texts: "Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't"

texts:
Okay, so recently I ended up saying this:

  Well, that is unfortunate... sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't.

Okay. You know, just saying "Sometimes it happens" already tells you that something happens sometimes and other times it doesn't. But, sometimes, I need to make very clear that this "something" doesn't happen always. That's why I say

  sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't

But is there a way to shorten this phrase? To make it simpler, but still making very clear the fact that this "something" may not happen? Repeating "sometimes" is not very much of my liking...


texts: What are the differences between Indian English and other (native) varieties?

texts:
From my observation, I can identify some differences.

Indian speakers use some Hindi words which are not found among native speakers.
Indian speakers pronounce 'w' and 'v' interchangeably.
Indian speakers put strong stress when pronouncing 'd' and 't'.
When constructing a complex sentence, Indian speakers say the latter part first, and the "first" part later.

Can anyone provide me with some more differences?


texts:
According to Google, and a few other sources, "good" was originally the verbal and adjective equivalent of "god" (hence the good news')
but I was wondering where the word originally came from and what is its  etymology.


texts:
While working on the draft of a blog post, we've come across this dilemma and, since we're all non-native speakers, we didn't come to a consensus:

  Our focus are/is projects that...

We're split pretty much 50/50 between "are" and "is".


texts: What are proper collocations of 'revision'?

texts:
Can I say: I will do/make revision of the material that we have covered so far.

Should I say : I will revise  the material that we have covered so far.


texts: Clarification on Latin Terms for Grammar

texts:
I'm studying Classical Arabic at the moment from a book written quite some time ago. It uses Latin names for the various grammatical terms and I am having some difficulty in understanding them.

For example, the terms: nomen substantivium and nomen adjectivum. From what I could gather nomen is Latin for noun? If so then what is nomen adjectivum? I know this is referring to adjectives but what is nomen doing prefixed to adjectivum?

Also what is the difference between nomen demonstrativum and nomen conjunctivium?


texts: "using something else from" or "using something else than"

texts:
Which of these makes better sense.

I can use something else from wood. - This one doesn't sound right, or does it?

I can use something different from wood. - Same as the former, but it sounds a bit better. Is it correct though?

The following all sound right enough, so I'll consider them as correct.

I can use something different than wood.

I can use something else than wood.

I can use something other than wood.

Please correct/improve my tags as I'm not sure what to call the aforementioned.


texts:
I am writing a technical report where a number of video players are being loaded on a webpage.

Is it correct to say, "Instantiate a video player on the web page," or just, "Load a video player on the web page"

Thanks!

P.S.

I posed the question on writers.stackexchange and I received a response that  the the question was more appropriate on english.stackexchange

https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/18240/instantiate-a-video-player


texts: Use of Semicolon in this sentence and way of spliting it

texts:
Want to know the specific meaning of the two semicolons in the sentence below.
And is there any good idea to split this sentence using appropriate transitions?

The fundamental insight into the necessity of the return to
consciousness; the radical and explicit determination of the path of,
and the procedural rules for, this return; the principle-based
determination and systematic exploration of the field that is to be
disclosed11 in this return -- this we designate as phenomenology.


texts: Is there an equivalent term for 'size' to go with 'spatial' and 'temporal'

texts:
I am trying to describe a dataset which has three measurements:

The location of the particle (spatial)
The change over time (temporal)
The size of the particle (UNKNOWN)

Is there an equivalent term for size?

Furthermore, spatiotemporal appears to be a recognised term, or rarely temporospatial. Is there a way to fit size in, either with just one factor, or with both i.e. Spatiosizal, size-temporal, spatiotemporal-size?


texts:
I'm looking for the key differences between combination and amalgamation. The differences between their verb forms (combine and amalgamate) is just as acceptable to me.

Combination: the act or an instance of combining; the process of being combined; (a more specific sub-definition:) the state of being joined or united in such a way
Amalgamation: the action, process, or result of combining or uniting

These two, denotatively at least, seem very similar; are there any glaring differences that I'm unaware of?
I'm looking for something that captures that unity and harmony of the combination's/amalgamation's end result, if that helps.


texts: What is the best word that defines the space shown in this picture?

texts:
American Heritage Dictionary defines:

  plaza:
  a public square or similar open area in a town or city.

  gallery:
  a roofed promenade, especially one extending along the wall of a
  building and supported by arches or columns on the outer side.

Which is the better word defining the space shown in the picture below: "plaza" or "gallery"? Or is there a more appropriate word?


texts:
Is the following incorrect?

  Return it to he who gave it to you.

Presuming it is, how would I correct it?

(without resorting to saying "to the person who gave it to you," which is somewhat cheating in my mind because the person takes the same form as a subject and object, as opposed to he and him)


texts: Suspended hyphen in"ever-expanding and contracting gulf"?

texts:
My hunch is a suspended hyphen is not needed preceding the second word (contracting), but the writer queried this and I'm not sure. (We go by the Chicago Manual of Style but I can't find an example quite like this case. As a former journalist, my instinct is to keep punctuation to a minimum).
These are the two options:

and to the ever-expanding and contracting gulf between them.
and to the ever-expanding and -contracting gulf between them.


texts: Was "the dark side" used a long time ago in a country far far away?

texts:
In the series Breathless, someone made a remark about "the dark side" (joining it, or something). The series was set in the 1960s England, before the first movie in the franchise Star Wars was released. I'm curious about whether the phrase was used at that time.

Google NGrams says that the phrase "the dark side" existed before Star Wars. At first, I assumed that it was used as a literal dark side, in the shadow of something, but one example was The Dark Side of Trial by Jury, which doesn't sound like an example of a literal dark side.

Rather surprisingly, onelook.com doesn't give many links for "dark side", with even Wiktionary deciding not to have an entry for the concept.

Was "the dark side" used metaphorically before Star Wars?


texts: Is "With friendship truly," a proper valediction?

texts:
I want to close a letter with:

With friendship truly,

My Name

For some background; I wrote a letter of recommendations of features to a site, but by my tone it is not extremely clear that I am serious (it's fairly light hearted) and my intentions sincere.  I don't want to say "Sincerely, " because I think it could be over looked or misinterpreted, and I don't want to change my writing style because that would be boring.

It's a weird valediction because it seems like there might be a comma required as in "With friendship, truly,"


texts: I found the term "Tamazie party" in a play by Joe Penhall. Is it a party related to drugs? Or does it have an idiomatic meaning? If it is a special party, is it just in Britain?


texts: US horsemen use the terms "green broke," "cold back(ed)," and "proud cut." Where are these terms used and where did they come from?

texts:
Here in Southwest Virginia I have heard cold back for what others call green broke. The only time I have heard proud cut is in a Western version of the Child Ballad, Black Jack Davie:

"Way out in old New Mexico

Along the Spanish line...

Go saddle for me the proud cut dunn

With the coal-black mane and tail...

Are these terms used in Australia, Canada or Great Britain? The use of "broke" as a past participle is, I think, archaic, so perhaps green broke goes back a long way.


texts:
In The Oracle of the Dog story by G. K. Chesterton,

The Father Brown was talking angrily to someone who was thinking that the dog identified the killer in a murder, because it was barking at him madly, saying: "So the dog denounced him, did he? The oracle of the dog condemned him. Did you see what birds were flying, and are you sure whether they were on the right hand or the left? Did you consult the augurs about the sacrifices? Surely you didn’t omit to cut open the dog and examine his entrails. That is the sort of scientific test you heathen humanitarians seem to trust when you are thinking of taking away the life and honour of a man.

What's meant here by heathen humanitarians?


texts: Present simple in the abstracts of scientific papers

texts:
Passive sentences with present simple tense are extensively used in the abstracts of scientific papers. For example, we may read

  In this work, the melting point of copper is calculated with a new method.

the active form of which is

  In this work, we calculate the melting point of copper with a new method.

Considering the fact that present simple tense is usually used to express repeated actions, routines and permanent facts, why is it used in this case?


texts: Can something be "blacker" than something else? How common are single-word comparatives and superlatives for color-designating adjectives?

texts:
Merriam-Webster implies that the comparative and superlative for black are blacker and blackest. However, my native British colleague says he would never used blacker, only more black.
How common is using single-word comparatives and superlatives for color-designating adjectives? Is it used for some colors only (like white) whilst not for others (like black)?
Would you use the following sentences, or would you replace the single-word comparatives and superlatives with their compound version (more ..., most ...)?

Our toner is blacker than the ones from other companies.
Eco-terrorists fight for greener world.
After using this toothpaste your teeth will be whiter.
He is undoubtedly a nobleman with the bluest possible blood.


texts: What would be the non-medical equivalent to the word "contraindications"?

texts:
I am looking for a word that comparatively has the same meaning, except not specific to a medical context (confirmed through Merriam-Webster the word is specific to medical context).

An example for usage would be, e.g., inquiring whether submitting an application for a particular government program (let's say Medicare) might have any potentially detrimental impacts to a different pending/future application (let's say SSDI), or is for whatever reason otherwise not advisable, not favorable, not good form/convention/practice, etc.

Edit: per comments, adding my usage example...
... So what When taking..., are there any contraindications to...? would be to When applying for..., are there any [blank] to my...eligibility?


texts: I am trying to find a word or phrase that would express being sad and angry.   Any suggestions?


texts: How widespread is labialization of [ʃ] and [ʒ] in 'dish' and 'beige'?

texts:
I'm reading The Sounds of Japanese (Vance 2008), which is an introductory textbook in Japanese articulatory phonetics.  The first chapter lays out some basic concepts in phonetics, and although the book is essentially about Japanese, the author gives some English examples to illustrate those concepts (the variety described being "United States newscaster English", according to the preface).

Vance uses the English [ʃ] and [ʒ] as examples in a section on secondary articulation (p.20):

  Another common secondary articulation is labialization, which is simply lip rounding superimposed on a consonant articulation.  The English lamino-postalveolar fricatives [ʃ] and [ʒ] are usually labialized, as you can see just by watching a native speaker pronounce words like dish and beige.  The IPA symbol for labialization is a small raised w after the appropriate consonant symbol, so we could transcribe dish and beige very narrowly as [dɪʃʷ] and [be͜iʒʷ].

And sure enough, when I asked native speakers around me (all Californian) to pronounce these words, I saw (very obvious) lip rounding.  But I'm from Illinois, and I don't think I round my lips in dish or beige.  This got me curious, so I asked other speakers online, most of whom were from Northern Illinois or Wisconsin, and none of them rounded their lips, either.  (Two took videos, but I'm afraid I can't share them here.)

I'd like to talk about the differences the between Japanese [ɕ] and [ʑ] and the English [ʃ] and [ʒ], and one of the textbook differences seems to be this labialization.  I'd like to know how widespread it actually is so I can write an accurate description.  But I'm afraid my poll wasn't very scientific, so I'm not sure I can draw any conclusions from it.

I have one textbook on English phonetics, A Course in Phonetics, 6th ed. (Ladefoged & Johnson 2011). On page 67, the authors write:

  The English fricatives /ʃ, ʒ/ are strongly labialized, and the fricatives /s, z/ are slightly labialized.

From this description it seems like it should be a universal feature, but it doesn't seem to be.

How widespread or common is labialization of [ʃ] and [ʒ] in English dish and beige?


texts: Meaning of "BY" when talking about long time periods

texts:
I am confused about the following sentence:

"By the sophomore year, the student should apply for special education services"

Does it mean the students should do it before the 2nd year begins or just after OR it should be done before the end of the 2nd year?

In typical examples, like: "I need to do it by tomorrow" or "By the time we got there, the film had started" it doesn't seem to matter, but what if the period is a year?

EDIT: There's been an error on my part. The original sentence reads:

"By senior year, and/or prior to age 18, apply for..."

though the question remains...

EDIT2: There's actually more examples: See https://books.google.pl/books?id=FS0cAlDkRnEC&printsec=frontcover&hl=pl#v=onepage&q&f=false

pages 30-31.


texts: Which preposition to use with "social media"?

texts:
I have this sentence, and I'm not sure which preposition is best to use with social media.

Teens take videos and post them through social media.

Should it be--

through social media?

to social media?

on social media?

or rewrite: on social media sites?

Thanks.


texts: What is another way to say "allow(s) for a..."?

texts:
For example:

  "To become a policeman, it's recommended you have a college degree,
  which allows (or would allow) for further advancement in your
  career."

I done some of my own research and came up with nothing.


texts:
Does "the value-maker" in the following imply "the artist"?

  Much like a work of science, a work of art represents a simulacrum of pleasure – it is foregrounded by the values relative to the value-maker, attests to multiple layers of possible meaning, is inevitable only in that it privileges the mores of a particular culture at a particular time in history and, within its shifting temporary context, it is ripe for continual reinterpretation
  and validation.


texts: television with a definite article or without one

texts:
The sentence below comes from Word Smart II: How to Build a More Educated Vocabulary.

  The theory that tiny little men move the pictures around inside the
  television is interesting but implausible; for one thing, you never
  see anyone putting food in a TV.

Why the 1st sentence says 'the television' in contrast to 'a TV' in the last?
Is there any difference between the television and a TV?
To my sense of English grammar, the usage can be reversed as in:

The theory that tiny little men move the pictures around inside a television is interesting but implausible; for one thing, you never see anyone putting food in the TV.

And it seems OK with me.
Come to think of it, it seems much better since the second TV refers to the one mentioned previously.


texts: Correct proverbial anecdote for: To fix a bucket, I need a bucket

texts:
An proverbial anecdote I've heard for a problem solving deadlock is something along the lines of:

  A farmer needs to fix a bucket, which requires this, that then
  requires that and so on and so forth until it requires a bucket to
  fix the bucket.

However I haven't been able to find this particular proverbial anecdote for a problem solving deadlock, so I'm wondering:

What is the most common (folksy?) proverbial anecdote for describing a problem solving deadlock?


texts: "The reason is that" vs. "the reason is because"

texts:
The reason we cannot go is [because/that] our car needs new tires.

Which word to choose?


texts:
I want to write something like "Follow your dream! Make sure it is un-influenced by the society". Is there a better word?

Here the idea is to convey that dreams should not be seeded into someone by the society.


texts: What does the phrase "put it down on me" mean?


texts: Does it need quotation marks on abstract nouns

texts:
I know for sure it needs quotation marks on verbs do, love and etc, in following sentence:

  Human related actions like "do", "love", "hate", "sacrifice", and so on.

Because it would not be right grammatically otherwise. But I am not sure whether it needs quotation marks on abstract nouns like happiness and pain in the following sentence:

"Abstract nouns that relate to human thoughts and feelings which cannot be experienced with the senses, such as "happiness", "pain", and so on."


texts: Grant somebody access to something or Grant access to something for somebody

texts:
Often I have to request access to specified resource for specified person. Is there any error in any of these forms and what is better to use?

Grant somebody access to something
Grant access to something for somebody


texts: Why the word "common ground" as noun does not contain or unnecessary to have a hyphen? Is this compound term correct?


texts: dislocation with 'whoever' or 'whatever'

texts:
CaGEL* has this section on 'dislocation' (Page 1411):

Can the dislocated NP be in the form of a fused relative construction headed by 'whoever' or 'whatever'?
Specifically, in the following set of examples, are [ii] and [iii] dislocated versions of the non-dislocated [i]?

[1'] i Whoever her parents are must be worried sick.  [non-dislocated version?]
ii Whoever her parents are, they must be worried sick. [left dislocation?]
iii They must be worried sick, whoever her parents are. [right dislocation?]

Or, is whoever her parents are in [ii] and [iii] merely an exhaustive conditional adjunct meaning "no matter who her parents are"?
*The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language by Huddleston & Pullum


texts: Ways to state a finding about the association between X and Y

texts:
I am trying to state a finding regarding the associating between X and Y. Below is what I propose:

  ... previous research that found X to be associated with Y.

However, I am not sure if find can be used this way.

Would noted or reported be better candidates?


texts: Should I preserve spelling when quoting American English in a British English text, or vice versa?

texts:
Suppose I am writing an (academic) text in British English, but have to quote a text from an author who writes in American English.

Should I preserve the author's original spelling, or convert it to my text's spelling standards?

This question is intended to be closed as a duplicate of When quoting a speaker of another English dialect, should you spell things his way? to improve Google visibility. (I did not manage to find that question through Google during my initial search, even though it is one of the best resources on the topic. This question supplies key words which the original doesn't have.)


texts: What is elided with "from adjective to adjective"

texts:
I went from sad to angry.

This sentence is perfectly fine as is. My question is, is it elided this way?

  I went from (being) sad to (being) angry.

Or is it not elided at all? As I often see "from" and "to" only used with nouns, I was just doubtful. Also, because there is an instance of "being" deleted when used with adjective as below, I was just confused a little.

  He perceived it as (being) horrible.


texts: What are some alternatives to "this means..." or "this means that..."? I'm currently writing an essay on how the Aztecs were a great world civilisation, not barbarians. An example that I'm giving is that education was compulsory for all children, regardless of class/rank in hierarchy. I've already used the phrase, "this means that..." multiple times, and I'm looking for a few alternatives.


texts: Is it OK to start a phrase with a gerund, when it is meant to imply an action in the past?

texts:
Consider this example:

  "She was out of school for a long time when she caught the measles, giving the disease to her family."

I am editing a document in which the author frequently uses the above construction, i.e. uses a gerund to begin a modifying phrase that describes something that happened in the past. It seems incorrect to me, since "giving" implies an ongoing action rather than one that was completed. I don't know if it is, but if so, what is the grammatical rule that makes it so.

In the above sentence, I am inclined to change the phrase to "and gave the disease to her family" OR "which she gave to her family".

I would appreciate your comments on this.


texts: Nationality modifier vs. Language modifier

texts:
"Chinese writer Mo Yan wins Nobel literature prize" (USA Today)
"Chinese author Mo Yan wins Nobel Prize for Literature" (BBC)

Q. Are we to understand

that Mo Yan wrote in Chinese,
that he was a Chinese national,
necessarily both, or
possibly both?

Q. How would we rephrase to avoid ambiguity, if so required?


texts:
Below is a diagram from Brian Krebbs, a security researcher, which shows that our email is more valuable than we think.

What is change of billing and how this could be dangerous? Does it mean change of billing address or anything else?


texts: Some employees or all of them (Articles)

texts:
-Have your heard anything about Nick?
-Yes. He found a job in a Swiss company. (The) employees don't like him much though

(The) employees. Does the absence or the presence of a definite article change something?

1) Theory number 1 The employees means all of the employees of the company and Employees means some of them.

2) Theory number 2. The employees would be correct and Employees would be wrong because we're talking about the employees of this Swiss company and a definite article doesn't imply all the employees


texts: Jokes where you replace a word with something unrelated but similar sounding

texts:
So a friend of mine always works this type of joke into normal conversation and I always get a kick out of it.

Example:

  Person 1: Why are you always hogging the TV remote?
  Person 2: Because I am shellfish!

Obviously shellfish is not the correct word for that context, but it sounds similar enough that it works.

Basically what kind of joke is this called or what use of word replacement is that called?

P.S. Not required for a good answer, but if I wanted to respond to someone who has done this to me with the term "Grape job" what would be a good comeback/response?

I was thinking "well orange you nice", but feel like there is a more epic comeback that I just don't know of!


texts: Use of the word "coefficient" in this sentence

texts:
I am used to seeing the word coefficient used only in mathematics (and other technical, sciencey settings).

However, in Benjamin Anderson's Economics and the Public Welfare: Financial and Economic History of the United States, 1914-1946 (published 1949), he writes (Google Books):

  Political, moral, cultural, and religious forces are coefficients with economic forces in the determination of historical events

What does he mean here and is this usage still current?


texts: How to determine whether "and" or "or" is correct when listing excluded entities?

texts:
As an example, a road sign might say:

No trucks and buses

Or perhaps:

No trucks or buses

Which one is correct and why?


texts:
Which one is correct:
"this information must be stated on the delivery note?" or
"this information must be stated in the delivey note?"?

Many thanks!


texts: Does "curtain time" means "on show time"?

texts:
The Japanese-English dictionary, it says "curtain time" means the time that show starts.
But I seldom see this phrase on actual posters or tickets.

I am now writing a Japanese to English translation about an upcoming music concert. Is it correct to write
"Doors open XX P.M.     Curtain Time XX P.M." or any other better choices?

Thank you in advance!


texts: Why are country names localized and city names not?

texts:
As discussed here, names for the same city in different languages tend to be just variant pronunciations.  By contrast, a country that is known by (even roughly) the same name in most languages is the exception rather than the rule.  I have some theories about this, but no real facts.

Theory 1: Country names often incorporate common nouns, city names more rarely.  For example, it's easy enough to translate "Great Britain" into "Grande-Bretagne", or "United States" into "Estados Unidos", but what can you do with "London" or "Chicago".  This theory would explain why New York is often called "Nueva York" in Spanish, but leaves Germany rather mysterious.  Also, I've noticed that Spanish-language names for American cities are never translated.  Los Angeles isn't called "Les Anges" or "die Engel".  San Francisco has a Chinese name but it's 旧金山, Jiùjīnshān, meaning "Old Gold Hill", not 亞西西的方濟各 (Yàxixī de fāngjìgè -- Francis of Assisi) which would be the literal translation.

Theory 2: City names, and cities, are stable, whereas countries, their borders, and their names are more fluid.  Damascus and Rome have existed for most of recorded history; Syria and Italy are fairly modern inventions.  When a country flickers in an out of existence, its name may survive in other languages and be (inconsistently) applied to a successor country.  This theory would explain Germany, but it certainly doesn't explain Syria and Italy, which seem to be called pretty much the same thing by everybody.

Theory 3: Country names are changed for purely political reasons, and those reasons may not be respected by other countries.  This would explain Burma and the Koreas, but nowhere else that comes to mind.  It also raises the question of why, when city names are changed for political reasons (St Petersburg, Gdansk), those changes are tracked, fairly assiduously, even by countries that disagree with the underlying politics.

These theories are all post hoc and none of them explain China or Egypt.  The hypothesis might not even be true but just a symptom of my patchy knowledge of the subject.  Any suggestions or links to scholarship on the subject are welcomed.


texts: Do "I guess" and "I would say" have the same meaning?

texts:
I often read sentences where the idea is "I would say" but it starts with "I guess". For example:

  I would say he is not coming.
  I guess he is not coming.

Do both have the same meaning?


texts: What is the correct possessive form of "Drs. Smith"?

texts:
I want to address two Doctor Smiths via the abbreviation "Drs. Smith"; what is the correct possessive form of that (plural) noun phrase?  Is it "Drs. Smith's"?

An example sentence:

  Drs. Smith's house is in an ideal location.`


texts:
This  study presents a novel statistical approach for detecting
disparities on different levels in the economy**,** by integrating AC and UF analytical methods.

Should I use a comma before "by integrating..."?


texts: How can I say to lightly understand something? Does faintly understand work?

texts:
I want to say something along these lines:

"With Coronavirus spreading globally, people are starting to faintly understand the situation that the slaves were going through every day ... the fear, the uncertainty, ... "

So, my question is, what word can I use to imply a little bit of understanding and not a deep one. thanks in advance and excuse my poor English please.


texts: How does one correctly use a semicolon?  It is probably one of the more difficult punctuation marks to master in my opinion.


texts: Can I drop the /g/ sound in the pronunciation of longer?

texts:
I know some words like '' finger'' and ''stronger'' have /ŋg/pronunciation, and the rule of pronouncing
/ŋg/ may vary. According to Merriam-Webster (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/long) you could say /ˈlȯŋ-gər/  also  /-ər/. But on Cambridge dictionary site, it is said that the pronunciation of younger, younger and stronger has /ŋg/ sound.
Which pronunciation is more commonly used, or both are accepted?


texts: Why did Australian English change from spelling words like 'honor' to 'honour'?

texts:
I know there are other questions comparing the US and UK usage of o and ou in words like colour. My question is specifically in regard to Australian English. I was always taught that here in Australia we use ou and that the other variant was yet another example of the insidious corruption of civilization as we know it by our cousins across the water. However, recently I've been reading old newspaper reports from the early 1900s and have consistently found them writing color, honor, etc. I wonder if anyone knew when and why this changed.

As an example in a newspaper see the excellent trove in this article.


texts: When constructing a hypothetical sentence, do I have to keep all the tenses in the past?

texts:
If I bought that book, it would be so I had something to give to you on your birthday.

Now, as far as i know, in hypothetical sentences, you have to backshift all tenses one step to the past. So:

  buy = bought
  will = would
  have = had

Feel free to correct me if you think i'm wrong.

Now, going by so far as my knowledge about backshifting all the tenses to the past one step goes when constructing hypothetical sentences, is the above sentence grammatically correct?


texts: What is the word for mourning something you never had? I'm looking for a word similar to "Schadenfreude" or "Sonder" in that it represents a very specific emotion. You dont get this feeling from an event, but rather from the implications of it. Say for example, your only sibling dies. This feeling comes from realizing you will never be an aunt/uncle, or from realizing you will have to organize your parents' funerals without your sibling's help. You are mourning the kinds of things you didnt know could be taken away from you. Anyone have a word for this emotion?


texts: A word meaning "pertaining to the routine duties of life"

texts:
I am trying to recall a word that describes all the things a person does to stay alive and function in society, e.g. cooking dinner, paying bills, or driving to work. These things are routine and mundane, but nevertheless must be done to keep one's life going. It's a word like obligatory, but more confined to life.

An example sentence could be (assuming this word is an adjective), "On Saturday I went to the park, but I also took care of some [blank] tasks like mowing the lawn.". If this word is a noun, an example could be, "I enjoy the electives in my life, but the [blank] just grinds me down.".


texts: In a single word, how can you describe something as being made by women for women?

texts:
Can we say "for women and by women" in a single word?
We're creating a service that is similar to uber but only for women.

Thank you very much.


texts:
How else can I reword the following

  There are few better ways

Here is the sentence I am using this in

  There are few better ways to ring in the new year than with a bigger monthly budget.


texts: What’s a good word for someone who doesn’t like talking about their feelings?

texts: A good adjective to describe someone who doesn’t like to talk about their feelings or confide in others.


texts:
I would like to properly use the verb get in the following sentence:

  "You've ___ bigger since the last time I saw you, Bobby."

Should the past tense got be used or the past participle gotten?

I know it should be conjugated according to 'You have' (present).


texts:
Hey my name's Jadon and I'm 14. I don't know if this is a good site to ask this question but I might as well LOL..

So basically my brother, who's 9, always thinks that everyone does stuff on purpose to him.  For example: He says pass that drink and I pass it to him but accidentally spill it over him. He would assume that I deliberately did that to him.

Thanks to anyone in advance I'm just wondering if there's a name for this?


texts: Adjective to describe a strikingly smart person (Prodigious?)

texts:
I am a non-native speaker in need of a term to describe a strikingly smart person. That is, one who is extraordinary intelligent or has amazing abilities or qualities. I know that a prodigy is used as a noun to describe such persons and, during research, found:

prodigious

The definition, as given by oxforddictionaries.com, however, makes me unsure that 'prodigious' suits my needs:

  Remarkably or impressively great in extent, size, or degree:

How would a native speaker perceive the usage of prodigious in a context that implies that a character being described is of such strikingly smart nature, and are there any alternatives?

Please note that I know, for example, the term ingenious but would like to use something even more powerful to describe the utter outstanding nature of the character, if possible.


texts: There is no question that you will not misunderstand this sentence

texts:
The MacMillan Dictionary has the following definition for the phrase 'there is no question that':

  used for saying that something is definitely true

It gives the example:

  There is no question that she has a great voice.

In other words: It is definitely true that she has a great voice.

Therefore it appears that the interpretation of:

  There is no question that boringest belongs to the grammar of standard English.

must be:

  It is definitely true that boringest belongs to the grammar of standard English.

Yet it seems that the author of this sentence actually means that boringest does not belong to the grammar of standard English. Here is the paragraph in which the sentence is located:

  A corpus is “… a body of texts put together in a principled way, often for the purposes of linguistic research.” (Johansson 1991: 3). Computer technology means that modern corpora are large and easy to manipulate, thus lending themselves well to frequency studies of vocabulary and, to a lesser extent (Granger 2002: 21), grammar.
  The assumption is that there is a relationship between how frequent a construction is attested and its status in the language. Common forms and structures will be fully grammatical, rarer items dubious. For example, -ing adjectives such as alarming, gratifying, mocking form comparatives and superlatives through periphrasis not
  morphology (Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad, and Finegan, 1999: 523), hence
  more/most alarming instead of *alarminger/est. Frequency data confirm this rule. The
  only exception found in the British National Corpus is this one occurrence of
  boringest: ‘…it’s always the boringest people, I’ve never seen any of them smile,
  laugh, talk…’. There is not enough evidence to suggest that boringest is a competing form to the standard most boring. In the concordance line quoted, the speaker may
  want to highlight how dull these people are by contrasting his/her own interesting
  personality. The adoption of the marked form boringest shows individuality and an
  unconventional streak, distancing the speaker from the people being denigrated. But
  this is the domain of stylistics, not grammar. There is no question that boringest
  belongs to the grammar of standard English.

(Grammaticality Judgment Tests: Trial by Error, by Wayne Rimmer)

My conclusions:

I have misunderstood the paragraph, and the author does indeed believe that boringest is grammatical.
The author has been guilty of a misnegation error and should have written There is no question that boringest does not belong to the grammar of standard English.
'There is no question that...' can mean both (definitely is / definitely is not), and needs the context to disambiguate it.

My question: Which of the three conclusions is the most convincing?

EDIT: Thank you for all the high quality answers, and to @tchrist for offering the bounty to attract them.


texts: When does "e" at the end of a noun change it to a verb?

texts: I was wondering about adding an e at the end of a word to change it from a noun to a verb. For example, cloth to clothe, and breath to breathe. Is this some special rule, or a quirk to the English Language?


texts:
There was the following line in New Yorker’s (January 18) weekend book review titled, “A Startup Fairy Tale and the Dark Side of Yoga.”

  “Emily Bazelon returns to the bullying beat in this week’s New York
  Times Magazine, in a story about bullies, their victims, and a third
  party of Internet activists that seeks justice when authorities
  won’t.”

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/01/weekend-reading-a-startup-fairy-tale.html

I don’t think I’ve met the word, "bullying beat" before. What doe’s “Emily Bazelon returns to the bullying beat” mean?

Is “the bullying beat” a common English word ?


texts: When a sentence starts with "e.g.", should the e be capitalized?

texts:
When a sentence starts with e.g., should the e be capitalized?

Neverminding that it might be better to start with "For example," ... Thinking of SE posts and comments, should the starting e be capitalized?


texts: what does it mean of when the going's tough?

texts:
When I heard a song I saw the following lyrics.

  I just wanna love you when the going's tough

My first question is what "going's" stand for?
I think "going's" might be "going is"

The second question is what meaning of going include?
Can you let me know another example sentence with going?


texts:
An election exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited the polling stations. Unlike an opinion poll, which asks for whom the voter plans to vote, or some similar formulation, an exit poll asks for whom the voter actually voted.

Available online evidence on on who coined the expression and on when it was first used appears to be  contradictory.

According to Wikipedia:

  Marcel van Dam, Dutch sociologist and former politician, is credited with having invented the exit poll, and being the first to implement an exit poll during the Dutch legislative elections on February 15, 1967.

while according to the A Brief History of Exit Polling By Kate Pickert from the TIME:

  Exit polling — surveying people leaving voting locations about the ballots they cast — debuted in the 1960s, as news organizations (and on a small scale, candidates) sought to gather demographic data about voters that could be used to predict election results.

Etynomline gives a later date:

  Exit poll  attested by 1980

and Ngram:

  shows evidence of this expression from the 70's.

Questions:

When was the expression exit poll actually coined and by whom?

When was it first used?


texts: Linking: Sibilant with Other Sibilants (was + starting)

texts:
I read in an American Accent book that there is no break between sibilants adjoining each other between words. For example, this phrase:

  I was starting to worry.

The words was + starting sound like [wəzstɑrt̬ɪŋ] with no break. Am I right? I marked the sibilant sounds with bold.

I used the schwa sound in was because it's a function word and we usually give stress to content words and reduce the function words. I also used the tapped T in the word started.


texts: Can "hurl" be used as a noun in British English?

texts:
I read the definition of the word hurl in some dictionaries: Collins English Dictionary says it can be used as a noun in British English meaning "4. the act or an instance of hurling". However, neither Oxford Living Dictionaries, nor the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary and Thesaurus list this sense of the word.

For example, is "hurl" OK in the following?

  The hurl of the brick through the window sprang us all.

Is it alright to use hurl as a noun in British English, and if so, how commonplace is it?


texts: How many syllables are in the English language?

texts: I looked it up and most forums link to http://semarch.linguistics.fas.nyu.edu/barker/Syllables/index.txt, an NYU site that no longer works. I would like to know how many unique syllables are used in the English dictionary (not possible syllables, but actually used syllables).


texts: Meaning of '-onomy', '-ology' and '-ography'

texts:
I have always wondered about the similarity of the two words

Astronomy and Astrology

that describe two very different things but have their beginning in common and are sometimes confused in everyday language.
The linguistic difference (if one can say so) between them is only in the endings '-onomy' and '-ology'. Two further examples are

Topology and Topography
Geology and Geography

where now we have the endings '-ology' and '-ography'.

What are the meanings of the different endings '-onomy', '-ology' and '-ography' ?

I would also be curious about whether it is a coincidence that '-ology' appears in all the examples above? Does it maybe have historical reasons?

And furthermore, are there more such pairs to be found? (I can't think of any others)


texts: A generic term for both books and movies?

texts: I need to know this for an essay I'm doing. I thinks media might work but I'm not really sure. Do you have any suggestions?


texts:
Given a sentence such as:

  May 17-19 (is/are) available for our meeting.

is it best to treat the "May 17-19" as a singular range or a plural number of dates?


texts:
I've seen "opt out" used in some places and "opt-out" in others. Both seem to be used in the same way - to remove one's self from something. I'm not able to find any official sources that suggest which is correct.

Which is proper?

Research:

I Googled for several variations of "opt out vs opt-out". I was unable to find any articles or pages that directly discussed the differences between the two. The search results all seemed to define one of the phrases or the other in very similar terms (the difference was still not clear).

I checked www.dictionary.com. I was only able to find a definition for "opt out", not a version for "opt-out". The definition I did find was similar to the definitions above.

I searched the English Language & Usage (this) site for the phrases "opt out" and "opt-out" but was unable to find a question that answered the above. The questions mostly seemed to compare "opt out" or "opt-out" to another similar word ("withdraw" for example).


texts: Why must “has” come before the main verb here?

texts:
Wrong Sentence:

  Never before in the history of the world such a thing has happened, I don't think that will ever happen again.

Right sentence:

  Never Before in the history of the world has such a thing happened, I don't think that will ever happen again.

Why “has such a thing happened” is the right form, and why can't I use such a thing has happened?


texts: Logical term for when an object is the same thing as itself

texts:
I'm trying to see if there's a word for this in English and having some problems making a definition in my program.

I want to say that two objects are not only have identical properties/values but that these objects are in fact one and the same thing.

Not that they're equivalent, not that they are identical clones of each other, but in fact selfsame.

Would selfsame be the correct term? There is some term in philosophy for it I just can't recall it.

Let me clarify. I have a web page and 2 hyperlinks to that page. Clicking a hyperlink doesn't create 2 separate web pages that look similar and act similar, they in fact lead to a page that is selfsame. It's kind of like the difference between looking at a mirror of yourself and having a clone. If you change your reflection changes, if you change your clone does not change.

If you know about programming I'll tell you the exact thing that prompted my line of questioning. Problem 2.7 of Cracking the Coding Interview, page 221. I have two linked lists and the task is to find an intersection point between the two. Picture: https://imgur.com/KmUUV09


texts: Which version of English influenced the other? British / American

texts:
I remember hearing that modern American English is more similar to Old English than modern British English, due to rural British influences.

Is modern American English a more accurate representation of Old English than modern British English?


texts: Is the word, “kinda-sorta” accepted as a normal word to be used in writing?

texts:
I was drawn to the word, “kinda, sorta” which appeared in the article of Time magazine (April 27) under the headline, “The Clippers Should Have Boycotted Game After Owner’s Racist Remarks”:

  The circumstances were unprecedented. The players, most of whom are
  black, had to represent an owner whose allegedly racist views - the
  team kinda, sorta questioned the authenticity of the audio - were now
  broadcast to the world.

  http://time.com/78721/donald-sterling-los-angeles-clippers/

GoogleNgram shows that the “kinda-sorta”emerged around / in 1920, and its usage has been shooting up since 1980.

However, answers.yahoo.com says:

  "kinda-sorta" is not proper English. You shouldn't use it in any
  essays or articles or anything proper that you might write. It will
  make you sound unintelligent.

Is it too naive for me to presume that the word "kinda-sorta" is usable in (not-too-formal) writing as well as in speaking, now that I’ve seen the word being used in one of leading English language journals?


texts: Constituency tests needed to differentiate between phrasal verbs and verb + prepositional phrase constructions

texts:
In this post, I am asking for constituency tests to assist me in writing exercises about phrasal verbs for non-native speakers of English.  I respectfully ask that only native speakers answer the questions in this post.
Some background --- I am from the U.S. I am currently working as a private English tutor in Brazil.  A common request from my students is an explanation of phrasal verbs.  I have looked at a variety of materials on the subject, and have been thoroughly dissatisfied with all of them.  The materials are either extremely superficial (read: dodging the issue) or so verbose that my students would be terrified.  None of them state how they decided what is a phrasal verb and what is not with any clarity.  One book by a respected publisher actually listed verbs that take both a direct and an indirect object as phrasal verbs.
I turned to the academic literature on phrasal verbs.  There is plenty of discussion and controversy, but for the purposes of my exercises I chose to follow the strategy outlined in Clayton Darwin and Loretta Gray's article "Going after the Phrasal Verb: An Alternative Approach to Classification" (TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 1).
Following Darwin and Gray's strategy has proved helpful for nearly all of the verbs that I want to cover.  However, there are a few that I am uncertain about.  Below I have written some sentences based on their strategy, with the name of the test after each item.  Please indicate your judgment of the sentence.  Thank you in advance for your help.

2 = Sounds OK
1 = Iffy
0 = Yuck!

A. I figured on $1000 for my vacation and on $500 for my cell phone.  (particle repetition test)
B. On how much was he figuring?  (fronting test)
C. What was the amount of money on which she was figuring?  (relative clause test)
D. Mary figured and bet on a good turnout for the event.  (verb insertion test)
E. A thief broke into my car and into my house. (particle repetition test)
F. Into what building did the thief break?   (fronting test)
G. A thief broke silently into our building. (adverb insertion)


texts:
I'm co-writing a paper in which I have written the following sentence:

  Many applications of control theory require that the underlying system is controllable.

However, upon rereading, I think that the following might be the "more correct version".

  Many applications of control theory require that the underlying system be controllable.

Now that I look at both of these, neither seems correct and I'm not quite sure what the rule is here.  Is either of these options correct? Is either one better than the other?  Is there a way to rewrite this sentence so that it is less awkward?

Any feedback is appreciated.


texts: How the understand the "too ... to" structure?

texts:
It is easy to understand when someone says:

  The box is too heavy to carry.

But the usage of "too … to" structure in "You cannot be too careful to go across the road" is weird for me, though I know what it means.

Can anyone explain to me how to understand the real logic behind the usage of "too … to" pattern in the latter case?


texts: I’d rather + different subject (+ past simple clause)

texts:
I'm looking at this tutorial that shows the following usage:

same subject (+ base form)
I’d rather stay at home than go out
tonight.
different subject (+ past simple clause):
I’d rather you stayed at home
tonight.

I don't remember hearing this structure before. How common is that? I'd probably say:

I’d rather have you stay at home

Is this an equivalent and grammatically correct?


texts: What types are these two sentences with imperative clauses

texts:
Quotes are from The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Remember, no matter how little you want to, that you must eat him in the morning.

Remember, he said to himself.

I thought the second one would be a complex sentence as it is a similar pattern to direct speech ("Remember," he said. - that would be complex, right?) but I'm not sure anymore, as it feels like imperative clause "Remember" can stand on its own.
Similarly, at first, I thought that the first sentence is complex-compound but if the "Remember" is an independent clause it can't be. How is it, then?
Thank you


texts: Which organizations responsible for formalizing English Language (British and American)

texts:
I need this information to make my own English language site, but I do not want to use copy-paste from other sites or books. I need to find the source of information to make a correct content.

If there are no such organizations can you give me a most competent source of such information?


texts: What is a tool that encrypts data called?

texts: If I have a software that encrypts data, how do I refer to it?  'Encryptor'?


texts: Is it alright to list more than three things in a sentence?

texts: My teacher says when I have to give examples or list things, I can only give three, which is A, B, and C. But what if I've to list quite a number of things like minerals that is present in...the cauliflower for example? What sentence structure should I use to do it or is it alright to list them accordingly?


texts: Abbreviating names that start with a vowel

texts: What are the rules about abbreviating names that start with a vowel? Would abbreviating "Alanis Morissette" to "A. Morissette" be correct or should it be "Al. Morissette"?


texts: In the "cards against humanity" collocation, shouldn't the article the precede humanity, i.e. "cards against the humanity"? Does the word against somehow influence this situation?


texts: Where should I put the commas in a sentence containing "as well as"?

texts:
What is the proper way to punctuate a sentence containing "as well as"?

For example, in the sentence:

  I hope to provide students with a solid foundation in the field as well as challenge them with the contemporary problems facing practitioners.

Should there be a comma

before the first "as",
after the second "as",
both, or
other?


texts:
The following is an excerpt from a newspaper.

  In situations where the father has not exhibited any concern for his
  offspring giving him legal recognition would be an exercise in
  futility.

Why does the author use would and not will?


texts: Is there a term for a colony effect in language change?

texts: I have heard it said (sorry, no refs for you) that when a colony is formed from a parent population, then the colonists 'freeze' in time with respect to language and accents, perhaps cultural aspects and values, and so on. An example is Australia - apparently the Australian accent is similar to a 'British' accent from some time near the early days of the colony (I know that there's no British accent; obviously there would be the influence of many: Irish especially). The parent (UK) changes and evolves, while the smaller colony does so at a much reduced rate.


texts:
I am searching for an expression, slang, official or unofficial way to say, “My sister is my brother.” It is for a brother, whose sister fights her transgender revelation. She wants to be a boy, but at the same time despised to be called a transgender or to be connected with it in any way possible.
“My male sister” is my best idea at the moment, and I had no idea it actually exists as an expression.


texts: Is "How to do XYZ?" correct? If so... why?

texts:
All over the the internet, and especially on SE sites, I see the following construction in the titles of questions:

How to write a question?
How to make a widget?
How to add foo to bar?

After some digging, I was able to find this previously answered question: Is a question beginning with “How to” grammatically correct?
Both answers offer some insight, but I'm looking for details regarding the correctness of the "sentence" when it includes the question mark, something @Kris mentions briefly that I still don't understand. He offers the example:

I don't have the manual now. How to fix my computer?

and says this is a grammatical sentence since the bolded part is used in context. Is this really grammatical? Both @Barry England and @Kris agree that this phrasing shouldn't be used in formal writing, but I can't think of any situation where (as a native speaker) I would use this even in informal speech. I would never say to a friend:

How to turn on your TV?

All three examples I gave earlier seem perfectly acceptable as titles for instructional articles on the topics when the question mark is removed:

How to write a question
How to make a widget
How to add foo to bar

but I can't help feeling that something is off when I see these titles with a question mark at the end.
Shouldn't they be written like this instead?

How can I write a question?
How is a widget made?
How is foo added to bar?


texts: What should I say when I couldn't meet an intervewer?

texts:
I had an interview. I expected to meet some interviewer who I was communicating with online, yet he wasn't there during the interview.

I want to tell him 'online' that "I was hoping to meet you" in a formal and clever way. A clever English famous quote would be appreciated!

Share your awesome ideas!


texts: What is the earliest mention of an "American accent"?

texts: Do we have any idea how quickly the American colonists (specifically those British colonists living in what would later become the United States, but I'd be curious about French and Spanish colonists in their respective areas as well) developed an accent that was distinctly non-European?  What is the earliest mention of someone "sounding American," or speaking in a way that they clearly came from the colonies?


texts: I am trying to make spelling uniform in a technical book. The book is mostly written following American conventions (say, center instead of centre, authorize instead of authorise). Should I write nonzero, nonempty, noncommutative or non-zero, non-empty, non-commutative?


texts: Which preposition should follow "guide" here, "on," "to," or "for"?

texts:
The following link includes a guide ___________ how to use it.

How should I fill in the blank, on, for, or about?


texts:
Is there any difference between those sentences?

  I was there to get a hair cut yesterday.
  I was there yesterday to get a hair cut.
  Option one is to invest the money so that it will compound annually
  for the next ten years at the rate of 4%.
  Option one is to invest the money so that it will compound annually at
  the rate of 4% for the next 10 years.

Do these sentences gain any difference in meaning by reversing the order?


texts:
I’m not looking for a synonym and I’m not sure what the word is for this. There are comparatives and superlatives for adjectives but I’m looking for a verb. A guarantee, assurance, or promise imply 100% likelihood of something happening (obviously this isn’t how it works in real life, I’m sticking strictly to definitions). I want a verb that is to a lesser degree than these terms.
For example instead of saying “I can guarantee your satisfaction.” I want to say “I can  your satisfaction.”
I’ve thought about this but there are only phrases such as “I promise I will try my best” or “you have my word”. A nice short verb would be preferable


texts: Is there a rule for when to write numbers in full?

texts:
I was recently taught that numbers should be written in full if:

The number is between zero and ten.
The number has three or less digits.
The number is present at the start of a paragraph.

(Preferably a rule for Commonwealth English)


texts:
I felt guilty cheating on my wife

The sentence looks so ambiguous

Possible meaning 1: i felt guilty as i cheated on my wife

Possible meaning 2: i felt guilty while i was cheating on my wife

I just want to be sure which possible meaning fits for the sentence at first sight? which one to pick?


texts: What’s a funny word for someone who is frequently breaking things?

texts:
What do you call a person who is not very careful by nature, one who is constantly breaking things, missing appointments, stumbling into walls, and things like that?

Hopefully not too harsh a name, as if we find it funny.


texts: English equivalent of the Portuguese phrase: "this person's mood changes according to the moon"

texts:
In Portuguese there is an expression that says:

  "Essa pessoa é de lua."

Literally "this person's mood changes according to the moon", which means that nobody can predict that person's mood.

Is there an equivalent expression or similar to this in English?

When someone is angry one day and very peaceful the next day...


texts: What's a gender-neutral way of referring to a nurse?

texts:
Good afternoon all,

In Japanese there is a word called "看護師" which basically is a gender-neutral way of referring to a nurse.

I was wondering, Is there such an equivalent word in English?

Is there a gender-neutral way of referring to a nurse ?


texts:
A phrase I came across tonight was "Here's the good news and the bad news." Trouble is, "Here's" means "Here is", and "is" is meant for one thing, not two things. I'm describing two things. However, "Here are the good news and the bad news" sounds bizarre.

What to do?


texts: Is "reservee" an acceptable word like employee?

texts:
I see one reference from an old version of Webster but not much else. Word says it is misspelled.

Which is it?

  Our list of reservees include Beyonce, Cher, Bono...


texts: How to organize semantically a list of words that describes the weight (or size) of objects?

texts:
Let's say I have a list of words that describes the weight (or size) of objects, like heavy, strong, light, soft. Which words should be used to have a complete semantic list from the heaviest element to the lighter one.

I always use something like:
Heavy, stronger, strong, normal, light, lighter, softer.
or Maximum, large, normal, small, smallest, tiny.

How can I organize a list like that in semantical English?
PD: you can add or remove incorrect words from my lists.


texts: Difference between "programmatic" and "programmable"

texts: Are "programmatic" and "programmable" the same? Can they be used in place of each other freely? For example, "programmable control" and "programmatic control".


texts:
In common speech, I often hear stoic used as an adjective. (I am ignoring definitions related to Stoicism.)

Merriam-Webster validates this use with the definition "not affected by or showing passion or feeling." It also gives stoical as a variant.

Meanwhile, Oxford only calls the adjective "another form for stoical." It defines stoical as "enduring pain and hardship without showing one's feelings or complaining," which matches Merriam-Webster's definition of stoic.

I understand words can have multiple accepted variations of spelling, but the difference between stoic and stoical seems more than just spelling.

If these two major dictionaries disagree about which form is more standard, which one actually is? The idea that stoic is only a noun and stoical its adjective form, as suggested by the Oxford dictionary, makes sense but conflicts with common usage. If the common choice of stoic, supported by Merriam-Webster, is correct, why does the Oxford dictionary defer it to stoical?

Perhaps this is simply an issue of personal preference, but I am at least curious about reasons one form may be preferred over the other.


texts: Is it common to use "perverted" (as in a pervert) as an adjective?

texts:
Example:

  Just one room for the two of us? Aha! You did have a perverted plan
  after all!

So, in this case "perverted" is the adjective form of "pervert":

  pervert  nounˈpəːvəːt/1.a person whose sexual behaviour is regarded as
  abnormal and unacceptable.

Source: Google.

But then I checked on Google Books, and realized that there's not only one result for my phrase, but the phrase has a different meaning:

  "She and her husband had a perverted plan to spread cannibalism to
  others."

Source: Google Books.

Is my usage uncommon? If so, what's a better option?


texts: A scheduled maintenance once per day at around midnight?

texts:
I have to describe that a certain process happens once every 24 hours at around midnight (before 23:59:59). What is the correct usage?

  "once per day at around midnight"
  "daily at around midnight"
  "once per night"
  "nightly"

EDIT

After seeing Jim's answer, I have amended the question to "at around midnight" from "at midnight" as that was my original need


texts: While wanting to properly close a question and thank its participants on one of Stack Exchange's other sites-the question had resolved itself–I started wondering if "Thanks regardless" is a proper way to end such a note.


texts:
My girlfriend is currently writing an appraisal for work but I was wondering if there was a word/phrase that convey what she is thinking better. She wants to say that while some people like to criticise and blame when others make mistakes, she is the opposite. She has come up with the following:

  "acting with integrity/helping others rather than blaming others"

It seems a bit clunky with a repetition of "others" and the forward-slash may seem to show a lack of thought. Upon googling "opposite of blame" and some thought, I have come up with some words and phrases:

  non-judgemental
  positive reinforcement
  highlighting issues and putting suggestions forward
  mistakes are seen as opportunities to learn (although this seems to suggest mistakes made by yourself)

I was wondering if anyone had any helpful suggestions/comments on this. I am looking for something more concise and something that upon reading, is easily understood.

Thanks in advance!


texts: Is there a word for the visual appearance of a word only?

texts:
I'm looking for a word to refer to the visual appearance of a word only. I'll use an example to help explain what I mean:

"bow" can refer to the action of bowing to someone, or to a bow that I add when wrapping a gift. "bow" and "bow" are homographs because they are spelled the same way, though they have different meanings and pronunciations, and we consider them two different words.

Then, define a "qword" as an ordered set of letters (and diacritical marks) combined according to the conventions of English.

"bow" and "bow" are two different words, but the same qword, since they are both "b", "o", and "w" combined in the same way and in the same order.

And "résumé" and "resume" are different qwords since they appear differently in written English, though people often write "resume" when they mean "résumé", and we have no trouble understanding what they mean.

Is there an existing English noun that means the same thing as "qword"? If there is none, a compound word or phrase would also be fine.


texts: What is an idiom for this whimsical turn of events?

texts:
What would be the most appropriate expression (idiom or phrase) to describe a situation where one person, usually innocent but related to the other person in some way, becomes the unfortunate target of some sinister plot aimed at the other person?

Movies abound in such tropes where A, usually the polar opposite of B, for no fault of his has to bear the brunt of B's underhanded dealings, the cost borne more often than not being a very high one— A loses his life; B avenges his death afterwards, and all that jazz.

Just to make it a bit more clear, targetting A is seldom the intent of the party who murder him. He gets murdered mostly because of a misconception or some such factor that suddenly supervenes as if to save A.
Please note that whipping guy, scapegoat, Aunt Sally, and other such words— these ain't what I'm looking for. I have also already ruled out collateral damage lest anyone should be tempted to post this one as answer, for obvious reasons.
I hope I've made myself sufficiently clear.


texts: Is it ok to say "Don't visit the internet"?

texts:
I read the following recommendation of our IT department:

  Don't visit the Internet with Windows XP machines

We're a German company. Is this sentence ok?

I would have expected

  Don't browse the Internet with Windows XP machines.

or

  Don't use the Internet with Windows XP machines.


texts: A single word for someone who is quick to hate others

texts:
What is a single word to describe someone who is quick to hate others?

With anger we can say quick-tempered, but what about quick in hating other people/easily hates others.

Hateful means full of hate, but doesn't really give the meaning of being quick to hate people.


texts: Which punctuation mark should be used here?

texts:
With those two possible values : 0 and 1, for each of the seven bits,
  there is a total of 128 characters that can be used in the ASCII
  encoding scheme.

What punctuation mark should the ":" be replaced by in the given sentence?

I could probably use a comma, but then it will result in too many commas in the sentence. Is there a way to replace the comma with some other punctuation mark? Will the sentence be correct if I don't use a punctuation mark (at the given place) at all?


texts: Word for "roughly horizontal" and "roughly vertical"

texts:
A vertical line is one that makes 90 degrees to the horizon and a horizontal line is one that makes 0 degrees to the horizon.

Is there a single word that describes "roughly horizontal", i.e. less than 45 degrees to the horizon

And another single word that describes "roughly vertical", i.e. more than 45 degrees to the horizon?


texts:
I'm not a native speaker, and I need help with the proper usage of exclamatives in some contexts.

[Context1: John is playing a video game alone, and is enjoying it. He utters:]
1. How fun this game is!
2. Is this a fun game!

[Context2: John is playing a video game with Peter, and is trying to persuade him that the game is fun. John utters:]
3. See? How fun this game is!
4. See? Is this a fun game!

Are these sentences acceptable in these two contexts? (Basically the first context conveys surprise with no audience and the second one expects Peter to be impressed.)


texts:
I'm helping a friend fill out a job application where a strange question appears:

  Do you seldom let your responsibilities interfere with having fun?  (Y) (N)

Am I crazy, or is this question ambiguously worded?  Which response would an employer look more favorably upon?


texts:
Are there other ways of saying that somebody has achieved popularity or fame within a short period of time, therefore becoming an "overnight sensation"?

The suggested alternatives should capture the aspects that the person's appearance in public was very sudden, i.e. the person came seemingly out of nowhere. That the degree of fame is (at least temporarily) very high, but also that this kind of fame is usually rather short-lived.


texts:
In the foreword to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the following sentence occurs:

  You will find quantum tomfoolery, cosmic belly laughs and more absurd one-liners than you could quorble a stank at.

I haven’t the slightest notion of what quorble and stank at mean there. Browsing through dictionaries hasn't helped.


texts:
I've noticed that some business people (generally management types) have started to use the expression "cover off" to mean "cover".

E.g.

  Can you cover off agenda item 3 for me?

or

  Not only will Scott cover off some of the new stuff...

See: https://sites.google.com/a/codecampsa.com/home/speakers/scott-barnes

Where has this come from?


texts:
I am attempting to compare a list of different types of measurements but don't know what to call the list.

Here is a specific example: I am measuring genetic diversity in a simulated population. I am measuring this by calculating nucleotide diversity, gene diversity, and number of polymorphic sites. All of these **indices** of genetic diversity ...

Does indices work here? The other word I think might work is metrics but I am not sure either are a good fit. Indices is more of a location to find something in a list and metrics seems to be more about the measurement itself.


texts:
"I'm only joking" and "She wasn't joking".
Why is the verb to joke used in the present continuous, instead of the present simple tense? Is it because it's a dynamic verb?


texts: There are a number of songs, films, and other cultural artefacts that use or reference this term, but I can't figure out if it has some kind of idiomatic meaning. Any ideas?


texts:
Here are three possible sentences. They are intended to convey compound possession—each user has his or her own separate account which has its own separate logs.

  I reviewed Mr. Smith's and Ms. Doe's account logs.
  I reviewed Mr. Smith's and Ms. Doe's accounts logs.
  I reviewed Mr. Smith's and Ms. Doe's accounts' logs.

My reasoning for each option (right or wrong) is as follows:

In #1, I believe that 'account' functions as an adjective modifying the type of logs.
In #2, I think that since there are two distinct accounts, the word should be plural (but am unclear on its relationship to 'logs').
In #3, each account possesses its own logs.

I know it is clearer to rewrite it to something such as:

  I reviewed the logs for Mr. Smith's and Ms. Doe's accounts.

Even so, which of the above three are correct (if any)? Why?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What is the proper way to write the plural of a single letter? (another apostrophe question)

Sometimes, it becomes necessary to refer to, for instance, the instances of the letter "A" in a document. When doing so, how should I format the plural letter? I have seen A's, "A"s, "A"'s, and "A"es. Is one of these the optimal formatting, or is it something else entirely?

I would like to ignore the option of rephrasing the sentence, if at all possible.


texts: In “can hear singing”, is “singing” a verb or a gerund?

texts:
In this sentence is singing a verb or a gerund?

  Look at the children whom you can hear singing.


texts: He took the fun/zing/excitement out of it?

texts:
I have a expression like this:

  He was supposed to tell us about his experiences of his recent trip and we all were looking forward to it but he took the fun/zing/excitement/anything else out of it as he skipped the LA, Vegas part.

I know they are correct but which one of these is most common/appropriate or in other words  most instinctive one.


texts: Should anti- and counterclockwise be hyphenated?

texts: I've got a document in which I'm defining counterclockwise and mentioning that it is sometimes also called anti-clockwise.  The document is in American English, and generally in line with the Chicago Manual of Style.  CMoS seems to suggest counterclockwise (no hyphen), but anti-clockwise seems to me to be a predominantly British-English term, and the OED seems to indicate that the hyphen should be present there.  Should I hyphenate either or both of counterclockwise and anti-clockwise?  Why?


texts: Single adjective for containing a lot of text (digital)

texts:
I was wondering if there is a word for a graphic, screen, picture, document, etc. that contains a lot of text. Specifically for digital media. The context is that I've noticed that the Walgreens pin pad display has a lot of text and words all over the screen and I was wondering if there is a word to describe it.

e.g. sentence: "Wow that image is very _".

I thought maybe wordy, textual, or texty but those don't sound right. Maybe textful?


texts:
What does it mean "to be detached to something"? I have heard this word only with "from", is it the same meaning or the opposite ?
The verb was used in the context :  An important key element here is to become detached to the outcome. While the tide is coming in you don’t have to worry about the details. Once the tide comes in, the details will always take care of themselves...


texts:
This article from the Guardian newspaper includes the following phrase:

  The Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, said it was too late for Conservative backbenchers to be putting up resistance to a hard Brexit. “This is the biggest act of economic self harm in history and some Tory MPs are grasping at any straw they can find to assuage their consciences. They, like Corbyn have waived this through and history will judge them for it,” he said.

I always thought that waved it through would be correct here. Which is right?


texts: I need help figuring out the meaning of "frost-worked"

texts:
I happened on the sentence below while browsing the internet, but I'm not sure what "frost-worked" means.

"Some brittle oak leaves still cling to their branches like tattered camouflage while tiny salt hay spindles scud across withered grass and frost-worked asphalt"


texts:
I am not clear how to use "How long" and "How far". Suppose I got in a taxi or cab to my hotel, how should I say to the driver if I want to know the distance to the hotel? Which of the following is correct?

How far is it to the hotel?
How long is it to the hotel?

Then,if I need to know the time it will take to the hotel, may I say:

How long is it to the hotel?

Or are there any other more appropriate expressions for the above two scenarios?


texts:
Can "they had it repaired" mean that they repaired it themselves? Why?

I've looked into this and can't find anything specific. Also, I've asked about a dozen people what they think and only one person said, "Yes."


texts: I have been using Realise and Realize interchangeably. Is one more correct over other and when to use exactly what ?


texts: Adjective for a person saying "I told you so"

texts:
How might you describe someone who takes an enjoyment in saying "I told you so" after the fact?

Let's say a friend gives you advice on a matter and you decide to go against it. Their advice turned out to be correct and the person consequently makes it a point to say "I told you so; you should have tried the lobster instead" or "you should have brought an umbrella; told you so" and so on. How could you describe this penchant toward bringing up what SHOULD have been done?

I brainstormed a few but feel they don't entirely capture what I'm looking for:

  sticking it to you, know-it-all-ism, woulda-coulda-shoulda, smarty-pants, self-righteous


texts: Use of "only last week" vs "just last year" - and punctuation

texts:
In a job cover letter I've written "Only last month I heard great things about the clinic while attending a conference."
My first question: are 'only last month' and 'just last month' interchangeable? Is one better than the other?
Second, while trying to find an answer via google I saw instances akin to "Only last month, I heard great things..." Should there be a comma after 'month' or no?


texts: My as an adjective, posessive pronoun, or prepositional phrase?

texts:
During English class, we have been diagramming sentences, as described at http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/, and have had some confusion as to whether the term "my" should be considered an adjective, possessive pronoun, or prepositional phrase. This question at ESE seems to indicate that it is meant as a prepositional phrase. In sentences such as:

  In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. (The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

the "my" seems to be used as a prepositional pronoun, but is diagrammed as an adjective would be.


texts:
I do not find "has lasted later for" appropriate here. Could sb plese explain it?
Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, page 711

iii Jill still goes to school, whereas Liz is already at university.
Example [iii] shows still and already in successive clauses contrasting the stage in life that Jill and Liz have reached. The school stage has lasted later for Jill, and the university stage has begun earlier for Liz.


texts:
I read this sentence in the newspaper. I found a definition of flagging from the dictionary as "weak from exhaustion," but I can not understand how it applies here:

  it is investing over $1 billion in the refining and petrochemical industries and has drawn  plans to double natural gas output from its flagging KG-D6 fields to 60 million cubic meters  day  on a "sustained" basis.

Can any one explain it?


texts:
It is said that he was murdered.
/It is nice to meet someone.
/She is difficult to persuade.

About 'to meet someone'. Do Americans read it the same as 'that he was murdered', which is a Real Subject, or as 'to persuade', which is a complement?


texts:
I noticed people using pronouns next to their names Jo (she/her). I understand the reason behind the first part (she), but I completely don't get the second part. Doesn't "she" imply "her"? Is it even possible to use something else, "She changed his mind" (same person) - it wouldn't make sense (from the grammar perspective), would it?
So my question is: why the second part is there?
I understand this may be a delicate matter, I don't mean to offend, just trying to understand a grammatical (and possibly cultural) phenomenon.


texts: Unknown word "visigraph", what could have the author meant to use?

texts:
I've encountered a word in print which does not exist, and which Google isn't auto-correcting to an existing word. I wonder which word the author had meant to use.

Following is the sentence in which the word appears. It's from a fairly well-known novel "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov.

  At least, it amounted to an ultimatum, though a superficial reading of the visigraphed document would lead one to suppose that it was a friendly interchange of greetings between two potentates.


texts: shall not be more than vs. shall be not more than?

texts:
It shall be not more than 1m.
It shall not be more than 1m.

Which is the correct way to say "it shall be less than or equal to 1m"?
Two expressions are mixed in Google, so I want to know what native speakers say exactly.
thank you.


texts:
The government placed restrictions on both diesel fuel and diesel engines.

Here I dont want to repeat the diesel. I cannot write:

  The government placed restrictions on both diesel fuel and engines.

Because it will mean restrictions on diesel fuel and restrictions on all engines, a nonsensical meaning. Please let me know what would be the write way to avoid the repetition of diesel.

Somebody told me we can put hyphen but i am not sure about it:

  The government placed restrictions on both diesel-fuel and engines.


texts: What preposition should one use with "redundant"?

texts:
I realize it's usually better to just say "A and B are redundant". But, I've also seen

A is redundant with B
... to B
... of B

all with basically the same intended meaning. Are any of these more (or less) correct?


texts: What is an antonym for "refactoring" with regards to programming?

texts:
Consider this definition of "refactoring" from Martin Fowler's book, Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code:

  Refactoring is the process of changing a software system in such a way that it does not alter the external behavior of the code yet improves its internal structure.

What is an antonym for this definition of refactoring? More specifically, how would one describe the process of worsening or deteriorating the internal structure of a software system?

Someone pointed out that refactoring is an intentional act, and that there probably isn't a word that describes intentionally making software worse. I am fine with an antonym that does not communicate intention.


texts:
What is a review said on the following passage?

  Physical activity is being increasingly recognized as an effective tool to treat depression. PhD candidate George Mammen’s review published in the October issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine has taken the connection one step further, finding that moderate exercise can actually prevent episodes of depression in the long term.

Looking it up on AHDE, it defines it as

  A periodical devoted to articles and essays on current affairs, literature, or art.

However, judging by the context it seems like review said here is a single piece of article/essay in the issue of the journal of Preventive Medicine rather than the whole periodical defined in the dictionary.


texts: Understanding the use of "active warden" in scientifc texts

texts:
I've been reading some computer science papers, and in particular papers I see the use of the phrase "active warden" such as:

If an active warden drops all delayed packets, then it will potentially drop packets that still can be useful for voice reconstruction.
With an active warden, it is important for the methods to be as robust as possible to transformations such as lossy encoding and band-pass filtering

Having googled the definition of the word, I have no idea how it fits these phrases.


texts: Adjective that expresses something being of great importance

texts: I have already considered the word transcendent... I am attempting to express that something is of significantly greater importance than our relatively noteworthy thoughts and feelings.


texts: "Foreign students" vs "International students"

texts:
An etymological doubt has hit me. To my surprise, the "writing enhancement software," Grammarly flagged the phrase "foreign students" and suggested "International students" in its place. The reasoning:

  The Term foreign students may be considered outdated, disrespectful,
  or offensive. Consider changing the word or phrase.

Honestly, I am swaying a bit. My concern is about word choice, usage, and of course, etymology. The fact that Grammarly is suggesting such a switch should not be taken lightly. This type of software is gradually assuming the role of a practical dictionary/thesaurus and may help turn the language in a particular direction (or not). Look at the questions about what grammar and spelling corrections in Word Perfect inflicted on a generation of writers. But what about the developers' ability to distinguish mutations in the language? They may show themselves correct in identifying a real change. Are they sniffing a shift I am not?

A quick look at Google shows that people are still using it interchangeably, but a Ngram graph shows a drastic drop for FS and a modest spike for IS since 1967, which might lend Grammarly some credibility.

Questions:

1-   Is the term "foreign students" genuinely becoming outdated and perhaps offensive or are these two terms ("International students") just moving closer? I am not interested in discussing conservative or liberal ideologies behind the software's suggestion. Instead, I would appreciate your sense of the direction where the English language is moving (words’ development). It is not difficult to see how in a time of worldwide anti-immigration waves the word "foreign" might be taken as a word of choice to insult newcomers. But would it affect the way we refer to non-citizen students? To recap, do you feel the term "foreign students" is becoming old-fashioned or might allude to contempt, even if slightly?

2-    Should (or could) the term "International students" supersede or replace "foreign students"? Despite that most writers still use the terms interchangeably, there seem to be subtle differences. The site WERN surmises that the organization OECD has defined the terms in this way:

  a.    IS refers to people who have crossed borders specifically to
  study outside of their home country.

  b.    FS indicates an individual who happens to reside in a foreign
  country and has decided to enroll in an institution there.

My take on the OECD's attempts to define the terms is that they have proposed not one, but various ideas, and not all of them consistent (see here and here). I find notable, nevertheless, that none show the term "foreign students" passing into oblivion or becoming offensive.

The context of the piece that I am currently writing feels to me as if requiring "foreign students" rather than "international students." I intend to highlight the foreignness of a group of students visiting the Dominican Republic, where I could hardly imagine this term conveying the same potentially offensive meaning as if the US, for example. But I would consider other views.

To clarify:

The concerns here are not if someone is foreign or international. They are instead about if (1) one of the terms is becoming outdated and/or offensive, and if (2) the attempts at defining them are accurate enough or unproblematic.

A previous thread (“International” vs “Foreign” [closed]) offered some insights but did not answer the questions.

I don't mean to advertise a product here.


texts:
So how did I become interested in animal suicide? Ironically, it began
  with my own death wish.

I'm not really sure whether I can call this irony, since irony usually refers to the contrast between two opposite things. If this isn't irony, what should I call it, then?


texts: An entity is a part of another, what would this larger entity be called from the other's perspective?

texts:
A is part of B, that would make B A's _____? What's an appropriate word to use here? A is a constituent of B, but what is B relative to A?

The question arose from naming a variable in programming. I have a scene that contains objects that the scene can contain. So these objects would be constituents/parts/... of the scene. But the the objects are to contain a variable referencing the scene, as that'd be useful. I don't want to name it just "scene", because that's no fun :P . So what to name this variable is really what I'm after, but it'd be nice to know if there's a neat word I can use in future situations like this.


texts: Synonym of 'Run' or 'Operate' in the context of a computer programme

texts:
I'm trying to find the right word for this sentence, and replace the word run with something more computer orientated

  A bash script was developed to run the programme

I've looked on thesaurus.com to no avail, and I am now turning to SE for help.

What word can I use to replace run?


texts:
I know what the word "furore" means. I also know it's a variant spelling of "furor". "furore" seems to be a BrE spelling. I've never spoken this word despite how often I've seen it in both its forms. According to the dictionary the two versions aren't just spelling differences but represent different pronunciations:

furore
(fjʊˈrɔːrɪ)
American Heritage Dictionary
and
(fyo͝o-rô′rĭ)
Collins English Dictionary
and
/ˌfjʊ(ə)ˈrɔːri/
Oxford Living Dictionaries
(More or less the same pronunciations)

vs

furor
(ˈfyʊər ɔr, -ər) FEW-roar (AmE)
American Heritage Dictionary
and
(fyo͝or′ôr′, -ər) FEW-roar (AmE)
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary
and
/ˌfjʊ(ə)ˈrɔː/ few-RAW (BrE) accent on second syllable
Oxford Living Dictionaries

Generally the voice inside my head says "fuhrer" when reading "furore" in:

  The furore came two months after two sisters started a petition asking
  the Metropolitan Museum...

The pronunciations for "fuhrer" I have are:
(fyo͝or′ər) (standard American)
American Heritage Dictionary
or
/ˈfjʊərə/ (standard British)
Oxford Living Dictionaries

Is saying "fuhrer" when spelt "furore" wrong? Also I'm confused about the fact that in Oxford Living Dictionaries "furor" is pronounced with stress on second syllable.

I'd also be interested in knowing how people from different places pronounce these, if anyone happens to know.


texts: Is the expression "in danger" an adverb or an adjective? Why?


texts:
Consider the following words:

inflammable
invaluable

Each of these has the unusual property that its meaning is identical to its counterpart lacking the prefix. In almost all other cases, the prefix in- means "not".

Where did such exceptions originate and what are some other examples of such exceptions?


texts: Is it okay to use past tense when writing about a fictional story?

texts:
When talking about a book, or a fictional story we are required to use present tense. The question is:

Can we use past tense if it is a flashback?
Also, can we use past tense like in the sentence below

  Rufus lives a fairly comfortable life compared to many people in his neighborhood, and he became a horrible person


texts: What's it called when two people can't decide which way to go?

texts:
This phenomenon happens to me several times a week and I've actually just recently started pondering if this situation has a defined term for it?

When two people walk towards each other in opposite directions, and they need to quickly decide whether to walk on the right or left side of each other, oftentimes failing to do so when both decide on the same direction, and then switching and causing an awkward situation to occur between you and the stranger. It probably has happened to anyone of you. What is this called?


texts: Is there a phrase for future survivorship bias?

texts:
Survivorship bias is where the data you are looking for is biased based on the fact that those who died (sometimes figuratively) can't provide data points. For example "Raising kids isn't that hard. My parents did it." I'm looking for the thing that happens in the other direction, where you assume you will survive (or sometimes just succeed) because whatever you do won't matter if you die (or fail). The most common place I see this is in the phrase "We will, because we have to." It's something someone might say to indicate that they have stopped considering the possibility of failure because it is not helpful to consider it. This thing that I don't have a name for is also the justification for lying to kids in an emergency by telling them that everything is going to be OK even though you are unsure. If you all die it won't matter that you lied to the kid, so you plan assuming you will survive.

Apologies for not being able to explain that better, but that really is the core of my problem.


texts: Differences between "Pay attention to" and "Keep an eye on"

texts: What is the difference in meaning between "Pay attention to" and "Keep an eye on"? Can I use both in the same way? Or is one of them stronger than the other?


texts: Alternative expression for saying "piece of someone's mind"

texts:
Sentence example:

  I am really upset and frustrated with one of my friends. So when I meet him next time around I will definitely not hold myself back and give him a piece of my mind.

What alternative expressions can I use instead of "piece of my mind"?


texts:
Please explain which sentence is structured correctly and why. If none of them are correct, please correct it and, again, explain why it is correct.

1) I embarked upon a journey filled with adventure, excitement and, at times, despair.

2) I embarked upon a journey filled with adventure, excitement, and at times, despair.

3) I embarked upon a journey filled with adventure, excitement and at times, despair.

4) I embarked upon a journey filled with adventure, excitement, and, at times, despair.

To me, 1) "feels" the best, but I don't know what the actual rule for this type of thing is.

Thanks!


texts: Could you please help me analyze the structure of this sentence?

texts: "The ideas of unilinear development, in this perspective, is one-sided, because it fails to account for the whole range of possibility in which process constitutes but one of several dominant configurations." I am not sure what is the meaning of "but" in "but one of several dominant configurations. "  Does this word "but" mean "except?"


texts: How should I punctuate "Dave and Sarah, and Fred and Jane"?

texts:
Dave and Sarah, and Fred and Jane

Should there be a comma and if there should be, is it in the correct place?


texts: A metaphor for people living up or down to their reputation

texts:
I have been asked to improve my question.
Can anyone help with the full quote and derivation thereof for a metaphor that begins “give a dog a bad name and hear (or see) him bark”?
My understanding is that it involves someone living up or down to their reputation. “They told her she would fail and she failed. Give a dog a bad name and see him bark”.
Can anyone help please? Thanks in advance.


texts:
Having just learned that in Old English the word for was written as fore, why is therefore still written as it is currently, and not as therefor?

Being a non-native English speaker, many times I automatically write therefor, as my brain probably is thinking on for. Alternatively, many times I also write fore, as my brain is probably thinking on therefore.

Edit: the possible duplicate is about the difference between the two expressions, and it would only be relevant if the actual reason why it is therefore instead of therefor is to distinguish them. But since that is not the reason, I believe that question is not a duplicate of this.


texts: A term for someone denying an accusation but appearing guilty as a result

texts:
The situation being when you are accused of something, and provide a logical reason why you wouldn't (not couldn't) do such a thing, and such an explanation only makes you sound more guilty.

For example, if your boss has recently been murdered, and your coworkers know you didn't like him, and someone accuses you of killing him, and you say something like "Why would I do that? He just gave me a raise!" (This isn't the best example, I'm sure there are reasons that would seem more manufactured.)

I think this is one of the situations that the 5th amendment tries to protect against in court. It seems to be a subtle form of double bind, since not defending yourself makes you seem guilty, as does defending yourself.

Is there any term for this situation in English?


texts: What is the difference between "probably" and "possibly"?

texts: Recently I saw the movie "Pursuit of Happyness", which is actually quite good, and I noticed the actor (Will Smith) asking the difference between probably and possibly to his son. So I would like to have people's opinion on this question as I am still yet to find an answer myself.


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Which preposition in front of “line” — “on”, “in”, “at”?

Given a numbered list of lines of text (in my case an algorithm), should I use "in line" or "at line" to refer to the content of the line?

For example

  the code at lines 5-10 loops over the elements of a list

or

  the operation in line 10 sums two positive integers.


texts: Valedictions: "My thoughts go your way,"

texts: Is the valediction "My thoughts go your way," common anywhere among native English speakers? Is this phrase used differently? Do you care to comment on its connotations? Are "My thoughts are going your way," or other variations more common?


texts: "so" and "this" as adverbs meaning "to a degree"

texts:
Recently, a non-native speaker asked me whether they should say "Why is it so cold?" or "Why is is this cold?". While clearly the former is much more common, I struggled to explain why. Cambridge Dictionary gives:

This: as much as shown or to a particular degree
So: very, extremely, or to such a degree

which doesn't help much to clear things up. The problem is that in the person's native language, both are expressed using the same word. Come to think of it, most languages I know of do not seem to distinguish between them.
How should I explain the difference in usage?


texts: Idiom or proverb for 'wherever there are industrious people, wealth is produced'

texts:
Wherever there are industrious people, wealth is produced.
where bees are, there is honey Does this count as a proverb for the above phrase? If not, what are the equivalent English proverbs or idioms for the same?


texts: English equivalent of Polish saying "[You've got] freedom Thomas in your own house!"

texts:
Another nice Polish saying about freedom in ones own house "Wolnoć Tomku w swoim domku!" that is rather untranslateable but modern version of this quotation would be "[You've got] freedom Thomas in your own house!" that means "You can do Thomas whatever you want in your own house".

Explanation
It comes straigth from the 19-th century Polish writer Aleksander Fredro fairytale called "Paweł i Gaweł". It's about two friends that were living together in one house. To make long story short they couldn't really cope with each other and when one rebuked another he replied "Wolnoć Tomku w swoim domku!" that is "[You've got] freedom Thomas in your own house!". Time has passed and this quotation has evolved into saying that means "That's my flat and I can do whatever I want and that's not your/ones business!".

Why Thomas? Don't ask me :-).

I'm very curious is there any similar thing in English.

Example
- You're going to the garden in shorts only? Get your pants on, someone might see you.
- Oh really? [You've got] freedom Thomas in your own house!