zompist bboard

I have plenty of contractions, but they're limited in scope and/or form. I don't say things like "I'dn't've". Thinking about it now, it may be because -n't has gained the status of a suffix , and thus can't be attached to a clitic. Thus I have "I wouldn't've" [aI wUdn@(v)] (also "shouldn't've" [SUdn...

Yng: I think it's a different verb form, myself, encoding something like the continuous aspect. Note that the reply to "You be nice to your sister!" is not "But I AM nice to her!", but "But I'm BEING nice to her!". Although I'd just call it a subjunctive, for simplicity. I'd say there are two thing...

How do you call it in English, when one is oversimplifying a certain issue (for the sake of brevity, or more as a slip of tongue) in expectation that one's interlocutor will supplement the missing part in his mind? In Polish it's called skrót myślowy lit. "thought shortcut"; I can't find any Englis...

Do you mean constructions like "I admire the work of jsburke, Maknas, and of course zompist"? If so, yes, that's perfectly legal. That's still an adverb; you could also say "... and zompist, of course". I think the closest word to what he's asking for is "obvious" , although "... and obviously Zomp...

linguoboy wrote:

Xephyr wrote:Just a note: I'm far from representative, but I don't think I've ever actually heard anybody say "y'all" in my experience of American English.

Try turning on the radio.

HTH, HAND.

I'm thinkin' he lives in a cave ...

BTW, what exactly does "HTH, HAND" mean?

Well, it's just been added to mine... 8) Usually I'd just say "It's not worth my money" or something similar. Hmm...close but not the quite the same. "it isn't worth it" is more of an absolute judgement on the quality of the product compared to it's price. I'm not so sure. People often take such st...

Les échelles les amène dans la salle souterraine. En anglais: The ladders lead us down into the underground room. I don't know why, but this seems... melodic to me. /lez_ɛʃɛl lez_ɑmIn dɑn lɑ sæl sutɛRIn/ /lez_3/(sh)3/l lez-amIn don la sæl sut3/RIn/ It's the stress pattern: Les é- chelles les a- mèn...