Friday, September 24, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

"like no other" or "unlike any other"

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 10:47 AM PDT

Which phrasing sounds more elegant?

Choose Brand, a product "like no other."

or

Choose Brand, a product "unlike any other."

What term is there for someone who twists someone else's words to have totally different meaning?

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 10:47 AM PDT

All too often online and more and more in real life I see situations where someone clearly makes their views perfectly clear, only for someone else to come around and claim they have the opposite intent and meaning.

For example I saw a thread where someone made their views on sexism very clear, they were totally against it and in favour of equality between the sexes. They even gave a couple of examples of sexist behaviours they hated and had witnessed, including some language and sexist terms they had heard as examples and how they hated them.

Enter a woman who claimed the OP was sexist for simply using the terms and disusing the issue of sexism at all and that by discussing the issue was keeping sexism alive.

It went on like that for quite a while. But everyone else could see she was twisting and turning all the facts of what had been said to be the total opposite, and I'm just wondering what the term might be foe this kind of behaviour.

Only "propose/suggest" doing actions you yourself will be involved in

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 10:43 AM PDT

enter image description here

What other reporting verbs, such as advise, or recommend, behave likewise with present participle?

To present or to give a presentation [closed]

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 10:04 AM PDT

As part of a recruitment process, Bob was asked to 'present a finished product'. Bob took that literal and gave them a finished/packaged product as he thought this was the requirement. Instead, they wanted him to give a presentation of the final product. After apologising for his mistake, he checked the dictionary definition of present and after that, he still thinks his interpretation is valid and so he advised them to change their wording in the instructions to 'give a presentation of the finished product' to avoid confusion for future applicants (and generally for the sake of being more precise). They said that out of thousands of applicants Bob is the only one who misread that and they do not agree with him.

Common consent is not a compelling argument. Are there grammatical/linguistic reasons as to why their wording would be preferred to Bob's suggestion?

Commas in an if, or, then statement

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 10:47 AM PDT

For example, do I need the commas in the following phrase?

If you would like to contact your dad, or if you require a new coat of paint, then we will gladly help.

It's a bit of a sloppy example, but I'm just curious about the comma rules for this one. It reads better to me with commas, but are they necessary?

Word that means "according to the framework we've adopted"?

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 10:15 AM PDT

This is my usage scenario: I'm a gamemaster in an RPG sending an image of a map to my players. I'm trying to say that "this map was (according to the fictional history we've worked out) found in the library of Fred the Monk." I'm trying to find a word that means the same thing as the parenthesized phrase; a word that indicates the shift of framework from the real-world image to the fictional artifact it represents.

I think what I'm looking for is a bit like "ostensibly" or perhaps "suppositionally", but neither of those are quite right. Any ideas?

What's the best substitution for this clumsy verb tense and why?

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 08:36 AM PDT

Internet grammar can be an odd and ugly thing. Is this author creating a new verb tense and can/should it be given a name?

John Belushi has been dead for nearly forty years and if Aykroyd wanted to have written about the man and his life in a biography he would have done so.

Also, suggestions for correction:

  1. ...if Aykroyd wanted to write...he would have done so.
  2. ...if Aykroyd had wanted to write...he would have done so.

What does "fueling their evolution" means in the given context

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 07:50 AM PDT

What does fuel their evolution means here ?

Returning to game theory's potential contribution, we can see that game theory is well placed to help assess the claims of methodological individualists. After all, game theory purports to analyse social interaction between individuals who have passions and a reason to serve them. Thus, game theory should enable us to examine the claim that, beginning from a situation with no institution or structures, the self-interested behaviour of these instrumentally rational agents will either bring about institutions or fuel their evolution. An examination of the explanatory power of game theory in such settings is one way of testing the individualist claims.

Is this grammatically correct: It depends if my employers agree or not

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 10:36 AM PDT

I should say in advance that my question is at least half answered here but not fully. (As I understand the answer here, 'it depends on if' is not good grammar. My question is if the same clause can work without the preposition.)

The question is whether the clause "it depends if" is correct or if it always needs to be "it depends [on] whether..."

I may have over-corrected the following (uncorrected) sentence in TEFL class today:

*It depends if my employers give me the day off.

My instinct was to correct to:

It depends on whether my employers give me the day off (or not)

In the meantime I have double checked with Micheal Swan Practical English Usage (11th ed.,p.456) which states:

If does not follow prepositions; we use whether instead.

But it also mentions that "[a]fter some very common words like tell, ask, depend, sure, idea, look, prepositions can be dropped before who, which, what and other question words".

This makes sense and I assume the following is correct.

It depends whether my employers give me the day off or not

But considering that the preposition has been dropped, I am now wondering if the "if" clause is also acceptable?

Are there clear rules here, or is it a matter of personal preference?

What are differences among these prepositions, ON, AT, and IN? [migrated]

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 04:38 AM PDT

The different uses of these prepositions. I am still confused how to use it with verbs, adjectives and even adverbs. I hope someone can explain it to me.

Example:

"The ball is in the floor" or "The ball is on the floor"?
"Let's meet on Saturday" or "Let's meet in Saturday"?

FF VII remake script question [closed]

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 05:43 AM PDT

Final_Fantasy_VII_Remake_script

(Upon approaching Marle.)
Tifa: Hey, Marle. We took care of the filters, so we're gonna head back to the bar now.

Marle: Take care you two! ...Oh? You're looking pretty chipper!

Tifa: Uh...I don't feel that different.

Marle: Must be my imagination then. Anyway! Keep your wits about you, merc! A token of my appreciation. Be good to her.

Why does Marle say "Must be my imagination"? She was imagining she was "pretty chipper"? I don't get it.

Tifa: And on that happy note, I think it's time we headed back to the bar. C'mon!

Cloud: Uh, you don't need a break?

Tifa: Honestly, I'm feeling pretty good. Marle isn't always right you know.

But she was saying "I'm feeling pretty good" What doe she means"I don't feel that diferent"?

Is there a way to improve my GMAT Verbal reassoning? [closed]

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 04:06 AM PDT

I have been preparing for the GMAT for about a year now. I have tried multiple courses and Multiple Private tutors, but the I am still to consistently score above 35 to even attempt the test. I am weak at below listed things, would be great if some one can direct me to some material or website which can help me improve my score:

  1. Sentence correction (SC)- I am pretty comfortable at handling easy and medium level questions for SC. Just the hard questions are giving me a pain.
  2. Timing of Critical reasoning (CR)- I can handle CR pretty well over all given sufficient time but I suck when I am restricted to only 2 mins
  3. Reading Comprehension (RC)- Finally, RC, the biggest culprit of all, has been giving me tough time. I cannot reduce my reading time and, even then, I get a couple of questions wrong.

I have already tried Manhattan, Veritas, Powerscore etc...Bascially all the standard stuff. I am looking for material which can actually increase my comprehension.

Any help would be appreciated.

A word for someone who doesn't try to fit the norm [closed]

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 04:26 AM PDT

What do you call someone who doesn't act like other people, someone who prefers other than what the majority likes. I need both negative and positive words

Where did the word red-tapism come from? [closed]

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 05:26 AM PDT

What is the origin of the word red-tapism?

Where did it come from? And what does it actually mean?

I haven't been able to trace its origin.

Name for using a big word where a small word would suffice? [duplicate]

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 02:24 AM PDT

I read this definition when I was about 10 or 12. I forgot the word and have been looking ever since. I think I remember it starting with the letter "s".

What is the difference between moving "across" and "through" an area?

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 09:18 AM PDT

Tom and his friends were on an island.
They walked through the island.
They listened and then ran across the island to look down the river.

What is the difference between through and across in this text?
The island is a three dimensional space, so why does it use across to express movement to the river?

Tales Of vs. Tales From [closed]

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 01:01 AM PDT

I'm planning to title my new music album "Tales From/Of (some ancient place)" and wonder about the correct preposition.

The tales refer to stories that could have happened in the said place – which is a fictional world, if that matters.

The farther a number is from 0 on its right... does 'its' refer to the number or 0?

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 07:23 AM PDT

The farther a number is from 0 on its right, the _____ is its value. (Choose between larger and smaller).

If 'its' refers to the subject number, then the correct answer is 'smaller'.

If 'its' refers to 0 then the correct answer is 'larger'.

Name for the argument of the mathematical absolute-value function

Posted: 23 Sep 2021 11:55 PM PDT

Some arguments of common mathematical functions have names, like addend, minuend, subtrahend, dividend, divisor, numerator, denominator, and radicand.

A colleague recently asked me: does the argument of the absolute-value function have its own name of this sort?

"Do I" in past narrative tense

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 08:04 AM PDT

Consider the following made-up passage where "do I" is used to indicate internal monologue.

"And where were you on that night?", she asked. I hesitated. Did I lie, did I tell the truth? I wasn't sure I could lie convincingly, but telling the truth seemed more risky yet.

Compare to the same passage where "Do I" is kept in the present tense:

"And where were you on that night?", she asked. I hesitated. Do I lie, do I tell the truth? I wasn't sure I could lie convincingly, but telling the truth seemed more risky yet.

Which one is idiomatic? I know that past narrative tense forces all present verbs to shift to the past, but in this particular example, "Did I lie, did I tell the truth?" just somehow sounds... weird to me. Am I wrong?

(This question was triggered by seeing a variant of the first version, with "did", in a published novel, and being surprised by it. I'm not a native speaker)

Correct transliteration of foreign Names with umlauts and other diacritics [duplicate]

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 05:36 AM PDT

I would like to know how names from other languages with umlauts and other diacritics are correctly written in English through transliteration and not translated.

My last name Zuberbühler is often written wrong with Zuberbuhler even though there is an alternative and correct writing without the umlaut: Zuberbuehler.

In German, ü can be replaced with ue, ö with oe and ä with ae. Same applies to the upper case variants of these umlauts. The German ß becomes ss (although the Swiss don't use ß).

How does it look with other languages such as Celtics, French, Polish, Swedish and so on? For example, how would the Swedish name Håkan be written in English if there is no å?

Umlauts and other diacritics are usually transliterated in the machine-readable part of a passport.

I would like to know how they are in other languages' names correctly transliterated to English without using diacritics. German has rules to do so, I assume other languages do too?

I understand why they are usually omitted. ;)

Antonym of operational in the sense of larger scope, and non-recurrence but not military

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 07:07 AM PDT

I'm looking for a word in that is an antonym of operational in something other than "does it function" and the online dictionary/thesaurus don't have it. Can you help me find the word, and tell me how you did it so I can find it myself later?

How I would like to use it:

  • The enumerated operational deliverables are one, two, and three; while the enumerated _______ deliverables are exx, wie, and tzee.

Webster gives the following definition for "operational":
enter image description here

My purpose uses it in the sense of day-to-day operations.

It goes on to enumerate antonyms and synonyms as follows:
enter image description here

These are really on the "does it work vs. does it not work" spectrum. They are not on the "day-to-day, recurring, small scope, tactical operations as contrasted against serving a non-recurring, larger scoped, more strategic goal."

Options that don't work:

  • strategy vs. tactics: It is primarily military terminology about the execution of war, or about very high (CEO-scale) corporate jargon. I think of operations as the things that keep the factory lights on, place clean and operating properly, the machines supplied with their inputs, and with room to output their outputs.
  • Functional vs. non-functional. This is about scope, not about functionality.
  • Deliverable. It could be argued that a deliverable encompasses both operational and the word that I am trying to find.
  • Material. I work with folks who will view it as input to a production process and not as an outcome of a particular type of work.

(update) About what should work:

  • it is a kind of deliverable, but deliverable is too broad, and material gets confused with the 5M+E/Ishikawa input. It tends to be one-off instead of recurring. Balancing books is operations, but making the certification tests for the new mark-3 widget isn't the same thing.
  • it is an antonym to operational, as in not sweeping floors or keeping lights on. It is about scope of functionality, not whether or not function exists.
  • it is more strategic than tactical in terms of scope, but the word isn't strategic because of the baggage that comes with it. Sometimes it is tactical, as in local goal oriented. Mostly it serves strategic goals.

Is "from the freezer to the foil" an idiom?

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 06:05 AM PDT

In the song "Steam" by Peter Gabriel, there is a line of lyrics:

Stir-crazy from the freezer to the foil

Is this an idiom I have never heard before, or just a bit of nonsense he strung together?

It's not even used as a rhyme, it's just a free lyric near the end.

EDIT:

In a comment, @BoldBen questions whether its actually even "foil" in the first place. Now I'm not sure! Maybe this is just a mondegreen!

When you do a Google search or Bing search on "Peter Gabriel Steam lyrics" you get a ready-to-read list of lyrics, credited to MusixMatch.com, and those show "from the freezer to the foil". Here's a link to the lyrics on the site: https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Peter-Gabriel/Steam

Likewise MetroLyrics.com says "foil":

https://www.metrolyrics.com/steam-lyrics-peter-gabriel.html

On one web site the lyric is given as "from the freezer to the boil":

https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/13042/

On another web site, the lyric is given both as "from the freezer to the foil" and as "from the freezer to the boil", for two edits of the song. It's highly unlikely that the lyric was changed, it seems certain that one of them is incorrect.

Radio edit, "freezer to the foil":

https://genius.com/Peter-gabriel-steam-radio-edit-lyrics

Main song entry, "freezer to the boil":

https://genius.com/Peter-gabriel-steam-lyrics

Okay, let's go to the source. Here's the YouTube video for the song, cued up to the part (at about time mark 4:55) where Peter Gabriel sings that line:

https://youtu.be/Qt87bLX7m_o?t=294

I'm still not sure which one it is! I have literally thought for decades that it was "foil", but listening to it now it sounds closer to "bowl" than anything.

There's a following line (at about time mark 5:06) where he sings "coming to a boil" and the word "boil" is clearly enunciated, which argues against this word also being "boil"... why would he pronounce the same word two ways? But the second time he sang the word "bubble" over and over and maybe that changed how much emphasis he put on the 'b'?

Arguing for "boil": The technology used for this song to equalize the levels on singing tends to over-emphasize white noise, causing an 'S' sound to be amplified into a bit of a hiss. You can clearly hear this on the often-repeated "steam" in the song. An 'f', as in "foil", can get amplified as well, to a lesser degree. On the mystery word I don't hear anything boosted at the start of the word.

Also, arguing against "boil", it's not a hard word to rhyme and it's surprising if Peter Gabriel used "boil" as a rhyme for itself. But there's this "freezer to the ???" lyric and then "coming to a boil".

But doing web searches for "freezer to the foil" finds nothing but references to this song, so I'm now convinced it's definitely not an obscure idiom, but either nonsense Peter Gabriel made up or a mondegreen for "freezer to the boil".

If it is "boil" that means that the song follows "freezer to the boil" with "coming to a boil", which is kind of repetitive, but it's kind of free verse at the end rather than the neat rhymes of the main song.

what does the "cope" mean here

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 01:07 AM PDT

It's from a tweet:

AI/crypto hybrid idea: estimates the amount of authentic cope in your tweets and emits you COPE tokens

I looked up the "cope" in dictionaries and google. Seems none of its meaning makes sense here.

Use of 'in which'

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 04:01 AM PDT

Is the use of 'in which' correct in this context?

...and Fc is the flux vector:

enter image description here

where U is the velocity vector, ρ the density, p the pressure, E the total energy, and Vc=V.n the contravariant velocity, in which n is the unit normal vector to the face.

Thanks for your attention. I'm looking forward to your reply

Is there a collective word for the different "alphabets" used by different languages?

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 03:55 AM PDT

As I believe "alphabet" refers specifically to the latin a-z, is there a term that collectively refers to all collections of writing characters. ie, if I had a list that contained the entries "Latin, Kanji, Cyrillic" etc, what would that list be called? A single word is preferable, as I need the term to describe such a list in software I'm writing.

Note the answer is not "language" - eg English, French, German etc are all languages, but all use the Latin alphabet. On the other hand, Japanese is a language that can be written using Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana and Latin 'systems'. It's a hypernym for these 'systems' I'm after, not the languages.

How to interpret “if it be” grammatically?

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 06:59 AM PDT

It looks to me a subjunctive form but not contemporary, so I would like to ask how this is properly interpreted gramatically.

In the second conditional "if it were" it is clearly subjunctive, but the first conditional it would normally be written as "if it is".

Why is it subjunctive? And when is it proper style?

Is "like so" correct?

Posted: 24 Sep 2021 03:36 AM PDT

Reading blog entries about computing I often see "like so" instead of "like this". Is this correct English? It sounds to me like a word by word translation from German.
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