Search found 405 matches

by alynnidalar
Wed Jun 20, 2018 10:43 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: The Contradictory Feelings Thread
Replies: 933
Views: 203729

Re: The Contradictory Feelings Thread

Hey, finding a good dentist can be hard enough in your own country and language! That is something to celebrate.
by alynnidalar
Tue Jun 12, 2018 11:54 am
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Civil War Alternate History
Replies: 19
Views: 47890

Re: Civil War Alternate History

And all of this came from the US winning the Civil War earlier? Or are there multiple points of divergence? I'm curious of the path that led from the Civil War to buying bits of Canada. (with regards to provincial borders--yeah, I assumed that on the map, the very straight Ontario/Quebec border was ...
by alynnidalar
Mon Jun 11, 2018 9:48 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Civil War Alternate History
Replies: 19
Views: 47890

Re: Civil War Alternate History

That's quite a lot of divergence from that one point! Why would the lack of intelligence cause the Union to win earlier ? I'm quite curious. Also curious about the incursions of the United States into Canada. And what's up with the Canadian provinces in general? They seem to have somewhat different ...
by alynnidalar
Wed Jun 06, 2018 8:53 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)
Replies: 2639
Views: 299451

Re: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)

That sounds absolutely miserable. Hopefully your symptoms do back off soon!
by alynnidalar
Tue Jun 05, 2018 10:08 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)
Replies: 2639
Views: 299451

Re: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)

Minor vent: I took my iPhone (5) in for a repair about a month ago. Turned out the battery was faulty, but, fortunately, I got a new-ish phone today (after about a month of runaround and waiting for a response from them)... and it turns out the phone doesn't work properly! (The home button won't re...
by alynnidalar
Sun Jun 03, 2018 7:20 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)
Replies: 2639
Views: 299451

Re: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)

That was a particularly rude response and I apologize for that, but your argument is absurd. As Kat has pointed out much more politely, you’re essentially saying that we can’t ever call any behavior rude or unacceptable, because it’s theoretically possible that the person in question has a mental il...
by alynnidalar
Sat Jun 02, 2018 9:46 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Is German/Japanese sentence structure natural?
Replies: 10
Views: 31442

Re: Is German/Japanese sentence structure natural?

OP, just because something is unusual for you doesn't mean it's unnatural or any reason to believe that Japanese speakers' brains are inherently structured differently than English speakers'. Languages are stuffed full of variation that can seem quite surprising to people who aren't familiar with t...
by alynnidalar
Sat Jun 02, 2018 9:45 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)
Replies: 2639
Views: 299451

Re: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)

my eyeballs just rolled out of my head

hang on let me feel around under my bed--yep, there they are, let me just wipe the dust bunnies off and pop them back in--darn it, Sal's post is still there. I was hoping I'd imagined it.
by alynnidalar
Sat Jun 02, 2018 5:43 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Is German/Japanese sentence structure natural?
Replies: 10
Views: 31442

Re: Is German/Japanese sentence structure natural?

Convenient how the most logical word order happens to be English... OP, just because something is unusual for you doesn't mean it's unnatural or any reason to believe that Japanese speakers' brains are inherently structured differently than English speakers'. Languages are stuffed full of variation ...
by alynnidalar
Sat Jun 02, 2018 5:38 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Replies: 1058
Views: 220614

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

To use your own example, Sal, neither [pink rose] nor [rose colour] are commonly-used set phrases/euphemisms with specific meanings. [sanitary product] is . (of course [product pilot] is also a reasonably set phrase, but not nearly as common as [sanitary product] in everyday life, unless you work in...
by alynnidalar
Fri Jun 01, 2018 9:12 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Replies: 1058
Views: 220614

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

If you seriously can't see anything ambiguous in that sentence then stop acting so superior, because it's you who're missing something. Of course I can see ambiguity there, but when you actually say the words "I still don't know if the writer was intending [sanitary product] + [pilot] or [sanitary]...
by alynnidalar
Thu May 31, 2018 11:45 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Replies: 1058
Views: 220614

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Huh, the ambiguity between [sanitary product] and [sanitary] [product] completely escaped me. "Sanitary products" is a polite euphemism for pads and tampons, Sal.
by alynnidalar
Thu May 31, 2018 10:04 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)
Replies: 2639
Views: 299451

Re: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)

That's too bad. That is indeed pretty big news to not be told by your dad directly!
by alynnidalar
Thu May 31, 2018 9:57 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Replies: 1058
Views: 220614

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

I assume that the pilot occurred in Aberdeen, and now is rolling out across all of Scotland.
by alynnidalar
Mon May 21, 2018 8:51 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)
Replies: 2639
Views: 299451

Re: Venting thread that still excludes eddy

Mine does too, but he's a cat, so I suppose it's expected.
by alynnidalar
Thu May 17, 2018 3:03 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: A Very Brief Explanation of the British Election
Replies: 323
Views: 92887

Re: A Very Brief Explanation of the British Election

Welp, so much for my suggestion that we draw inspiration from history, then. :P
by alynnidalar
Thu May 17, 2018 10:00 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: A Very Brief Explanation of the British Election
Replies: 323
Views: 92887

Re: A Very Brief Explanation of the British Election

How was the Irish border handled before the EU? If the border was unmanned back then, surely there were the exact same problems (a person or goods could get themselves into Ireland and then quite easily get into the UK).
by alynnidalar
Wed May 16, 2018 7:22 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Replies: 1058
Views: 220614

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

If you'd like an explanation: There is a speedrun of Dark Souls 3 that involves fighting all of the bosses without skipping parts of the game. This speedrun is a world record. And it's great. Dark Souls 3: a notoriously difficult videogame speedrun: an attempt to play through a game at the fastest p...
by alynnidalar
Mon May 07, 2018 9:44 am
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Writing system, not sure which one to use.
Replies: 16
Views: 11151

Re: Writing system, not sure which one to use.

everyone knows the superior writing system is a syllabary-logogram mix, all else is shirking one's duty as conworlder Nonsense! Alphalogography all the way! [my idea I've had for ages: an underspecifying alphabet/abugida (so, say, KATINU could be 'katinu', 'kateno', 'katemo', 'gadengu', etc), but t...
by alynnidalar
Thu May 03, 2018 12:41 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)
Replies: 2639
Views: 299451

Re: Venting thread that still excludes eddy

Been feeling out of control with my life lately. For the past month, honestly. I've had to deal with a bunch of extra expenses (a VERY unexpected tax bill because the government wasn't withholding enough, lots of expenses with adopting a cat, repairs to my car, renting another car while my car's in ...
by alynnidalar
Fri Apr 27, 2018 11:48 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Should "aviophobia" actually refer to fear of birds, not fly
Replies: 6
Views: 5585

Re: Should "aviophobia" actually refer to fear of birds, not

"Should" is such a tiresome word when it comes to language. There's no obligation for a word or phrase to have any particular meaning. The question is what aviophobia actually means --that is, what people use it to mean. If people use it to mean "fear of flying", then that's what it means. If people...
by alynnidalar
Mon Apr 23, 2018 9:26 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: What do you call...
Replies: 22
Views: 13289

Re: What do you call...

I agree with Sal re: validity of Noam Chomsky sentences, with one exception--I actually find H a little more cromulent than F. Not sure why; it's entirely possible it's just because I'd finished reading eight sentences about Noam Chomsky, so I was in the proper frame of mind to imagine him being bit...
by alynnidalar
Thu Apr 19, 2018 11:49 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The "How do You Pronounce X" Thread
Replies: 3108
Views: 636668

Re: The "How do You Pronounce X" Thread

Interestingly enough, while I mostly pronounce it the Spanish way, I think I pronounce the first vowel in leche as /ɛ/, at least in context of that phrase. That's weird--I know perfectly well it's supposed to be /e/, and I learned about the food from Spanish speakers.
by alynnidalar
Thu Apr 19, 2018 11:46 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: A Very Brief Explanation of the British Election
Replies: 323
Views: 92887

Re: A Very Brief Explanation of the British Election

they were usually too busy pointing out that it is horrible to explain what exactly happened. Pffft, people don't need facts, they just need to be outraged about a nebulously-defined situation that's terrible, I swear, and you should really do something about and get upset over! Seriously, though, ...
by alynnidalar
Mon Apr 16, 2018 9:12 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Replies: 1058
Views: 220614

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Oh, I assumed it was a missing comma: "...#MeToo demonstrates pornography, causes women to be viewed as sexual objects, and contributes to the prevalence of sexual harassment." But upon reflection that doesn't make a lot of sense, and "demonstrates that pornography causes..." is a lot more sensible....