it already, but the whole British Empire, who hang on his words, that I live in Bloomsbury? Is your critic unaware of that fact too? Or does he, for all his intelligence, maintain that it is unnecessary in reviewing a book to add the postal address of the writer?

Source: https://www.falseart.com/virginia-woolf-middlebrow/?continueFlag=3c84aba42763d929cb1985f89b13faf2

In lieu of (= in place of) vs instead of

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 09:14 AM PDT

Garner reads

Instead of will not always suffice instead of in lieu of —e.g.:

"The two were sent to jail in lieu of $100,000 bond or $50,000 cash bail."

OED reads "in exchange or return for, as a payment, penalty, or reward for."

However I cannot grasp what the example exactly means.

Word for malicious use of platitude [closed]

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 05:43 AM PDT

What is a word for maliciously using platitude to dismiss or demean as opposed to being mistakenly or naively insufficient.

Name for an object designed to be serialized then stored in a database [closed]

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 05:38 AM PDT

A C# class that corresponds to a table in an sql database is typically called an "Entity". In our design, some data are serialized, then stored in a column of a particular database table. I'm wondering if there is a name for that type of object. I've been playing around with it, and everything I come up with has two words, and still fails to nail down the concept.

Conditionals to express an action in the past if a condition been met

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 05:39 AM PDT

Can anyone please explain me if the following two sentences are grammatically correct? If so, how they differ in meaning?

If I had gone back when I was unemployed for one year after my graduation, I would have invested my time in many productive works.

And

If I could go back when I was unemployed for one year after my graduation, I would have invested my time in many productive works.

In the first sentence, I have used past perfect ("had gone") in the subordinate clause, whereas in the second sentence, I have used past indefinite ("could go") in the subordinate clause.

I am trying to express a feeling that I want to go back to a certain time in the past so that I could invest my time in that duration.

Is the correct usage "do it as well as you can" or "do it as good as you can"? [closed]

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 01:04 AM PDT

I'm confused here. Can someone explain this to me?

What is My Religion? [closed]

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 12:27 AM PDT

I don't believe in a specific god or deity but i do believe that there is a higher being or power out there and i just don't know what. What does that make me?

What is the meaning of the phrase "Resolution itself says re- solution"? [closed]

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 12:52 AM PDT

Please answer I am not able to relate the resolution with re- solution..

What adjective or phrase can be used to describe a person who was lucky and escaped deadly situations so many times? [duplicate]

Posted: 24 Jul 2021 09:03 PM PDT

I need a word or a simple phrase to describe a person who was lucky that had faced several deadly situations but ended up surviving. Words like "immortal" did not work since the person can still die but they were just lucky that they could escape death. "Lucky" is also not a word since it is not only exclusively about facing a deadly situation. Is there an English word or phrase for that?

What does “by rod and rote” mean? [closed]

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 09:12 AM PDT

I was watching a show and this was said:

I've seen this before in fanatical sects. The children are indoctrinated from the time they're born, force-fed by rod and rote

I know that 'rote' is a learning style involving repetition, but 'by rod and rote' is unfamiliar to me.

Please help me find the name for this! [closed]

Posted: 24 Jul 2021 08:27 PM PDT

I recently heard of a phycological phenomenon where someone's brain can create its own ongoing reality. someone can go through a traumatic situation and their brain creates a whole new life without the person realizing it. You could basically be in a coma or locked in a basement right now and wouldn't know because you are in a made-up world.

Example: A dude who got into a fight and got knocked out for a few minutes. In those few minutes, he lived 10 years of his life before one day waking up on the ground with paramedics around him and being told none of that was real.

I want to write about this but I can't figure out what this is or how it works!!! I just need a name for it or some theory behind why it happens.

be lazy reading books or be lazy to read books? [migrated]

Posted: 24 Jul 2021 07:52 PM PDT

When we say I am lazy, which expression is right?

  1. I am lazy to read books
  2. I am lazy reading books

if 1 is right, 2 is also appropriate? or 2 is unused?

thanks!!

"If two people say you are drunk, go to bed!"

Posted: 24 Jul 2021 07:49 PM PDT

In my mother tongue there is this funny saying that always made me laugh. It normally refers to situations that have nothing to do with getting drunk.

Imagine two friends trying to convince a third that something is the case or that this third friend did something although he does not remember it.

A: You hated going on that trip with me last summer.
B: Which trip? Are you dreaming? I did not go on any trip with you last summer!
C: Come on, the 3D Youth camp?
B: That was two years ago!
A: That was totally last summer! Man, you're losing it!
B: You gotta be kidding me! ... What... Is this a prank?
C: A, if two people say you are drunk, go to bed!

So, A and C insist that the trip was last summer, whereas B believes it was two years ago. In my language, this expression means that if two persons state something as being true about you, you'd better take it into consideration, you might be wrong. Two witnesses against one.

Is there an English idiom or proverb that expresses this idea and could go in the last line of this dialogue?

What is the meaning of "initiations" in this context?

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 06:03 AM PDT

My own fears are the blackest, and at the prospect of losing my wonderful beloved brother out of the world in which, from as far back as in dimmest childhood, I have so yearningly always counted on him, I feel nothing but the abject weakness of grief and even terror; but I forgive myself "weakness"—my emergence from the long and grim ordeal of my own peculiarly dismal and trying illness isn't yet absolutely complete enough to make me wholly firm on my feet. But my slowly recuperative process goes on despite all shakes and shocks, while dear William's, in the full climax of his intrinsic powers and intellectual ambitions, meets this tragic, cruel arrest. However, dear Grace, I won't further wail to you in my nervous soreness and sorrow—still, in spite of so much revival, more or less under the shadow as I am of the miserable, damnable year that began for me last Christmas-time and for which I had been spoiling for two years before. I will only wait to see you—with all the tenderness of our long, unbroken friendship and all the host of our common initiations.

I wonder what does the bolded initiation mean in this context. Could it be a kind of ordeal?

This is from Henry James's letter and I put the link to the whole letter here.

Word for "have an effect over surroundings"

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 04:01 AM PDT

Is there one word for "having an effect/impact/influence over the surroundings/environment"?

For example: "20th century was ____, which may have resulted in changes to earth's soil microorganisms"

I considered the word influential, but it doesn't seems to be specifically about the surroundings/environment.

The kind of impact can be either positive or negative, I'm looking for the technical ability to change one's environment.

Another example: "while most animals have indirect effect on their environment, beavers are ____, with their engineering abilities"

Perhaps the word I'm looking for might be a term from Biology, or a term from Mechanics, like an object's potential of exerting force, doing an action which results in an effect over something else.

Thank you

(Sorry for any English mistakes)

is there a word to describe " understand each other without words esp. in a teamwork"?

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 03:57 AM PDT

Especially when the players work in a team for a long period and they know each other very well, therefore they can guess what teammate wanna do next even without words. Is there any word to describe this phenomenon?

Word for someone who wants to do good but consistently fails

Posted: 24 Jul 2021 08:05 PM PDT

The word would be an antonym for someone who is efficient, reliable, and whose actions produce consistently positive results.

In other words, a bumbling, well-intentioned person - but I'm looking for a single word adjective.

Is there a word for something done to you because you did it to someone else?

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 05:19 AM PDT

I was wondering because when coming across videos about people who went to jail for abuse and murder, comments will say they should have to go through the same thing they inflicted on the other person. Even with the death penalty being a thing, the torture penalty sounds weird.

"on here" vs "in here" for websites

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 09:30 AM PDT

I'm wondering whether to use "on here" or "in here" to refer to the current website.

Be skeptical of what you read on here.

versus

Be skeptical of what you read in here.

Is there any difference? Which is correct? I know that I can avoid this discussion altogether by writing "Be skeptical of what you read here" instead, but I'm curious about "in here" vs "on here" for websites.

How to use "If you were in my shoes "

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 09:04 AM PDT

I'm confused regarding uses of this idiom as clause For example

If I were in your shoes , I wouldn't have done that .

Well clearly the speaker is talking about something that has already happened and he can do anything about it But Couldn't the if clause be " If I had been you " since they're referring to a past condition

Idioms or expressions defining either getting paid fully or being appreciated

Posted: 24 Jul 2021 11:06 PM PDT

I am looking for a common English expression/idiom that defines a situation below: I have done some work for someone, and in return, they are not going to pay me the full payment. Then I will tell them, "either pay me in full or express your gratitude" (or pay me nothing so that you are under my debt)

Thanks!

Based on VS based off of

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 09:32 AM PDT

I have used "based on" for the entirety of my life until I went to a UK boarding school where 90% of the time I hear my teachers say "based off of" instead.

For example, "We will give you your final grades based off of your performance over the past 2 years."

I happen to have an English tutor and I asked him what's the difference, then he said he hasn't heard of based followed by "off of" as an alternative to saying "based on", all his life. He then remarked "based off of" as rubbish and advised me not to use it. Now I am even more confused. Would you guys use "based on" or "based off of"?

Thank you in advance.

One of the things that I hate is that some people like to spread rumors

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 05:06 AM PDT

"One of the things that I hate is that some people like to spread rumors."

Hi there :), I would like to know if it's okay to not put "that" after "is"

"One of the things that I hate is (that) some people like to spread rumors."

thanks a lot!

How to distinguish the adjective clause and the apposition clause? [closed]

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 01:04 AM PDT

Have you ever been in the situation where you lost your keys and mobiles.

This is an adjective clause sentence. I am so confused as to what's the difference between the adj. clause and the apposition clause.

In my opinion, in the situation is equal to where you lost your keys and mobiles. And if I modify the where to that, "Have you ever been in the situation that you lost your keys and mobiles.". Would this sentence be a apposition clause? Is my expression wrong or correct?

there is, there are with personal pronouns

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 06:37 AM PDT

I almost never see "there is/are" used with personal pronouns. Why do they not get along with each other?

1 There is me in this house. 2 There are them in this town.

I think they are wrong. But why?

However, I can give one example:

Thus, when Christ promises that "where two or three are gathered in His name, there is He in the midst of them,"

IS it the case of "there is +personal pronoun" or is it something different?

Rhetorical device? Answer question with example of the answer showing how to find the answer

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 05:13 AM PDT

Imagine the following online dialog.

Question: What is a hyperlink?

Answer: Click on the following, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hyperlink, or type it into your web browser.

(Thanks to @RegDwigнt♦ for suggesting I use a definition from somewhere other than Google.)

The answer provides an example of a hyperlink that shows the answer to the question of what a hyperlink is.

Is there a specific name for this rhetorical device, where one is shown how to find an answer through an example of the answer?

My Thoughts

My first thought for the right word was meta. From wiktionary ...

meta

(informal) Self-referential; structured analogously, but at a higher level.

Suppose you have a genie that grants you three wishes. If you wish for infinite wishes, that is a meta wish.

... but I wonder if there is a more specific rhetorical device that would describe the situation.

Thanks. I'm excited to be part of this site.

Edit: I was originally motivated to ask this question because of a programming example on another forum. @RobbieGoodwin suggested that the question be limited to English language, so I am including a link to a screenshot of that programming example and my explanation. The question is not about programming, it's about a strategy used for answering a question. (As a new user, I appreciate the suggestion.)

What is the difference “in the nude” vs “nude”?

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 09:34 AM PDT

What is the difference between the following sentences?

  1. I caught them watching tv in the nude.
  2. I caught them watching tv nude.

How correct is "usen't"?

Posted: 25 Jul 2021 06:47 AM PDT

I know "usen't" is not used in everyday English but how about an exam, an essay or a formal letter? Is it right to use "usen't" instead of "didn't use to".
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