Thursday, April 7, 2022

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Is there a phrase for "the boy who cried wolf" when the boy stops crying wolf because the townsfolk won't believe him anyway?

Posted: 07 Apr 2022 06:01 AM PDT

In the Fable of "The Boy who cried Wolf", the townsfolk end up not believing the boy when there actually is a wolf because he lied about there being a wolf so many times, leading to the flock of sheep getting eaten.

Now, suppose the townsfolk stopped believing him way earlier, and the boy stopped crying wolf, even if there really is a wolf, because he knows the townfolk won't believe him anyway.

Is there a term/proverb that can be used to describe this boy? Maybe something from a different fable or a real world event?

Using colon and semi-colon in a list

Posted: 07 Apr 2022 05:39 AM PDT

I saw this sentence structure on this document online: Application for a Social Security Card.

Can you tell me why there is no "period" in this structure? Where can I learn how to use a colon like this?

As proof of your identity, you must provide a:

  • U.S. driver's license; or
  • U.S. State-issued non-driver identity card; or
  • U.S. passport

What's a word that means a brainteaser or puzzle so easy that you must be stupid if you can't solve it? [duplicate]

Posted: 07 Apr 2022 04:29 AM PDT

There's a type of question I've seen on YouTube (but can't find now) that is asked like a brainteaser, but is too easy to be really called a "brainteaser", but some (a small minority) people (including apparently normal healthy educated native speaker adults) surprisingly cannot solve.

Here's some examples.

  1. Q: If you have traveled for one hour at sixty miles per hour, how far have you traveled? A: Sixty miles.

  2. Q: There are fifteen sheep. All but seven die. How many sheep are still alive? A: Seven.

They are in a sense tests of English, in that they test knowledge of what "miles per hour", and "all but" mean in English and little else. But "English question" doesn't seem right, especially since being a native speaker of English seems not to guarantee ability to solve the question. They are not exactly tricky for most people, so "trick question" and "tricky question" also doesn't seem right either.

I have tried Googling "stupidity test", "stupidity question", "antibrainteaser", but none of them bring up the sort of questions I am looking for. What would be a search term that would work, or what would be a good name for this type of question/puzzle?

What does "A penny saved is two pence clear" mean? [closed]

Posted: 07 Apr 2022 02:39 AM PDT

I found this quote from Benjamin Franklin, but I don't know what does it mean. Could someone explain this to me please?

Studies into OSV in English

Posted: 07 Apr 2022 02:07 AM PDT

There is a somewhat uncommon type of OSV form in spoken and literary English that I've noticed. This is also famously how Yoda talks, and there have been a few question here asking about it in other literary works. Wikipedia also says it's used in hyperbation, but it seems to imply that this is where it ends in natural English. However, I've noticed in common speech as well. Consider the following sentence I heard from a friend.

It's really only my bio mom. My bio dad I have never met.

To me, this doesn't feel like an unnatural sentence. I could imagine saying this if the thought of my bio dad came first in my mind and how that relates to what I said before came after. Like "My bio dad....I have never met".

This form also seems to me to be very similar to the contrast-emphasizing topic marker in Korean and Mongolian (and I think Japanese too) where you can start the sentence with the object attaching the topic marker and making that what the sentence is about. It might look like "Him-(topic) I like" (as opposed to someone else I don't like). This is despite the fact that these languages are generally SOV. Indeed, that Wikipedia article states that this phenomena in SOV languages could have been how actual OSV languages developed according to some theoretical analyses.

I am curious if this phenomena in common English is studied more rigorously elsewhere and if they are able to tie it to other languages and their grammars.

What is the correct conjugation in this sentence?

Posted: 07 Apr 2022 01:30 AM PDT

I recently stumbled across the sentence below, but I'm not sure which version is correct (or more specifically, I personally am pretty sure it's the second one, but other people disagreed):

The problem is the rules.

or

The problem are the rules.

I would argue that the second version is correct, as I think "the rules" are what dictate the conjugation here. If the sentence were flipped, "The rules is the problem" is very obviously incorrect (as far as I can tell).

Curiously, when using DeepL to translate this sentence from my mother tongue (German) to English, I'm given the option between is/are, but "is" is the default suggestion. However, when translating from EN to DE, I don't get an option to pick the singular "ist", which makes sense, as that would most certainly be incorrect (but English grammar might be different, hence the question).
Even more interestingly, when translating the flipped sentence to EN, I also get both options, but the default is "are".

What is, therefore, the correct conjugation for the sentence above?

Correct form of this sentence

Posted: 07 Apr 2022 01:20 AM PDT

What would be the correct form of the verb in this sentence? They all have a noun clause a the subject followed by to be.

What you can do is playing with them.

What you can do is to play with them.

What you can do is play with them.

I always thought the first two are grammatical as it stands as a noun (object of the sentence), so it should be a gerund or infinitive. But recently I have encountered some instances of the third case. I also looked some similar structures up on corpus and found similar instances:

What you can do is take seeds from the crop that the seeds grew and then use them. (independent.co.uk)

What you can do is assess the risks and hazards and set up ways of reducing risk. (guardian.co.uk)

If the third one, using bare infinitive, is syntactically correct, how do you justify it? Is it considered an adjective of sorts here?

Noun + Nouns - Singular or plural

Posted: 07 Apr 2022 04:42 AM PDT

I am having difficulty expressing something in shorter form. For instance, I am writing that

Something results in two fermion propagators and another photon propagator emerging in some diagram.

I would like to avoid overusing the word propagator and thus I am thinking that I should be writing something like

Something results in two fermion and another photon propagators emerging in some diagram.

or

Something results in two fermion and another photon propagator emerging in some diagram.

Which is correct??

Is the sentence "Still be worried about..." correct? [migrated]

Posted: 06 Apr 2022 08:37 PM PDT

Still be worried about the score?"

Is this sentence correct in written English or Oral English? I want to know whether we can start the sentence with "still".

1930s slang: "low roader"

Posted: 06 Apr 2022 07:57 PM PDT

In various English consulates throughout the world in the 1930s, expatriate Britons who caused trouble due to illegal or unethical behavior were known as "bad hats." The term "bad actors" also comes to mind - and is used in American English as well. But I came across the term "low roaders" in reference to unsavory American citizens abroad. Was this the equivalent of "bad actors" or did it infer something else?

In this new day or on this new day? [closed]

Posted: 07 Apr 2022 12:07 AM PDT

Which is the correct form in each case?

  • in this new day or on this new day.

  • In this blissful morning or on this blissful morning.

I know we unarguably have in the morning.

The problem lies on whether to use in/on with a demonstrative adjective following day or time of the day in a sentence.

The person who received a complaint from someone

Posted: 07 Apr 2022 03:03 AM PDT

I'm creating a policy and procedure in one of my subjects and am wondering is there another way of saying "a person that received a complaint". I know there's way for a person being complained about but not the receiver of the complaint for example;

The person who received a complaint will report the incident to the General Manager

Looking for a replacement for 'person who received a complaint'

Usage of the phrase "do not play the saint"

Posted: 06 Apr 2022 11:40 PM PDT

I have noticed that some Maltese-speaking people tend to use the phrase "do not play the saint". It's intended to mean "Do not act all innocent" or "Do not act so 'holier-than-thou'".

Is this phrase in current usage in British or American English? I've only seen it used by Maltese-speaking people and I always thought that it was a direct translation from the Maltese phrase.

I do know that the verb "to play" can, and is, used before certain nouns, such as "to play the hero", or "to play the fool", so technically there is nothing wrong with the phrase "to play the saint" - but what I want to know is whether this is actually in use.

The only non-Maltese use of it I could find is the song 'Playing the Saint' by Digital Summer.

Is there a word for someone that eats and enjoys food as a way to understand people and culture?

Posted: 07 Apr 2022 01:41 AM PDT

Gourmet, connoisseur, epicure, gastronome, foodie, and such words (as I understand them) imply a focus on the quality of food and a discriminating taste. Gourmand has come to mean that as well, with an emphasis on eating a lot of food (similar to glutton?).

But I think there are a lot of people that are interested in food as a way to get to know other cultures and/or other people, and I can't think of a word that encapsulates that very well. People who travel to different parts of the world to seek out street food, or to try to get invited to people's houses to try things they could never get in a restaurant, etc. What is the closest word to describe this?

"I heard Jessica is a foodie."

"She's more of a xxxxxx than a foodie — you'll never find her at Jean-Georges. Much more likely she'll be in an underground mall in Flushing, trying some dish I've never heard of"

What is the origin of the phrase "up the guts"

Posted: 06 Apr 2022 09:35 PM PDT

'Up the guts' is a colloquial phrase used in New Zealand and Australia generally to refer to a direct (both literal and figurative) approach to something.

It is somewhat vulgar, but not generally considered offensive.

It is used in everyday language, but is particularly common in Rugby and sporting lexicon, in which it means to run or play the ball straight (generally through the opposition rather than around them), covering the shortest distance possible in order to score a point.

For example:

Person A: "What's the play?"

Person B: "Nothing fancy. Straight up the guts."

It has been claimed by some to have misogynistic origins, however I can't find any proof or explanation of this.

Any help much appreciated.

Linking word for "in exchange"?

Posted: 07 Apr 2022 05:07 AM PDT

I'm looking for a linking word that can connect two sentences:

Omitting the predefined parameter relaxes the potential charging destinations at a step to be the entire sensors, thereby expanding the potential trajectory space. ______, it requires the charging algorithm to strike a balance between extending the network lifetime and the efficiency of the MC.

I mean, I am doing action A to gain an advantage B, "in exchange", I have to accept a disadvantage C (I don't want to deal with it, but, it is acceptable since we gain advantage B).

What linking words I can use instead of "in exchange" in this situation? Actually, I don't even know whether "in exchange" exists or not :(

Why can't we say "sign in into"?

Posted: 07 Apr 2022 04:51 AM PDT

When it comes to the sentence "Sign in to your account", I understand why it is more proper to say "sign in to" as opposed to "sign into". Sign in is a phrasal verb and to is the preposition.

However, I cannot find the proper explanation as to why it's improper to say "sign in into your account".

My partner and I are both engineers, so his argument is that when you sign in, you are in fact going INTO an account. This just does not sit right with me, but I cannot put into words why.

Also, would the sentence "Sign in to mywebsite" change anything? "Sign into mywebsite"? "Sign in into mywebsite"?

What is the fear of being upside down called?

Posted: 07 Apr 2022 04:37 AM PDT

I have a fear of being upside down. What's the scientific name of my phobia?

I can't even think of bungee jumping. It literally makes me overthink everything. For example, what if the rope breaks and I fall but don't die. I know it's not very smart thinking about this stuff but I just do it unconsciously.

"We have showed that"/ "We have shown that" or "We showed that"?

Posted: 06 Apr 2022 09:33 PM PDT

In the summary of my physics paper, for a scientific journal, in the start of a new paragraph in the discussion, what is more correct to write?

We have showed that the system obeys this and that rules, …

or:

We have shown that …

or simply:

We showed that …

The difference between "test" and "testing"

Posted: 07 Apr 2022 05:04 AM PDT

I am working on software unit tests these days, while I found most results in the web tend to use "unit testing" rather than "unit test". If you search "unit test" in google, you will see "unit testing" from wikipedia.

"Software testing" is also used more frequently than "software test".

From what I can get from dictionary. "testing" means the generic activity, and "test"means every small action in this activity.

Am I right?

Thank you!

test: countable noun A test is a deliberate action or experiment to find out how well something works.

testing: 2. uncountable noun Testing is the activity of testing something or someone in order to find out information.

Does extraposition work in "I made happy my friend who..."?

Posted: 07 Apr 2022 01:07 AM PDT

Can we use extraposition rule in the situations like below?

"I made my friend who came here last week happy"

Can it be like this?

"I made happy my friend who came here last week"

What word/phobia refers to the fear that ceilings will fall on you?

Posted: 07 Apr 2022 04:41 AM PDT

What word/phobia refers to the fear that ceilings will fall on you?

Example:

John's ______ made him decide to live in a bungalow, because he thinks one ceiling falling on him would not be sufficient to kill him, but two or more would.

the usage of "former"

Posted: 06 Apr 2022 09:20 PM PDT

You can say "he's a former teacher", to refer to someone who used to be a teacher but not now.

But can we say "your former teacher" to refer to "your last teacher"?

Are the both the same or is there a difference between them, even a subtle one in meaning?

Subject/Complement Agreement. How to describe problem with "The thing is/are the objects."

Posted: 07 Apr 2022 05:01 AM PDT

In my ell answer, version 32, I provided the following, problematic, wording (especially bold italic), and I need help to better understand this issue so I can fix my answer:1

The thing is the books. (Reduced form of Sentence 2.a)

Fundamentally, Sentence 2.a (the so-called "correct" answer), is grammatically defective. Recall there is another grammatical rule: the subject and subject's complement should match in number.

A clarification is needed here. I am not suggesting here, in this EL&U question, that there is any such singular grammatical rule as indicated in the quote above. The quote continues as follows:

The reduced sentence makes the disagreement between the subject's and complement's plurality obvious. What is one to do? Language is linear and we know "The thing is X" is better than "The thing are X", so we go with the former, which is the subject-verb agreement rule. But what is "the books" then? It must be thought of as a collective noun, even if it doesn't look or feel like one. Forcing something to be a collective noun is related to the idea of notional agreement.

Others noted that grammatically defective is too strongly worded. There is no such "grammatical rule" for subject/complement agreement. Please help me understand/improve upon my line of thought here. I'm stating that Sentence 2.1 presents a fundamental "conflict" or "error" (however one might define error) at some level (morphological, syntax, grammatical, semantic):

The thing is the books. (Or, "The thing is the objects.")

Based on the "obvious" morphosyntactic plurality conflict, the above sentence feels so wrong that I think many native speakers would think it "simply" grammatically incorrect. However, @F.E. gives counter examples:

And here are some more grammatical examples, where the number of subject and predicative complement don't agree: "They were a problem to us all", "That so-called work of art is simply four pieces of driftwood glued together" (CGEL, page 254-5). As CGEL says: "What is required is semantic compatibility, not syntactic agreement . . .". There are more examples on page 512: "The only thing we need now is some new curtains", "The major asset of the team is its world-class opening bowlers", "Our neighbors are a nuisance", "This gadget is five different tools in one".

I think all the examples given above can be explained as notional agreement.

Question 1: If we explain this phenomena in terms of notional vs syntactic agreement, where does "grammatically correct/incorrect" fit in?

Question 2: Can a simple sentence such as "The thing is the objects." be grammatically incorrect while more complex sentences such as "The thing is four pieces of driftwood glued together." be grammatically correct? (The answer, in my mind, must be no; this is my conundrum.)

Question 3: Would it be better to say that Sentence 2.a has a low level of (linguistic) grammaticality?

Question 4: How about a low level of gradient well-formedness and that it's semantically difficult to be (linguistically) acceptable?

Question 5: Do we simply draw a hard line and say "The thing is the objects." is 100% grammatically correct? I didn't particularly like this option based on intuitive notions of "grammatically correct".

1. Please help me and be kind; I'm trying to improve my understanding. I'm looking for cool, objective advice on how to look at this.

I numbered my questions so they can be easily referenced, if desired. My preference is the final answer would sufficiently answer all the questions, but of course that can be done explicitly or implicitly.

What is the word for a fear of hippopotamuses?

Posted: 07 Apr 2022 05:28 AM PDT

The word hippophobia refers to a fear of horses (apparently hippos are "water horses") and the words zoophobia refers to a fear of animals in general, but I can't seem to find a word for a fear exclusively confined to hippopotamuses.

To clarify, I am not talking about the healthy fear that a normal person would have of a large two ton animal being in their close vicinity, but an irrational fear of such a creature even when the situation would not warrant it, i.e. a true phobia. For instance, some children will seem to go through phases where they will have a phobia of something, becoming hysterical on sight of said thing even when they are in a safe protective setting where there is nothing to worry about.
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