Search found 157 matches

by Boşkoventi
Sat May 08, 2010 9:10 am
Forum: L&L Museum
Topic: How your idiolect differs from the standard language
Replies: 371
Views: 115455

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...
by Boşkoventi
Sat Mar 06, 2010 12:27 am
Forum: L&L Museum
Topic: How your idiolect differs from the standard language
Replies: 371
Views: 115455

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...
by Boşkoventi
Wed Sep 10, 2008 8:13 am
Forum: L&L Museum
Topic: I wish English had a word for this!
Replies: 333
Views: 161111

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...
by Boşkoventi
Sun Oct 14, 2007 12:09 pm
Forum: L&L Museum
Topic: I wish English had a word for this!
Replies: 333
Views: 161111

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...
by Boşkoventi
Wed Nov 15, 2006 5:06 pm
Forum: L&L Museum
Topic: I wish English had a word for this!
Replies: 333
Views: 161111

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 ... :wink:

BTW, what exactly does "HTH, HAND" mean?
by Boşkoventi
Mon Nov 13, 2006 11:19 pm
Forum: L&L Museum
Topic: I wish English had a word for this!
Replies: 333
Views: 161111

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...
by Boşkoventi
Sat Sep 16, 2006 7:43 am
Forum: L&L Museum
Topic: Weird phrases from real languages
Replies: 323
Views: 197813

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...