Friday, January 21, 2022

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

As applied to meaning [closed]

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 07:14 AM PST

What is the exact meaning of "as applied to" and "as applied for"?

What is the etymology of the phrase "Scraping the bottom of the barrel"?

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 06:45 AM PST

I've known this phrase to mean roughly "Using ideas which are bad". The Collin's definition seems to be "to be forced to use one's last and weakest resource". I've seen claims that it refers to American food storage in times of need, but not found any references for this or tracked down any more specifics. For example, Wiktionary could not find the origin:

Derived from the historical practice in the early United States of storing food in barrels; when food supplies ran low, only what was on the very bottom of the barrel remained, and had to be removed by scraping.(Can this etymology be sourced?)

subtitling Services [closed]

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 05:17 AM PST

Should "Program" be capitalized when short for the proper noun "Health Professionals Services Program Committee"?

How to distinguish an adverbial clause from an objective clause after a double-object verb? [closed]

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 03:06 AM PST

For example, here are four similar sentences.

(a) I will tell you, when he comes back.
(b) I will tell you when he comes back.
(c) I will tell you when he will come back.
(d) I will tell you, when he will come back.

First of all, do they have totally different meanings from each of the others? If so, do I understand each of them correctly in the following way?

(a) It is not sure whether he will come back. If he comes back, then I will tell you at the time when he comes back.
(b) I will tell you the time at which he usually comes back.
(c) I will tell you the time at which he will come back later.
(d) It is sure that he will come back, and I will tell you at the time when he comes back.

If they are all understood correctly, then how can we distinguish between (a) and (b) or between (c) and (d) especially when speaking?

What does the preposition "to" mean in these sentences? [duplicate]

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 05:00 AM PST

The tissue sample is cut with scissors just distal to the ligature.

The tissue distal to the suture is cut with a scalpel blade.

There's an adorable waitress at the coffee shop next to my house.

The meaning of ''to'' in these sentences corresponds to which item in the dictionary ?

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/ https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/ https://www.merriam-webster.com/ https://www.ldoceonline.com/

Thank you...

What can you call that thing which is the common ground that brings people together?

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 02:02 AM PST

I am trying to find a word that I can use in place of "introduced me to" this sentence.

There are so many talented, wonderful people that clay has introduced me to.

Clay is the reason we came together, but what can you call that thing which is the common ground that brings people together?

Should there be a comma after an M-dashed, parenthetic phrase [duplicate]

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 04:20 AM PST

Should there be a comma — is this comma necessary? —, after an M-dashed, parenthetic phrase? And are those spaces necessary, on both sides of the parenthetic phrase? (ignore the '?', but as a third question, could punctuation in a parenthetic phrase impact the outer sentence?)

Can you skip "to" in "was to verb" format?

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 12:52 AM PST

In the first series of "Diary of wimpy kid" there is a following graph

Today we had Phys Ed, so the first thing I did when I got outside was sneak off to the basketball court to if the Cheese was still there

I kind of feel like "to" needs to be in there so it'd be like "was to sneak". At first I thought they jsut skipped it out of whim but on the following sentence it goes,

The only way to protect yourself from the Cheese Touch is to cross your fingers.

and now there is to + verb.

I feel like I'm missing something, was "sneak" in the above used as a past participle or is there a rule for when I can skip and when I cannot?

Is there a term to describe someone that is neither genuine or a hypocrite? [duplicate]

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 04:18 AM PST

In definition,

Hypocrisy is the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes another or the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform. In moral psychology, it is the failure to follow one's own expressed moral rules and principles.

And,

Sincerity is the virtue of one who communicates and acts in accordance with the entirety of their feelings, beliefs, thoughts, and desires in a manner that is honest and genuine.

However, hypocrisy is generally taken under a negative definition. Is there a word in English that does define a hypocrite but in a positive way. For example,

  • You know that someone is being rude in front of you but in reality, they care for you.
  • Someone didn't like the food you made but they say "Wow! It's really good" even though you know you forgot to add salt (oopsie).
  • And the list goes on.

So is there any specific word in English that defines such a person?

What is the word for the airflow effect from opening two windows on opposite sides of a room?

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 12:29 AM PST

Opening two windows on opposite sides of a room provides a cross breeze, letting the bad air out and the good air in and it will maximize internal airflow.

Now is there a specific word for that 'effect'? Ventilation? Circulation? Airflow? Or maybe oscillation? Which is the right word? Example...

Hey Danny, can you please open both windows for [insert word]? Thank you.

Is a main clause containing subordination canonical or non-canonical?

Posted: 20 Jan 2022 10:18 PM PST

According to Huddleston and Pullum's A Student's Introduction to English Grammar, canonical clauses are:

those which are syntactically the most basic or elementary.

They mark subordinate clauses, such as I know that she's ill, as non-canonical, while main clauses, such as She's ill, as canonical.

However, they don't say anything about main clauses containing embedded subordinate clauses. So, in the the previously mentioned example I know that she's ill, what is the type of the whole clause/sentence?

One might say that it is clearly canonical, since it is a main clause after all. But, isn't it more complicated by virtue of having subordinate embedded element?

and really at the start of a sentence

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 12:35 AM PST

When writing a dialogue , can I say "And really, resilience is all there is, so not to worry to and fro."

Can I start with "And really" ?

He doesn't like me/my spending time with her [duplicate]

Posted: 20 Jan 2022 09:15 PM PST

What should precede a gerund in a sentence ? A possessive pronoun or object pronoun. For eg:- He doesn't like me/my spending time with her. Which, out of me and my,is correct ?

Why is there no 'to' for 'make someone do'?

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 12:38 AM PST

The pain made her cry.

The pain caused her to cry.

Is there a reason why no 'to' after 'make' but 'to' after 'cause'? Or is it just the way English is?

Correct way to use - and , [duplicate]

Posted: 20 Jan 2022 07:20 PM PST

  1. observed in almost any country, both rich and poor OR
  2. observed in almost any country — both rich and poor OR
  3. observed in almost any country, both the rich and the poor

Changing the Tense of "Eat, Sleep, and Breathe" [closed]

Posted: 20 Jan 2022 07:07 PM PST

How would I go about writing "eat, sleep, and breathe" in past tense? "Ate, slept, and breathed" doesn't sound quite right.

What is an antonym for 'one-to-one'?

Posted: 20 Jan 2022 08:20 PM PST

I am writing a perspective for a general medical science audience. The following adapted figure will be included in the publication:enter image description here

The figure title appearing in the legend includes the following sentence,

Figure 1: Schematic illustrating the non- one-to-one relationship between hypotheses, process models, and statistical models.

The only thesaurus with an entry for 'one-to-one' that I have found is WordNet. They provide only "matched" as a 'similar to' entry (not quite a synonym). The word I'm looking for should refer to matching relationships that are not one-to-one. I would also accept any answer that contains any true synonyms that could lead to an antonym. Or, is simply "non-one-to-one" the way to go? It's not the most aesthetically pleasing option.

/ʊ/, /oʊ/, and /ʌ/ merged before /l/

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 12:31 AM PST

I merge /ʊ/, /oʊ/, and /ʌ/ before /l/ to form /oʊ/. Soul, bull, and hull all rhyme for me. Is there any record of this merger in US English?

Edit: Dull is in the same class (/ʌl/) as hull. I replaced it with an /oʊl/ word (soul). I say "bull" and "hull" to rhyme with "soul".

What tense should I use in this paraphrasing sentence?

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 07:06 AM PST

This is a question from an IELTS Essay.

  • Although more and more people read news on the Internet, newspapers will remain the most important source of news for the majority of people.

We are required to paraphrase the topic. I'm not sure about the tense that should be used when I paraphrase this sentence.

My paraphrase would be:

  • Nowadays, despite the rising trend of readers prefer to read news online, it is thought that the overarching source of information "is still deriving from newspapers" for most people.

I wonder what tense should I use for the verb tense since the original text is a simple future (will remain).

  1. is still deriving from newspapers
  2. will still be deriving from newspapers
  3. or is there any better alternative?

If the object of *comprises* is a list of items, is the list exhaustive by implication?

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 05:45 AM PST

The use of comprises in the sentence below caught my eye because altogether it indicates that the synod is composed of voting and non-voting members, and at the same time, "experts who cannot vote". Does the second clause imply that the synod is composed only of those who cannot vote; is that comprehension or group, as the object of comprises, implicitly exhaustive? It is not clear to me exactly what is the grammatical import of "also comprises", though it seems that it was included to rectify the incongruity, but fails to do so since "also" refers to the synod and not the "experts who cannot vote."

"The synod is led by bishops and cardinals who have voting rights and also comprises experts who cannot vote." (From The Guardian.)

"My Mom" vs "Mom" Usage

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 07:04 AM PST

Context My brother and I when having a conversation that refers to our mother usually use "my mom" to refer to her. For example "Have you talked to my mom today?" is a common question we ask.

Now the discussion came up when some of our friends pointed out that it was weird and incorrect for us to say "my mom" since we share the same mom and are siblings and that we should just say "mom". However, my brother and I think its grammatically correct to use "my mom" since its technically a factual statement.

I'm just trying to find out if our usage is incorrect in English grammar and if our friend is correct that we shouldn't use the pronoun "my" in conversations between siblings.

I just wanted to clarify that while English isn't our native language, my brother and I have notice that we also don't use the correct possessive pronoun in Spanish. Now what I'm getting from both of the answers posted is that this is more of its technically correct, but it might confuse other speakers as its not common use.

Usage of "to both of whom"

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 04:51 AM PST

I am writing a short formal acknowledgement in a paper, and I would like to thank two people at the same time. The phrase I'm using is essentially:

Coffee was paid for by John and Anna, to both of whom I express my sincere gratitude.

I am not sure if the expression "to both of whom" is correct. Should it be "to whom both"? Maybe a small variation of the phrasing would work, but I can't think of any that is short and formal.

Distal to, Proximal to ,Cranial to: What is the meaning of "to"?

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 04:14 AM PST

"In all patients, the injection was administered proximal to the knee."

"The ankle is distal to the knee."

What is the meaning of "to" in these sentences ?

--- Comparing or a connection, relation between things ?

Is there a word to describe someone who's not good at talking?

Posted: 20 Jan 2022 10:33 PM PST

It's someone who may appear quiet and reserved, or even arrogant but actually just doesn't know what to say or what to talk about. They're not necessarily shy and not dumb.

I tried words such as 'reticent' and 'taciturn' , but those are more like "not wanting to talk" than "can't think of what to talk about". 'Inarticulate' is not it either, it sounds like something is physically wrong with them. 'Ineloquent' is more of not being clever with words, not able to persuade others with words, which is not what I'm looking for.

I don't know if there's even a word for this. Anyway, I just want a way to describe this trait using as fewer words as possible.

Thanks

Does the word "exgest" exist?

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 12:43 AM PST

A colleague of mine found reference to the word "Exgest" in a contract. In context, this appeared to mean the opposite of the word "Ingest" which was used earlier in the contract. These words were intended to convey the consumption and processing of data in a system.

Does this word, "Exgest", actually exist, and what does it mean?

Edit:
List of prior research:
google: exgest
google: word definition exgest
google: site:dictionary.com exgest
reverse lookup: opposite of ingest
merriam webster search: exgest
dictionary.com exgest
english.stackexchange.com search

Is ‘Not a peep’ an idiom, or just plain statement?

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 06:52 AM PST

I found a phrase 'not a peep,' in the Washington Post's article (September 16) written by Eugene Robinson, which was captioned "Where are the compassionate conservatives?" In the article, Robinson describes the scene of Republican Presidential candidate, Ron Paul's answering the moderator, Wolf Blitzer's question at the Tea party debate held on September 12th:

"Wolf Blitzer asked Ron Paul a hypothetical question about a young man who elects not to purchase health insurance. The man has a medical crisis, goes into a coma and needs expensive care. "Who pays?" Blitzer asked.

"That's what freedom is all about, taking your own risks. This whole idea that you have to prepare and take care of everybody. . . ."

Blitzer interrupted: "But Congressman, are you saying that society should just let him die?"

There were enthusiastic shouts of "Yeah!" from the crowd. "You'd think one of the other candidates might jump in with a word about Christian kindness. Not a peep."

What does "Not a peep" mean here? Does it mean "No sound, no voice", or "No answer"? Does it mean the Congressman was unable to talk back even a single word, or other candidates zipperd their mouth, or audience who shouted 'Yes' in accord suddenly fell into silence?

I checked online dictionaries for the words. None of Cambridge, Merriam-Webster, or Urban dictionary has entry of "Not a peep." I don't know why. Isn't this an idiom, or just an abridgement of 'There was no peep."?

How is punctuation used after dashes?

Posted: 21 Jan 2022 04:40 AM PST

I use em dashes frequently to break up random or ancillary thoughts in my writing. However, I'm uncertain how to deal with punctuation after an em dash when my sentence continues. For example, which of the following is correct?

If at first you don't succeed—I seem to encounter this scenario frequently—try, try again.

If at first you don't succeed—I seem to encounter this scenario frequently—, try, try again.

Would I discard the comma in this case? It seems unnatural to keep it.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)