Sunday, March 6, 2022

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

A confusion regarding classification of noun

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 09:14 AM PST

I was studying parts of speech and while learning common noun I found a special category that my book refer as plural common noun and there is written The + Adjective gives a plural common noun but there are exceptions. It is written that The deceased and The accused are two exceptions that are not plural common noun instead they work as singular noun.

I did a quick google search but couldn't find anything relevant except this. Looking at the examples in my link I could decide whether these two are common noun (but not plural common noun).

My question- is The deceased or The accused a common noun?

How is "composite" as a verb pronounced in British English?

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 08:33 AM PST

I always pronounce "composite" as COM-posite when it is used as an adjective or a noun. But in some technical contexts as "alpha compositing" it is also used as a verb, and in this case I discovered myself reading out as com-POZ-ite. As a non-native speaker of English, I got unsure about the pronunciation, so I looked up in several dictionaries.

  • Merriam-Websters list (käm-ˈpä-zət) as the main pronunciation, and (ˈkäm-pə-zit) as "especially British".
  • dictionary.com, which uses Random House Unabridged dictionary as its main, lists (kuhm-poz-it) as the only pronunciation, so it seems stressing the second syllable is the norm in American English.
  • dictionary.com also has a British English dictionary when you scroll down, which is Collins English Dictionary. For the adjective and the noun, the given pronuncation is (ˈkɒmpəzɪt), and for the verb, they suggest (ˈkɒmpəˌzaɪt). I also checked the website of Collins dictionary, and when you scroll down, they do list (ˈkɒmpəˌzaɪt) as a pronunciation for the verb with a voice recording.
  • The online version of Oxford and Cambridge English dictionary doesn't have an entry of "composite" as a verb.
  • Wiktionary says (ˈkɒmpəzɪt) is the Canadian or "received" pronunciation and (kəmˈpɑzɪt) is the American pronunciation.

Gathering all these it seems it's okay to stick to (ˈkɒmpəzɪt) regardless of the type (verb, noun, etc.) of the word, but this way, isn't it a bit uncomfortable to pronounce with a suffix, like "compositing" as COM-positing?

I'm wondering how actual British English speakers pronounce this word as a verb. Collins dictionary is making things more confusing as they list (ˈkɒmpəˌzaɪt) as the pronunciation for the verb. It the word actually pronounced this way?

What is correct "for higher lifespan" or "for the higher lifespan"

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 07:23 AM PST

Hello I have this sentence in my Essay for school I and was thinking about whether I should use "for higher lifespan" or "for the higher lifespan". Could somebody help me out, please?

Finally, new technology is responsible for higher lifespan of people. New technologies are curing the diseases of more people every day.

How to memorise numeric sequence for English test? [migrated]

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 05:21 AM PST

I'm preparing for IELTS test and sometimes there are questions require memorizing long sequences such as weird names or phone numbers.

Normally in my mother lang, it's pretty easy to memorize such those sequences (short-time enough) to write it down. But in IELTS tests, I tried a lot of tests with sequences but always failed (failed to remembers and/or failed to write down fast enough those series). Is there any way to improve this ? Any website or suggestion ?

What part of speech is foaming acting as? [migrated]

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 04:47 AM PST

Foaming waves crashed against the wall.

proper construction of a list

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 04:05 AM PST

In a list, the last item is preceded by "and". This sentence appeared in a recent Foreign Affairs article:

The United States and its allies and partners are imposing harsh costs on Moscow.

Shouldn't the and wait to arrive till the last item? Like this:

The United States , its allies, and partners are imposing harsh costs on Moscow.

Is "The United States and its allies" considered as one item?

What's the difference between "she would whine" and "she whined"?

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 04:10 AM PST

I am not sure what the "would" in the following quote mean.

(after a lioness was shot)
At any rate she [=a lioness] got to the bush in safety, and once there, began to make such a diabolical noise as I never heard before. She would whine and shriek with pain, and then burst out into perfect volleys of roaring that shook the whole place.

Henry Rider Haggard, A Tale of Three Lions

What is the difference between "she would whine and shriek" and "she whined and shrieked" here? I appreciate your help very much.

What's the meaning of the phrase "No less a luminary than person X"? [closed]

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 02:38 AM PST

I read a sentence, which contained a phrase "no less a luminary than great Arthur". What does this phrase mean and what concepts should I learn so that I understand these types phrases easily?

Customer can win only one quarterly Prize per year provided he has not won 3 monthly prizes

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 02:21 AM PST

What does this sentence mean? I am confused.

Customer can win only one Quarterly Prize per year provided he has not won 3 monthly prizes.

Does it mean that:

  1. Customer can only win 1 quarterly prize per year if he has not won 3 monthly prizes? OR
  2. Customer can only win 1 quarterly prize per year if he has won 3 monthly prizes?

or does it mean something else?

How to rephrase these two sentences？ [closed]

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 02:03 AM PST

I'm writing something in a scientific context and I came across this issue.

  1. Blood pressure of patients with condition A was higher than patients with condition B.

Q: I want know if I could replace the second 'patients' with 'those'?

  1. AEF in patients with AFP > 400 ng/ml, lesion number > 3, and bilobar involvement disease was higher than AEF in patients with AFP ≤ 400 ng/ml, lesion number ≤ 3, and unilobar involvement disease.

Q: How can I make this sentence more concise, or specifically, how to rephrase the line without presence of "AFP ≤ 400 ng/ml, lesion number ≤ 3, and unilobar involvement disease".

Have I constructed & used "exoplanetship" correctly? If not, what word could be constructed to address the planetary status of an observed phenomenon?

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 07:58 AM PST

In this Astronomy SE answer to Is one transit enough to be confident that we detected an exoplanet I wrote:

See the excellent answers there to get a better idea of the great extent to which the authors have build a scientific case for "exoplanetship" without actually calling it an exoplanet.

Britanica Dictionary's Ask the Editor's Using the Suffix -Ship says:

-Ship is a noun suffix. When you add it to the end of a word, that word becomes a noun. It can be added to a word that is already a noun. When that happens, the noun becomes a different noun.

The noun suffix -ship can change the meaning of a word in several different ways. The three most common new meanings are below.

  • the position, status, or duties of something
  • skill or ability as someone or something

update: I did also do the research mentioned by @EdwinAshworth and found no results so didn't see the need to state it, but now doing so as requested.

I'm using it to achieve the first result, building a case for the status of the observed object to be elevated from unknown to that of an exoplanet.

But I'm not sure if I've done this correctly, so I'd like to ask:

Question: Have I constructed and used "exoplanetship" correctly? If not, what word could be constructed to address the planetary status of an observed phenomenon?

Why does English use the adjective structure "noun-doing" instead of "doing-noun"?

Posted: 05 Mar 2022 09:51 PM PST

A similar question is Using the structure "noun-adjective" as a noun (e.g. "innovation-inclined"). The structure "noun-done" ("innovation-inclined") makes sense to me, because it is consistent with the normal English order "object be done" ("innovation is inclined to") where the noun is the object, and the subject isn't necessarily clear.

However, "noun-doing" defies the English "subject verb object" order where the noun is the object. It sounds like Japanese "S-O-V" to me. One example is "degree-granting campus" instead of "granting-degree campus", whereas the sentence order is "campus grants degree". Why does such structure exist in English?

What is the meaning of the phrase 'charging' in this context?

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 09:00 AM PST

34min - De Bruyne has to score. Another great opening for City and Kevin De Bruyne really should have put that away.

Yet another City attack down their left, getting beyond Milner, and it's a fine cross hung up by Foden with De Bruyne unmarked and charging in at the back post. He makes the ball but directs his header over the top.

Is "its" ambiguous in "This bucket is produced in a factory overseas. Its capacity is small"?

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 03:03 AM PST

I would like to show two sentence patterns:

A) The purpose of the capacitor is not to provide energy. Its capacitance therefore does not have to be large.

B) This bucket is produced in a factory overseas. Its capacity is small.

I think the use of "its" in A) is O.K. as "its" can refer back to capacitor only. At first glance, it could do so to "purpose" and "energy". However, as neither of them can be associated with "capacitance", it is clear that "its capacitance" is the capacitance of the "capacitor".

Furthermore, I think in B), "its" is used in an ambiguous manner. Here, "capacity" can refer back to both "bucket" and the "factory overseas".

Is my understanding correct?

Difference between a word combination "retail fuel company" or "fuel retail company."

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 06:03 AM PST

Please give me your opinions to a word combination "retail fuel industry/company/network/logistics" or "fuel retail industry/company/network/logistics." What is primary in this word combination a word "retail" or "fuel," or there is no difference between them?

I have seen in the Internet different word combinations "retail fuel company" or "fuel retail company," but when we talk about "retailers," there is always "fuel retailers."

Thank you for your time and answers!

Can a place name modify something else

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 05:00 AM PST

I have looked up the proper way to punctuate place names (for example San Francisco, California) and am wondering if they can be used to modify something else.

Here is what I have so far:

The "Spicy Ramen Festival" of San Jose, California, was held on April 7th at the Johnson Community Center.

But it sounds better to say verbally:

San Jose, California's "Spicy Ramen Festival" was held on April 7th at the Johnson Community Center.

It this grammatical?

Thank you.

Example of future subjunctive?

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 08:01 AM PST

I received an email suggesting that we do something:

"next week, when we would have been" doing something else.

Would you call this an example of future subjunctive? If not, then what? Perhaps it's a present perfect subjunctive?

I have been searching for an answer and have found few sites with any reference to a counterfactual statement set in the future.

What does "Think truly, and thy thoughts shall the world's famine feed." mean?

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 07:05 AM PST

I'm reading a book, and I came across the following quote by Horatius Bonar.

Think truly, and thy thoughts shall the world's famine feed.

Could anybody explain what it means?

A person who criticizes his own homeland/city/country?

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 01:18 AM PST

He was born and brought up in this village, but after staying and studying abroad his childhood friends seem backwards to him; he _ this place now.

Or

He had lived in this city all his life but whenever he gets a chance he starts counting the flaws. He thanklessly _ his homeland.

It might even apply to a situation like say you party every weekend but if somebody else does the same you criticize them.

Note: Read title: act of crticizing one's own homeland/city/country

I can use words like criticize, betray or badmouth in my sentences, but I am looking for more like an idiom or phrase or even a proverb, that may or may not fit into my sentences but explains the intent.

The intent here is being a hypocrite to an extent, yes but there's an addition of viewing one's own homeland or people as backwards(where I don't think that person has changed, they are just trying to show off).

In hindi there's a saying "jis thali me khaya usme ched kiya" which means destroying the plate in which you are served. I'm kinda looking for an english analog for this proverb. I thought "don't shit where you eat" would be the close but it was hilarious to find out it's meaning and of course that it's nowhere close.

Where does the idiom “root for something” come from?

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 01:13 AM PST

I am familiar with the idiom "to root for something" meaning that I am hoping for something to happen or taking the side of something.

But what does this have to do with roots? Does it mean that I am putting my root where somebody else stands?

Where did this idiom originate?

Difference between "patrimony" and "heritage"

Posted: 06 Mar 2022 02:19 AM PST

I'd like to know if there's a difference in meaning and usage between the words "patrimony" and "heritage".

I've noticed there's some overlapping between the two, but it's not clear to me how they differ. If I understand things right, heritage is not necessarily related to wealth. There's cultural heritage, historical heritage, natural heritage. I suppose the word "patrimony" isn't fit for these contexts, right? But when we are talking about wealth and money being inherited by someone, is it correct to use both terms? Are they interchangeable or is there a difference?

Thank you!

A word for the person after whom someone or something is named

Posted: 05 Mar 2022 09:07 PM PST

I believe it's a common practice in some communities to name children after their grandparents or parents or relatives and sometimes even friends and popular people. Places, roads, streets etc., get named after famous people, too. Many inventions and discoveries have been named after people who invented or discovered them.

But I am not yet aware of a term that refers to the person whose name is given to people, places or objects this way. Is there a suitable word to fill in the blank below?

They named their son after the famous football player, David Beckham.

David Beckham is .......... of their son.
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