Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

"to risk being..." or "risk being..."

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 11:25 AM PST

I have two sentences:

Correct:

The company was issued a warning and ordered to stop polluting or risk being shut down.

Incorrect:

The company was issued a warning and ordered to stop polluting or to risk being shut down.

I've repeated the two sentences a dozen times and I'm pretty convinced that the second is not grammatically correct. I am trying to find the appropriate rule to explain to my EFL students WHY but being a native speaker, I can't figure it out.

I have tried searching for details about how to use the verb "to risk" but have only found explanations on whether the verb that follows should be a gerund or an infinitve. I thought maybe it was an imperative but it doesn't seem like it. Is it something to do with the passive form of to be + verb?

Equipment is a mass noun? [closed]

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 10:00 AM PST

At my (Dutch) gym, there is a recording playing over the PA system at regular intervals, first in Dutch, then in English. Though English is not my native language, the English version sounds weird to me. The announcement says "we request that you clean the fitness equipment after using them" Isn't "equipment" a mass noun and shouldn't it therefore be "after using it"?

On two "grammatical infelicities" noted in a review

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 08:58 AM PST

In her favorable review of Dennis Duncan's "Index, A History of the", Margalit Fox writes "A small slap of my own: In a book as elegantly devoted to literacy as Duncan's, it would be pleasant if the grammatical infelicities that lightly pepper the text ("no such character presented themselves," "which anyone in their right mind would want to avoid") had been buffed away."

I can see this as being a debatable issue of style, but my knowledge of English grammar is not sufficient for me to see what grammatical concerns might be raised by the quoted phrases. Could someone enlighten me?

Does the word "besides" have two senses belonging to one semantic field?

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 07:07 AM PST

The term "besides" can mean

  1. "apart from"; "other than";
    "I have no friends besides Maria."
    "I have nothing besides a car."

  2. "in addition (to)"; "as well (as)"; "moreover".
    "I can cook, and a lot more besides".
    "I dislike tennis, besides, I do not even own a tennis racquet."

Do both senses of this term fall within the same semantic field?

Love is the essence of the world as appearance and love is what the world is besides appearance.

How can something (love) be the essence of the world as appearance, and also be what the world is besides (apart from) appearance?

Using for or from with a month or year [closed]

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 04:54 AM PST

I have a question about using for or from with a year. Usually, we use for to express a length of time, but I am not which of these is correct:

This page displays data from the year 2021.

OR

This page displays the data for the year 2021.

Any help is appreciated.

why was this article used [migrated]

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 03:47 AM PST

Could you please explain why in the first sentence we use "the" and in the second one we use "a"

  1. Does anyone know who invented the digital camera?
  2. A JVC is a Japanese camera.

Thanks in advance!

Can I use Voucher for Receivable and Payable notes in treasury context?

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 02:59 AM PST

I am developing a system for treasury context. I am going to specify a name for documents that are receivable or payable. By receivable and payable I mean: a document that shows someone paid an amount in cash on a specific date, or a document that shows someone received the money in cash on a specific date. Can I call these documents Voucher?

For example ReceiveVoucher and PaymentVoucher?

What was from the jungle in "jack ate apple on the table from the jungle", the apple or the table? [migrated]

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 02:46 AM PST

Jack ate apple on the table from the jungle.

Does the sentence mean that apple was from the jungle or the table was from the jungle?

"afore-introduced" - is it correct? [closed]

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 01:01 AM PST

I am writing a scientific paper. At the beginning of a certain section, I want to refer to certain properties that I have introduced in the preceding section. I was thinking of starting with a sentence like this. "Taking into account the afore-introduced properties...". But I don't know if it's idiomatic. If so, should I include the hyphen "-" or a space instead?

I have searched for the literal expression "afore-introduced" in Google Scholar to see if it is frequently used in scientific articles. However, the search returns few results, which has made me doubt.

Thanks in advance

Is it correct to say "it accounts the" in place of "taking into consideration"? [closed]

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 04:17 AM PST

Example:

It accounts the total size of data...
It accounts the total time required to complete job X...

In place of:

taking into consideration the total size of data...
taking into consideration the total time required to complete job X...

Meaning of "The devil with you"

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 10:35 AM PST

What does the expression "The devil with you" mean in this paragraph?

"Yes, yes, I know all about it. Your dear sainted mother is the only woman you'll ever let into your heart, more's the pity. Let me tell you, boy: yes, I loved your mother, in the end, but it didn't start out like that. It was a good match from the beginning, a smart and practical one. That's all one can hope for when securing a legacy. And I'll be damned if I go to my grave knowing…" Lord Berkeley blustered, and then fell into a fit of coughing, which ended whatever impassioned speech he was about to give. He clicked his fingers, and a  servant rushed over with a glass of water. Eventually, he calmed himself, his fit of pique subsiding, and he waved a hand at his son. "The devil with you," he said, quietly.  "Maybe when I'm gone, you can ask this one here all the questions you never asked me in life."

(Sherlock Holmes - The Red Tower by Mark A. Latham)

"I have more than X years of experience" synonyms [closed]

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 12:38 AM PST

Is there another way of saying the same thing but avoiding the use of "I have"..?

When talking about a relationship in the possessive, where does one put the apostrophe [duplicate]

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 12:17 AM PST

Like, if I wanted to say that two people have a good relationship, is it accurate to write "Person X and Person Y's relationship is very good?"

Uncountable nouns based on definitions [closed]

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 06:17 AM PST

Technically speaking, you could turn pretty much any countable noun into an uncountable noun in the right context. Since this is the case, does the meaning of the word have to change to make it uncountable? For example, would the definition of words like ball, shirt, and door be different? If so, how would you use the words above in an uncountable way.

Countable nouns turning into uncountable nouns

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 09:44 AM PST

I'm pretty confused on countable and uncountable nouns. For instance, the word fruit can be uncountable or countable because there are many different kinds of fruits, so why isn't the same true for a word like jewelry. There are many different kinds of jewelry and yet it would not be correct to say "a watch is a jewelry." Is this just a case where a certain uncountable noun can't be countable or is there some other rule at play?

The feeling of having misinterpreted a large amount of experience

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 11:34 AM PST

Is there a word for the sensation of suddenly feeling that you had the wrong idea about something you have believed for a long time.

Apologies - I did not sufficiently emphasize the idea that this is about a change in view of something long familiar. Although, I intended this in the use of "jamais vu" below. If it was a phrase then the analogous "jamais compris" would work. Suddenly realizing that you did not understand something you are familiar with and thought without question that you understood. In fact, I might even use that - things always sound more profound in a foreign language.

It's a bit like the idea of jamais vu in the sense that something that you thought you understood and are familiar with suddenly turns out to be different. It is the sensation of the psychiatrist in the movie The Sixth Sense at the end of the movie - if you have seen that. When I tried to hunt down such a word - I got to confabulation, which is a mental process rather than a sensation, but it also takes the wrong slant on it. What I am looking for a word for is more like talking to someone thinking they are talking about one thing, and suddenly realizing that they are talking about something else. The original belief is not unjustified, but turns out to be wrong. Or maybe chatting with someone at the local cafe about physics regularly for years and thinking they are a harmless crank, only later finding out that they are a Nobel prize winning physicist.

It is a bit like this ...

"All your life you live so close to truth, it becomes a permanent blur in the corner of your eye, and when something nudges it into outline it is like being ambushed by a grotesque."

― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

The italics above give what I am looking for.

Or find a replacement for verschiebung in the following.

When Fred, whom I had known since we were young, mentioned he was gay, I had a strong sense of Verschiebung in becoming aware that I had entirely misunderstood his relationship with Joe.

It would mean anagnorisis or epiphany inducing an uncontrolled re-evaluation of something you have believed for a long time about your life. These words fall down in not implying re-evaluation of a long held belief. I have experienced what I am looking for a word for a few times. Most recently yesterday, when I realized I had completely failed to understand an attitude someone (a 20th century academic) had which put everything they said in a different light.

Usage about "interpret...as..."

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 07:55 AM PST

For example, a guy followed my advice for him on learning English and he can now effectively communicate with people in English though not that great in terms of pronunciation, grammar, etc. While in the past he just could barely make any conversation with people in English. In that situation, which one of these two sentences in question is better?

I interpret his present performance as he has succeeded with his English learning.

or

I interpret his present performance as him having succeeded with his English learning.

English equivalent of the German suffix '-weise'

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 01:33 AM PST

In German, if we want to formulate that we conduct the same procedure for a number of items that are all of one kind, we can use the suffix "-weise".

So for example, if we want to say that in a school, the same fire drill will be performed in each of the classes, we can formulate this either (more or less literally translated from German):

  • "A fire drill will be performed in each class, the same for all classes" or vice versa "In each class, a fire drill will be performed, the same for all classes".

Instead of "in each class", in German we say "per Klasse" or "pro Klasse", and can also say "klassenweise". Literally translated: "A fire drill will be performed class(weise).". Thus, in some cases or contexts, it's easier or more elegant to include the 'per-class'-information.

So, I am looking now for the English equivalent of "weise" if there should be any. (I know, that there is the suffix "-wise" in English. But first, this seems to refer to the way of doing something (instead of being say a 'repetition marker'). So, I guess we cannot use English "-wise" for German "-weise". And second, "-wise" seems to be considered not very elegant, right?)

May anybody give me some advice, please, on what could be the English counterpart, or reasonable alternatives?

one big of a [noun]

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 05:24 AM PST

Asked to comment on the use of the phrase "one big of a question," I responded that it sounded totally off to me. I've always used a noun in the place of "big" here: one hell of a night, one humdinger of a lunch, one devil of a time, etc. Someone countered me with this link and the assertion that it indeed exists because it came up in the Google search. As far as I'm concerned, it's existence on Google doesn't automatically make it grammatical or acceptable, but I wonder if perhaps I'm missing something?

"[Singular noun], and in particular [plural noun], is/are"

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 06:01 AM PST

I have a sentence following the template above, and I am not sure what is the right verbal form to follow. A specific example could be:

Academia, and in particular professors, [is/are] more concerned with [sth] than [sth].

I am using the verb to be in the example but it applies to any other verb (in my actual text it is a present perfect, so the question would be whether to use "have" or "has").

My impression is that, in the example above, "academia" is still the subject and "and in particular professors" just works as a complement for it, so it should be "is", but it sounds strange to follow "professors" with "is".

EDIT:

I am thinking that, in the example I used, maybe some could argue that "academia" might work as a plural term because it refers to a community of people (does not sound right to me but just in case), so I will add a less ambiguous example (more similar to my text) where the first noun cannot possibly be interpreted as plural:

Psychology, and in particular research studies, [is/are] more concerned with [sth] than [sth].

What is the meaning and derivation of 'cowp'?

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 09:19 AM PST

I just received an email from Scotland with the word 'cowp' in it. I had a vague recollection from my own Scottish background of such a word but could not remember what it meant.

The OED has only this :

Origin: A borrowing from early Scandinavian. Etymon: Norse kaup-a. Etymology: < Old Norse kaup-a to buy, bargain, barter, exchange, = Gothic kaupôn ...
Scottish and northern dialect.

  • †1. transitive. To buy; figurative to abye, pay for, suffer for. Obsolete.
    1. to exchange, barter

Wiktionary has this :

cowp (plural cowps)

(Scotland, Ireland, slang) A filthy and disgusting place.
(dialect) A reversal of fortune; An unexpected misfortune.

Verb : cowp (third-person singular simple present cowps, present participle cowping, simple past and past participle cowped) To fall or tip over.

As used in the email, the writer is referring to the Council Refuse Dump (they 'went to the cowp' and they clearly had something to dispose of) so it seems to me that 'cowp' as a verb means to tip something, either an accidental tip (Wiktionary-dialect) or a purposeful disposal into a cowp (the noun) being a place of refuse (Wiktionary - Scoland Ireland slang).

But none of this appears to agree with the OED.

Has anyone more background to this ?

Use of ... all are?

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 04:07 AM PST

Is the all in "John, Bob, and Sue all are hungry" redundant? Does it mean anything beyond "John, Bob, and Sue are hungry"?

Do "real-life applications" and "real-world applications" convey the same meaning?

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 09:16 AM PST

I've been using these expressions interchangeably without knowing their possible differences. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines "real-life" as an adjective as follows:

Real-life: actually happening in life, not invented in a book:

Examples: 1) a real-life drama 2) real-life problems

However, it does not define "real-world" as an adjective. It simply defines the real world as "the way life really is, not how people would like it to be or imagine it".

Oxford dictionary defines "real-world" as a noun as follows:

Real-world: The existing state of things, as opposed to one that is imaginary, simulated, or theoretical.

Examples: 1) We live in the real world of limited financial resources. 2) the real-world problems that teenagers face

I could not find "real-world applications" or "real-life applications" in my dictionaries. Google suggests about 566,000 and 479,000 results for these expressions, respectively. If these expressions have the same meaning, then which one is better to use? Which one is more formal?

Appearances and usage of "believe on" instead of "believe in."

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 11:00 AM PST

I am curious as to how much "believe on" has been preferred in over "believe in," and how much it has appeared in writing and manuscripts. I know the King James Bible uses it in only two books of its 66, but are there any other places where this queer verb phrase is used? I am thinking there may be a difference but may not. I noticed that in the context of the one work, it seems to be that when "believe on" is used, it is always used purely by someone saying something happened and people believing just because it is said, without seeing it. This would be rather useful in speech. I myself haven't thought much of it and actually do use these two distinctly and probably still will -- one for faith, one for having seen, but I am curious as to if this was common; why I bring it up is a person mentioned that the two mean the same and are not different. I am thinking it may be a dialectical thing or perhaps a conceptual -- it's not a literal translation of the Greek (which says "into" in every case,) so to me it must be a thing unique to Early Modern English.

I am thinking that it may be just a left over quirk from before "in" and "on" switched usage frequency in english, from the Anglo Saxon roots.

Noun describing one who "acts on emotion primally"?

Posted: 16 Feb 2022 07:57 AM PST

I'm looking for a noun to describe someone who "acts on emotion primally", or something similar.

To clarify, I'm trying to make a point about how the fanaticism of tech-fetishes (iPhone fanboyism and the like) causes people to forgo rational, sometimes even calculated, intelligent responses to criticism. Instead, people lose themselves in irrational, primal competitiveness and negativity; responses near involuntariness and waste potential value.

If any further context is desired, please let me know.

I think the closest word I've come to is primal, but I'd really like a noun and I'm not sure primal is as precise as it could be anyway.

Bonus: If you have a good antonym for the word that describes what I'm trying to say (so it's more along the lines of what I mentioned as rational, calculated, intelligent) I'd love to hear it.
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