Help with English

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by Saint, Aug 24, 2011.

  1. aaqucnaona This sentence is a lie Valued Senior Member

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    Yes, as in fuck me or you are so fucking sexy or even you are one tough motherfucker - its not quite polite but not vulgar either - just explicit or crude.
     
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  3. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    You're asking the wrong guy about sports. They have their own elaborate argot, and I'm not much of a sports fan so I don't understand all of it. In general, a bracket is a group of people defined by certain important characteristics such as income. In basketball it may have something to do with the players' experience, but I'm just guessing.
    "Reported" is short for "reported for duty." That's a military term meaning that you have actually arrived at the place where you were ordered to serve. In baseball it probably just means that all the team members (or just the pitchers and catchers in this case) have signed their contracts for the next year and the teams are complete.
    A pun is one of very few forms of humor that is not based upon someone's misfortune. It's based on the similarity between two words of different meanings.
    --Some vandal sneaked into my farm last night and cut the tails off of all my steers.

    --That must have been very unpleasant for the steers, but it's not much of a problem for you, is it?

    --Of course it is! Now I'll have to sell them at wholesale and I'll lose a lot of money.

    --But why? I don't understand.

    --Because I can't re-tail them.

    The pun is "re-tail" vs. "retail." (Yes, this joke is about the cows' misfortunes, but I didn't have the time or inspiration to think of a better pun.)​
    The Chinese basketball star's name is Lin, so people are making jokes out of it. "I'm really Linterested in basketball now that one of us is in the game." "He will probably earn a good Lincome." "I hope he doesn't get Linjured."

    I'm sure there funnier puns based on sports vocabulary, but I don't read the sports pages of the newspaper.
     
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  5. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    I beg your pardon. It is still vulgar. Saint should never use that word.
     
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  7. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    How about "suck".
    Can we call someone "sucker"?
     
  8. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Those two slang words are from different sources, so they are not related. Calling someone a "sucker" is not the same thing as saying, "You suck."

    "Sucker" is generally thought to be derived from the original meaning, "a young mammal that sucks its milk," so a sucker is a naive, childlike person who is easily misled or cheated. However, there is also a species of fish called a sucker, and some linguists think the term came from that. The problem is that there's no evidence of why a naive person would be compared to a fish.

    The verb "suck," on the other hand, has an obscene meaning which I won't teach you. Nonetheless, it has lost its shamefulness and is often used in polite, although very informal, conversation. Don't ever use it in writing unless it's to a friend you have known for a long time, or to someone who has already written the word to you.

    Even then, it may be okay to say, "This job sucks," or "Today's weather sucks," or something like that. It's not so good to say to somebody, "You suck." You might get punched, fired, or ignored.
     
  9. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    In case you haven't noticed, gas prices are pushing $4 a gallon and since it's an election year, the burdensome price at the pump makes for excellent campaign trail fodder. Never mind that, per the Associated Press, "economists say there's not much a president of either party can do about gasoline prices," it's always someone's fault. Here are the lamest talking points we've seen on the stump so far:

    I don't understand the bold words though I know their definitions.
     
  10. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    U.S. Secretary of State is Hillary Rodham Clinton.
    Her name is Hillary, right?
    But why the news title is written as:
    Clinton rips Russia, China for U.N. veto on Syria

    Clinton?
     
  11. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    "Fodder" means "food," but it's only used for animal food, not human food. The key difference is that you just lay it out or pour it out in giant batches, and the animals will come and feed on it communally.

    In this discussion, the candidates and the reporters who are covering the campaign are, metaphorically, just a herd of animals that (we hope!) will prove useful to us, after we've read all the reports and after the winning candidate has been selected. We're regarding them as draft horses or oxen, who will work for us after getting enough fodder to eat. Important things like the price of gasoline are major issues in the campaign, so to discuss them is to "eat them as fodder."
    In many eastern Asian countries people put their surname first, followed by their individual "given name" and (in some traditional Chinese families) their generation-identifier. But in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Australia and most western Asian countries, the given name comes first and the surname comes last. We don't use generation-identifiers. Many of us have a "middle name" that is also unique, traditionally the name of a beloved ancestor or historical figure, but just as often simply another name bestowed by our parents.

    WIlliam Jefferson Clinton (our President 1993-2000) is from a family, all of whose members share the surname Clinton. His parents gave him the individual name William, and for a middle name they chose Jefferson, the surname of our third President, one of the people who founded the United States and is still famous for his intellectualism.

    So, to his friends and family, Mr. Clinton was "William," or less formally, "Bill." In the news he was "Mr. Clinton" or (in the less formal U.S. news media) simply "Clinton." He was a fairly popular president, noted for his informal style (he played a rock'n'roll saxophone), so we all call him Bill Clinton, not William Clinton.

    He married a woman named Hillary Diane Rodham, who then became Mrs. Clinton. In the past four or five decades women have come to have many options about what to call themselves when they get married. Some keep their maiden names (their original surname), others hyphenate their maiden name with their husband's surname (a standard custom in Spanish-speaking countries), and others get very creative. Most women in her position would have taken the name Hillary Diane Clinton, but she chose to use her original surname as a new middle name, calling herself Hillary Rodham Clinton. This option is increasingly popular today. [On this discussion board there is an ongoing argument about the rules for a combined surname for women. But in the age of computers technology has made the decision: if there's no hyphen, then the final name is the surname and the one before it is a middle name. Computers rule, humans don't get a vote.

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    Normally news reporters would refer to this woman as "Clinton." But since we still remember her husband as Clinton, that can be pretty confusing. In some news reports--especially TV--you may see or hear her called "Hillary," but that is rather informal and you won't see it in the major daily newspapers. In formal journalism they will spell out her entire name "Hillary Clinton" at the beginning of the article, and then when they write just "Clinton" you'll know which one they mean. Since she is President Obama's Secretary of State, she is now more newsworthy than her husband, so in headlines where space is at a premium, they will call her "Clinton" and expect you to figure it out. In fact if she's called "Hillary Clinton" or "Mrs. Clinton" or "Secretary of State Clinton" once in the entire newspaper, they will expect you to remember that.

    So the answer to your question, in general, is that in the news people are referred to by their last name--their family name--and usually without "Mr." or "Mrs."

    The major exceptions would be singers: "Whitney" instead of Ms. Houston; and sports stars: "Tiger" instead of Tiger Woods. Some of them simply go by their first name; you'd have to look up Bono (the singer in U2) in Wikipedia to learn that his last name is Hewson.
    We all appreciate your enthusiasm for learning the words in our language. But that is only one important aspect of studying a foreign language. You also have to learn the grammar. I have told you many times that when you ask a question you have to reverse the word order: Why is the title written? Not, "Why the title is written?"

    Please be a good student and pay attention to learning the grammar of our language as well as the vocabulary. That is a sign of respect for our language and our people.
     
  12. Gustav Banned Banned

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    we are all not like that, saint
    do what you can
    foreigners stumbling with english is cause for mirth in my society
    fraggle's ilk however takes offense
    stay away from them
     
  13. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    So are stuttering, limping and inability to carry a tune. Would you appreciate being laughed at for not being able to pronounce the tones of Mandarin (Saint's native tongue) correctly and therefore committing faux pas with your unintended choice of words? Or being dismissed as a lazy foreigner for not bothering to learn them correctly?

    Speakers of Chinese and Spanish are, in fact, remarkably tolerant of foreigners' efforts to learn their languages and will usually jump in graciously to help. The French and Japanese are quite the opposite and are just as likely to pretend that they thought you were speaking in English on your Bluetooth.

    Anglophones fall somewhere in the middle of that spectrum, but it varies from one country to the next. Americans think the whole world should simply give up their native languages and speak English, and are rather impatient with people who haven't gotten around to it yet. I think the Brits are somewhat more forgiving (or perhaps it's their knee-jerk insistence on not being anything like the French

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    ) and I have no idea how the Aussies and Kiwis feel about it.
     
  14. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    Gas prices in the U.S. are nearing the freak-out point--the level at which Americans go from grumbling about getting gouged to actually reducing their gas consumption and demanding that their elected representatives start doing something to help.

    Meanwhile, the Obama Administration is trying to preempt the criticism, saying that there's "no silver bullet"() that is going to knock gas prices back down to $2 a gallon.

    With the growth of China, India, and other developing markets, the demand for oil is outstripping (=exceeding?) new supply, so there's nowhere for prices to go but up.


    silver bullet = a simple and seemingly magical solution to a complicated problem. (Why is it "silver"? Not gold?)

    freak-out = a wildly irrational reaction or spell of behaviour
    gouge = overcharge?
     
  15. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    To "freak out" is another slang term from the 1960s. It originally meant emotional instability and irrational behavior: one more reference to LSD or other recreational drugs, in this case to an overdose or a bad reaction. Now it simply means to behave wildly as an extreme reaction to fear, shock, despair, etc., or even to a positive experience such as joy or fun. It's generally predicted that when gasoline reaches $8 per gallon, Americans will freak out. (For example, gas for my car would then cost me about $500 per month. Many people don't spend that much on food.) It's only halfway there so we actually have a long way to go and this statement is an exaggeration.
    To gouge is to make a groove or a hole in something using a sharp tool. So it became slang for cheating someone out of their money by extortion, swindling, etc.--as if you're digging into them with a chisel and pulling their money out through the hole you made.
    This illustrates my point. This reaction is entirely rational! If Americans do this it will not be a freak-out! If we start bombing the headquarters of the energy companies, kidnapping the children of their executives, or stealing gasoline from service stations, then that would be freaking out.
    This is a reference to recent mythology. According to the stories, a silver bullet is the only way to kill a witch, a werewolf, and several other kinds of imaginary evil creatures. I say "recent" because bullets are a modern technology. Vampires, for example, can be killed by a wooden stake or exposure to sunlight, so even five thousand years ago people had ways of protecting against them.

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    For one variable to outstrip another means that it is increasing at a much faster rate, so the second one will never be able to catch up. If the demand for a commodity outstrips supply, this means that even though production will increase, there will always be a shortage so prices will continue to rise.
     
  16. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    4,752
    to pull off an upset win = to fight back?

    you-know-what = facts ?

    throw in the towel = surrender? Is it the same as "hang out the white flag"?
     
  17. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    No. It means to win when you were not expected to win because the opposing team, candidate, etc., is generally much better than you. An upset win is a surprise.
    No, it's a euphemism. The only thing we say "a load of" is shit. So they mean "a load of shit," but they can't write that in a polite newspaper. Definitely not facts! More likely lies, at least in the judgment of the person who wrote that.
    Yes, but it's a sports metaphor, not war. If a boxer throws in his towel it's because he doesn't plan on needing it anymore. So the proper word is "concede," not "surrender."
     
  18. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    4,752
    I never saw the player in boxing throw towel if he was defeated?
    Why is it such a metaphor?
     
  19. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    Will I get punched if I call a woman "slut" in America?
     
  20. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    4,752
    What is a centrist? The one who holds neutral stand?
    How about leftist and rightist?
     
  21. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Throw a towel or throw the towel. Please remember what I taught you: a countable noun must take a definite or indefinite article.
    If an athlete stays in the competition and loses fairly, then "throwing in the towel" is not something he would do. This is what he would do if he is giving up before the competition is finished.

    And remember, I don't know very much about sports so I may have used the wrong kind of game for my example.
    Punched hard more than once, although some women would slap you instead. If her husband or boyfriend is standing next to her, you will be knocked unconscious and kicked while you're down. Did you not look this word up in the dictionary, as I have asked you to do many times before posting your question here?

    Originally "slut" was just a synonym for a slovenly or slatternly girl, i.e., one who did not keep her skin, hair, clothing, etc. clean and well-groomed. (I think "slut" and "slattern" are derived from the same Proto-Germanic word for "mud.") But later it changed to mean one whose morals were in disrepair, rather than her appearance. Today, at least in America, it's equivalent to calling a woman a whore. Not a prostitute, because that word carries an overtone of being a professional, choosing her clients carefully, and maintaining an air of respectability when she's not working. A whore always looks and acts like a whore.
    a neutral stand. Please remember to use your articles.
    These words go back to the French Revolution. The people in Parliament who wanted radical changes sat to the President's left. Eventually the term "leftist" came to mean a liberal who supported a democratic government in France, whereas a "rightist" was a conservative who wanted a monarchy. (The concept of a constitutional monarchy, in which the monarch has little political power but is, hopefully, a wise elder beloved by all, had not arisen yet. Today it is the form of government in several European countries.) The terms "left" and "right" were eventually adopted in English-speaking countries as synonyms for "liberal" and "conservative."

    Therefore a centrist is one who is neither an extreme liberal nor an extreme conservative, but falls on the middle of the scale: a moderate.

    We libertarians believe that the old one-dimensional model of politics is inadequate. We see a second dimension. Regardless of whether a person wants to cling to the old ways or charge furiously into the future, there are two ways of trying to make either of these things happen. One way is to have a very strong government do it, and the other is to allow the citizens to do it in other ways.
    • We call a domineering system of government which allows the citizens little control--regardless of whether it is trying to move ahead or maintain the old ways--a statist government. There have been statist governments of both types, e.g., the Nazis who wanted to maintain the bad old ways and didn't allow the people much choice, versus the Communists who wanted to charge recklessly into the future and also didn't allow the people much choice.
    • The other form of government, in which the state restricts itself to the minimal set of duties required to keep civilization functioning--national defense for sure, and perhaps giant infrastructural projects that are too big for individuals or corporations, and maybe things like education and healthcare to make sure they are done fairly--is a libertarian government. This form of government could also be either conservative or liberal. There have been very few libertarian governments in human history; the United States and some of the other former British colonies may have come close to it in their early years, but eventually every government develops a love of power and heads toward statism.
    There are no colloquial words like "right" and "left" for the statist-libertarian dimension of politics. Most Americans regard libertarians as conservatives because most of them came from the right. The issues that matter to them are the issues of the right: religious freedom, low taxes, allowing very eccentric people and communities do things their own way, not giving out foreign aid, etc. But more and more of us are now coming from the left and we are more concerned with liberal issues: civil rights, letting Israel go hang itself, not allowing corporations to usurp the role of the government, ending the war on drugs, etc.

    But overall, libertarians are centrists according to the old paradigm. Regardless of which side of the centerline we fall on, we don't want to go too far to the left or the right.

    We represent politics as a two-dimensional graph in the shape of a diamond. The right-hand point represents conservatism, the left-hand point liberalism, the bottom point statism, and the upper point libertarianism.
     
  22. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    4,752
    wafer-thin win = slim win?


    liberal-leaning = ?
    make up a chunk of = screw up?
     
  23. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Sure! A wafer is an extremely thin disk.
    As I explained in my last post, liberals or "leftists" want change. They think there's room for improvement in the world and they believe the government is the proper tool for making those changes. Liberalism is similar to progressivism. Communism was an extreme form of liberalism, in which the government attempted to completely tear down all of the social, economic and political institutions and rebuild them in ways they regarded as "modern."

    A liberal state is one in which the vast majority of the voters are liberal so liberal politicians and causes almost always win elections. A liberal-leaning state (I would have written "left-leaning" because it invokes a much clearer visual image) is one in which the liberals don't have quite such a large majority. Liberal candidates and causes usually win, but not always.

    Conservatives or "rightists" (a term that is not as often used as "leftist") think the country is pretty close to perfect just the way it is, and they don't want anything to change. (Except to make every other country like America, even if it requires going to war.) They believe the government is the proper tool for repressing change and making sure nobody is allowed to bring in new ideas. Fascism was an extreme form of conservatism.

    The people of Vermont are liberal, but not overwhelmingly so. A popular, honest, sensible conservative could win an election in Vermont, but not often.
    No, you're not analyzing the phrase correctly. "Make up" often means "to comprise." To make up a portion of something, or a piece, or a segment, etc., means to comprise a sizeable part of it, although not the majority. So to say that Mormons make up a "chunk" (a slang word for a random, awkwardly shaped piece, more appropriate for a discussion of cookies or concrete) of the population of Idaho simply means that a lot of Mormons live there so a Mormon candidate has a bit of an advantage. If he can appeal to some of the other voting blocs, he could win the election.

    The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (popularly called the Mormon church) is headquartered in Utah and Mormons comprise something like 90% of the state's population. Utah is bordered on the south, west and northwest by Arizona, Nevada and Idaho. There are lots of Mormons in those three states. (I don't know how much you know about the USA but this statistic shocks a lot of people. The Mormons are extremely conservative in their morality. Yet although they have considerable economic power in Nevada, gambling is legal throughout the state, the bars are open all night, and it is the only state in the country in which prostitution is legal--in all but the most heavily-populated counties.) It's bordered on the northeast and east by Wyoming and Colorado; I'm not sure there is a large Mormon population in those states. It touches New Mexico on its southeastern corner (the "Four Corners") but that part of New Mexico is the Navajo Indian reservation. I don't believe that the Mormons have ever tried to evangelize any Native Americans into their church, since their theology includes a broad streak of racism.
     

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