Help with English

But it is not limited to visual representation. It also includes sonic representation.

In fact, I don't agree that "human representation" has the narrow meaning of the representation of humans. I think it refers to our ability to create representations of other things we see, and in fact also of abstractions such as hunger, love, and "this way to the airport."

Language is surely our crowning achievement in the realm of representation. We have words (and of course grammatical and syntactic rules) that can (more or less) clearly identify to another person something we're thinking about that is not present--or which may be nothing more than an abstraction such as, "Life was a lot easier before those smart-asses invented clothing."

We are not the only animals to use symbols--merely the only ones that use visual symbols. It's been well established that dolphins communicate with sound. We haven't had much luck deciphering their tweets and blips, but the one thing we have figured out is that each individual in the pack has a name. They use it to identify themselves at a distance, and also to ask if someone is in hearing range.

In at least some species, each pack/pod also has a unique chant that they broadcast to announce their arrival. We have no idea what it means. It might be merely a more complicated version of a name (although we have no idea if even individual names are arbitrary or mean something like "Dances with Turtles"), or some kind of boast ("Get out of our way or we'll take all your food"), or something akin to a military marching cadence count ("I don't know but I've been told/Orca ass is mighty cold/Sound off one-two/Sound off three-four").

Whatever... this is certainly representation.

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Several species of ape have been taught to "speak" in ASL (American Sign Language), including gorillas, chimpanzees, and most recently an orangutan. One even taught it to her own baby. They have amassed vocabularies of 1,000 words and they understand how to build sentences. This is "representation" -- not to mention "symbols."

African Grey parrots have been taught rudimentary spoken language. The full scope of grammar and syntax is beyond them, but they can express ideas such as "round red key."

 

I insist that words are representations. What else can they be???

At least four other species of animals manipulate representations in speaking with their hands or voices, and several more species understand representations, as shown by their responses to words in human speech. I think the record for a herding dog is something like 200 commands.

Words are symbols. Not all symbols are visual. Just ask a blind person.

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The apes carry on quite astute conversations. They talk about feelings.

When one saw a zebra for the first time, he said, "Look: a white tiger."

Many animals have time sense; some birds are careful to retrieve their oldest cache of stored food first.

But dogs have very poor time sense, so I doubt that verb tenses play any role in their communication.

Contrary to popular belief, ASL is not merely a transcription of spoken English into signs. The grammar and syntax are considerably different. This is obvious once we realize that they can sign two words simultaneously, and/or in different locations relative to their body. So you'll have to ask a deaf person about tense. Then once you've mastered the language, go ask a gorilla.

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There is absolutely nothing wrong with this sentence. I don't understand what your friend is criticizing, but he is wrong. The only error in it was a spurious period after the word "properties"--an error in punctuation rather than in grammar.

Again, this must be part of the same sentence, since the conjunction "while" makes it only a clause, not a complete sentence unto itself.

This is not as good as the original sentence. The word "enjoy," in particular, is not appropriate. An English speaker will understand it, but it will make him laugh and it will immediately identify you as a non-native speaker. The verb "enjoy" relates to an emotion, and therefore can only be used when writing about humans or other animals.

You can use it for institutions because they are comprised of humans, for example, "Canada enjoys one of the lowest crime rates in the world." This really means that the Canadian people enjoy it.

You might even say, "the rain forests of Malaysia enjoy some of the heaviest rainfall on earth." This is a case of anthropomorphism, the attribution of human traits to the plants and animals in the rain forest. It's a little poetic and would probably not be found in a science book, but it might appear in a newspaper.

But we do not anthropomorphize metals and the other chemical elements on the Periodic Table. Just say, "other elements such as sulphur do not have these properties."

No. Once again, your friend is completely wrong. "While" is okay. We often use it as a synonym for "although."

This is fine, but it was also fine the other way.

Your friends are not very helpful. You should ask for advice from native speakers.

 

I agree. My reasoning is:

• Everything is exactly the same distance from infinity as everything else. So nothing is nearer to infinity than anything else. Therefore the concept of "nearly infinite" is invalid.
• On the other hand, the distance from uniqueness is measurable. For many things, there are zillions of other things that are identical to them. These things are not at all unique. But there are some things that have only a small number of things that are identical to them. These things are not unique because they are not one-of-a-kind, but I don't think it's unreasonable to call them "nearly unique." Even though there are a few others, you might go your whole life without ever seeing one.

For example, the liger is the hybrid offspring of a male lion and a female tiger. They only occur in captivity and are not common, but there are several in existence.

The tigon, on the other hand, is the offspring of a male tiger and a female lion. For reasons that are not completely understood, these hybrids are extremely rare. If you are lucky enough to see one, it would be reasonable to say that it is nearly unique.

 

"While" is a conjunction that connects two clauses. Often it is used to indicate that two things are happening at the same time. "Emperor Nero played his fiddle while Rome burned." This tells us that Nero was not a very good emperor.

But in other cases, it is used to identify a contradiction. In this usage it is almost a synonym for "although." "While this used car dealer has more than 500 automobiles on his lot, only three or four have the features we're looking for." This tells us that we're going to spend a lot of time looking for the car we want.

Therefore, to say, "While having a diameter of a nearly a million miles, the Sun is a large object," does not make sense. There is no contradiction: any object with a diameter of 1.6 million kilometers is, indeed a large object.

This is bad grammar. We very seldom put the verb "have" into the present progressive tense unless it is an idiom.

This was a very difficult day at the office. I think I am having a nervous breakdown.
I don't know what you plan on ordering in this restaurant, but I see that little Johnny is having dessert.
The new dog food I bought has too many grains, and now my dog is having seizures a couple of times a week.​

This is not bad, but it is awkward. When you say that an object has a diameter of nearly a million miles, the reader already knows that it is a large object. The sentence is redundant.

You could say, "The sun is a large object with a diameter of nearly a million miles."

 

Yes. Most of us would choose 1. because it's shorter. But in writing, especially formal writing, we'd more likely choose 2.

 

You didn't put enough time into this. It's perfectly okay to say, "Yes, I can send you my proposal.

When we leave out the "to," we are in effect putting the pronoun "you" into the dative case--a case which we are told that English does not have. A pronoun in the dative case must immediately follow the verb of which it is the object.

Hand me my glasses.
I'll make you a sandwich.
Johnny sang us a song in school today.
I gave the waiter a big tip for the good service.
Your mom ordered you a new bathrobe; that one is falling apart.
The boss printed the new secretary a list of the office policies; make sure she reads them.
Stop telling me lies.​