Friday, October 1, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

"An X of an Y" or "The X of an Y"?

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 09:49 AM PDT

Important: All of the examples below are assumed to be used when we say something like "a cat" and not "the cat". That is, for example, when we are introducing something for the first time.

The 1st part of the question: "x of y" where x is unique:

  • a name of a file
  • the name of a file

Which version is correct, and why?

  • Logically, this should be "the name of file". This is because each file can only have one name.
  • But then, logically, this means that we should never say "a file name", and we should always say "the file name" instead. But nobody follows this logic: people say "the file name" only in those cases where they would say "the cat" instead of "a cat".

The 2nd part of the question: "x of y" where x is not unique:

  • a fragment of a document
  • the fragment of a document

Which version is correct, and why?

After we receive vs After we received [migrated]

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 08:07 AM PDT

Which sentence is grammatically acceptable:

After we receive your money, we will apply it to your insurance policy. Or After we received your money, we will apply it to your insurance policy.

thanks,

Usage of English articles with mathematical equalities

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 08:19 AM PDT

I was curious about how English articles work with cases such as:

For all of the simulations, the B = 15 mT, the f = 10 kHz.

The B and f are of course defined earlier in the text and are used in the same context in the entirety of the text as well. Is it ok to write "the" before each parameter in such sentences? Or should I omit it?

I couldn't find a source that gives a definitive answer on how to use English articles in equations like or equalities like this. I think it's better to omit articles in this case but when I read the sentence in my mind, I read it like "B equals 15 mT" and feel like there should be an article.

I was asked by my boss to 'have them do sth', is that rude or not?

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 08:26 AM PDT

I was asked by my boss to 'have them arrange to do this' (where "them" is an external client) - I felt like this not the nicest form to ask an employee to do something, but I'm not native English speaker. What are your thoughts on this? Is such a form rude or completely normal?

Why is it correct? [duplicate]

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 07:31 AM PDT

Hamlet is a tragedy written by Shakespeare between 1599 and 1601. Shouldn't we say that which is written? When can we omit which is? Also is it correct to say: insulin and glucagon are two hormones released by pancreas? Not which are released.

an atom vs the atom [duplicate]

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 07:42 AM PDT

In Britannica's Atom term, some sentences use "an atom", and other "the atom", why?

Sentences with "an atom":

The behaviour of an atom is strongly influenced by these orbital properties, and its chemical properties are determined by orbital groupings known as shells.

As noted in the introduction to this article, an atom consists largely of empty space.

Sentences with "the atom":

As such, the atom is the basic building block of chemistry.

Most of the atom is empty space.

Thanks

enter image description here Atom in Britannica

Is there a "more formal" (or ideally, actual medical/research term?) for being "clucky" / "broody"?

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 07:26 AM PDT

It's a phenomenon that if a woman, A, spends time around a woman, B, who is either pregnant or has a young baby (B is perhaps a sister, friend), sometimes woman A finds herself with "a desire to have a baby or another baby".

(This trope often features in both serious or comedy shows and films, or indeed, in everyday life.)

In English you usually somewhat humorously refer to this as being "clucky" or "broody" (from the words used with female birds).

(If you're not a native speaker and not familiar with this, you can find endless examples by googling the words, eg https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/parenting/pregnancy/66023277/you-know-youre-clucky-or-broody-when )

In short ...

are there really any synonyms or alternatives at all for this phenomenon, other than the two slang-ish ones?

(I've checked all the usual thesauri - the problem is they tend not to include jokey terms like "clucky", and for "broody" you get the unrelated senses.)

Essentially, they are both jokey/informal - so how do you say it in a non-jokey way?

In particular, there has surely been any amount of scientific, psychological / sociological study of this, scholarly articles, so perhaps there's actually a scientific term in use in such papers - which is indeed the ideal thing I'm after.

(I have the usual access to such things, but I know little/nothing about the medical field so I really have "failed to google it" after hours.)

If we just happen to have someone like Dr. McKay on this list, we should get an answer!

https://www.waterstones.com/book/demystifying-the-female-brain/dr-sarah-mckay/9781409173182

Surely there's some more formal way to describe this?

Which is correct? "No dividend" or "No dividends"? [closed]

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 06:41 AM PDT

There was no dividend declared.
or
There were no dividends declared.

What are the rules governing whether to use one or the other?

Meaning of 'Nothing herein shall require the Owner to disclose any of its information' in an agreement document?

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 04:29 AM PDT

What is the meaning of the sentence from an agreement document?

Nothing herein shall require the Owner to disclose any of its information.

The sentence previous to this sentence has some types of confidential information that the owner (client) will disclose to the recipient (company).

Using 'would' instead of 'will'

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 03:41 AM PDT

I know there are questions with similar titles, but I've checked and they aren't asking what I'm asking.

I've recently started working with a guy from Nigeria, and in our discussions I've found myself a bit uncertain about what he means by certain things. The biggest one that stands out is how he uses the word 'would'.

For example, if we're discussing an issue and we're both uncertain about how to proceed, he might say the following: "I would ask John how to proceed."

Now to me, raised American but living in England, that sounds most like a suggestion: it's a suggestion to me to ask John.

But after clarifying with him, I'm certain that he actually meant, "I will ask John". When he says "I would do x", he is not making a suggestion, he is telling me what he is going to do.

What precedent does this use of the word 'would' have? Is it an archaic form that has continued use in certain parts of the world? Is it unique to certain African English-speaking countries? I'm curious about the source of it.

Not sure if I've tagged the question correctly. Please let me know if there are more suitable tags.

Is it a "14-karat gold ring" or a "14-karat-gold ring"? [closed]

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 03:06 AM PDT

I cannot find an answer to this anywhere, neither on the internet nor in any jeweler brochures.

Is it:

a 14-karat-gold ring

OR:

a 14-karat gold ring

Does "14-karat" modify "gold ring"—or does "14-karat-gold" modify "ring"? 

Lastly, is it:

a 14-karat gold-plated necklace?

OR:

a 14-karat-gold-plated necklace?

A word to describe an industry where personal growth depends on insider knowledge

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 12:03 AM PDT

I am trying to come up with a word that describes an industry where your growth as a professional depends on learning from others, not from books or research.

Example: It's difficult for young people to establish a career in the space industry. Most jobs are gained through personal networks, and industry standards are typically passed via word-of-mouth through generations of workers - not easily accessible on the internet.

The sentence I'd like to write: Finding a mentor helps students establish themselves in a __ industry.

Words that are similar: Old boy's club, cliquey, exclusive

Which is (more) correct? [duplicate]

Posted: 30 Sep 2021 10:58 PM PDT

Why don't you try [to speak OR speaking] to him in Spanish? ...

Which variant is more correct and why?

“stop off” vs. “stop in” vs. “stop by” [migrated]

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 07:27 AM PDT

According to Cambridge Dictionary, I found that "stop off", "stop in", "stop by" all mean "stop to visit someone/ somewhere for a short time while you are going to somewhere else" in general. I feel confused. Can you tell me what are the differences between these phrases? Thanks in advance.

Eliminate redundancy in paragraphs [closed]

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 03:32 AM PDT

I am working on an academic paper that describes an application of topic modeling to a reddit dataset. As a part of this paper I want to construct a literature review. The review should summarize the argument, identify the contribution, and identify strengths of the article.

The specific problem that I would like help with is eliminating the redundancy in the paragraphs i.e. "The authors of this paper". This sounds robotic. I would like to improve the wording of these paragraphs so that they do not sound so repetative.

3 Reading Tea Leaves: How Humans Interpret Topic Models by JonathanChang and others 3.1 Authors

Jonathan Chang, Jordan Boyd-Graber, Sean Gerrish, Chong Wang, David M. Blei

3.2 Overview

The authors of this paper discuss machine probabilistic models for unsupervised analysis of text. They focus on providing a predictive model of future text and a latent topic representation of the corpus. These studies show that they capture aspects of the model that are typically undetected by previous measures of models based on held-out likelihood. The authors of this paper discuss machine probabilistic models for unsupervised analysis of text.

4 Exploring the Space of Topic Coherence Measures

4.1 Authors Andreas Both, Alexander Hinneburg

4.2 Overview

The authors of this paper present a framework that constructs existing word based coherence measures as well as new ones by combining elementary components. They present combinations of components which outperform existing measures with respect to correlation to human ratings. The authors suggest that results can be transferred to further applications in the context of text mining and information retrieval

5 Surveying a suite of algorithms that offer a solution to managing large document archives

5.1 Authors

David M. Blei

5.2 Overview

The authors of this paper explain how topic modeling enables us to organize and summarize electronic archives at a scale that would be impossible by human annotation. The example shown in the paper took 17,000 articles from science magazines and identified 100 topics. This paper describes how topic modeling provides an algorithmic solution to managing, organizing, and annotating large archives of texts.

papers are listed here

I've also, asked for feedback on researchgate, as well. I'd like to reword these paragraphs so that they flow together better. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Bracketed lowercase letters

Posted: 30 Sep 2021 10:22 PM PDT

Yes, I have read every link about this, and this question might appear to be the same but is a little different based on what I'm asking. CMOS does not elucidate as to what the original text might have been, and I'm trying very hard to understand this principle of bracketed lowercase letters.

Source: Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition

13.21: Brackets to indicate a change in capitalization

Chapter Contents / Quotations in Relation to Text / Initial Capital or Lowercase Letter

In some legal writing, close textual analysis or commentary, and other contexts, it is considered obligatory to indicate any change in capitalization by brackets. Although this practice is unnecessary in most writing, in contexts where it is considered appropriate it should be employed consistently throughout a work.

My question: I need your interpretation of what the original passage might have stated based on the example below:

Chicago's example below:

According to article 6, section 6, she is given the power "[t]o extend or renew any existing indebtedness."

"[R]eal estates may be conveyed by lease and release, or bargain and sale," according to section 2 of the Northwest Ordinance.

Let us compare Aristotle's contention that "[i]nferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior" (Politics 5.2), with his later observation that "[r]evolutions also break out when opposite parties, e.g. the rich and the people, are equally balanced" (5.4).

Confused on my interpretation when negative 'not' + but

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 03:18 AM PDT

I am confused with usage of but when a negative is preceding it. For example

The importance of this bill is not in its specific provisions, but in its broader impact.

Here is the word but doing a contrast between clauses? If so, my doubt is on the clause before but, it says not in its specific which on rephrasing means bigger or broader;however, the second clause says the same broader, then how is this a contrast? Like in contras the LHS clause contrasts the RHS clause, here in my example both clauses are saying the same right? Then how is it a contrast?

Even though initial clause tells about provisions and second does on impact, purpose of but is semantically to contrast.

Can anyone explain me how the usage of but is used when both clauses mean same thing like in my particular example ?

If I am totally wrong above then what exactly is the purpose of but here? In cases of cause-effect relationship what is the but doing?

Edit1: FYI, my example sentence is can't be wrong I guess as it's from a standardised test

Edit2: I have seen this on Web in MacMillan dictionary but not sure if this definition fits, it says 1a. used after a negative for introducing what is true instead His death was not a tragedy, but a release from pain and suffering. In this particular example author is subjective, I believe. Can anyone explain on this? But in my example going by this definition bill doesn't or shouldn't have "specific" provisions but that isn't true. Or am I wrong?

Why is it "hats off" and not "hat's off"?

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 06:05 AM PDT

Meriam-Webster has a page for "hats off to" to indicate praise and uses the example "Hats off to Susan for doing such a great job".

I'm surprised that it's not "Hat's off to" as in "Hat is off to". Without the apostrophe it looks like there are multiple hats.

What's the explanation for the expression being without an apostrophe?

Not sure how to handle "doctor" - as an honorific or as a noun

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 03:42 AM PDT

I understand that "doctor" would typically only be capitalized when referring to a specific person with that title, and otherwise is a regular old noun without capitalization.

Would its use in the following sentence be capitalized or not? I feel like it's incorrect to be in lowercase - or maybe it should be in italics?

  • "I haven't had the title of doctor taken from me, but I have a feeling it is forthcoming."

On a scale from naive to cynical, what would be in the middle?

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 09:48 AM PDT

Someone who is naive trusts others without question or examining their claims. Someone who is cynical never trusts anything another person says, even if there's no evidence that they are being anything other than honest.

Is there a word to describe someone who trusts the trustworthy, and distrusts the untrustworthy?

"Street smart" is the only word/phrase I can think of that might fit, but I'm hoping there's something better and less colloquial.

Inspired by this post: On a scale from Optimist to Pessimist, what would be exactly in the middle?

What's a word for someone who scoffs at someone else's feelings?

Posted: 30 Sep 2021 11:00 PM PDT

I am trying to find a word someone who ridicules someone else's feelings. When I say generally anything, they'll say something completely unnecessary (and usually hurtful). Most of the time, I am not even talking to them; they just jump into the conversation for no apparent nor helpful reason.

For example, if I say that I have my shoulder hurts, and they will scoff, thinking I am being fake and/or trying to get attention (which I never do; that's weird). There are also general instances where I will say that I don't like a certain food, and they will scoff and say that I always try to find something to complain about.

I also would like the verb form of what they are doing. For example: "This person _____(s) my feelings." I'm not sure if the word "belittle" is the right verb, but I hope you understand what I mean.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you! =)

*I can add more examples if needed.

"Most of you would do the right thing if you/they knew"

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 01:02 AM PDT

In this case, "you" is 15 people.

Are both of these correct?

  • Most of you would do the right thing if you knew
  • Most of you would do the right thing if they knew

I initially thought the second was correct, but I was told the first one is… Now I've looked at both of them too long to be able to tell 😅.

"the" with subjects in subject-verb inversion

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 12:00 AM PDT

Explanation of what subjects we can use in subject-verb inversion:

From an answer to "Here he comes", "Here comes he" : The order of pronoun and verb in inversion:

1. On the corner is a cafe. – correct because "a cafe" is new information (due to using "a") and, therefore, can be transported to the end of the sentence where it receives the most emphasis

2. Here comes he. – odd (not idiomatic) because "he" is in a very prominent position at the end of the sentence. This position would normally be reserved for new entities. But the fact that we are using a pronoun here means that we must already have been talking about this man in the previous discourse.

Examples which contradict the explanation:

wikipedia.org:

3. Out of the tree fell the squirrel.

4. After the speeches came the toasts.

From a textbook:

5. The door opened and in came the doctor.

6. As soon as I let go of the string, up went the balloon, high into the sky.

Following the explanation above:

The fact that we are using "the" with "squirrel", "toasts", "doctor" and "balloon" means that we must already have been talking about these subjects in the previous discourse. Hence we can't place them in a very prominent position at the end of the sentences, as in 3.-6.

But since 3.-6. are correct, then is the explanation given at the beginning of the post wrong?

Usage of "specific number(s) of ~"

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 07:14 AM PDT

Let's say you have a sentence:

  • These presents are only for the people who have 2, 4 or 6 coins.

How can I paraphrase the sentence using "specific number(s)"?

(1)"Presents for the people who have specific number of coins"?

(2)"Presents for the people who have specific numbers of coins"?

(3) Both above are wrong and here is the answer!

Thanks in advance!

How to describe a strong wind?

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 06:37 AM PDT

Could you say 'The gale was blowing about his jacket' ? I'd like to express the repetitive movement of his jacket going from side to side.

What is the opposite word to "indent"—"outdent" or "unindent"?

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 08:32 AM PDT

I'm looking for the opposite word to "indent." Is it "outdent", or is it "unindent"?

Corresponding to "Tab" and "Shift Tab" in most editors.

Is there a formal term for "snail mail"?

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 09:35 AM PDT

Once "email"* entered the lexicon, we needed a term to differentiate it from what we can call regular, hand-delivered mail. One term in broad usage is "snail mail." But in a project I'm working on, we need a term that is more formal and businesslike.

As currently written, the copy reads: "Terrestrial mail."

I'm looking for a good term to replace "Terrestrial." Any ideas?

(*AP Stylebook has eliminated the hyphen.)

Is there a difference between "leading edge" and "bleeding edge"?

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 09:37 AM PDT

It seems to me that "leading edge" is the more established phrase, while "bleeding edge" is basically the same thing but the user has adapted the phrase for extra (rather meaningless) emphasis.

Or is there a meaningful distinction between the two?

What are some synonyms for 'euphemism'?

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 06:43 AM PDT

A euphemism is a word used to replace another worse-sounding word. For example, 'pass away' for 'die', 'battle fatigue' for 'shell shock', 'PTSD' for 'battle fatigue', often a word created to replace a taboo word.

A dysphemism is a bit of the opposite, a synonym that sounds -worse- than the original, for example, 'boneyard' for 'graveyard'.

But there are other directions to take in creating synonyms. Medicalese tends to euphemize to make things palatable, but often there are medical synonyms where the process seems to be more obfuscation or obscurantism than a euphemism. For example, 'urinate' is a perfectly neutral technical term, but it is not uncommon to see or hear the (exact) synonym 'micturate'. Unless I am misreading, there is no euphemizing going on, just hiding through a more obscure word.

What would the process/describing word be for synonyms that are in another register, colloquial vs. formal (though naturally there is a lot of overlap here with euphemism/dysphemism)?

So what I am looking for are synonyms for euphemism, that go in different directions than just good/bad.

Does the suffix in "lipolysis" and "ketosis" have the same meaning in both the words?

Posted: 01 Oct 2021 03:41 AM PDT

Lipolysis and ketosis both end in ‑sis.

Does that suffix have the same meaning in both the words?

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