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Re: They guessed the acronym.

Oh my GOD!!!! My mind is numb with such tedium. Is this stimulating conversation or nit-picking semantics...picking, picking...tedious...nits? AAAAAAGHHHHHH!

Please, I hope JMS speaks soon so we have something a bit less....well...dull to talk to about. I mean this is perfectly fascinating, if I'm in a classroom or...I don't know...drunk maybe, but ok...sure...

::THUNK!:: (The sound of CE's head hitting the keyboard as he nods of to dreamy, dreamy land -- which is much more interesting)
lkj;asdffl;sakdjfsal;kdjfl;akfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff.........

huh? Somebody say something?

Oh. ::THUNK!!::KL;JSADFAKJKKKKKkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

:D
 
Re: They guessed the acronym.

Maybe it is just my background in mathematics and symbolic logic coming to the fore, but .....

It just makes sense to me that negating something actually makes the final statement mean something different than the original statement without that negation ..... even in cases where there is another negation within the original statement.
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Indeed, compare these two phrases: "I can tell you;" and "I can not not tell you." They have different meanings.

There is a place in English for intended double negatives. It's the accidental one that are the problem.
 
Re: They guessed the acronym.

Oh my GOD!!!! My mind is numb with such tedium. Is
this stimulating conversation or nit-picking
semantics...picking, picking...tedious...nits?
AAAAAAGHHHHHH!

Please, I hope JMS speaks soon so we have something a bit
less....well...dull to talk to about. I mean this is
perfectly fascinating, if I'm in a classroom or...I don't
know...drunk maybe, but ok...sure...
Click to expand...

Colonyearth you may find the "Spectacular Scenes" thread more your style. We could do with a few suggesting. Can you invent an excuse for the ultimate blowjob - an explosion in the middle of a sex scene? ;) :devil:

Personally I am enjoying the talk about Boolean algebra. Possibly because it is an important part of both programming computers and designing digital electrical circuits. Geeks enjoy doing that part of their jobs.

This also answers the question as to why there is no hard Sci Fi on tv these days. Viewing figures of about one million for shows that the geeks may love it but the Hollywood Suits find boring.
 
Re: They guessed the acronym.

I'm actually LMAO with the last 20 or so posts in this thread. :LOL:

It's a good think none of you teach English. You'd all commit suicide by the end of the first week, I am sure. ;)
 
Re: They guessed the acronym.

Regarding the post about Scots English, I wonder if the use of "youse" as a plural for "you" is a leftover from Scots Gaelic, which was outlawed in Scotland 1616 and further suppressed in 1745. Forced to speak a language which contains no second person plural pronoun, perhaps they felt they had to invent one.

Aisling
 
Re: They guessed the acronym.

But that is a *completely* different case.

The cancellation of a show that they know has a very loyal following (the kind that writes lots of letters of complaint) is something that a network would prefer to be played down, get as little ink over as diffused a period as possible. Hence, puttng a weekend between the announcement and the next possible time when many media outlets could cover it.
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Actually, my feeling regarding the Angel cancellation press release was that maybe some other network was getting ready to pick it up. And that, if Warner jumped on announcing the cancellation just as soon as it happened, they could just say "It's cancelled" without any mention of where it might or might not be going - because of course they don't want to send viewers over to another network in droves. So, this way, they get to start hammering away at the cancellation immediately, and get _that_ into people's heads, _without_ there being any dissenting information (i.e. that it's going to another network).

Aisling
 
Re: They guessed the acronym.

Do studios give out press releases on a Friday?
Actually, that's just when Warner Bros. broke the news about Angel's cancellation: this past Friday the 13th.
But that is a *completely* different case.
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Just a little additional defense of myself: the original poster simply asked, "Do studios give out press releases on a Friday?," and my comment did in fact answer that accurately. :)

Aisling
 
Re: They guessed the acronym.

Regarding the post about Scots English, I wonder if the use of "youse" as a plural for "you" is a leftover from Scots Gaelic, which was outlawed in Scotland 1616 and further suppressed in 1745. Forced to speak a language which contains no second person plural pronoun, perhaps they felt they had to invent one.

Aisling
Click to expand...

The lack of a commonly accepted second person plural pronoun is indeed a great failing of English. Of course, in the southern US they say y'all (you all), and here in Michigan 'you guys' is fairly common. Of course some women object to it, since 'guys' usually means males. This points out another problem, in that we don't have a friendly, familiar, female (or non sex specific) counterpart to 'guys.' 'Gals' just doesn't cut it, 'folks' is okay in some situations, but not suitable in others, and doesn't have the familiarity of 'guys.'
 
Re: They guessed the acronym.

Re: Scots...it's interesting, actually, because Scots (not Gaelic) developed independently from English.

English developed from Mercian Old English (OE), whilst Scots developed from Northumbrian OE; obviously contact with Gaelic, irish and different strands of Scandinavian influenced it too. Then, following the Union of Crowns, english became the H-status language, and Scots declined a bit; leading to SSE (Scottish Standard English) a sort of Hybrid of Scots and RP/SBSE (recieved pronounciation, or Southern Bristish Standard English).

The "youse" pronoun actually existed in OE, and some ME dialects too, but disappeared over time.

re: English teacher...funnily enough, I'm taking an English degree just now for just that reason! :)

re: Colony Earth: If you don't like it...don't read it! :p

VB
 
Re: They guessed the acronym.

I had absolutely no intention of joining in this discussion, but if the thread is going to veer off into a discussion of Scottish dialect and language I thought I would just point out that the Irish speak Gaelic and the Scots Gallic.

And on the evidence of the Scots that I know, I'm pretty sure most Scots would consider English as spoken by the Scottish people to be a dialect and Gallic to be their homeland's Language.

But, as someone who considers a female voice with an Edinburgh accent to be probably the single sexiest thing on the planet, they can call it whatever they like as far as I am concerned.

:LOL:
 
Re: They guessed the acronym.

Of course, in the southern US they say y'all (you all)
Click to expand...

But in the south "y'all" is almost always used as a singular. :) A waitress at a table for one will invariably ask "Would y'all like something to drink?" The plural of "y'all" is "all y'all", as in, "Why don't all y'all come over on Sunday after church?"

(Glad that 15 years spent below the Mason-Dixon line hasn't been totally wasted.)

Regards,

Joe
 
Re: They guessed the acronym.

here in Michigan 'you guys' is fairly common. Of course some women object to it, since 'guys' usually means males. This points out another problem, in that we don't have a friendly, familiar, female (or non sex specific) counterpart to 'guys.' 'Gals' just doesn't cut it, 'folks' is okay in some situations, but not suitable in others, and doesn't have the familiarity of 'guys.'
Click to expand...

Over the years, this has actually been the subject of a few rather lengthy, and occassionally somewhat heated, discussions on Farscape message boards because of a few specific lines of dialog in that show.

The fact is that there is an equivalent to "guys" in fairly common usage. The problem is that it is also something that some women object to. That is "girls". Because "girls" is also the equivalent of "boys" there are a fair number of people who always read that note of condescension (the implication of childishness or whatever) into the word, regardless of context or intent, and therefore object to it. (It is sometimes interesting to note the difference in reaction to female references to "the boys" vs. male references to "the girls", but that could be a whole separate discussion.) The fact remains that there are a fair number of people who use "girls" exactly as the would use "guys" for males.


Although I definitely know some women who object (at least occassionally) to being included in "guys", I know more women who use "you guys" or "those guys" even when the group in question is composed entirely of females. For that matter, I know several women who use "dude" regardless of gender (although I have noticed that only in the second person, not in the third person).


I can't think of anyone that I know who ever uses "gal", unless they are specifically affecting an accent.

I have also sometimes heard "ladies" used. That doesn't have anything like the casual familiarity of "guys". Depending on the context and delivery, it can also come off as being even more condescending than "girls".
 
Re: They guessed the acronym.

compare these two phrases: "I can tell you;" and "I can not not tell you." They have different meanings.
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Yes they do. However, the two Not's are not both negating (or double negating) the same thing. One of them is negating "can" and the other is negating "tell". That sentence really does not contain a double negative. It contains two single negatives which happen to be side by side.
 
Re: They guessed the acronym.

I had absolutely no intention of joining in this discussion, but if the thread is going to veer off into a discussion of Scottish dialect and language I thought I would just point out that the Irish speak Gaelic and the Scots Gallic.
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Actually, I am a Gaelic speaker of some years, and must beg to differ with you. The languages enjoying revivals in Ireland and Scotland are commonly referred to as "Irish" (for Irish Gaelic) and "Gaelic" (for Scots Gaelic).

"Gallic," more generally "Old Gallic," is the ancient version of Scots Gaelic and is only read by scholars now (including a close friend of mine in Edinburgh who is considered to be one of the foremost experts on the ancient Celtic languages). For the ancient version spoken in Ireland, the scholars generally call it "Old Irish."

le síocháin agus beannachtaí,

Aisling
 
Re: They guessed the acronym.

I happily defer to your greater wisdom in these matters ...

... as I am sure will my Scottish buddy who recently took me to task for daring to suggest that Scots spoke Gaelic!!

I'm just going to give up listening to anyone from now on

... except maybe the voices in my head ...

:D
 
Re: They guessed the acronym.

re: Colony Earth: If you don't like it...don't read it! :p
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:LOL: I tried, but after a while my eyes went all funny and crossed :D It's not that I don't like it....it's that after some time of reading it, I thought my nose was running, but when I went to wipe it I discovered it was my brains -- they had turned to goooooo. :D

Besides, I take some blame for the direction this tread has taken since it was my accidental misuse of one word that started all of this :eek:

Logically and lingually carry on all! :D

CE
 
Re: They guessed the acronym.

re: Colony Earth: If you don't like it...don't read it! :p
Click to expand...

Logically and lingually carry on all! :D
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Oh god, I"m reduced to quoting myself! :eek:

Ok, I'm sorry I believe that the proper term I was to use was linguistically. Forgive me gods of the spoken word! Slay me not with your repartier (that's Franch ya know...yuk yuk! -- at least I think that's the correct French spelling of repartir which is of course the root to the English word repartee. See I ain't dumb or nuttin' ya know :LOL:)

CE :D

By the way, the phrase "witty repartee" is redundant. Since repartee means "witty reply."

Just FYI. :)
 
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