Messages: 68,821 - Threads: 3,442
There's a word that describes the practice of harpsichordists, classical guitarists, and perhaps others whose instruments don't have a lot of dynamic range of emphasizing a note by holding it longer (where a pianist or a violinist might instead make it louder).
And that word is . . . ?
10-Feb-2010 04:38
nutraxfornerves
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10-Feb-2010 07:32
tony0001
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If anyone is interested in following up on this thread-- it's the one where I reviewed Austen's Unbecoming Conjunctions: Subversive Laughter, Embodied History by Jill Heydt-Stevenson, "a discussion of possible bawdy humor in Jane Austen’s works."
AUSTEN-L, the Jane Austen email discussion list, will shortly be starting a group read of the book. Not only that, Jill Heydt-Stevenson has agreed to join the discussion. If you want to read the discussion online or join the email list, go to AUSTEN-L Jane Austen List
I'll come back and post to this thread when the discussion starts.
Can a person be mendacious, or only a statement, complaints, reports, etc.? And does anyone use the word at all?
I'm looking for a word to describe someone who is dishonest, always lying. But Googling "mendacious" I get (a) dictionaries; and (b) sentences along the lines of "He filed a mendacious complaint with the police." Is it possible to say that "Sarah is mendacious" or "Peter has a mendacious personality"?
I just heard on French radio that a competition has been launched among French students to find or invent French words to replace the English words above.
There was an interview with a linguist who thought it was all a lot of nonsense because a) the activity represented by these words was of no interest beyond the groups using them to describe activities that were of no interest
b) it was much more important to teach students in France to use French properly and correctly because correct language is a tool used to learn how to think and how to express oneself, to understand and dissect language when it is being used to deliberately influence people.
He also thought the whole business of "la Francophonie", teaching in French schoolchildren in Morocco, Senegal, Haiti and other countries where French is not the language used at home is a sure road to illiteracy. To him, the whole ...
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X is a qualified frogman, pilot and free-fall parachutist. Does anyone know what the latter is supposed to mean? I've always assumed that free falls are part and parcel of being a parachutist.
Sorry... I've just lifted this from my reply to the German Manuals question about recent reform of the German language..
That... with respect to the dative and genitive case as used in many languages... that ..
...interestingly, this Wiki article suggests English does not have a proper genitive case ...but rather, a possessive ending, -’s .
And here , it's suggested that in English, the accusative and dative pronouns merged into a single objective pronoun used in both roles... ....and that the dative case is no longer a part of modern English usage.
Is that right?
I haven't come across this term before. Lap of the gods, yes; hand of fate, yes.
It was in the Australasia and Pacific branch thus: You can control your fate at an intersection to a large degree. Once you're on a plane you're in the lap of fate.
I hardly object to the term but I am curious. Any views?
08-Feb-2010 02:41
viaggero
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10-Feb-2010 03:17
nutraxfornerves
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Nationality describes someone from a particular nation such as Czech, Zimbabwean, Korean, etc. This description is quite obvious to any English speaker.
Californian, Queenslander, etc. refer to people coming from those states. Manitoban, Newfoundlander, etc. refer to people from those provinces. Sydneysider, Londoner, New Yorker, Parisian, etc. refer to people from those cities.
Now for the question: Do we have words in English that are the equivalent of nationality for other political units? Statality, provenality, citiality, etc.? If so, I'd love to know them since this has bugged me for years.
I'd also like to know those of your bilinguals/polyglots if there are terms for these in the other languages that you know.
thanks,
Kendick
Lately I've been feeling really stupid. And since I don't like feeling stupid I thought I should try and get some edumacation. Any suggestions of how I should go about reversing my stupidity.
Laura Chinchilla is expected to be elected president of Costa Rica on Sunday. I'm curious about her family name. My dictionary says that chinchilla may ultimately be from Aymara, and that's a long way from Costa Rica. Does anyone know how the family got the name? Has anyone run across any other Chinchillas, and if so where?
05-Feb-2010 11:05
NorthAmerican
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09-Feb-2010 22:15
VinnyD
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When I was a young boy, I had a paper route that covered only a few blocks on the West Side of Chicago: along Washtenaw and Talman Avenues from 12th Street to 14th Street. I delivered about 120 papers each morning; there were very few houses or flats that didn't subscribe to one or another newspaper.
Now, I live in an apartment building where there are six apartments per floor, and I subscribe to two newspapers. I am the only tenant on the floor who has papers delivered, but it may be that my neighbors buy newspapers on their way to work. I suspect, though, that they may depend on television or the Internet as their news sources.
Do you read a newspaper regularly?
R.I.P. Abraham Sutzkever the last literary figure of note in Yiddish, and unlikely to have any successors. Olev hashalom.
04-Feb-2010 23:09
PJMccartney
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06-Feb-2010 19:48
PJMccartney
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Hello,
How would i say 'good enough' in Spanish as in 'because my Spanish is good enough i will enter into the advanced course straight away' (which is actually what i want to say)? Also, how would i say 'too' as in 'the book is too hard for me to read'?
Cheers
Patrick
03-Feb-2010 05:57
JeremyintheCzec...
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09-Feb-2010 07:25
luisgdl74
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Did you see Avatar yet? is not a construction you hear in the UK very often. How common is it in the States? How is it viewed by educated speakers?
Posted By: VenessaP -- 28-Jan-2010 15:01
Posted By: VenessaP -- 09-Dec-2009 17:01
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