Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Figure of speech name for interrupted word

Posted: 10 May 2022 10:50 AM PDT

Is there a name for the figure of speech where the speaker says part of a word then changes to a synonym to emphasize a point?

For example, "I have really been strug- working hard on this for a year." Sometimes there is an "um" or "I mean" between the partial word and the replacement. Also, I think it only happens with verbs.

What I've looked for so far: I looked up Anapodoton, but that is for whole sentences interrupted, as in "When in Rome ..."

The Greek word for "word" is λέξη, so I looked up analegey, but Google would only show "analogy".

I also did the same thing with "verb" (ρήμα), but that shunted to anathema.

Is there an English synonym for 'temporary attached'?

Posted: 10 May 2022 10:23 AM PDT

Are there words in English that are synonyms for temporary attached?

For instance in the sentence: I will be temporarily attached to the XYZ group for two weeks.

Word describing that something is a characteristic unique to something else. Used with +to

Posted: 10 May 2022 11:12 AM PDT

I've lost an English word that is usually used with "to", and that means: "is a unique characteristic of something", or "is used only in connection with something".

We would use it in a sentence like this:

Wings are not <...> to birds, you can find them among insects and unicorns.

Which would mean

Wings are not only inherent to birds, you can find them among insects and unicorns.

or

Wings are not unique to birds...

or

Wings are not exclusive to birds...

"Only inherent to" is not the one because it's three words instead of two. Unique or exclusive are not the ones because with them "to birds" is redundant, and this particular word requires an object.

everybody who have vs everybody who has [closed]

Posted: 10 May 2022 07:59 AM PDT

Is it correct to write

The site provides free knowledge for everybody who have an internet connection

or is it rather

… for everybody who has …

What does "You can step" mean?

Posted: 10 May 2022 07:56 AM PDT

It's from the movie Love Jones (1997) Two black men talking about one of them bringing to a party a woman despite that he's married. Here's their conversation:

"But you're married and all". "Yeah, you know what? People grow apart. You get a wife you advise me on mine. Ya'all just falling in love. Falling in love ain't shit. Someone please tell me how to stay there. Do I love my wife? Yes. Is she here? No. As far as I'm concerned, all of you'all can step"

He stresses this last word but I don't quite understand, what does it mean? The only answer I can think of is "Any of you can hit on my wife" but it's kinda strange.

Are English Wikipedia articles written in British English (BrE) or American English (AmE)? [closed]

Posted: 10 May 2022 09:36 AM PDT

Wikipedia allows multiple languages for its articles. But how about dialects? English has multiple varieties. How does that work at Wikipedia?

It's one thing to know the policy that Wikipedia has about different standards for the different Englishes. But if they allow different standards, is one favored over the other? By how much?

Does somebody know that? What is the reason?

Possible to tell the difference between the comparative adjective and the adverbial phrase here?

Posted: 10 May 2022 04:31 AM PDT

This sentence is from an interview I am proofreading:

I sometimes believe that a person outside of me can see my aesthetic easier than I can see my own.

My first instinct was of course to suggest changing "easier" to "more easily". I really don't like to suggest changes (for interviews) if I don't have to, and after reading similar examples in other spots on the site, I started wondering if there isn't a way to leave this sentence as is... (1) it is not uncommon for North Americans to incorrectly choose the adjective form (especially when speaking); (2) one might think that the "person outside" sees the speaker's aesthetic as being easy, and so as being easier than the speaker sees it as being (though I get the feeling that it is even more of a stretch to interpret the "than I can see my own" as meaning "than I can see my own as being").

I get the feeling that perhaps I have simply had too much coffee this morning and am overthinking to the point of absurdity. Any help would be appreciated here.

What is the connotation of “The Hitchhiker's Guide to XYZ”?

Posted: 10 May 2022 09:46 AM PDT

I am a software engineer, I have read some book/articles with the title "The Hitchhiker's Guide to XYZ", e.g. "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python" or "The Hitchhiker's Guide to GitHub" or "Hitchhikers Guide To Modern Enterprise JavaScript" (just to show a few examples)

I guess the titles are a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I don't read the book but I watched the movie. I guess it is because of the culture difference and I am not a native speaker I didn't appreciate the movie. To me it is just a "bizarre" movie.

But what is the connotation of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to XYZ" ?

life and its piks [closed]

Posted: 10 May 2022 02:37 AM PDT

I have been fascinated with living things since childhood. Growing up in northern California, I spent a lot of time playing outdoors among plants and animals. Some of my friends and I would sneak up on bees as they pollinated flowers and trap them in Ziploc bags so we could get a close look at their obsidian eyes and golden hairs before returning the insects to their daily routines. Sometimes I would make crude bows and arrows from bushes in my backyard, using stripped bark for string and leaves for fletchings. On family trips to the beach I learned how to quickly dig crustaceans and arthropods out of their hiding spots by watching for bubbles in the sand as the most recent wave retreated. And I vividly recall an elementary school field trip to a grove of eucalyptus trees in Santa Cruz, where thousands of migrating monarch butterflies had stopped to rest. They clung to branches in great brown globs, resembling dead leaves—until one stirred and revealed the fiery orange inside of its wings.

Hypernym for the words "add" and "reduce" [closed]

Posted: 10 May 2022 02:13 AM PDT

For example, to add or reduce the amount of apples in a basket

Real example is to add or reduce the amount of margin in a trading account for contract trading

It's ok to write "Did you have any chance to review it?" [closed]

Posted: 10 May 2022 12:35 AM PDT

I'm going to ask if someone had time to review it.
I learned that "Did you get a chance to review it" is correct.
But "Did you have any chance to review it?" is wrong?
Already I sent a message to someone, I just wanna check.

When to use 'out of' and 'of'? [closed]

Posted: 09 May 2022 11:37 PM PDT

I am asking this in the context of a sentence: "Why to pick this packet on the shelves of many?" Should it be 'on the shelves of many' or 'on the shelves out of many'? The second option is suggested by my English tutor.

Help on a GRE text completion practice question [closed]

Posted: 10 May 2022 03:39 AM PDT

This is a text completion practice question from the official ETS guide.

No other contemporary poet's work has such a well-earned reputation for (i) _________ and there are few whose moral vision is so imperiously unsparing. Of late, however, the almost belligerent demands of his severe and densely forbidding poetry have taken an improbable turn. This new collection is the poet's fourth book in six years - an ample output even for poets of sunny disposition, let alone for one of such (ii) _________ over the previous 50 years. Yet for all his newfound (iii) _________, his poetry is as thorny as ever.

question screenshot

Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
patent accessibility penitential austerity taciturnity
intrinsic frivolity intractable prolixity volubility
near impenetrability impetuous prodigality pellucidity

For the 2nd blank, intractable prolixity makes sense to me, as –

  1. prolixity accounts for being hard to understand (near impenetrability from 1st blank).
  2. intractable accounts for the imperiously unsparing.
  3. Also, intractable is in contrast with sunny disposition.

But, the guide's explanation argues penitential austerity being the correct answer saying it's in contrast with ample output.

The issues I see with this argument, and hence not agree, are –

  1. The "even for ... let alone" emphasizes the sunny disposition part, and not ample output.
  2. I don't see how ample output is in contrast with penitential austerity.
  3. There is no indication of repentance in the text, which makes penitence questionable.

Which answer is correct - penitential austerity or intractable prolixity?

To make sure anything doesn't get lost in my interpretation, below is the explanation from the guide.

Since the author of the paragraph has described the poet's reputation as "well—earned", the correct completion for Blank (i) must be something that is consistent with what the rest of the passage says about the poet's work. Only "near impenetrability" fulfills this requirement, since the next sentence tells us that the poet's work is "severe" and "densely forbidding", which rule out both accessibility and frivolity. The Blank (ii) completion must contrast with "ample output", and of the available options, only "penitential austerity" does so. Finally, the word in Blank (iii), since it is preceded by "newfound" must refer to the change that has occurred in the poet's work. The change the paragraph has described is an increase in output, so "volubility" is the correct choice.

explanation screenshot

Thanks

Is the word order in "know what's what" correct?

Posted: 10 May 2022 10:28 AM PDT

There's an expression: "to know what's what", as in: "He's been around for a long time - he knows what's what." (ref: Cambridge Dictionary).

But recently I started wondering: isn't it an embedded question? If so, shouldn't it actually be: "He's been around for a long time - he knows what what is."?

Should I use the plural or singular verbs for the biological classification of orders, families, tribes, genera etc.?

Posted: 10 May 2022 04:01 AM PDT

Some examples from Wikipedia:

The hydrangea is a genus...

The Heliantheae (sometimes called the sunflower tribe) are the third-largest tribe in the sunflower family (Asteraceae).

The family Asteraceae (/ˌæstəˈreɪsiː/),[citation needed] alternatively Compositae (/kəmˈpɒzɪtiː/),[citation needed] consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae were first described in the year 1740.

Asterales /æstəˈreɪliːz/ is an order of dicotyledonous flowering plants that includes the large family Asteraceae (or Compositae) known for composite flowers made of florets, and ten families related to the Asteraceae.

What is the regularity or rule for using singular or plural verbs for them, and why?

"under the ten minutes" vs "under ten minutes"

Posted: 10 May 2022 05:01 AM PDT

By the end of Chapter 5 of The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle, there is a usage that I have never seen before: "under the ten minutes".

The context:

Until we got three-quarters down Regent Street. Then my gentleman threw up the trap, and he cried that I should drive right away to Waterloo Station as hard as I could go. I whipped up the mare and we were there under the ten minutes.

Is "under the ten minutes" exactly the same as "under ten minutes"? Or do they have different shades of meanings?

"Something's wrong" vs "Something wrong" [closed]

Posted: 10 May 2022 06:05 AM PDT

I need this to provide a warning message in my software. "Something's wrong" seems more appropriate to my ear, but I have seen people using "Something wrong".

Are they both correct?

How would you describe a situation where you can only stop something by doing it first?

Posted: 10 May 2022 11:03 AM PDT

I'd like to know what this situation is called.

The gist is the only way you can stop something is by doing it first.

A real world example is a MS Windows feature called sticky keys. You can turn on sticky keys by pressing the shift key 5 times in quick succession. It will then make a beep. Every time the shift key is pressed another beep will occur.

Now someone says that the beep from pressing the shift key must stop (no speaker control) but the shift key must still be usable.

The only way to turn off sticky keys is to press the shift key 5 times in quick succession resulting in further beeps. The 6th press will not produce a beep.

Anyway, hope that makes sense.

I don't believe this is a catch 22 but correct me if I'm wrong.

A word for the experience and vernacular of a group of people - Discord? Is this correct?

Posted: 10 May 2022 04:34 AM PDT

In college, I took a class called technical writing. It has been a while, but this is my recollection. Discord is defined as the collection of vernacular and experiences of a group of people. For instance, a programmer might use the phrase "assembly". The layman might think they mean a group of people, but they were actually talking about the computer language. This phrase exists as part of the discord of programmers, and it has its own meaning in the context of other programmers.

The context through which I learned this phrase was something like "when writing a technical document, the writer must consider the discord of his/her audience to be effective". For instance, when writing a manual for a layman, a wise programmer might refrain from using the phrase "assembly" without due explanation. The writer must consider the discord (the experiences, vernacular, feelings, etc) of the audience, or else they may be confused or not understand the document at all.

My question: Is this a correct usage of the word discord? Have I mis-remembered the actual word for this? I do not have access to the original coursework. I have tried several times in past years to research this concept in more detail but I cannot seem to find any data on this. If this is the correct term/definition, then why can't I find any reading on it? Thanks.

"Since" being used in conditional sentences

Posted: 10 May 2022 09:01 AM PDT

I've come across this line in a movie:

Ever since she got her test results back, she'd get mad whenever someone asked her about it.

I've known about how "since" can only be used in present/past perfect tense but in this case, it's a conditional sentence.

Is it true that "since" is usable here? If not, how else should the sentence be rewritten?

"base documents" vs. "basic documents" for commonly referenced sources

Posted: 10 May 2022 08:04 AM PDT

As a non-native speaker, I might be mislead here. I tend to prefer base documents because I think base is a better word for something used as a foundation - and basic might translate to simple. However, when searching for both terms, it appears they are used almost interchangeably, and I have a hard time finding out if one of the two is preferred, or maybe just regionally preferred (AE vs BE or the like).

The exact context is a good term for documents like standards or laws used as references or sources for technical specifications. The term references doesn't seem to be exactly right, because a reference can be anything, and a base/basic document might be a better hint towards the fact that the documents are referenced similar to a tree structure, i.e. the specifications cite a standard, and never the other way round.

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

Posted: 10 May 2022 03:07 AM PDT

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.

Confusion with parallel construction of the infinitives "to acknowledge" and "to accept"

Posted: 10 May 2022 02:07 AM PDT

In the following sentences, the parallel construction of the infinitives "to acknowledge" and "to accept" have, at least temporarily, befuddled me. Should it be

To acknowledge the equality of black folks would also, so it was believed, accept a lowered status for rural whites.

OR

To acknowledge the equality of black folks would be also, so it was believed, to accept a lowered status for rural whites.

Paraphrasing "My favourite..."

Posted: 10 May 2022 01:05 AM PDT

Would it be correct to say

The animal that appeals to me most is...

or

... is the animal that greatly appeals to me.

in the meaning of "My favourite animal is..."?

Adjective/adverb modifier

Posted: 10 May 2022 07:04 AM PDT

  • The decision affects people at large.
  • The decision affects people in general.

What role do the phrases at large and in general perform here? Are they used as adjective modifiers of the noun people, or adverb modifiers of the verb affects?

Evolution of the word "dick"

Posted: 10 May 2022 07:35 AM PDT

I'm preparing for an upcoming presentation for a class on Richard Nixon and Watergate. Nixon was given the name "Tricky Dick." The name "Dick" as a nickname for someone named Richard was very common. I happened to mention this to a younger teacher in my office and they thought I was joking.

The word "dick" nowadays refers to male genitalia in a negative way. The use of the word "dick" in "Private dick" (a detective) does not seem related...at least I couldn't see any connection.

When and why did the word "dick" change from a common nickname to an almost exclusive reference to male genitalia?

Please note, I am not interested in the etymology of the word. I want to know why the word has almost completely shifted meaning. Was there a popular event or phrase that shifted the meaning? The only other word that comes to mind in this way is "gay," which the dictionary still defines as "happy" and used to be used a lot but is now almost completely relegated to the meaning "homosexual." A quick search under "Nixon campaign button" on Google provides many results which currently would be unacceptable for use but at the time were quite OK. Here is a link. Here is another.

What's the difference betweeen "crime" and "criminality"?

Posted: 10 May 2022 08:03 AM PDT

One definition of criminality is

a criminal act

which is exactly what a crime is. I realize that both crime and criminality can be collective nouns for acts of unlawfulness as when we say

Violent crime in the US has dropped over the last two decades.

And here's a link to a site that discusses

the possible connection between environmental lead levels and the drop in criminality

But I'm confused as to whether there's a difference between the two words. For instance, here's a book title

Environmental Crime and Criminality: Theoretical and Practical Issues

If the two words meant the same thing, the inclusion of both in the title would be redundant. This implies a difference. But here's another book title

Crimes by the Capitalist State: An Introduction to State Criminality

The colon implies that the following words are a restatement of the foregoing words and thus that the two words mean the same thing.

Can someone explain this to me?
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