Sunday, December 19, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

A sentence from <the box tunnel>

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 10:02 PM PST

I am reading a novel By Charles Reade. In the first paragraph, there is a sentence that I can't understand, the text is :"The 10:15 train glided from Paddington May 7, 1847. In the left compartment of a certain first-class carriage were four passengers; of these two were worth description. The lady had a smooth, white, delicate brow, strongly marked eyebrows, long lashes, eyes that seemed to change colour, and a good-sized, delicious mouth, with teeth as white as milk. A man could not see her nose for her eyes and mouth; her own sex could, and would have told us some nonsense about it. "

what's the meaning of "A man could not see her nose for her eyes and mouth; her own sex could, and would have told us some nonsense about it. "

thx

Strange usage of quotations in Wikpedia article

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 07:28 PM PST

My girlfriend and I were reading a Wikipedia page and were confused as to the usage of quotations in the following Wikipedia article: King Kong Bundy.

Specifically, towards the end, the article mentions that

Pallies was fond of cats and had "about 10" at the time of his death.

Wikipedia often quotes numbers in articles without quotations, instead, they will have a reference/citation (for example, citation 38 from above). Why in this case is there a need for both?

If the article claiming that Pallies had "about 10" cats is also referenced at the end of the statement, what is the grammatical reasoning for quoting "about 10"? Is there value to adding quotation marks to topics of estimation? Should I be adding quotation marks in my own writing for references of others' estimations? Help?

Grammar question of quote from C.S. Lewis

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 05:30 PM PST

No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond. -C.S. Lewis

I am confused of the grammar of this quote. Firstly, the position of 'which' is confusing, it is not clear whether it is referring to 'No book' or 'age of ten'.

Secondly, I cannot get my head around the subject of '...which is not equally...', is the author saying 'No book is not equally worth reading at the age of fifty ...'?

Thanks all

Grammatical Construction - Name?

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 08:24 PM PST

In my essays I use the constructions like the following once in a while:

The implications of sb. being elected into higher office are far-ranging.

What are sentences that contain constructions like "being elected into higher office" called? Knowing this would help find and study the rules surrounding this.

How should I interpret "nearly" in this sentence?

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 08:47 PM PST

Several stories in major news organizations (Washington Post, NPR, NY Times) today used an interesting construction in describing the alarming increase in Omicron infections: "Omicron positives are doubling nearly every two days" How EXACTLY should that be interpreted? Does the word "nearly" refer to the "two", or does it refer to an implicit rate? If it refers to the "two", i.e., "nearly two", then it means a number LESS THAN two. E.g., "My son is nearly two years old" That would mean that the doubling time is LESS than every two days, for example if you have 10 cases today then in two days you might have 22 or 25 cases.

But if the "nearly" refers to an implicit rate then it means the doubling time is nearly as fast as every two days, so if you have 10 cases today then in 2 days you might have 18 cases or something like that.

Which is the correct way to interpret that sentence?

Is there a general word for inhaling and exhaling ? Something like ''haling'' or ''halation''?

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 07:07 PM PST

I'm looking for a word that includes both inhaling and exhaling that derives from the same ''halare'' origin.

The word ''breathing'' obviously does the job but I'm wondering if other words exist such as a verb ''to hale/haling'' or as a noun ''halation'' etc.

"right or wrong" against "correct or wrong" in data analytics? Example: What is the opposite of a wrong class label? [duplicate]

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 11:54 AM PST

There is already a clear answer on "right" vs "correct" that "right" is more of an opinion and "correct" is for an answer

that no-one could possibly disagree with.

This does not clearly refer to maths and metrics though. I was told that in a mathematical or in my case data analytical text, one should always rather use "correct" instead of "right", even as the opposite of "wrong". To me, it sounds a bit strange to list "correct" and "wrong" in one go as "right" seems to me as the natural opposite, also in terms of the Germanic roots of the words.

In short: Which word should be generally rather used in a data analysis text when you want to say the opposite of "wrong"?

Example:

  1. This class label is wrong while this label is right.

Or:

  1. This class label is wrong while this label is correct.

'focus fully on' or 'fully focus on' [closed]

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 10:30 AM PST

A student wrote '(I) focused fully on cycling'. I am quite certain about 'I fully focused on' but I think his phrasing was grammatically correct too.

Is 'Creative' a noun or adj in this phase : Creative in thinking of ways to make money? [closed]

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 11:01 AM PST

Is 'Creative' a noun or adj in this phrase:

Creative in thinking of ways to make money?

There is a definition for "enterprising": Creative in thinking of ways to make money. As a noun, 'Creative' is a person with creativity. I don't think it fits the sentence, because enterprising is an adjective and also is not a person. But if it is an adjective, the phrase seems not make sense grammatically. I'm rarely seeing 'creative in' in a sentence.

"dowery" or "dowry"---which is correct? [closed]

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 07:06 AM PST

In some articles I found the word "dowry" which means an amount of money or property that a woman's parents give to the man she marries. However, in other dictionaries link link, I saw the word "dowery" which seems to mean the same thing. I am wondering which is correct or used now?

Using 'WhatsApp' as a verb

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 04:51 PM PST

Oxford Learner's Dictionaries presents 'WhatsApp' as a verb and noun.

WhatsApp™ verb

/ˈwɒtsæp/, /ˌwɒtsˈæp/

/ˈwʌtsæp/, /ˌwʌtsˈæp/

[transitive, intransitive]

WhatsApp (somebody) to send a message, photo or video using the WhatsApp service.

I WhatsApped Abigail yesterday to let her know what had happened.

She spent most of the evening WhatsApping and taking selfies.

Is it acceptable to use 'WhatsApp' in formal contexts as a verb?

Past tense after to?

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 04:02 PM PST

For the following sentence, "it appears that the passage referred to ran in fact as follows",

is the "ran" past tense of verb run? How should the sentence be interpreted?

Whatever: pronoun, conjunction or determiner?

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 03:04 PM PST

I have already learned what is the general difference between conjunctions and conjuncting pronouns, and that is the fact that a pronoun can be a subject or an object in the clause whereas a conjunction can not. But it seems, there are still exceptions like "whoever" and "whatever".

So, in the sentence below "whatever" is certainly a pronoun. Here, the dependent clause is a noun clause.

You are free to do whatever you want.

But in the next sentence, which contains adverbial clause, "whatever" seems to be a conjunction (because like any subordinating conjunction, it shows the relationship between clauses).

I won`t leave her whatever happens.

This I more or less understood although I can`t quite get why Macmillan dictionary says that "whatever "can be both pronoun and conjunction while Lexico (Oxford) says that it can only be a pronoun...

But the real trouble is from now on! In the sentence

Whatever decision he made I would support it.

"whatever" seems to function like a conjunction, but it`s placed before the noun just like a determiner. So, what is it here: determiner or conjunction? Or maybe even pronoun?

I don`t get it! Please, help me.

What adverb can I use to describe a slap that intends to get someone's attention?

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 11:03 AM PST

"Listen to me," Samuel says, swatting the side of Cal's face '_____'.

It's not a playful or deliberately hurtful slap. It's somewhere in the middle - irritated. Considering the character's personalities, it's rather a gentle gesture for them but shocking enough to say 'get ahold of yourself!'

If not an adverb, how would you word this?

looking for a collection of words that define a taxonomy

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 06:04 PM PST

I'm looking for a set of words that define a logical, hierarchical structure to define a simple 3 level taxonomy, but it needs to comply with the following requirements:

  1. The words must be related, like for example category->subcategory or species->subspecies->family are.
  2. The words should be very general, so I can apply them to any subject.
  3. The hierarchy must be well-defined and acknowledged.

I was thinking about something like theme -> topic -> subject, but one could argue that topic and subject are the same thing. Is there another combination I could use? This comes from someone who does programming for a living, where this kind of things are very usual and easy to achieve.

Thanks.

Can you help with the difference in these past perfect tenses?

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 01:47 PM PST

Example 1: 'Edison invented the light bulb. He had been working on it for years'. Example 2: 'Edison invented the light bulb. It had taken him years'.

In example 1, the past perfect continuous makes perfect sense, as working on an invention takes time and repeated effort. In example 2, the same argument could be made, yet we use the past perfect simple. Why?

Is it the 'dummy subject it'? Is it the verb 'to take years'?

Help please!

Which words are modified by "so long forgotten" in this sentence?

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 05:02 PM PST

In the main hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials so long forgotten that most of his female guests were too young to know one from another.

(from The Great Gatsby)

Which words does the phrase "so long forgotten" modify in the sentence above? Does it mean just the cordials are so long forgotten or all the gins, liquors and cordials are also so long forgotten? How can you rewrite the sentence to emphasize each case?

Origin of the word "jack" to mean theft or to steal

Posted: 19 Dec 2021 12:21 AM PST

This is my very first query/post. I was attempting to find out the history in American slang for using the word jack to mean theft. In a sentence it might be Someone jacked my bike last night. I had it locked up but when I got up it was gone.

Or I'm gonna jack that camera when they're not looking.

When I started my web search I had no idea what a can of worms I was opening. OED has two terms one dating back to 1841 I think was jacklight and the other was 1840 but neither had anything to do with theft.

I've tried many different iterations to complete a Google search and other search engines. It only seems to baffle to cyber world.

Question of condition (sort of)

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 10:00 PM PST

What is the term for someone who causes/allows themselves to experience a similar pain to someone else as a way of empathizing with them or making it up to them? For example a person witnesses the assault of another person, and allows the assaulted person to attack them without resistance; as a way of making it right for the initially assaulted person? I believe there is a medical term for this, but I am not sure.

Is there a word for someone more concerned with tools and methods than results?

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 04:15 PM PST

The person I have in mind is not really a dilettante or a dabbler or a dallier. They have a commitment to the endeavour, but they never get anywhere because they obsess about methods, technique and, above all, equipment. It's almost as if their hobby is a meta hobby:

  • the hobbyist carpenter who hasn't really made anything but loves the feel of a vintage plane on wood;
  • the amateur photographer who spends thousands of pounds on the ultimate lens arsenal but only really takes occasional snaps of his cat;
  • the would-be writer who has an idea for a novel but has spent the last 18 months alternating between various vintage Mont Blanc pens, typewriters and late-eighties word processors, trying to find the optimum workflow for his writing.

Is there a term for this? Something better than metahobbyist?

Another word for "carrying pole"?

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 02:10 PM PST

My sister-in-law wrote in her memoirs that while she and her sister were scavenging for food and water in a burned-out town in Germany during the war, they found and used a pede, which she described in terms that made it clearly a carrying pole, like this:

enter image description here

I have not been able to find the word pede, either in German or English. Perhaps, since she was originally from East Prussia, it was an Old Prussian word? Or some other language? I am really perplexed, and my SiL is no help; she doesn't remember the word, either. But there it is.

Edited to Add: Now that I've accepted an answer ("Yoke"), I've continued to investigate the matter, and it now appears that the word may be Low Prussian: "It developed on a Baltic substrate through the influx of Dutch and Low German speaking immigrants." This notion is especially attractive because my sister-in-law seems to have picked up the word during her residence in the burned-out town of Preussisch Holland (or Prussian Holland), a town which was specifically settled by immigrants from Holland in the 13th Century.

Is there any difference between "student" or "pupil"? [duplicate]

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 07:11 AM PST

I am a little bit confused, when somebody told me that a student is the same as a pupil. Would it be correct, if I said "He is a pupil of MBA."?

Which of the following expressions is the most appropriate?

He is a student of MBA

or

He is a pupil of MBA

And which situations should I use either words?

Idiom to describe something that has little to no effect?

Posted: 18 Dec 2021 09:43 AM PST

I'm looking for an idiom to describe something that has a negligible effect.

The only similar question I found here was: An idiom meaning someone's doing something useless and has no result at the end, but I'm looking for something else.

I remember it being something to do with water or fire. Something along the lines of throwing a very small amount of water on a large fire? Does anyone know what I'm thinking of?
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