Friday, December 10, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

The use of italics/citation marks for metalanguage

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 09:49 AM PST

I've been taught that when words are used metalinguistically, they should be marked either with italics or with double quotation marks. Examples:

  1. Dog is a noun.

  2. Verlan is the name of a kind of French slang, in which you change the order of syllables.

These examples are pretty straightforward, I think. However, in the following examples,things are not as clear (or at least not to me):

  1. The kids named their dog Wierdo

  2. In the spring, we will launch our new online course investigative journalism

  3. We are all members of the group laudable loonies

In these examples, is it correct to use italics (or, alternatively, double citation marks) the way I have? If it is, would it also be correct not to use them (so it's optional)?

What is the function of "Monday?"

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 09:53 AM PST

What is the function of "Monday?" Is it a direct object of starts or an adverb?

Mask mandate starts Monday.

Being before adjective

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 08:50 AM PST

"Alive" is an adjective. When we say;

Someone was buried alive.

it modifies "someone" but I can't understand how an adjective at the end of the sentence modifies a noun at the begining of the sentence? Do I need a connector like being like;

Someone was buried being alive.

if I use such preposition would the sentence be ungrammatical or the meaning change?

I heard that the car prices are high.

Can I say this sentence in the way below? Actually I wonder if I can use "being" before an adjective in this way.

I heard car prices being high.

Verb tense in the subordinate clause

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 09:13 AM PST

Can a subordinate clause take a past tense form of the verb if the main clause is in the simple present tense?

bare complements

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 08:13 AM PST

Are the following sentences grammatical?

  1. The government ended negotiations.
  2. The plumber stopped water.
  3. The court halted discussions.
  4. The baby finished milk.

Do they require the interpolation of the definite article before the complements? If so, is it due to the fact that these sentences mean culminations of events?

What word means "to pick out the most important information"?

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 09:10 AM PST

I need a single word, a verb, that conveys the meanings:

  • to pick out the most important information"
  • or alternatively "pull out the best"
  • even "distinguish valuable information from less valuable information"

This is to describe the process when one is writing an abstract, only the most critical information from a paper is kept.

Verbs like "select", "choose", "pick out", "separate" don't seem to convey within them the meaning that you're selecting the most important.

The words "hand-pick" and even "cherry-pick" seem the closest I can find, but have a too informal tone. "Distill" also seems close, but is that only metaphorical or does it actually imply this meaning?

I have other chapter titles that are just single-words, and all verbs. This will be a chapter title, hence, am looking for a single-word.

What word will convey this meaning?

Is a calling a temporary ban as such a misnomer? [closed]

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 07:34 AM PST

During a recent moderation procedure, I used the phrase:

I'm currently flag-banned

To describe a one week period of inability to use post flags. We discussed the situations several times in different places. Eventually, some users argued that calling it a "ban" would be a misnomer as it functions as a suspension. I believe that using the phrase as I did, is appropriate and not a misnomer — it comes with a different connotation that suspension doesn't carry, but my phrasing seems entirely correct.

What word/phrase means "the feeling of the time/era"? [duplicate]

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 07:20 AM PST

I think I recall encountering a phrase that means roughly "the characteristic feeling of a particular historical time". For example, this word/phrase could be applied to the French Revolution or the Renaissance.

This may well be a French (or other language) phrase but it was used in English. Something like mise-en-scène or milieu, but referring specifically to the context of a historical period/moment in time.

About collective nouns

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 05:50 AM PST

A family lives in Yorkshire, and the family are eating lunch.

Can I say that a family [who are] eating lunch lives in Yorkshire?

I want to unite a plural verb and a singular verb in one clause. But I think it's not a case.

please check it out [closed]

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 05:49 AM PST

Hello dear friends I'd be grateful if you could give me the correct answer.

1.He was only..... away from the reactor when the explosion happened so he was able to describe the shocking experience.

1.afew hundred meters

2.few hundred meters

3.afew hundreds meter

4.few hundreds meter.

my answer is number 2. thanks in advance

Talking without doing the act

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 07:59 AM PST

What's the word when you mention something without actually doing something about it. Like talking about climate change but not actually doing anything to mitigate it

Do precious and pretentious rhyme? [closed]

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 07:40 AM PST

Do the words precious and pretentious rhyme? What are the relevant rhyme rules?

Both words end in « ious » , and they are both pronounced consistently. However, when saying them out loud, they don't immediately sound rhymable, like other words such as argumentative and tentative.

Is there a third non-homograph stress distinguished pair? [closed]

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 07:46 AM PST

Apart from insight and billow, what is a word that can be told apart from another word — in speech — only by where the stress falls, and is not spelt the same as the other word?

Insight /ˈɪnsʌɪt/ is phonemically identical to incite /ɪn'sʌɪt/ (in standard English) in every way apart from where the stress is (first syllable in insight, second syllable in incite). This means the words can still be told apart when spoken, even though all the consonants and vowels are the same.

Billow /ˈbɪləʊ/ and below /bɪ'ləʊ/ similarly differ only by stress in standard British and American English pronunciation (as is supported by the phonemic transcriptions in dictionaries I've checked) which is why it counts for the purposes of this question, even though in some accents the unstressed vowel in below might be reduced for example (it wouldn't be a valid answer if the vowels were actually different in standard English).

Is there another pair of words that have different spellings and different meanings, and can only be told apart in speech because they have different lexical stress?

Why do we use two different verb forms for sentences like “that person is broke” versus “that person is broken”?

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 09:20 AM PST

We usually use only a verb's past participle when we need to make an adjective out of it, not its past tense—but not always. Sometimes we even use both forms but assign these two different meanings!

For example, even though using broke as the past participle for the verb break is now considered obsolete, we still use that old form today for the verb's corresponding predicate adjective in sentences like

  1. Now I'm broke.

Using that obsolete form there in (1) means something quite different from what it mean here:

  1. Now I'm broken.

Since both are adjectives, why do we sometimes use an obsolete form for one sense but another form for another possible sense? Why don't we always use the same more-standard form for both senses?

This leaves break with two different inflections available for potential use as adjectives, either the past or the past participle, since historically broke once alternated with broken as that verb's past participle but no longer does so. Do other verbs ever work like break works in this respect? I'm especially looking for now-obsolete past participles still used today as adjectives that are spelled just like the verb's present or past forms instead of how its past participle is spelled in perfect constructions with have.

Is this tense usage correct, "you'll continue acting"?

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 06:06 AM PST

if you'll continue acting like...

I understand "if you continue to act like..." seems more logical, but is there a fault in the first sentence? I am focusing on the "act" part. Can it be a continuous? what type of a sentence would it be in terms of verb/tense/...

Can "what" mean " what role" in this sentence?

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 05:08 AM PST

I'd like to know if "what" could convey the meaning of "what role" in the sentence below as "what role others expect from us" is mentioned.

As a flight attendant, my uniform can imply both what role others expect from me and what I should play

How to reply to "I hope you are well"? [closed]

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 07:58 AM PST

How to appropriately respond to someone saying "I hope you are well./?"

There are certain situations in writing where this would obviously not be soliciting a response (requiring a full stop) but other situations where this would be a declarative question (with the associated raised tone, indicated by the question mark); the latter is clearly what I am asking about.

Replies I've thought of:

  • I am very well, thanks. How are you?
  • I am very well, thanks, and hope you are as well.
  • I am very well, thanks. I hope it is the same with you too.
  • (Ignore it completely, perhaps in spite of the tone of voice.)

I guess it depends on the relationship with the person, but I would like to answer in all politeness in everyday emails with colleagues/customers.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)