Tuesday, June 7, 2022

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Last names capitalized in 18th century? [closed]

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 04:58 PM PDT

Were last names capitalized in the 18th century?

Should the "Only Comma" be used in the event where there are others, but they are no longer living?

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 04:38 PM PDT

On page 32 of Dreyer's English, it uses the following example:

He traveled to Pompeii with his daughter Clara.

Mark Twain could have (theoretically) been the subject here, following the death of his other two daughters, Suzy and Jean.

Dreyer's English says "Only daughter? If so, comma" [ie: "...with his daughter, Clara."]

What if Clara has at least one sister, but she or they has/have died (as was true for Clara from 1909 to her own death in 1962)? Is she considered an only daughter during the time period during which she is the only surviving daughter?

Is "that of" used here correctly?

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 05:24 PM PDT

I wonder if "that of" used in the following question doesn't create grammatical error. If it does, then I also wonder the corrected form or alternatives.

The statement:

The running time devided by a factor reflects the performance of the CPU used here compared to that of used in the previous research.

Why Family Members Use "Your" When Commenting About Other Family Members [closed]

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 01:37 PM PDT

For ex. When my sister starts a conversation about another person in the family such as my brother, she starts out as "I just talked to your brother..." The possessive pronoun she & other choose to use is your instead of our if she must use a pronoun. Makes me think there a purposeful meaning behind her choice.

Fine by me answer to two options [closed]

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 01:26 PM PDT

I say " I don't want to be your girlfriend any longer and if we can't be friends that is ok too" he responds " That's fine by me" means what?? Does it mean he doesn't want to be friend and he is ok with not being his girlfriend?

How to find the correct form of verb in ambiguous subjects.? [migrated]

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 02:12 PM PDT

Neelima, my best friend / and the Head of this department / are leaving / on Monday./no error

I came across this sentence in my exam, I couldn't figure out if the head of this department and Neelima are/is the same person or not?

For teaching purpose [closed]

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 12:52 PM PDT

Please, give me the right answers with explanation, if possible .

  1. The emergency exit was concealed.... a red curtain.

(a) by
(b) with
(c) in

  1. Audiences are attracted by...advertisement and tend to buy the product blindly.

(a) colorful
(b) aggressive

Grammatical redundancy in an English sentence

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 02:43 PM PDT

Please, help me with my course work.

I'm writing about grammar redundancy (It's when some grammatical meaning in the sentence is repeated twice or even more). BUT I didn't find any examples of it on the Internet or in books. I came up only with something like: "She reads" - there the meaning of the third person singular is expressed twice, or "these are my books" - the plurality is expressed twice)

However, I have no more examples and don't know where to find them and how to be sure they are connected with grammatical redundancy, not lexical.

Can you tell me how to find them in the sentence, give more examples, or say where I can read about it, maybe, some studies?

Thanks a lot!

Require not vs. require do not

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 11:42 AM PDT

Which one is correct? I'm confused about whether I should say "require that someone does not do something" or "require that someone not do something"

The Insurance Bureau requires that commissions and bonus do not exceed additional premium from policies sold.

vs.

The insurance Bureau requires that commissions and bonus not exceed additional premium from policies sold

Is it correct to use the verb ‘feel’ with stuff? [closed]

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 12:37 PM PDT

I felt that my conversations with him was unfulfilling.

I had the feeling that my conversations with him were unfulfilling.

Can I correctly change either of the above into:

My conversations with him felt unfulfilling.

To my knowledge, in the above sentence one might use 'sounded', but to make it more touchable, can I use 'felt'.

How to say this more concisely with less redundancy? [closed]

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 09:30 AM PDT

I felt like I had a privileged access to something that most people had no access to.

How to say the above more concisely? I feel like the sentence suffers from redundancy. Is it so? I am saying that especially because I used 'access' twice.

What is the word to express the fact that 'it will not require doing something'?

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 11:07 AM PDT

Creating a spare disk will 'x' the need for more disk space.

What is the replacement for 'x' — I can think of 'prevent', 'negate', 'skip', but I am looking for a better word to convey that 'it will not require doing something'.

What is the meaning of 'how' in "How unique?"? [closed]

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 11:13 AM PDT

I was wondering about the semantic meaning of 'how' in this phrase.

How unique?

Could it be taken out and left as just "Unique?" Or does it actually give meaning to the phrase?

An informal term used for someone who has an affinity for American culture?

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 05:01 PM PDT

I came across the term in an online article, and it wasn't "Americanophile"

: a person who greatly admires or favors America or things from American culture

Merriam-Webster online

Is there an informal term?

Sample sentence:

OMG! He was born in Asia, and lives in Asia, but all he eats is hamburgers,; all he watches is American reality TV; and the only music he likes is LA rap. He is such a / so ________________!

What is the history of the incomplete "can"/"could" verb?

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 11:18 AM PDT

The verb can/could is incomplete in the following sense. There is a present tense:

  • I can
  • You can
  • He/she/it can
  • […]

There is also a past tense:

  • I could
  • You could
  • He/she/it could
  • […]

But there is no future, future perfect, imperfect or infinitive. You have to use forms of "to be able" for that.

What is the history of this verb? Was it ever complete and did the other forms become archaic? Is its incompleteness unique in English? Are there other English verbs with no infinitive for example?

Etymonline says

Old English 1st & 3rd person singular present indicative of cunnan "to know," less commonly as an auxiliary, "to have power to, to be able," (also "to have carnal knowledge"), from Proto-Germanic *kunnjanan "to be mentally able, to have learned" (source also of Old Norse kenna "to become acquainted, try," Old Frisian kanna "to recognize, admit, know," German kennen "to know," Middle Dutch kennen "to know," Gothic kannjan "to make known"), from PIE root *gno- "to know."

How to understand the meaning of "in which" and "on which" when seeing them standing at the beginning of questions?

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 01:04 PM PDT

I'm doing an IELTS listening sample test and finding confused when seeing two questions below:

In which two ways are the lines distinguished from each other?  On which forms of transport can a one-day travel card be used?

I'm still confused about them. I'm hopeful that you guys can give me a clear explanation of my problems. Thanks you guys a lot.

Is "more massive" correct?

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 04:18 PM PDT

I stumbled upon this sentence in Wikipedia:

Titan is 50% larger than Earth's moon and 80% more massive.

I struggle with the "more massive" part. I find some books do use that phrase. Is it correct, pedantically? Do you recommend using it? Do you use it oftentimes, especially if you are an astronomer?

Which one do you prefer: "more massive" or "more in mass" or just "heavier"? Any other alternative is welcome.

"Depend on if" means "depend on whether"? [duplicate]

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 12:05 PM PDT

Can I replace "depend on whether" below with "depend on if"? I ask because "whether" can be replaced with "if" some times. 'I'll see whether she's at home' same as I'll see if she's at home.

Second language learners' divergence from target language pragmatic norms | Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching. Maria Pia Gomez-Laich. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh .

Although the importance of explicit teaching of pragmatics is well recognized in the literature, learning norms and rules of pragmatics largely depends on learners' subjectivity. Learners' convergence or divergence from the L2 pragmatic norms, both consciously and out of awareness, sometimes depends on whether these norms fit their image of self and their L1 cultural identity. Since identity-related conflict can have significant consequences for the acquisition of second language pragmatics, failing to consider the centrality of learners' identities will produce an inadequate understanding of SLA.

Frontiers | Plasticity, Variability and Age in Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism | Psychology. David Birdsong, Department of French and Italian, The University of Texas at Austin. Front. Psychol., 12 March 2018 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00081.

That is, the L1 appears to influence pronunciation in the dominant L2, but not the other way around. Perception experiments with a larger sample of Greek–English bilinguals (Antoniou et al., 2012, p. 592) reveal a still more complex pattern of dominance relationships, one that depends on whether the task is categorization or discrimination of voicing: "The results suggest that a bilingual is a single (dominant-language) listener with respect to discrimination, but behaves more like a monolingual of the activated language with respect to discrimination judgments."

Universal Grammar as a Model of Second Language Learning. Dr. Ahmed Qadoury Al-Khudhairy, Assistant Lecturer, University of Wassit, College of Education, Department of English.

whether a language allows null subject or not

  • depends on whether INFL is proper governor (GB)

  • depends on morphological uniformity (B)

  • depends on whether affixes are generated in the syntax or in the lexicon (MP). See Katamba (1993:56,158-59).

Where does the term “old salt” originate

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 11:44 AM PDT

I know an old salt is an old sailor in maritime jargon, but where does the term originate. Does it have to do with the fact that sea water is salty? Why does the old salt have to be old, can't s/he be just a salt (not assault, that'd be awful)? Or sea salt?

word for when you let something bad happen just to prove a point

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 01:17 PM PDT

Anyone know the word you would use when you let something bad happen just to prove a point? "You're being _____."

For example, proactive would describe a situation where you attempt to prevent issues, reactive is where you respond after the fact. The word I'm looking for would be when an organization knows something bad could happen but allows it to prove a point or to teach a lesson. That organization could be said to be ______.

The usage of 'as in' in a sentence starting with 'nor'

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 11:03 AM PDT

The Elantra Sport is a fun car to drive, even if there isn't nearly as much front-end grip as the newest Civic Si, nor does aggressive trail-braking net any oversteer in tight turns as in the Ford Focus ST.

Does this sentence mean that the Ford Focus ST nets some oversteer in tight turns when this car does aggressive trail-braking?

Due to the presence of 'as in' in the sentence above, I finds it somewhat vague...

And does the writer view that character of the Ford Focus as something positive?

Relationships between Grammar and Phonetics

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 08:50 AM PDT

When I look at some grammar rules such as:

  • With (He, she and it) we add (es) to verbs ending with (sh, o, ch and ss) in present simple, and so on.

I wonder if there is a link between grammar and phonetics; in other words does phonetics affect shaping grammar rules?

Note: I'm not a native English speaker, and I study English at college as my specialization.

Use as many examples as you can! Thank you!

How to spell a sound I hear people make

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 02:03 PM PDT

When you stick your tongue outside of your mouth and gently blow, it makes a common sound to indicate "whatever!" or "I don't like your answer/response" or "Yes, you are smarter than I am."

What is the name of this sound and how do you spell the sound?

Would/Do you mind...? vs. Will you mind...?

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 01:04 PM PDT

Why is it that you can say "Would/Do you mind...?" but not exactly "Will you mind...?"?

For example:

(1) Would you mind my smoking here?

(2) Do you mind my smoking here?

(3) Will you mind my smoking here? (??)

Is it simply a matter of usage?

Or is there some logical explanation for that?

Specifically, the question might boil down to answering the following questions:

Is (1) a "polite" form of (3) and somehow has (3) lost its usage?

Alternatively, is (1) a hypothetical/unreal version of (2), as in "If you were in the hypothetical situation, would you mind my smoking here?"

What's the upshot?

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 04:13 PM PDT

Upshot has been used in my presence about six times today. I know what it means in the figurative sense, and I assumed it was derived from sports so I looked up its etymology.

Dictionary.com confirms that it originated from archery: "originally, the final shot in an archery match."

I don't understand why the final result in an archery match was called the upshot, though. One source cited "Hunting with the Bow and Arrow" and used this quote

it was often customary to shoot a return round over the same field.

as though that were self-explanatory, but I don't see what that has to do with "up."

Why would the final shot be called "the upshot"? Was it shot straight up into the air? Did the archer have to aim up over the target because it was so distant? Is there a sense of 'up' that I am missing?

Origin of "Under the weather"?

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 11:57 AM PDT

I understand that "Under the weather" means feeling sick. I heard a rumor that this idiom may have nautical origins, but I don't know for sure. Does anyone know more about the origin of this phrase, and when it entered common usage?

is "Where are you going to?" correct

Posted: 07 Jun 2022 09:07 AM PDT

— Where are you going?
— I'm going to Paris.

vs.

— Where are you going to?
— I'm going to Paris.

I'm pretty sure the first one is correct, but what about the second?
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