Saturday, September 4, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Relationship indicated by 'of'

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 10:27 AM PDT

What relationship between the nouns 'service' and 'company' does the preposition 'of' serve to indicate in the below sentence?

He is in the service of the company.

In the sentence 'The house of Mary is large.', for example, the preposition 'of' indicates that 'the house' belongs to 'Mary'. The genitive may also be used to indicate this relationship (and this use is indeed more common): 'Mary's house is large'.

Name of poetic device or technique?

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 10:24 AM PDT

Through granites which titanic wars had groined.
Yet also also there encumbered sleepers groaned.

What device is this please? Thank you.

Difference between irony that mean the opposite and irony where the opposite is implied

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 08:58 AM PDT

What makes the difference between irony that actually mean the opposite of what it's saying, and irony that is built on the premise that the opposite is true?

First, the definition of (verbal) irony according to Wikipedia: "Verbal irony is a statement in which the meaning that a speaker employs is sharply different from the meaning that is ostensibly expressed."

First type:

"It is such a beautiful day today!" when it is obviously raining. The literal meaning is obviously not true and therefore the opposite of the statement is implied, but it also means the exact opposite of what is said. "It is such an ugly day today!". If you read it as the opposite, you get the intended meaning.

Another example like this one could be "You are so smart!" one someone says something stupid. Again, it is obviously not true so there is a difference between what is said and the intended meaning, but it can also be read exactly as the opposite, and then you would get what the statement is trying to say. "You are so stupid!"

Second type:

"He must never have seen a brush!" when seeing someone with messy hair. As in the first example, the literal meaning is not true and therefore the opposite of the statement is implied (everyone has seen a brush). Because of that, I assume it would go under the definition of verbal irony (correct me if I'm wrong). However, it does not mean the exact opposite of what is said. It should not be read as "He has seen a brush". If you read it as the opposite, it looses it's meaning.

Another example like the second could be like "When I was a kid, TV was called books." The literal meaning is obviously not true, but neither does it mean the opposite of what is stated. You should not read it as "When I was a kid, TV was not called books". That is not what it is trying to say. The joke is built on the premise that it's not true. If it was true, it would just be stating facts and then there wouldn't be a joke.

An overstatement could also be an example of the second type. "I will die if I can't go to the concert!". It's not literally, the person will not die if she doesn't go, therefore there is a difference between what is said and what is implied. This should not be read as the opposite "I will not die if I can't go to the concert!" If you read it as the opposite, it looses its meaning.

Firstly, do they both go under the definition of verbal irony, or only the first one? (If the second one is something else, what is it?)

If they do, what exactly is the difference between those two types of ironic statements? Both statements are verbal irony because the opposite of what is being said is implied in both cases, but only the first type means the opposite of what is being said. Therefore there is a difference between the statements, but I can't put my finger on it. Can somebody pinpoint what it is that actually makes the difference? Why one can be read as the opposite, the other cannot?

What is an English adjective describing properties related to the content [closed]

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 10:00 AM PDT

Is there any single-word adjective that emphasizes the property is related to the content opposed to the properties that are related to the container?

I have seen the word contentual which does not seem to be very common.

To clarify my intent, consider a container that holds liquid. consider the weight of the compound, it is mostly related to the content so, you may say:

weight is a contentual property

on the other hand, the volume, is mostly related to the container, so, it is not a contentual property.

I am looking for a word to replace contentual in the above sentences

(Highly) descriptive writing/fiction

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 08:44 AM PDT

I'm trying to find a term for highly detailed, descriptive writing (primarily in fiction; Marcel Proust may be an example).

I believe I saw the term used once in reference to the fantasy fiction of Robin Hobb, if anyone happens to be familiar with her writing.

Note: I'm not looking for "wordy", "purple prose", or synonyms thereof. The word I have in mind is stylistic, and not pejorative or necessarily excessive in any sense.

Thanks for any ideas!

Would you mind helping me with this assignment? PLEASE [closed]

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 02:55 AM PDT

There is little difference in the shops now operating in various nations. Some people think this is positive development, while others believe it is negative. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

The meaning of "act in capacity" [closed]

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 07:00 AM PDT

As a society, we need young people to follow good role models, and so celebrities need to understand that accepting money from advertising means that they are acting in this capacity.

What does the phrase " acting in this capacity" mean?

As far as I know, in this context, "act" means perform/do sth.

The Collins dictionary explains the meaning of "capacity" as: If you do something in a particular capacity, you do it as part of a particular job or duty, or because you are representing a particular organization or person.

The meaning of the whole phrase stills remains vague to me though

Glide retention in tune, duke, news in the United States

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 09:27 AM PDT

In words like tune, duke, news or student, most Britons and a sizable minority of Canadians have a sort of y glide after the initial consonant or consonant cluster. For these speakers, the words do and due are pronounced differently.

In the United States, only a small minority of speakers now retain this glide in their everyday speech, though the proportion was much higher in the mid-twentieth century.

A 1986 study by Ann Pitts showed that in northern areas of the United States, where deletion of the glide strongly predominated, it was retained at much higher rates in the news media. For example, the word Tuesday had the glide in it in 93 of 156 instances she recorded.

Pitts hypothesized that forms with the glide carried greater prestige in the eyes of Northerners due to their association with British speech, despite the fact that, among Americans, they were present most frequently in the speech of Southerners.

I would like to know to what extent this kind of glide retention (after /s, z, t, d, n, st/) can still be heard in U.S. media today.

Are there particular media figures you can point to who have this trait in their speech?

How do Americans without the glide react on hearing it in the speech of other Americans? Does it sound snobbish? Uneducated? Or does it mostly go unnoticed? (Please note that if at all possible, I would prefer objective information on perceptions of this trait.)

Parentheses in formal writing [closed]

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 03:47 AM PDT

I just want to know if I have to completely avoid using parentheses in my formal writing?

Is it okay if I use one or two parentheses in my three-pages-long formal paper?

What is the word when you admire someone and you do whatever he does in his life

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 09:24 AM PDT

The person you follow can be a famous person or simply one of your family members who influences on you. The influence can be good or bad. I don't know how to call that person. He is my model?! Not sure, this is what I get from looking up dictionary.

A word for the situation where someone ends a romantic relationship with a partner

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 04:11 AM PDT

I am looking for a word to describe the situation where someone tells his/her partner that he/she wants to end the romantic relationship (whatever the reason).

The phrases I came across by searching dictionaries and this site are:

  1. She left him / *He was left by her.
  2. She ditched him / He was ditched by her.
  3. She broke his heart / He got his heart broken (by her).

My understanding is: 1 looks neutral but passive does not work. 2 looks too slangy. 3 is not one word.

Correct me if I'm wrong in the understanding above and what are common words for it (and its nominal form)?

===

In case anybody understand Japanese, the word I have in mind is ふる/ふられる.

How do we say we are not using a template?

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 06:51 AM PDT

What is the opposite of using a template for something?
For example:

Should I use a template for this or am I free to follow my own format?

I would like to put it more eloquently/elegantly.
Thank you!

How did the final d of "diamond" become voiced in English?

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 02:07 AM PDT

A survey of other languages with obvious cognates clearly suggests the source for the word "diamond" ended in an unvoiced dental consonant. It is clearly voiced in modern English, and that is also reflected in its spelling.

Was this change:

  1. a member of a regular, "event-like" historical shift in the development of English;
  2. a member of a widely-applying and general phonetic process due to its environment;
  3. sporadic?

I would also be interested in information on the history of this change and causative phonetic context, if available.

"Diamond" in many languages: https://www.mindat.org/min-1282.html#autoanchor12

Gramatically understand "make more and more of an impression on.."

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 02:41 AM PDT

The case I want to understand is "Japanese musician YOSHIKI is making more and more of an impression on the British royal family". As I understand it, it says YOSHIKI is impressing the British royal family members more and more. But what I don't understand is the grammar detail.

Is "making more and more of an impression" the comparative of "making much of an impression"? In that case, how should I understand "making much of an impression"? Is it a combination of "making an impression" and "much of", or alternatively, a combination of "making much of" and "an impression"?

From what I learnt from the internet, "much of" is "used for describing the importance of a quality that something has" and "make much of" means "to give a lot of importance to something". I can't see anyone is giving an importance on the thing of impressing some one else. Thenceforth, I prefer the "making an impression" + "much of" assumption. But I still can't understand it. What does the "much of" mean here? I can understand what "not much of a" means but what "much of" means is still unclear. What does it actually mean in this context?

Glad you can bear the reading. Love you :)

Is this an appositive?

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 03:04 AM PDT

Keep up the great work you're doing, fighting for both animal and human rights.

And is following sentence grammatically correct?

Keep up the great work, fighting for both animal and human rights.

Is there an etymological relation between Albania the country and St Albans, the city in Hertfordshire, England? [closed]

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 12:26 AM PDT

Is there an etymological relation? (some more words to keep validator happy)

Why do we use past perfect instead of past tense here?

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 03:14 AM PDT

"We couldn't put down the floor until the plumber HAD finished."

When 'finished' would do the same job much more perfectly instead of confusing.

What is the difference between “ renewal ” and “ resumption ”?

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 05:18 AM PDT

Cambridge English Dictionary explains these as

renewal : a situation in which something begins again after having stopped for a period of time e.g. Pharmaceutical shares also benefited from the renewal of interest in growth stocks.

resumption : the start of something again after it has stopped

I dont really see the difference.

How did quit come to mean quite

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 01:04 AM PDT

I've often been confused how 'quite' can mean so many things and upon leaning that it comes from 'quit' I only have more questions. How did quit semantically drift to come to mean quite?

two and's when using "between"

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 10:21 AM PDT

I'm writing an introduction part for my research paper. I wrote a sentence that follows:

"The main concern of this study is to find out whether there is a relationship between gender and success and interest for different disciplines taught in the FLE department of METU"

In the sentence, I want to mean "gender" as being one part and "success and interest" being the other part. If I use two ands like this, it creates an ambiguity. How can I rewrite this?

Comma Usage -- do I need a comma before "instead" and if so, why?

Posted: 03 Sep 2021 11:48 PM PDT

Maybe if he had been given the opportunity to declare his living will, his family would have been able to honor his wishes instead of simply following our directives.

OR

Maybe if he had been given the opportunity to declare his living will, his family would have been able to honor his wishes, instead of simply following our directives

I want to be like my father in the future. What would he be called?

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 03:35 AM PDT

Not something like inspiration / motivation There is a word for this, right? Thanks a lot for helping.. ^^

Adverbs + Present Perfect

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 04:22 AM PDT

Here's my problem:

I've been confused about the placement of adverbs in present/past perfect phrases. For example, which sentence would sound better:

"We had been slowly drifting down the river when a bear attacked."

or

"We had slowly been drifting down the river when a bear attacked."

Personally, I'd go with the former, and this led me to believe that if the sentence contains both "had been" and a verb, the adverb should be placed after "had been"--if the adverb is indeed modifying the verb.

This, however, led to me to think of other uses of the present/past perfect, where another verb isn't present. The is the best example I could formulate:

"He has always been an academic and a charitable person."

See, right there, always--an adverb of frequency--was placed in between has and been.

Does this mean only adverbs of frequency (e.g., always, usually, etc.) should be placed in between such constructs?

A final example to put this topic over the edge is "He had been either sick or exhausted." Now, if you were to move "either" in between "had been," would the sentence be grammatically incorrect? I've noticed that the former is used more frequently, but the sandwiched version doesn't sound wrong either.

Thanks!

"Take a degree" or "do a degree"

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 04:30 AM PDT

In university I learned that we say to do a degree in X but I saw many other sources where it says to take a degree in X.

Which is correct? Is there a regional difference?

New Oxford American Dictionary describes "the" as an adjective

Posted: 04 Sep 2021 01:21 AM PDT

When I look at the definition given from the Mac OS X Dictionary, I read the following definition. (I have set American English as interface language, and the dictionary used is then the New Oxford American Dictionary.)

the /ði/ /ð(ə)/ /ði/ [called the definite article] adjective

  1. denoting one or more people or things already mentioned or assumed to be common knowledge: what's the matter? | call the doctor | the phone rang. Compare with a.
    • used to refer to a person, place, or thing that is unique: the Queen | the Mona Lisa | the Nile.
    • informal denoting a disease or affliction: I've got the flu.
    • (with a unit of time) the present; the current: dish of the day | man of the moment.
    • informal used instead of a possessive to refer to someone with whom the speaker or person addressed is associated: I'm meeting the boss | how's the family?
    • used with a surname to refer to a family or married couple: the Johnsons were not wealthy.
    • used before the surname of the chief of a Scottish or Irish clan: the O'Donoghue.

I have never thought of an article as adjective.
Is normally an article defined as adjective?
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