texts: Are there good examples of compatible co-hyponyms?

texts:
It is often said that co-hyponyms are incompatible. For example, here's Alan Cruse:

  Very often a superordinate has more than one immediate hyponym, and among these there is typically a set of terms each of which is related to all the others by the relation of incompatibility.

(Meaning in Language, 2004, p. 162.)

So, ‘apple’, ‘peach’, and ‘plum’ are co-hyponyms of ‘fruit’, and an apple is not a peach, which is not a plum, etc. They are "incompatible": that bit of fruit can't be both an apple and a peach.

However, it is also often said that co-hyponyms are not necessarily incompatible. A little later on that same page, Cruse offers this example:

  For instance, queen and mother are both hyponyms of woman, but there is nothing to prevent someone who is a queen from at the same time being a mother.

I'm not so sure this is a good example, though. It implies this relation:

  ? A queen is a kind of woman.

But this isn't quite so. Mary, Queen of Scots became queen (just a few miles from where I type, in fact) at the ripe old age of 6 days ... which hardly qualifies as "woman"! So it leaves me wondering whether, in fact, ‘queen’ is a proper (?) hyponym of ‘woman’.

So I have been trying to come up with ANY good examples of compatible co-hyponyms, and failing in the attempt. I have done my web-searches, and while it is easy to find the theoretical position explained, as I have done above (viz., that co-hyponyms are typically but not necessarily incompatible), finding examples of the less common "compatible" sort is proving elusive.

Can anyone help me?

(P.s. I would have liked to tag this with "hyponyms" or "hyponymy", but these aren't yet in use, and I'm too new to create them.)

UPDATE [2014.01.09] : (This is prompted in part by EricS's suggestion below.)

There is a further problem with suggesting queen and mother as examples of compatible co-hyponyms, and it arises in an article by Cruse himself [D. A. Cruse, ‘Hyponymy and Its Varieties’, in The Semantics of Relationships: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, ed. by R. Green, C.A. Bean, and S.H. Myaeng (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2002), pp. 3-21; the Google Books scan has some problems]. In it, Cruse points out that some apparent co-hyponyms belong to different taxonomic classes, and so are not co-hyponyms properly speaking.

Cruse uses the example of ‘book’ for which ‘novel’, ‘textbook’, and ‘biography’ are hyponyms, but so too are ‘paperback’, ‘e-book’, and ‘hardback’: but ‘there is no embargo on something being simultaneously a paperback and a novel’ (Cruse, ‘Varieties’, p. 4). They are not, however, ‘co-hyponyms’ since they describe different aspects of the hyperonym.

This also applies to the example I originally used above. 'Queen' participates in a taxonymy to do with status relations and involves gender (like duke/duchess, etc.), 'mother' in a taxonymy of family relationship (like 'father', 'daughter', etc.), and of course there is no problem with intersections of taxonomies, much as with 'novel' and 'hardback' both of which have a superordinate in 'book'. I am beginning to doubt, then, that Cruse was correct to assert that both "queen and mother are both hyponyms of woman". Queen is a type of (hyponym of) noble; mother is a type of (hyponym of) kindred (= family relation). Or have I gone askew here?

At any rate, I'm still having trouble thinking of "good" examples of compatible co-hyponyms!


texts:
I have been reading a bunch of fiction books, such as the Lord of the Rings series and similar. They are definitely modern books, but use a literary language and constructs to give a bit of historical accents.
In these books, I've often encountered fair associated with beautiful, special, astonishing, perhaps magical. And I realized we have fairy in the language, perhaps related.
In the standard English, for me, as a non-native speaker, fair means honest, correct. We have fair coin, which is not an extraordinary coin, but merely a balanced coin.
Did the meaning of fair change over time, or is this just another use in literature?


texts:
We are creating a product which is online hosted CMS solution (something like WordPress), and we want to call it Site Pack. However, there are places where we need to join these words together (like the logo for example). How we should case the joined word? There are many options available:

SitePack
Sitepack
sitepack

Which casing is correct? Who decides the casing of newly coined words? Do we have autonomy in determining the casing of the name of our product, or should we consult somewhere for that?


texts: Word or saying for something that isn't as good as people say it is

texts:
I am looking for a word/phrase or saying for something that isn't so wonderful as people assume or say it is. Something that is lethal but people think it's a miracle.

I want to use it for a title of a book so it should be short.

All I could think of was Wolf in Sheep's Clothing...

Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks


texts:
Are the following two examples grammatical?

Write it I have.
Wrote it I did.

Consider as possible contexts:

They said that I have to write it, and write it I have. -- (for #1)
They said that I wrote it, and wrote it I did. -- (for #2)

MAIN QUESTION: What reasons are there to think that examples #1 and #2 are grammatical or ungrammatical?
These two examples involve preposed verb phrases, which could be used as a form of topicalisation. But what I'm  wondering about, here,  is the grammar in relation to the forms of the verb WRITE.

MINOR QUESTION: As a very small secondary concern, is a comma required after it in those two examples, and why or why not? (See the various comments by Curiousdannii below.)


texts:
I heard a person say " there is no room on the bus ". It for some reason sounded incorrect. However the most basic argument that we hear is that if it is a public transport, we use "on" but buses also have gates that get closed.

So Can it be " There is no room in the bus"

Advise please ?


texts: How to express an increase in percentage unambiguously?

texts: So I have a metric, say, accuracy, which is originally 70% and then raised to 80%. I want to say the accuracy increases by 10%. But it is ambiguous, as some may interpret it as the current accuracy is 70%·110%. How can I say it so that people will undoubtedly understand the increased result as 70% + 10%?


texts: Possessive of Quoted Song Title in Quotes

texts:
Without recasting the following sentence, is the possessive of the quoted song title correctly punctuated as exampled? I am aware that it can be reworded to avoid the problem, but I wanted to know whether 'punctuation-wise' this is correct. Song titles receive quotes; album titles are italicized.

  “Hey Jude” ’s popularity reached unprecedented heights in 1968.


texts: In golfing terms should Ambrose be upper- or lowercase?

texts: Is the Ambrose type of play named after someone and therefore uppercase?


texts: What's the difference in saying "the average family" vs. "the family average"?

texts:
Consider these two sentences:

  A Scranton family has an average of 2.1 children.
  The average Scranton family has 2.1 children.

I've seen both used. The first one seems reasonable, but the second
one seems wrong because you're applying average to family, not to
numbers.

To me, saying "the Jones are an average family" seems legitimate, but  if the Jones have 2.1 children, they're anything but average.

Is the second sentence grammatically correct? Is it understood to mean
the same as the first sentence?

Inspired by the question, Meaning of the expression "2.1 kids".


texts:
I seem to recall reading somewhere that using a to-infinitive with the actual verb omitted (because it's clear from context) — as in

  He asked me to go, but I don't want to. (1)

— is fine in American but not in British English. Brits, or so the story went, append do:

  He asked me to go, but I don't want to do. (2)

I know that the above is true about American English, my native dialect: we can use (1). My question concerns British English.

Googling finds that the above (that (1) is wrong in British English) is not correct in such generality. For example, "can't be arsed to if" has fifteen-odd results, while "can't be arsed to do if" has but one, and it's not in the form of (2).

So...

Did I imagine the rule I stated above? Or is it restricted to particular sentences (or verbs or something)? Or is it correct as stated but outdated? Or what?


texts: Why is Nike pronounced "naikee" and not "naik"?

texts: A word ending with e usually doesn't have a vowel at the end like bike and strike, so why is Nike different?


texts:
I’m trying to find a better word for “dominate” in the following sentences. It feels to me that “dominate” has more of a “subdue” meaning rather than “having deep knowledge about something”, which is the case. Can someone suggest another word for that?

The company dominates these practices and implements agile solutions
The company dominates the challenge of working with multiple technologies within the same client.
The company dominates the use of cognitive rule engines

Thanks a lot!


texts: Is the word "dear" used as a word to show affection or for official use in India?

texts:
Quite a few times now, from my working with Indians, I've had most of them refer to me as "Dear". A common occurrence is when I am chatting on social media or speaking on the phone.

Though where I come from it is mostly used as a word of affection unless in emails or friendly letters, I got used to it but now that I will be travelling there I was wondering how the word is used there. Can I just walk up to a random stranger and refer to them as dear or is it just close friends? Is it even used in the same context as I have described among majority of Indians?

EDIT: I am a man and have mostly worked with Indian men so I find it a bit odd in this situation. A simple example would be when starting a phone call where the person would just receive the call and say "Hello Dear!" or when starting a chat conversation with the same greetings. I mostly use the term when referring to very close female friends or family so at first I found it a bit strange.


texts: How do names of heroes in comics sound to the native?

texts:
For example, names of heroes are: Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Spiderman, Wolverine, etc. Also names of villains can be included: Joker, Bane, Magneto, etc. (Sorry if I put heroes in villains and villains in heroes.)

The most of these names are not only proper nouns, but general terms. Joker, Green Lanter, Bane, Magneto... Some are compound word. Batman, Superman, etc.

To the natives, how does Wolverine sound like? Do you think it as a kind of animal, or a proper noun itself? Similarly, how about Superman? A guy who has a great(super) power an ability, or SUPERMAN itself? A man who is in a bat suit, or BATMAN?

I posted this question because, as I am Korean, many Koreans think that translating such names into Korean is very unfashionable and ugly.
Wolverine can be translated into Osori (/Osori/). But people think Osori doesn't sound good because it is Korean not English.

In short, when the natives hear Wolverine, do they have the similar feeling with Koreans who hear Osori? Do they feel somewhat ugly?


texts: Is it OK to use "it" to refer to human beings?

texts:
In my understanding, "it" can only be used to refer to objects other than human beings. However, I just found a sentence as follow from a book.

  It is Mr. Kenta who came at 8 this morning.

Is it grammatically correct?


texts:
When checking on the midterm progress report form I received from my teacher, I came across this line:

  Write a synthesis of the group’s individual summaries

Can anyone make any sense out of this? Is this utter nonsense or am I overthinking it?
Thank you.


texts: Dawn, Dusk.. what's a word for middle of the day?

texts: A word to best describe the position of the sun when it's directly above and very bright?


texts: "Effort has been made" or "Efforts have been made"

texts:
I want to say

  During the past years, effort(s) has been made to ...

Since the scenario is that there are many groups of people involved, I am not sure which one I should use.


texts: What is the word for an epiphany brought about through an object?

texts:
I heard this on the radio probably a decade ago where someone was talking about an epiphany he experienced through a glass of milk. He said very distinctly that there was a form of epiphany which was one brought about through an object.

I subsequently forgot what the word was but I torture myself on an almost weekly basis as to what it was. Needless to say it doesn't seem to google. Any help would be wonderful.


texts: What does it mean to "take the mickey out of" something?

texts:
I am a Yank.  I have a friend who lives in the UK, in Sussex.  She writes:

  Mike and Rose are pretty good, but they tend to take the mickey out of
  my inadequacies.

Mike and Rose are her children, BTW, and she's talking about her perceived inadequacies dealing with computers.

What on earth does it mean to "take the mickey out of" something?


texts:
When comparing the total surface area of (geometrical) bodies, can I describe it as "large surface" (or "largest") or, as an editor suggested, do I have to use "broad surface"?

Edit:

Example sentence from the article:
"Porous, spongy grains provide a large surface for chemical reactions but might hinder the release of the newly formed species into the gas phase."

Another example:

"Additionally, the significantly larger dust surface in the XX and YY model lead to ..."

here XX and YY denote dust models with differen dust size distributions and accordingly with different total surface area of the grains.

The editor suggested to replace large by broad.


texts: Which is better equivalent for “in stock”? “At hand”, “on hand”, or “in hand”?

texts:
Which is a better equivalent for “in stock” (meaning a product is in stock)?

“at hand”
“on hand”
“in hand”

Can any of them be used? Which is the most appropriate? Which is second-best?


texts: Learning and development is/are equally important

texts:
Example: In the given process, learning and development is equally important.

Can the verb here be singular (i.e. is)?

What is the basis for such exceptions? Can you kindly elaborate on this?


texts:
In the following context:

  I'm clutching at straws here.  I'm trying to imagine how a woman could fail to be offended by being called a "hole".

What's meant by "clutching at straws"?


texts:
I would like to know which one of the following is correct:

  Figures 1 and 2 indicate that...
  Figure 1 and 2 indicate that...
  Figure 1 and 2 indicates that...
  other possibilities?


texts: Word for the case when something was but is absent now

texts: For example, I have three apples. I eat them one by one and after that I want to say there are no apples anymore. Is phrase "apples are ended" correct or should I use another verb?


texts: Should there be a comma after "he added" if I'm not quoting?

texts:
At my job we usually write something like this:

  Mr. Smith stated the defendant is welcome to stay at his residence and
  may receive mail at that address, if necessary.  He added he is
  willing to provide him with transportation to future court
  proceedings, if needed.

There is only one editor that adds a comma after the word "added" and I believe it is unnecessary.


texts: What is the correct Latinate prefix for honey-eaters?

texts: In English, a vegetarian who eats eggs and dairy products can be referred to as an ovo-lacto vegetarian. By the same token, could a person who eats honey but is otherwise vegan be meaningfully called a mell-vegan?


texts: What's the meaning of the word "nerd-crush"?

texts:
This is the context:

  I’m just going to come right out and
  say it, I have a huge nerd-crush on
  jQuery. I have for several years.
  Actually, it may be more of a love
  affair.


texts: Why are sub-subsections of the Irish constitution marked with the degree symbol?

texts:
The accepted legal practice when referring to sub-subsections of the Irish constitution is to use the degree symbol to mark sub-subsections.  For example, Art 40.3.3°.  This convention is not used for Irish statutes, or indeed, as far as I can see, for any other text in English or, for that matter Irish (which has its own ordinal markers).  The convention is to use the degree symbol rather than other similar diacritics.

What are the origins of this practice and why does it seem to apply to only the Irish constitution and only to sub-subsections? What indication is intended to be conveyed by the degree symbol that is not carried by the decimal system of denoting section  numbering?


texts: English equivalent of the Persian proverb "When there's fire, wet and dry burn together"

texts:
There's a well-known proverb in Persian, which, translated literally, goes like this:

  Where there's fire, wet and dry burn together.
  The original being ".وقتی آتش موجود باشد) تر و خشک با هم می سوزند)"

In a large forest fire, both dry wood that can be ignited easily and wet wood that's hard to burn, burn. A good example of a context it's used in would be a principal punishing a whole class because of what few perpetrators did — so students that didn't deserve to be punished, (that is, the wet) burned alongside the ones that did. (that is, the dry)

Is there a proverb that would express the same thing in English? More specifically, is there a proverb that would convey the innocent receiving undeserved punishment?


texts: meaning of "As if I don't have enough to worry about"

texts:
As if I don't have enough to worry about without my youngest making up such things.

I understand this meaning:

  without my children making problems, I have nothing to worry about.

am I right?


texts: Is "a half dozen" necessarily 6, or can it be 5-7?

texts:
In my answer to a question on the SF & Fantasy stack, I assumed that "half a dozen" is imprecise enough to mean anywhere from 5 to 7. Another user challenged that assumption and stated that since a dozen is 12, a half dozen is necessarily 6 and nothing else.

In the answer to a similar question, it is said that

  Dozen is quite flexible when it is pluralized.

Does half count as a pluralisation? Can "half a dozen" mean anywhere from 5 to 7, or can it only be 6?


texts: What is the convention for use of "volume" or "amount" in reference to quantity of data?

texts:
"Volume" is commonly used to refer to indefinite and definite (usually large) quantities of data or rates of data throughput (e.g., "The volume of data we delivered on each date is provided in the following list.").

However, I've also seen "amount" used the same way (e.g., "The amount of data we delivered on each date is provided in the following list.")

Which is correct?


texts: What's the difference between un- adjectives and -less adjectives?

texts:
What's the difference, if any, between

talentless and untalented
luckless and unlucky
dauntless and undaunted
hapless and unhappy, etc.?

Can the answer to this be generalized, i.e. is it always the same kind or shade of difference, or does the difference differ in each individual pair?


texts:
I notice that there is a tradition in English of shortening names by omitting given names, which has been formalized in contexts like academia (the theorem of Gauss, the textbook by Young and Geller, citation rules) and law (the firm Baker & McKenzie, the case Roe v. Wade).

Should we really be adopting this practice in contexts where surnames show less varied? For instance, I found that the most common surname is the US (Smith) takes 0.7% of the surnames, while the most common in China (王, Wáng) takes 7.3%.


texts: Use of present tense in academic writing

texts:
I'm a graduate theology student, and I'm having some trouble with verb tenses. In my first chapter I explore the life and work of the author who is the subject of my study. I am often narrating in the past, but I also talk about particular things he wrote. I find myself saying things like:

"He published one of his most significant articles in 1944. In it, he writes..."

Would it be better to just put everything in the past tense (e.g., use "wrote" instead of "writes" above)?

My second chapter is almost all textual analysis and much less concerned with biographical details. There, I'm inclined to use the present, which would certainly be more conventional.

I appreciate any help. My advisor is great, but English is not his first language, so he's a little limited in his ability to help me in this area.


texts: Term for a “unit-ed” (versus “unitless”) quantity

texts:
What is a term for the class of measured quantities that have a unit, as distinct from those that are unitless?

This term describes any quantity with a unit:

5.3 seconds
$0.00
−17.28 metres
4½ apples

This term excludes unitless quantities:

5.3
0.00
−17.28
4½

Note that the mass noun versus countable noun distinction is not useful here; the unit-ful quantities include both mass and countable quantities, so that's not going to help distinguish.

Candidate terms already tried

In other words, I want a term like “unit quantity” except that has different connotation (because a “unit quantity” implies it's exactly one of something. So that's not the correct term.)

I think the modifier “dimensioned” does not apply to abstract units (like dollars) or to counting physical objects (like apples), so if that's true then dimension excludes some quantities I want to include. That would mean it's not the correct term.

(Similar to “What do you call the part of a quantity that isn't the unit”, but I'm asking for a term that only describes a quantity including the unit, and excludes quantities that have no unit.)


texts: What do you call the someone, who cares about something but wouldn't care if it's lost?

texts:
It's kind of weird to get a grasp from just the title but most people can't really understand my mindset and it's hard to give them a word to accurately describe it.

I'm extremely passive as long as something doesn't directly affect me. I usually just won't care. But even when something does directly affect me, it's hard to put into words how I'll react.

My  brother describes it as "He cares but he doesn't care" (where I got the title from) in the sense of being passive. For example, he tends to tell this to my mom, who'll then later on ground me, but it won't work at all because I will do something else with minimal effort to get un-grounded.

So if I were grounded from my computer, I would play an old game; grounded from all games, read a book; grounded from everything, study ahead in class (as I had learned everything ahead of time for AB calculus). Even though I might spend most of my time using the item I was grounded from, I wouldn't see it as a necessity and would move on to some other form of entertainment.

Now that you have a mildly to extremely weird description/example of how I think, could you help me think of a word to describe how I think in these situations because simply saying that I'm extremely passive isn't quite accurate enough to describe me.

I can also be described as a Cynical A-hole at times, in case that helps.

  "He cares but he doesn't care. And he doesn't care because he's _______ and he'll just go do something else."


texts: Does "Bad Ass!" have a positive or negative meaning?

texts: I've heard that this in "the last ship" and that sounded like a compliment.What do you say?


texts: Using "it's" vs. using "it is" at the end of a sentence

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Is there some rule against ending a sentence with the contraction “it's”?

Why is it that the following sounds incorrect:

  "Would she know where it's?"

But this sounds fine:

  "Would she know where it is?"


texts: An idiom meaning "a good horse is called a sorrel, a good young man is called fearless/crazy/bold"

texts:
Is there any idiom in English similar to

  Horse as boy, (brave) man as kook (are best).

in which boy means sorrel. The latter is obvious.

It is my translation(maybe it is wrong) to describe the idiom I'm seeking.

Another translation,

  “Do not be afraid to insist on your rightful case. You should know that a good horse is called sorrel, and a good young man is called crazy (brave, fearless, and bold).” (source)

Description,

  Sorrel horses are more imposing, more muscular and stronger than other
  horses. More powerful and warrior riders ride on horses. More powerful
  and warrior riders ride on horses. The horse is the best, the brave is
  alive and kicking(that is, powerful and attractive). They call them
  unflinching, a bit stern(badass), strong, and fair, brave. Since the
  power is money in the current period, we can compare the horse to the
  car and the power of the valiant to money.

The idiom advised to Osman Gazi by his father Sheikh Edebali is originally from Turkish culture.

@Edit,

The horse mentioned here is powerful, strong. And the horse possessing the features is sensed as best horse among the horse species. In the same way, a person behaving differently(may be eccentric) while solving problem, evading issues  in a genius and tricky way and smartly is sensed as best.

in Turkish,

Atın dorusu, yiğidin delisi makbuldür.


texts: What is the real meaning of these words when you are translating to spanish?

texts:
I'm working on improving my English to apply to the official translator title and I'm currently studying the concept of "Calco" Which means words that has meaning in English but when translating to Spanish those do not work the same and are badly translated. An example is the word "Name" (v) in English, you can translate it as Nombrar, however, this is bad and the real word is "designar". So my question goes by this.

In this context, what could be the meaning for a "major theme", is the same as If I say, the main, the principal?

major themes.

Does anybody got a "calcos" or misunderstood words in english?

Thank you very much.


texts:
Is there supposed to be a space before a footnote reference mark?
For example:

  This is a sentence. 1

(let's say 1 is the footnote number) or there isn't supposed to be a space, so,

  This is a sentence.1

Which is the preferred way?


texts: What is the English equivalent for the Portuguese expression "ao sabor"?

texts:
In Portuguese there's "ao sabor (do/da)", a term/expression that literally translates to "to the taste (of)", example: viajar ao sabor do vento (literally "travelling to the taste of the wind"). In this case, it means you travel freely, without a specific destination or path.

You can also apply that to other things, like a conversation, uma conversa ao sabor do tempo e da vida, literally "a conversation to the taste of the time and life".

Is there a similar expression in English that I could use in this last case?


texts:
Random House Dictionary  as well as Merrian-Webster suggest that the common idiomatic expression "do or die" is from late 19th century:

  First recorded in 1875-80

The following site suggests it is from a poem dated 1793

  The term "do or die" comes from Robert Burns' poem "Robert Bruce's March to Bannockburn" which was a poem about the first War of Scottish Independence.The last stanza of the poem reads:

    Lay the proud Usurpers low!

    Tyrants fall in every foe!

    Liberty's in every blow!

    Let us Do or Die!

and also Google Books shows usages from late 18th/early 19th century,

while according to The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms do or die has a much earlier origin:

  Exert supreme effort because failure is close at hand, as in Carol was going to set up the computer, do or die. This hyperbolic expression in effect says one will not be deterred by any obstacle. [c. 1600]

So, where does this common saying come from? Was it from a poem composed much earlier than Robert Burns' one?


texts: Why do we say "You are" when you is singular instead of "You is"?

texts: The title really says it all. Since "you" can be singular or plural, why don't we say, "You is" when using "you" as singular? We say "he is" or "they are". Why is it different?


texts:
I looked this up, and came up with:.

  It makes no more sense than the variants it has usurped and is clearly just a play on words (though perhaps there’s a lurking idea that rain often comes straight down, in a right line, to use the old sense).

The author here doesn't seem to know very clearly what its origin is. He is speculating it's just a play on words.

Does anyone have any definitive answer or evidence?


texts:
The sentence:

  Had the doctor been more careful, my cousin might still have been alive.

In this construction, the two fragments of the sentence are more parallel with their use of been. Had he been xyz, she might still have been xyz.

Would this be better instead:

  Had the doctor been more careful, my cousin might still be alive.

I've read other might have been vs. might be posts here (such as this one) and the architecture is not very clear in situations such as this one here. Might have been is a clearer expression if the situation is in the past, but with being alive, it's different -- the qualifying situation is in the past, but being alive is by definition in the 'present'.

Dictionaries such as OED are a bit cavalier in recommending that may and might etc can be used interchangeably these days, which is not helpful. Welcome any guidance!


texts: "A quarter of us is going to lose our jobs" or "A quarter of us is going to lose his job"

texts:
During my English lesson, I found this sentence in the book

  A quarter of us is going to lose our job.

I think it's wrong but the teachers disagree with me. I think that the subject is "a quarter",
so it should be:

  A quarter of us is going to lose his job
  or
  A quarter of us is going to lose their jobs


texts: Suffixes for verbification: -ify, -icise, -ificate

texts:
The suffixes

-ise/-ize
-ify
-ificate

are all used for verbifying nouns and adjectives.  What are the differences in meaning/connotation/usage between them?

(This is generalising from the sinification/sinicisation question, and is partially answered by @Garet Claborn’s answer there — an expansion of that answer would be great for this as well!)


texts: "Now forgotten" vs. "now-forgotten", "once powerful" vs. "once-powerful"

texts:
I have a sentence with the bit "a now forgotten era".

Would it be written correctly this way or should it be hyphenated as "a now-forgotten era"?

What about "I dedicate this board to Atlantis, a once powerful civilization"? Should it be "a once-powerful civilization"?


texts:
Is collection a good substitute for combination in:

They say wisdom is a collection of truth and beauty.


texts: Third person imperative recommendations/suggestions/requests

texts:
My question is on the grammatical correctness of the following sentence with regard to the form of the verb 'join':

  The plan is that the group join the party.

Other sentences that I think represent the same issue (regarding the verbs sing, consider, maintain) are:

  I ask that the choir sing at the banquet.

  The advice is that the committee consider the alternative.

  The advisor recommends that the firm maintain its involvement.

In each of these above sentences I attempt to make a command (do this: join, sing, consider, maintain) but to a third person subject (as though not speaking directly to the group/choir/committee/firm).  Microsoft Word's grammar features suggest correction to me from 'join' to 'joins'.  Is it grammatically incorrect as I have written it?

Basically I am trying to write a proposal in which I implore a recommendation.  I essentially want to say, imperatively, "do this", but more gently/politely or in a more passive tone.  I picked to say "that the group join" because to me it's as though I am saying "that the group will join" or "that the group would join", but I don't want to write that out to avoid being too pushy (saying that it 'will' do as I say) nor too nonpersuasive (telling them that they 'would' do as I say, if they feel like it.. or not.. whatever..).  Nor do I want to say "the plan is that the group joins" because my purpose is to recommend (propose) for the group to carry out the action, in the future.

What's a correct word choice or conjugation here? What's the best tense for the sentence?


texts: Most dictionaries seem to indicate that highlighted is the past tense for highlight, rather than highlit. However, we use lit as the past tense for light without reservation, with lighted appearing much less frequently. Why the difference? Why isn't the derivation of the past-tense verb consistent for these two related words?


texts: What are some words that describe using one's voice as an instrument, i.e. doing certain things with the voice, not necessarily just hitting particularly challenging higher/lower registers? Things like yodeling; a yodeler is a [word], someone who is [word], someone who can [word].


texts:
The word love is a cognate with its Germanic origin "luv," but I am wondering if English contains other words for love, such as relatives to the famous Greek "Four Loves:"

Philia - This one has several obvious descendants such as "hydrophilic," "philanthropy," "Philadelphia," etc.
Eros- sensual love-- one descendant is "erotic" ("libido" has Latinate origin").
The next two are weirder:
Agape - God's love ("Charity" comes from the Latin equivalent)
Storge - Familial love ("Familia" comes from Latin).


texts: What's the difference between "arguable" and "debatable"?

texts:
I have noticed that people use 'debatable' a lot, while 'arguable' is used quite less.
What's the difference and when should one use one or the other?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What do you call somebody who asks a question and somebody who answers a question?
  What do I call a person who is participating in a survey?

What's a proper but simple one-word description of a person to whom a question is being asked?


texts:
How would you concisely/idiomatically say what follows

  By the very level at which some objects are implied, the story that follows and implies these objects necessarily is a story of this level.

I guess that I am not clear at all. Another (and more archetyped) example:

  Given the macroeconomic scale at which these indicators are computed, then what we do with these variables is necessarily related to macroeconomics

?

Clarification/simplification attempt.

Does the last example above sound "English" or is there a more idiomatic way of saying this? Actually, starting the sentence with Given the [...] at which [...] is a formulation which is somehow native in other languages, but I guess that is sounds inappropriate in English.

PS: i could make my question clearer in my native language...


texts: Is (the reason ) "is his expecting otherwise" grammatically correct?

texts:
(1) "But maybe the fear in his eyes" "Is him expecting otherwise."  I understand it is not grammatically correct (indirect object) but please provide more info as to why it's not.
A grammar expert said (1) is ok to use in a poem because ok to bend the rules.  Who agrees?
(2) "But maybe the fear in his eyes" "Is he's expecting otherwise." seems grammatically correct but does not have the same meaning as (1) because it implies the expectation is causing the fear and I want the fear to instead be equated with being the expectation instead of caused by it (as I believe (1) does.)
(3) "But maybe the fear in his eyes" "Is his expecting otherwise."
Like 1, implies an equating relationship (though perhaps not as well as (1) does...) but is it grammatically correct?
The grammar expert suggested using (3) but suggested I not use 2 (though he did not say it was grammatically incorrect).   I see nothing wrong grammatically with (2).  But I don't want to use 2 because it is not "poetic".
So the question now is, is (3) grammatically correct?
Seems to me "is his expecting otherwise" is using a possessive form (such as in "the reason is his shirt is too bright") and thus for it to be grammatically correct would have to be "the reason is his expectation is otherwise" which does not work poetically.
If "is his expecting otherwise" is correct, then why is "The reason she's given up drinking alcohol is her having a baby" not correct?
He / she, him /her, he / her.
Is the answer something to do with there being 3 masculine pronouns and only 2 feminine? And why is there one more masculine than feminine anyway?
Thanks.


texts: Word for the action or someone who performs the action of "finding the perfect ..."

texts:
I am looking for a word, or at least a short phrase, that describes the action of "finding the perfect"... something.
For example, in the following expression, I'd like to replace "found the perfect" with a single word, or, at least, a more elegant expression:

John found the perfect song for the occasion

Also,  if you know a word that describes someone who can "find the perfect .. something" - please also let me know. Something like "seeker" but a bit more semantically relevant to the concept I have just described.


texts:
I was wondering how the word Cactaceae, which is the botanical taxon for the Cactus family, is pronounced. I searched for "Cactaceae pronunciation" and found the following pronunciations:

cac-'tee-see-ee

cac-'tee-see-eye

It seemed a bit strange that the second a is pronounced as see rather than mate so I searched on an found the Merriam-Webster pronunciation, which reads:

\kakˈtāsēˌē\

If I'm not mistaken, this is to be parsed as

cac-'teh-see-ee

So, which one's the correct pronunciation? I don't suppose a lot of people have ever uttered this word out loud, but I have an upcoming presentation in English and will be using this word a lot.


texts: Is there a difference between "Joe said" and "said Joe"?

texts:
Does the subject/verb order make a difference when writing a dialog tag?

"The sky is blue," Joe said.
"The sky is blue," said Joe.

Is one preferable over the other? Does one emphasize the speaker (or the method of speech, such as shout) more than the other?
(Personally, I would use the second form to emphasize that Joe made the statement)


texts: Why the comma is used in the sentence by Jane Austen

texts:
I cannot understand the usage of comma after "chapel" in this sentence:

  Its long, damp passages, its narrow cells and ruined chapel, were to be within her daily reach, and she could not entirely subdue the hope of some traditional legends, some awful memorials of an injured and ill-fated nun.

Why is a comma used here, and what is the sentence structure?

The sentence is an excerpt from "Northanger Abbey" by Jane Austen.


texts:
I've just listened to the song and memories have come flooding back. The question is what tense to use to describe what have just happened in a sentence: when I've heard this song memories had come flooding back. Am I correct?
Thanks a lot.


texts: Term for a feeling of discomfort when being without your mobile

texts: I've heard it called 'no mobile phobia' or 'nomofo', but it's not really a phobia, so I'm wondering if there are any other common place terms.


texts: Difference in usage between "Dependent" and "Reliant"

texts:
Based on the comments on a question on another SE site, I'm trying to define the difference between something being "Dependent upon something" and being "reliant upon something".

The sentence in question was: "It is well know that if you feed animals that they become dependent."  The comments devolved into a debate over whether the animals were dependent on the provided food, or whether they were reliant on it.

One contention was that the former is a subset of the latter - if you rely on something you can find other sources, but if you depend on it, you can't.  The other was that they were entirely equivalent, which the dictionary seems to support.

Is there a correct usage?  Are there implied differences that a straight dictionary lookup doesn't provide?

Edit: Answers based on the verb forms (depends and relies) would be fine, if they transfer over to these adjectives, but not ones based on the positive adjective form (dependable and reliable).


texts: Word with both hard and soft “c” sound, meaning an intrinsic dislike of rules

texts:
I am finding myself totally unable to remember a word. It’s like having an itch in my brain!

The word itself has both a hard and a soft c (I often use it along with placate and façade to demonstrate hard and soft c’s). It means an intrinsic dislike or distrust of rules, a propensity to go against them, or both.

(I had originally thought that it began inc- but after taking a look at this list I'm not so sure anymore.)


texts: Is it correct to use the verb " phone" in the passive form?

texts:
In case of an active sentence formed by a verb + indirect object, may it be transformed into passive sentence or not?

For example, could the following sentence be turned into passive?

  Claire phoned her father yesterday


texts: Word like "giving up" but that implies shifting to something else?

texts:
Example:

  I began searching in the zoology section. But I didn't find what I wanted.
  [...], I shifted to veterinary medicine.

I think using giving up would mean giving up on the whole thing. It doesn't  imply change.


texts: What kind of rhetoric is "The computer runs as fast as a rocket."?

texts: At first sight I would say it is a metaphor, but after some thought I'm not sure anymore. The parallel is not so exact between the two objects, since the speed of a computer usually refers to the response speed(or more technically, measured in terms of frequency), while the speed of a rocket usually refers to the traveling speed. A more conventional metaphor is like "The boy runs as fast as a rocket.", so what is "The computer runs as fast as a rocket."?


texts: "To ..., to ..., and to ..." multiple to-infinitives

texts:
Usually, I just use one "to", in sentences like "To address this problem and share our ideas with others, we would like to ...".
But I also see people use multiple "to"s, like "To address this problem and to share our ideas with others, we would like to ..."
Are they both correct?


texts: Is there an English word whose meaning refers to 'mind' or 'memory', but whose etymology refers to 'heart'?

texts:
I know that the English language has an expression, 'to know something by heart', that alludes to the heart but whose meaning is 'to know something from memory'.

I've discovered that this link between the heart and the memory was something that people believed at least in the 18th century and way before. This originated some Spanish words such as recordar 'remember', 'remind'. Recordar comes from Latin recordari and this one from cor 'heart', according to Spanish etymologist Joan Corominas.

So now I'm curious. Apart from the expression mentioned above, is there an English word (not an expression) whose meaning refers to 'mind' or 'memory', but whose etymology refers to 'heart'?


texts:
How would you describe moving your head back in shock?

I.e. if something shocks you, you might move your head away from it, a bit like the gasping cat meme.

A friend has said 'shrink your neck', but I can't find any credible examples of that online.

Reeled or gasped in shock could be used, but I'm hoping to find a way to describe the specific action of moving the head back.

Any thoughts or advice will be much appreciated :)


texts: What is the appropriate preposition which can be used with the word "server"?

texts:
In the sentences :

The file is placed in the server.
The file is placed on the server.
The file is placed at the server.

Which is the best option?


texts: Is there a single word that means "to add an amount to a running total"?

texts:
I'm trying to determine what word would best be used to indicate an instruction to, when someone comes across a number of things in a given situation, add the number there (maybe written, or it may require counting a number in that situation) to a running total of similar things.

It would be similar in usage to count or tally, but would specifically imply that there is more than one to add to the running total
Something more similar in meaning to accumulate or aggregate except we're just tracking the numbers of things (like rocks or plants), not actually collecting them in a bag or box, so I'd prefer to avoid those words, which have that potential meaning
Add might be close, but there's a reason the phrase "add to the running total" isn't just "add"
Whereas count and tally and even sum, I think, imply "determine a number and report it", I want something that is more like "determine the number of these and then add that to this total"
So, it would fit in this sentence in place of accumulate: "If you come across some hair pins, accumulate them in the 'sharp' count and the 'metal' count, but if you find buttons, they should be accumulated in the 'round' count - if they're round - and the 'flat' count."
The more precise meaning of that sentence above is: "If you come across some hair pins, count them and add that number to the 'sharp' count and the 'metal' count, but if you find buttons, they should be counted and that total should be added to the both the 'round' count and the 'flat' count."


texts: Is this Clause or falls under some other category

texts:
a finding that has shocked most observers.

Full sentence:
studies have shown that X is 60 percent of Y, a finding that has shocked most observers.

What is your opinion. Isn't it that the above is a clause?

This is what I know -

An appositive noun modifier, a type of modifier that NEVER appears in spoken language but that appears on the GMAT a lot. The reason is that, unlike relative pronouns such as 'which', these modifiers don't have to touch their referent.
For instance: The general tried to get his troops to retreat before being surrounded, a strategy that ultimately failed.
Exceptions - If you have an appositive modifier that's an abstract noun - such as "strategy", "figure", "statistic", "findings", "situation", "change", "difference", etc. - then such an appositive may be allowed to describe the entire situation described in the previous clause.
For instance, the example I gave above with "a strategy..."Also, for further examples, see #59 and #79 in the purple verbal supplement OG book.


texts: Is there any rule which dictates the ordering of non-proper, non-pronoun nouns in a list?

texts:
For example,

Is "Design, Operation, and Management," as equally good of a list as "Management, Operation, and Design?"

My colleagues and I are having a tough time reasoning why one sounds better than the other, but we agree that there is a best-sounding list.


texts:
I am foreign student in Sarajevo, and trying to develop a small time machine for software (not a real one, of course). And I need to show users specified place where currently they are.

How can I translate for this specified times? I wrote like these:

The Present, or as second alternative Now
In the Past
In the Future

It looks like in my software:

  February 2, Wednesday 2011 (The Present)

or

  January 8, Wednesday 1996 (In the Past)

Are these good enough, or do you have any better advice?


texts: Conventions in Old English for use of thorn and eth

texts: Somewhere I got the naive idea that, in Old English, thorn represented the unvoiced "th" sound and eth represented the voiced "th" sound. A little digging has suggested to me that each of the characters could be used for each of the sounds. I'm wondering what rules governed their use in writing, and how they changed over time.


texts: What is the difference between "what do you think" and "how about"?

texts: These two sentences seem to be the same to me. Is there any difference between them, and are there circumstances in which I can only use one of them instead of the other?


texts: Suitable word for a hardworking and resilient person

texts:
I am writing a personal statement and my opening sentence is like this:

  I am _______. Being resilient in the face of hardships and difficulties, my friends and class fellows would call me so.

Now looking for a suitable word for this blank. Something which shows a hardworking and flexible personality. Kindly help.

Edit: looking for an easy and short word


texts: "If you knew what the future" held/holds?

texts:
So, I was listening to Katy Perry's Firework, and she sings

  If you only knew what the future holds...

My problem with this is that I think that her usage of "knew" means that she should sing

  If you only knew what the future held...

instead. Searching the internet shows me that "knew what the future held" is correct, but I can't argue that "holds" doesn't work because the future hasn't occurred yet. I have also not seen anything against the usage of "holds" in this sentence.

Is this sentence idiomatic, or is it just "artistic license: grammar"?


texts: singular entity as a collection of subjects

texts:
"If you are looking for a XYZ Residential Real Estate Attorney, the Law Offices of John Smith is here to help. "

The firm itself is called "the Law Offices of John Smith", so is it correct that it would be referred to as a singular entity like that?


texts: does the word "reference sentence" make any sense?

texts:
A book has a sentence 'A', which is cited from another book. In the other book, there is sentence 'A1' that 'A' is based on.

Is it correct to say that 'A1' is the reference sentence of 'A'?


texts: What does “typed-out paralysis” mean exactly?

texts:
I found the article titled “A writing coach becomes a listener” in April 28 New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/books/william-zinsser-author-of-on-writing-well-at-his-work.html?pagewanted=allvery) interesting as well as very instructive.

The article introduces the profile, career and the latest activity of Mr. William Zinsser, a great teacher of writing and the author of “On Writing Well,” first published in 1976.
I was also interested in the word, “stage of typed-out paralysis” in the following sentence in this article:

  “People come to him in stages of typed-out paralysis, stalled,
  uncertain whether they have written too much or too little. He tries
  to help them organize their thoughts by condensing, reducing —
  learning what not to include.”

I imagine “the stage of typed-out paralysis” to be the stage of your typing-out fingers being frozen and your writing work stalled. I’m confortable with ‘typed-out fingers / hands,' or 'typed-out messages/ essays,' but I was hung up on the expression, ‘typed-up paralysis.’ Whether it's phisical or mental, can ‘paralysis' be 'typed-out' by hands phisically as the logic?

McMillan English Dictionary defines “type out” as:
to write the whole of something using a keyboard.

Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘type’ as:
write (something) on a typewriter or computer by pressing the keys, with an example ‘He typed out the second draft.’

Cambridge English Dictionary defines “type out” as:
to use a computer or a typewriter, to make a copy of something in writing.

None of these definitions seems to give me a hint to make out what is exactly meant by “typed-out paralysis,” and again the question, can ‘paralysis’ be typed-out?


texts: In the sentence "We do have free will.", what part of speech is "free"?

texts:
In this sentence "We do have free will," is "free-will" a compound noun? And if so, is "free" an adjective?

I'm talking about the theological concept of "free will". Which, in some cases, you read "free-will", always as a single term.

This is not a question about the meaning of this expression, but the grammar classification of the words that compounds it. Of course the meaning and the context need to be taken in consideration, but it can be known by the wikipedia article. But I'm asking the experts that know the meaning and it's common use, to help me classifying grammatically "free will", giving the classification of "free" and "will", within that context.


texts:
I'm reading this one website insurance of employees and got confused.

  The employee's portion of the insurance contribution is withheld from the employee's pay

So does it mean, the employee's insurance will be covered by employer, or it will be deducted from the salary?


texts: The same as +object or possessive pronoun

texts:
Tony has the same book as I do (He now has my very book).
Tony has the same book as mine (His book is a copy of my book,it
has the same title,written by the same writer).
Tony's car is the same as mine (Our car are similar, they have a
similar model, they are both Fiat 500, for example ).
Tony drives the same car as me (He is now driving my own car and
not a different one).

I'd like to focus your attention on the pattern "same as". We all know that it could mean 1) similar to or 2) identical. My question was how can I understand whether it means "similar" or "identical"?
My hypothesis is:

if the "as" is followed by a objective pronoun, it means "identical, exactly the thing mentioned and not another one".
if the "as" is followed by a possessive pronoun (mine, yours, theirs,
etc.), it means "of the same type, similar".


texts:
For example, my birthday is 9/9. My brothers' birthday is 12/12. Tomorrow will be 3/3. Is there a word that describes when it is the same date as the number we use to represent the month?
Please note that "palindrome" dates usually include the year, so while these numbers are sort of palindromes, I don't think that's the correct word to be applied.


texts:
First of all, I am not good at English but I have to mention this. İt's annoying me. Please excuse my usage of language.

''It is nice to see you.''

What is the subject of this sentence? What is the thing that is nice? Obviously, it is ''to see''. To see you is nice. But according to the sentence above ''it'' is subject of this sentence. But according to the reasoning, to see is the subject, too. In the final analysis, we can say that we have two words that have the same meaning. As long as two things have the same meaning we can use the one instead of the other one. Therefore, if ''it'' is the same thing with ''to see'' then we can say that to see is nice to see you.

Or let me ask you this: Why do you use such a structure? And what do you think about it?


texts:
Sherlock Holmes seemed delighted at the idea of sharing his rooms with
  me. "I have my eye on a suite in Baker Street," he said, "which would
  suit us down to the ground. You don't mind the smell of strong
  tobacco, I hope?"

  "I always smoke 'ship's' myself," I answered.

-- A Study in Scarlet, 1887

I don't suppose that Doctor Watson, whatever his other talents, was actually smoking pieces of watercrafts. So what does the expression mean?


texts: When something is short, what would you compare it to?

texts:
Is there any common phrase to compare with?

I would like to say something like:

This should not last longer then...

...a flash.
...a blink.
...a blast.
...crack of a whip.
anything else?


texts:
Nothing in the court papers suggests Grayson was anything but a victim of the scheme.

Does this mean papers suggest he was a victim?


texts: Is "between A to B" considered good grammar?

texts:
I looked at "Between A and B vs from A to B", but it didn't mention a third variation I've been hearing more often, recently.

Even on the Australian national broadcaster, the ABC, I've heard statements by reporters like

  The cost was estimated to be between A to B dollars.

Have the rules of grammar changed, or is this as ungrammatical as I think it is?


texts: Using 'is changing' with continuous action

texts:
A discussion recently came up on Duolingo (not the English course) about whether it would be appropriate to use the progressive tense with a continuous action, like something that happens every day. I found a similar Q&A here: Present continuous tense with the time element "everyday"

While even the user who answered implied that it would be more appropriate to use the simple tense, I'm wondering specifically about the verb 'to change'. Is it / can it be correct, in any context, to say that "her answer is changing every day"?


texts:
When calculus was first being developed, the terms "fluent" and "fluxion" appeared quite often in the Newtonian works.

I am wanting to know the etymology behind these words. I assume that "fluents" are related to the concept of "fluid" or "flowing", but (as far as I am aware) the word has gone out of usage in mathematics.

"Fluxions" are not used in modern-day texts, but I assume that "flux" (a term with which every physics student will be familiar) derives from "fluxion".

If context helps, one would usually talk of a "fluent" as a moving point, generating a curve, and a "fluxion" as its velocity (direction + speed). I am interested in knowing why these terms were used, and what they referred to.

EDIT: On a related note, Newton writes "Fluxions of quantities are in the first ratio of their nascent parts or, what is exactly the same, in the last ratio of those parts as they vanish by defluxion." What would "defluxion" refer to?


texts:
When I was at university in the late 90s, a girl I shared a flat with would use the term "halfcast" to describe people of mixed race, especially in the context of people who had a similar skin colour to Halle Berry or Melanie B (from the Spice Girls).

Is this a racist or offensive term?

For a bit of context - this was at a university in the British midlands (ie near Birmingham/Leicester/Nottingham), the girl was born in Dundee in Scotland but was brought up in Northampton in England. I don't consider her to be a racist.


texts: To be versus have in their passive forms?

texts: 'He'd only had it told to him by the townspeople'.  What is the difference between this passive construction and if it had said, 'He was only told...'?


texts: Using past simple tense after past perfect

texts:
When X happened, I had not taken my pills because I hadn't had them
  with me.

  When X happened, I had not taken my pills because I didn't have them
  with me.

Is the second sentence grammatically sound?


texts:
Sorry for the vague title. I came across this sentence while reading the book A Dash of Style:

  The gracious semicolon wouldn't exist if it weren't for the failure of both the comma and period to fulfill its task.

Could you explain to me how its is correct up there? In my view it should be their.


texts: "Much more simple" or "much more simpler"

texts:
Which is the correct sentence?

  It is much more simple to resolve the  memory leak issues.

  It is much more simpler to resolve the memory leak issues.


texts:
I'm trying to say:

In simulations specific effects can be switched on or off to determine their impact.

This switched on or off seems to me rather clumsly. Is there a single verb with that meaning? I don't think toggle really works, but could be wrong.


texts: I am making a pair of earrings. They go together as a pair but they do not match each other. What word explains this?


texts: If you have a 2-variable function f(x,y) you can compute its partial derivatives f_x(x,y) and f_y(x,y), but also the mixed partial derivatives f_{xy}(x,y) and f_{yx}(x,y). How do you read these symbols?


texts: Can more than one coordinating conjunction be used in a sentence?

texts:
Can more than one coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, etc.) be used in a sentence?

For example:
"It was never my intention to become wealthy, but opportunities seemed to just happen, and I was not about to refuse them."


texts:
I recently got into an oddly heated discussion about whether a specific style of facial hair around a man's mouth is called

  Flavor saver, as in "saving the flavor for later"

or

  Flavor savor, as in "enjoying the flavor over time"

Urban dictionary has both spellings.  Is there a definitive answer out there?  Are both really correct?

Or is it, as someone else suggested, neither of these.  Rather, it's flava sava and the ambiguity "makes it more delicious." (Although when I looked up Flava Sava, I got Flavr Savr, which is apparently a breed of tomato.)


texts: Meaning of "to read out" in the clinical trial context - where did this usage originate, and am I right about its meaning?

texts:
I was reading an article about some candidate drugs for the COVID-19 infection, and came across a curious usage of read out:

  Studies for another drug, remdesivir from Gilead Sciences, are expected to read out in the coming weeks.

Googling for clinical trial "to read out" brings up many instances of the phrase's usage.

Intuitively I understand that "read out" here means "produce results", like a printer produces an output. Is this correct? And what is the source of this usage? Maybe it's some specialized term related to clinical trials?


texts:
Consider the following sentence (it is a real medical condition)

  These people have blue skin. We should let them get in touch with
  other sufferers.

I would prefer using the other sufferers as other sufferers could mean people suffering from anything. Do I get it correctly?


texts: Present Perfect vs. Present Perfect Continuous

texts:
how are you?

Well, my biggest doubt at the moment is the difference between these two tenses. Actually, the more I study the more I have doubts with these tenses.

  Present Perfect vs Present perfect continuous /
  Is there any difference between Present Perfect and Present Perfect Continuous?

  These similar threads helped me to clarify and reiterate my previous understanding.

I'm not posting in these threads because the site suggests avoiding asking for clarification (I don't know why because it would avoid new threads with the same content).

My main doubt is as follows:

  I've lived in New York for two years.

In my understanding, the sentence above implies (1) that I lived in NY for two years and now I live in another place; or (2) I'm moving to another city after two years living in NY; or (3) I lived in NY for two years, then I moved to another place for some period and, finally, I'm returning. Is that correct?

  I've been living in New York for two years.

Whereas the sentence above, in my understanding, implies that I lived in NY for two years and I still living there.

Anyway, many sources that I've already read say that these two sentences have the same meaning and are interchangeable. Therein lies my question. Is that correct? Because if these two sentences are interchangeable, it destroys all my understanding.

Thanks in advance.


texts: Phrases starting with "The Fruits of ...."

texts:
I was wondering if there were any other phrases starting with "fruits of ......"
like "fruits of labor" and "fruits of love"...
The phrases can have different meanings but they need to start with "fruits of".

Thank you


texts: Where does the question mark go — inside or outside the parentheses?

texts:
I know that when brackets enclose part of a sentence, the full stop goes outside.

  I tripped over this morning. I was distracted by a plane (which turned out to be Superman).

If it's a full sentence, the full stop goes inside.

  I tripped over. (I was distracted by a plane that turned out to be Superman.)

What happens when there's a question mark and only part of the sentence is a question?

  I tripped over this morning. I was distracted by a plane (or was it Superman?)

  (or was it Superman?).

  (or was it Superman)?

What happens to the full stop that belongs to the rest of the sentence, and why?


texts: What kind of adjustments are "Brightness" and "Contrast"?

texts:
I have "Brightness" and "Contrast" adjustments on my monitor. What would be a word that those could be grouped into? "Picture Adjustments" perhaps?

I was hoping for something more specific, because moving the position and such could also be considered a "Picture Adjustment".


texts: Is there a term for the process of telling multiple people different information to find a mole?

texts:
Not 100% sure this is the right stack site for this (or if there is one at all) so feel free to lock if it's off topic and I'll go elsewhere :)

This is frequently used in movies where there is an organization trying to deal with a leak of information outside the organization.  They will tell the suspected people different stories so that when the info gets leaked they know who leaked it.

I believe it was also somewhat covered in an episode of Big Bang Theory where Sheldon and Amy conducted "social experiments" on the group to see how quickly gossip spread through their network of friends but I don't recall if they ever named the phenomena (or it might not even be the same thing).


texts:
Hyundai is unveiling the US-production version of it's [sic] convention-shattering KONA crossover at the Los Angeles Auto Show. For those unable to attend the show, a live stream of the press conference will be available.
                          — source

I have a question to native English speaker. My first language is not English.

In the above paragraph, Hyundai says it is unveiling the US-production version of Kona. To me, who does not speak English as a first language, "US-production version" is understood as a version of Kona produced in the US plant. But, some people say it simply means Kona produced for the US, which means it does not necessarily mean "it is produced in the US".

What is correct understanding?


texts:
Which phrase is more formal — "so long as" or "as long as"?

Example:

  So long as Google Voice allows free long distance in North America, I will use it.
  As long as Google Voice allows free long distance in North America, I will use it.

I'm leaning toward 'as long as' but I have no justification.


texts: Is "develop" transitive in "technology developed by X"?

texts:
In the following phrase, is developed a transitive verb?

  Technology developed by the XXX company.


texts: Word for "person who unsuccessfully tries to be witty"

texts:
I remember reading a very specific word defined as "someone who tries to employ wit unsuccessfully".  I have not been able to relocate where I read this and my research has been mostly dead-ends thus far.

This is not what I'm looking for: What is a word for someone who tries to be clever?


texts:
While reading on the Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Wikipedia:

  Their goals, however, were no obstacle to economic cooperation with the Austrian-Hungarian authorities [...]
  This was done as the Austrian-Hungarian authorities had a plan to isolate Bosnia and Herzegovina from its neighbouring Slavic countries, Croatia and Serbia, and to halt the national aspirations of the peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The demonym choice for Austria-Hungary piqued my curiosity. Is it correct to say Austrian-Hungarian or would Austro-Hungarian be more appropiate?


texts: We have a lot of machines located in many places in our site, and we need to define the activity that inspecting the machine running status regularly by plan in field, does the "spot inspection" a nice word to define this activity?


texts: Is "a slightest glimpse" gramatically incorrect?

texts:
In the following quotes, the word "slightest" has the indefinite article "a".
Are these grammatically incorrect?

A Mother's Secret by Scarlet Wilson

  "So what do you think?" He spun around in his chair until he faced her,
  leaning forward, his elbows on his knees, giving her a slightest glimpse of his dark
  curled hair at the base of his throat.

About the author; “Scarlet Wilson wrote her first story aged 8 and has never stopped.... Scarlet lives on the West Coast of Scotland...”

Ulverton by Adam Thorpe

  This room grows so tedious and fusty. Because I have a slightest of fevers I am to be confined a further week upon the end of the month.

Wikipedia has an article about the author

Remark
I posted a similar question on English Language for Learners:
I've never seen a dumbest girl like this

Users said these examples were grammatically incorrect, but I am not fully convinced
since the authors are native English speakers.


texts: Is there a word or a phrase for 'the ability to not get annoyed by someone who overly loves you'?

texts:
When someone loves me a lot, I tend to start taking them for granted, and even get annoyed but there are people who do not get irritated by this at all. Is there a word for this ability?

For example, usage:
She loved him to bits, and he was able to take it all in gracefully, he was ____.


texts: Can something become "increasingly smaller"?

texts:
I was reading a news story recently, and saw this sentence:

  "Police used tear gas and what appeared to be plastic bullets against increasingly smaller groups of protesters."

I wasn't sure if it was right or not. It seems somewhat oxymoronic. Can something become increasingly smaller? Is that logical?


texts:
In a report I'm working on, I have lots of drawings. In the caption of each drawing I write "Figure 1." (or whatever the number may be). It appears that it is indeed correct to capitalize it in the caption.

However, what about when writing in the actual text "as shown in figure 1". Do I capitalize the word figure there?


texts: Terms for evaluating something from the outside vs. from the inside

texts:
What would be a proper term for a type of evaluation which is performed "from the outside" of a system (i.e., without inspecting the internals of the system)? I would also like to know the opposite term, that is, when it is necessary to examine the "interior" of a system for performing an evaluation.

I want the term to be as general as possible, since I'm trying to use it for classifying measurement processes of a system. From an abstract point of view, when measuring some aspect of such system, one option is to measure it without checking the "inside" (i.e, "from the outside"), while the other option would be to actually look inside the system.
We can assume that the system is opaque, in the sense that external observations does not provide a view of the inside (as in the X-rays example from the comments).

The particular context is the evaluation or measurement of IT service providers. These entities are opaque since it is usually not possible for an external evaluator to inspect the internal workings of these providers, but only to perform observations on their services. On the contrary, when this evaluator is granted access to inside the provider, as in the case of an audit, then the evaluation can be done from the inside. Said that, I would like a term as general as possible, since I want to make a general classification of measurement and evaluation procedures.

It reminds me of the terms "black/white-box", but I would prefer a more "formal" term. "Internal/external" is also an option, but for me that would mean examining the interior vs the surroundings.


texts:
This is 2017 Spring Meeting of World Bank and IMF
and I am not sure if "improve" has a negative meaning here.
When I search for improve on dictionaries, they say "to become better",
but in this context, it seems like a negative meaning because it says the number of violations has gone from a little over 2 percent to 6.5 percent of noncompliance with the trade commetments (so the percentage has increased).
Please help me.

  On trade, when I say that there is room to improve, you are talking to a former Secretary of Trade for France and I have been looking very carefully at the reports of the WTO. When you see that the number of violations, number of cases is steadily improving and has gone from a little over 2 percent to 6.5 percent of noncompliance with the trade commitments by the G20 countries alone between 2015 and 2016, when you see that there have been about 3,000 [new restrictive rules] since 2008, there is clearly an issue that needs to be addressed. There is a Dispute Settlement System that exists which has been used extensively by many partners, including the United States, the European Union and China, but it is clearly an area where there is room for improvement.


texts: What does "et ah" mean in text citations?

texts:
I cannot find an explanation for the use of "et ah".
For example: "Davies et ah, 2015".

Many thanks,
Catherine


texts:
Demand for new cars in the U.S. increased in 2016. We expect demand for new cars to increase in 2017.

Demand for new cars in the U.S. increased in 2016. We expect the demand for new cars to increase in 2017.

The demand for new cars in the U.S. increased in 2016. We expect the demand for new cars to increase in 2017.

Global oil demand increased in 2016.

The global oil demand increased in 2016.

Oil demand in the U.S. rose in 2016.

The oil demand in the U.S. rose in 2016.

U.S. oil demand rose in 2016.

The U.S. oil demand rose in 2016.

There is this question that is related to my question. However, I think the answers did not clearly explain situations when "demand" and "the demand" are interchangeable and situations when they are not.


texts: "To jog in stride with someone, particularly in silence."

texts:
Looking for a single word, or short phrase, in any language, that approximates to that concept: "to jog in stride with someone, particularly in silence."

This - if our collective wisdom can find it - is going to become a tattoo, so it is that important.

Apparently I need to include a "sample usage" or it will be considered off-topic. The usage is fairly self-evident from the phrase itself, but for example: "I love the feeling of jogging in stride with someone, particularly in silence." To which someone thoughtfully replies, "Ah yes, in Urdu there is an exact word for that, it's (magical Urdu word goes here)."

Doesn't have to be Urdu of course.

Thanks.


texts: Should a semicolon be used in this sentence?

texts:
Is the following sentence correct?

  Ellie disagreed, saying, “Foot fungus is much more fun than learning
  words.”

Specifically, should there be a semicolon somewhere before the quote?


texts: Does "etiology" refer to the the original source or can it refer to a middle cause?

texts:
This question was asked in my dental school class:

  What is the etiology of the diagnosis of the brain abscess? The original cause was an infected tooth which led to the proliferation of a certain bacteria which led to a brain abscess.

So how far back does the word etiology imply? Is the correct answer the infected tooth or the bacteria? Because bacteria was the direct cause of the brain abscess, but the infected tooth was the original cause of the bacteria's proliferation!

I believe the answer is the bacteria because that was the direct cause of the abscess but I would like the opinion of the literary wizards on this wonderful site.


texts: What is the difference between incipient, nascent, onset?

texts: I am having some real problems seeing some differences among these three words. All three of them deal with a beginning,birthing or coming into existence of some thing or process. My understanding of incipient so far is that it seems  to refer to something currently at the initial stages of drawn out process that goes from simple to complex before it finally comes into full maturity ( so this word kind of being close to embryonic). Nascent seems to me to refer to something already in full mature form but is just born, not a long time ago, while onset seems to be continuous existence and influence of something. But even with this understanding, I am still not sure if I cam interpreting the definitions right. So if anyone can help me out explaining these three words, it would be great.  Thanks.


texts: Use of silent letters and how to identify them?

texts:
While watching SpellBee on Discovery Channel I came to hear the word Malapropos which was just pronounced without the ending -s, ie. it was silent.

The boy pronounced it correctly but missed the last -s and lost, But how come anyone will know that there will be a final -s just by hearing the pronunciation.

Is there any use of silent letters that makes them so important and how can we identify silent letters just by pronunciation?


texts: "A number of students" vs. "the number of students"

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  A number of questions “has been” or “have been” asked?

From the grammatical view both are correct, but please explain the difference in meaning:

The number of students in the class is fifteen.
A number of students were late for class.


texts: I see both "on Windows" and "in Windows" on the Internet. I'm wondering which way is the correct way? Or maybe they have different meanings?


texts:
I am looking for a verb synonymous to bringing someone in to demonstrate something. As in:

“To prove their point in front of the judge, the the defense [brought in] an “expert” who was supposed to…“

I’m looking for an expressive idiomatic verb that would capture the obvious cynicality (and perhaps ridiculousness) of this gesture; something similar to “wheel in”, "push in" etc


texts: How offensive is/was the phrase 'Beat it' ? Also, what exactly does/did it mean?

texts:
I've heard this phrase mainly in old movies. From the context, I inferred that it was a mild form of swearing and not considered terribly offensive.

However, I'm not sure what the 'it' in 'beat it' referred to. Going by colloquial expressions such as 'beat the meat', I can only think of one logical answer to that. If it means what I think it means, it's a lot less mild than it sounds.

I feel that the usage of the phrase has declined drastically, as one hears it a lot less often currently. So it's difficult to correctly gauge the usage pattern now.

If someone could please shed some light on the historic context, meaning and current usage status of the phrase, that would be great. How offended should I be when someone tells me to 'beat it'?


texts: Umbrella term for paging, sorting and filtering in software

texts: I'm looking to name an object which encapsulates 3 common functionalities used for displaying items on: paging, sorting and filtering. All I'm looking for now is a good name to describe this. I was thinking along the line of 'Pagination', but this seems to be lacking in regard of the filtering and sorting part.


texts: Context on using available vs accessible

texts:
Consider the following two sentences:

1) Please put the medicine in the living room so that it is available to everyone.

2) Please put the medicine in the living room so that it is accessible for everyone.

If both sentences are correct, is there any difference in meaning between the two? It seems that available and accessible are more or less synonyms but can one always be used instead of the other?


texts: What's the most commonly used opposite of "I'm happy for you"?

texts:
A context:

I've heard that you won. I'm happy for you.

An opposite context:

I've heard that you lost. _________________________

To fill in the blank that should have the opposite sense of "I'm happy for you", how about these?

(1a) I'm sorry for you.
(1b) I feel sorry for you.
(2a) I'm sad for you.
(2b) I feel sad for you.
(3a) I'm bad for you.
(3b) I feel bad for you.

Do these sound idiomatic to native speakers?
Also, I wonder if there's any better alternative(s) for the blank.


texts:
Wework’s building in Tokyo’s Shibuya district is a cross between an iceberg and a plastic bottle passed through a shredder. Fitting, then, that the office-rental firm’s abortive listing, shelved on September 17th, threatens a financial shredding for its mastermind, Masayoshi Son—and that the debacle may be the tip of an iceberg for his $100bn Vision Fund (VF).

I wonder about the structure of the second sentence in bold type. How can "fitting" be ahead of whole sentence alone?


texts: UK emphasis on the second syllable vs US emphasis on the first

texts:
Why do some British speakers of English emphasize the second syllable of words such as con-TRO-versy. One British woman I knew (living in Oxford) did this to many words including (unbelievably) the search engine yuh-HOO.

I had never heard anyone (Yank or Brit) put the em-PHA-sis on the second sy-LAB-le quite as much as she did.


texts: Does "ex-urban" exist or have I made it up?

texts:
I'm looking for a word that implies that people are moving out of cities: is ex-urban a word? I found it in the Urban Dictionary but that definition is not at all what I mean. I can't find it anywhere else. Below is what I would like to use as part of the title for my dissertation but I can't figure out how to say what I mean in a way that's grammatically correct:

  U.S. [EX-URBAN?] MIGRATION OF LGBTQ+ POPULATIONS AND THEIR NEED FOR CULTURALLY-COMPETENT SUBURBAN HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS


texts:
Is the word divest used in the meaning "strip" or "deprive"? This word is in the GRE high-frequency word list, and my workbook says that it means "strip or deprive". Also, Wiktionary has an article with the same meaning. But I've checked a couple of dictionaries (Cambridge and Collins) and I've failed to find this meaning of the word divest, only "to sell something, especially business, part of business or to stop taking part in a business activity".

In which meaning is the word "divest" usually used?


texts:
These days, I'm reading "Humans of New York", and find some tricky...Grammar(?). This sentence below including conditional is one of them.

“I can’t stand moral absolutism. You know, there’s always that guy who wants to point out that Martin Luther King cheated on his wife– as if he obviously couldn’t have been a great person if he did something like that. Or someone will bring out an inspirational quote, and get you to agree, and then inform you that Hitler said it. As if a good thought couldn’t come from Hitler.

I'm confused what "as if” clause means. I've learnt that the tense of the "as if” clause depends on its main clause's tense. But it seems there is no main tense of the as if clause.

Should I think like: people thinks or point out as if he obviously couldn’t have been a great person if he did something like that ? which means "These days some people think like Martin Luther King cannot be a great person"

Or should I understand that like: some people think like "if he did something like that, he couldn't(past) be a great person.

it is quite tricky for me. I'll be looking forward to your replies. Thank you!
full passage from humansofnewyork.com


texts: Is the plural of 'prefix' really 'prefixes' rather than 'prefices'?

texts:
It looks like the plural of 'prefix' is 'prefixes' - while I would expect it to be

'prefix' => 'prefices' like
'matrix' => 'matrices' or
'index'  => 'indices'.

Is 'prefix' an exception to the rule? If so, why?


texts: Common expression for "frame conditions" for a working concept/process

texts:
In German, the common expression "Rahmenbedingungen" (used both as plural and singular) relates, for example, to a set of conditions necessary for a business idea to work out (e.g. low taxes and wages for successfully introducing and manufacturing a new product). Mostly these conditions have to be implemented/managed by a 3rd person, external authority or surroundings, so that the business/political idea can work out. In that sense, it's not a pre- but a side-condition. So you can already start to make your idea real, knowing that, for example, a soon change of business laws will realize this necessary side-conditions.

Linguee gives out different phrases and expressions for the German counterpart. I would have thought this to be a rather unique and common expression in English too, as you use and need it in many contexts (technology, business, politics, etc.).  Maybe I should simply stop using Linguee for finding expressions, as it's more baffling than enlightening for this purpose. But dictionaries also name very different expressions using these words as components: condition, factor, framework, requirement (well, at least factor and condition/requirement are two different things from a math/logic point of view, so some look like bad machine translations).

So what is the common expression I'm looking for, used in different contexts? Or does it not exist and I have to check the context in English first and then choose the appropriate expression, according to the contexts mentioned above?

PS: I'm not looking for the common term boundary conditions in math, which translates to the German Randbedingung.


texts: I am listening to the radio, but due to some signal error there are lots of disturbances in the music. What word can I use for this unclear and noisy music?


texts: Pronunciation: ‘lousy’ vs. ‘mousy’. Why?

texts:
Inspired by comments on Proper use of the word “lousy”?:

The word lousy is traditionally pronounced with a /z/ sound, as though it were louzy.*  Contrastingly, the word mousy is always pronounced with an /s/ sound.  The difference seems to be pretty consistent and well-established: these are the only pronunciations listed in the OED and Merriam-Webster for each.

But their root words, louse and mouse, are pronounced identically, both with /s/.  Indeed, these words are parallel in almost every other way: they form analogous plurals — lice, mice — and have very similar origins.

So how and why did the pronunciations of lousy and mousy diverge?  And are there any other analogous words that also form analogous adjectives?  (House doesn’t form *housy; and blousy exists, but blouse is not analogous to the other words.)

*: It seems that recently, since the literal meaning “infested with lice” has become rare, it may sometimes get pronounced with /s/ in this sense, as a spelling pronunciation.


texts:
I'd like to know whether it's common in informal speech to delete the infinitive particle "to" in the construction 'to hear sth.'

This video shows an example at 6:36; I've analysed it at 0.5 speed, and still can't hear 'to'.


texts: I will not let people tattoo the inside of my skin .


texts: Is there a word for the time span between an old king and a new king?

texts:
A king suddenly dies, and during the immediate aftermath, the realm is without an official leader (leaving the throne susceptible to usurpers) and the heir is still being notified or is traveling and can't get there immediately.
Ultimately, someone will be crowned (becoming the new king).

Is there a word to describe this time frame between monarchs?


texts:
In a recent Daring Fireball post, John Gruber wondered about the origin of "fanboi" as a spelling of "fanboy".

I tried searching for this, but couldn't find anything definitive.  Harry McCracken has a Technologizer post about the origin of "fanboy", but doesn't mention the alternative spelling.

Is anything known about the origin of the "fanboi" spelling?  For example, when it was first used, how it was popularised, and what the reason for the "i" is?


texts: Which does 'your affection in the least diminished by...' mean? (1778 November, US)

texts:
Original Source. Source: p 168, The Portable John Adams, by John Adams

  AA to JA
  [Braintree, 12-23 November 1778]

  1 cannot charge myself with any deficiency in this perticular
  as I have never let an opportunity slip without writing to you
  since we parted, tho you make no mention of having received a
  line from me: if they are become of so little importance as not
  to be worth noticeing with your own Hand, be so kind as to direct your Secretary.
   I will not finish the sentence, my Heart denies the justice of
  the acqusation, nor does it believe your affection in the least diminished by distance or absence, but my Soul is wounded at a
  Seperation from you, and my fortitude all dissolved in frailty
  and weakness.

How do you determine/deduce the bolded's correct meaning? Is it truly ambiguous? I tried to infer something from the grey (independent) clause, but which I also don't understand, so please explain this as well?  I contend against 2 possibilities (but please advise if there are even more):

1. Abigail Adams's Heart disbelieves her husband's affection in the least (= in the smallest degree), because it has been diminished by distance or absence.

2. Abigail Adams's Heart disbelieves that her husband's affection had been in the least diminished by distance or absence.


texts: A word for something that used to be unique but is now so commonplace it is no longer noticed

texts:
I was listening to a story about violence at malls and the host said it was only a matter of time before metal detectors were at malls. My thought was once they become integrated with normal door frames, then metal detectors would be everywhere. At that point in time metal detectors would become ... and that's the word I can't think of.

  When metal detectors become so commonplace that no one notices them any more then they are _______.

I think the word I want ends in -ous.


texts: How can "of me doing something" be grammatically correct? What grammar rule is this?

texts:
The first book on my list has actually been recommended to me like
  multiple times over the years of me doing BookTube.

I found that sentence in my English book, and the last part where it reads  of me doing BookTube confuses me terribly. Shouldn't the object of a preposition be a noun or pronoun, not a verb? How can verbs be nouns?

The book translated the phrase into "while/when I am doing Booktube" and so I understand what it seems to be intended to mean here.

Could it perhaps be that there are some words omitted from the full sentence that if I knew what these unwritten words were, I would then be able to understand its syntactic structure more clearly? Did it skip writing the words "when/while I am" there? Why would the subject "I" turn into "me"? Is that still the verb's subject or did changing it that way now make it the verb's object? Why would all those words go missing? It is very confusing.

If this is actually a valid type of  English syntax used by native speakers that nobody ever taught me, could you please give me some similar examples so that I can understand its exact meaning and grammatical structure?

Why aren't we taught this syntax if it is actually used in real English?


texts: Dialectal and historical usage of "not care" in the meaning of "not mind"

texts:
In standard Present-day English, "I don't care to be there" means the same as "I don't wish to be there." Apparently, this is not the case in some present and historical dialects. Wylene P. Dial writes in The Dialect of The Appalachian People (1969):

One of the most baffling expressions our people use (baffling to "furriners," at least) is "I don't care to. . . ." To outlanders this seems to mean a definite "no," whereas in truth it actually means, "thank you so much, I'd love to." One is forevermore hearing a tale of mutual bewilderment in which a gentleman driving an out-of-state car sees a young fellow standing alongside the road, thumbing. When the gentleman stops and asks if he wants a lift, the boy very properly replies, "I don't keer to," using care in the Elizabethan sense of the word. On hearing this, the man drives off considerably puzzled leaving an equally baffled young man behind.

I've been able to find some voices on the internet confirming that this usage is still present. However, I haven't found any example the Elizabethan usage. I'm wondering how widespread it was then, and whether the two opposing meanings ever co-existed on equal rights. I've found some Scottish sentences from the beginning of the 19th century in Wright's English Dialect Dictionary.

CARE
With the negative: to make no objection.
Sc. Even Irish Teague ayont Belfast Wadna care to spear about
her, SKINNER Misc. Poems (1809) 159; I see you've read my hame-
spun lays And wadna care to soun' my praise, COCK Strains (1810)
85; I dinna care to gang wi' you a bit. He wadna [hae] cared
to hae strucken me (JAM.).

However, under "AT-OWER", there's this:

Sc. An' mair attour, I didna care to bachle my new sheen,
FORBES Jrn. (1742) 16

"Bachle" means wear down and "sheen" are shoes, so I believe it's the standard modern meaning of "care to" employed here.
My questions/requests are:

Could you give me some examples of this strange usage in Elizabethan English, preferably not Scottish, since I'm already pretty sure Scots used to employ it?

Did the two opposing meaning ever co-exist in any area?

How did it happen exactly that the two opposing meaning arose? It's not counter-intuitive to me, but I'm having trouble putting my intuition into words.

If you have something interesting to say about this matter that I didn't ask about, please do.


texts: Can early riser used in a similar way as early bird?

texts: Hi I always say early bird but I have heard people use the term early riser. Do they convey same meaning?


texts: Are there any guidelines for proper use of "creative" capitalization within in a technical report?

texts:
I am trying to edit a report that seems to have a lot of common nouns capitalized. My job is to edit for consistency of this style, which I am not familiar with. Does anyone have experience with what I can only think to call "creative" capitalization rules in a business/finance setting? Here are some examples:

...our company is actively trying to reduce General & Administrative costs, participation has been the most prevalent in Asset Management and Investor Relations, compensation for Executive Management is rising YOY...etc.


texts: What do you call one who has been challenged?

texts:
How should I refer to one who has been challenged?

One who offers a challenge is a "challenger," but what would be the appropriate term for the person who receives the challenge?


texts: What is the difference of “Has it right” from other affirmative expressions such as “It is right,” “It holds, “and “It makes sense”?

texts:
When I posted a question about usefulness or “unuseful-ness” of using Latin phrase in conversation and writing yesterday, I got an answer saying “If you did not know the meaning of a specific (Latin) phrase, it may be likely that many other people do not recognize that phrase, so it’s best to avoid it,” from someone, followed by the other user’s comment, “This answer has it right.”

As I’m not familiar with the expression, “Someone (or something) has it right,” I checked the usage of the phrase on Google, and found the following example:

The tea party movement has it right: Don't spend more than you have. - newsmax.com.
Obama has it right in deficit plan. His deficit- cutting plan is not perfect, but close to it. It's fiscally smart and politically smart. - realclear politics.com
Why the Supreme Court has it right on violent video games. - live.com
Which political party has it right for current retirees? - retireplan about.com

I also checked Google Ngram to find that the usage of ”has it right” had been low and stayed flat since 1840 up to 1980, but after 1980 it started to rise sharply.

I don’t think I’ve learned this expression in English textbooks I’ve read.

What is the exact meaning of “(Someone) has it right” and what is the difference of it from other affirmative statements such as “It is right (appropriate),” “It holds,” and “It makes sense,” by meaning and by nuance? Why can't it be simply "It (movement, decision, remark, answer) is right"?


texts:
The café smelt of fried onions and tomato ketchup; the tables were green Formica with chipped painted, steel legs.

I am trying to use chipped and painted to form an adjectival phrase in this sentence.

Is chipped-paint, steel legs an option in this sentence? (with or without a hyphen?)

Or would I have to use chipped and painted.


texts: Is this correct: "Let me know once you finish"?

texts:
Please help me. Which of these is correct?

Let me know once you finish
Let me know when you finish
Let me know when you have finished.


texts: Uncountable noun + of + uncountable noun with or without definite article

texts:
It would be much appreciated if you could identify any differences regarding whether using the definite article or not in the two citations below brings about any changes in meaning.

What is being considered questionable is the phrase: "globalization of markets."

Ex 1:
"As used in this book, globalization refers to the shift toward a more integrated and
interdependent world economy. Globalization has several facets, including the globalization
of markets and the globalization of production."

Ex 2:
"The lowering of trade barriers made globalization of markets and production a theoretical possibility. ... Despite all the talk about the emerging global village, and despite the trend toward globalization of markets and production, as we shall see in this book, many of these differences are very profound and enduring."

What would be the differences between the two of them?

I have another example:
"The primary duty of an evolutionary biologist is to study the trends of evolution of animals, plants, human beings, reptiles, or any other form of life as specified in the particular task or project that has been assigned to him."

Why, in the example above, didn't the writer use the definite article?

Thank you for any help you can provide!


texts: Is it fine if I change this adjective from a phrasal idiom into its superlative degree?

texts: I‘m just wondering whether changing good in good call to its superlative degree, that is best, still acceptable. I’m a bit hesitant to alter that idiom to be used in my essay because I’m afraid changing so will mess with its essential meaning and might not even be existent in the English lexicon.


texts: Difference between "subsequently" and "consequently"?

texts:
When studying and reading course material in "softer" sciences that are descriptive the word "subsequently" appears in a way like "and subsequently" ...what does it mean, disctinct from "consequently" ?

Is the difference that "subsequently" doesn't imply a causality and the word "consequently" does? For instance A ⇒ B should read "A and consequently B" and in that case using the word "subsequently" is not false but it's not right since the word subsequently doesn't imply a causality which A ⇒ B does, so when talking about causality the we should use is "consequently"?


texts: Word that means "I can only express myself by stating that I cannot express myself"

texts:
A common phrase is "I can't tell you how much I X", or "Words can't express how much I X" as a way of expressing the speaker's significant feelings towards X.

This phrase implies that the speaker feels that language cannot do their feelings justice. There should be a simpler way of conveying this concept, instead of saying "I can't express myself."

Is there a word that describes the situation when the speaker cannot adequately express their feelings, except by noting that they cannot adequately express their feelings? The closest word I can think of is "ineffable," however, "ineffable" fails to capture the concept that the only way to express the speaker's feelings (or their extent) is by stating their ineffability.

Example usage in a sentence:

Person A: "You saved my life. My gratitude is xxxxx"