zompist bboard

So, the focus of "thoil" is not on the worth of the purchased item but on my feeling after purchasing the item or my need for that item? So its meaning is more like "I can't justify the purchase of it for myself"? Yes - exactly. It's whetehr you could justify it to yourself and not feel too guilty ...

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...

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. "thoil" is more about whetehr you can just...

I like the word "clusterfuck". But in my experience it means something more like a sitution that has just gone seriously wrong, perhaps in multiple ways, but usually quite rapidly. I have a question that goes the otehr way. In Yorkshire, we have a verb "to thoil" [no clue onspelling, I've never seen...

[Yes, I've been looking through all the pages I've missed and finding interesting threads. Expect a lot of random dredgings] I'm not sure how to categorise my system. It's based on animacy/agentness - the core roles of agent, experiencer and patient are marked as cases - and doesn't have the fixed s...

No I was saying i thought serial verbs in general had to be just be chains of verbs with no intervening morphemes. I wasn't saying that was the only defining feature of them [of course ther are more cosntraints like the TAM etc]. If you'd read what I typed in, you'd see that by most definitions (ou...

Miekko, what did you do with the quoting? You managed to put my reply inside Tuli's post and outside too. Threw me for a second! I don't know, but I did correct it later. Actually, no you didn't. It's still like that now. Below I've bolded the two copies of my post - one embedded in Tuli's, and one...

Miekko, what did you do with the quoting? You managed to put my reply inside Tuli's post and outside too. Threw me for a second! I can't tell if serial verbs can take different objects in Thai: ผมขับรถไปกรุงเทพฯ Phǒm khàp rót pay kruŋthêep. I--drive--car--go--Bangkok. The verbs have the same subject...

I can't tell if serial verbs can take different objects in Thai: ผมขับรถไปกรุงเทพฯ Phǒm khàp rót pay kruŋthêep. I--drive--car--go--Bangkok. The verbs have the same subject, but none of the examples pointed out in my Thai grammar specifically as serial verbs have different direct objects. Well, it c...

And the equivalent Chinese phrase: 我不会说汉语。 Wǒ bù shuō hànyǔ. I—not—can—speak—Han—language. I can’t speak Chinese. Would this be considered a serial verb construction, since the negative modifies the first verb? I am to be held accountable for the ungrammaticalness of any example save the first. :) ...

Hokulani wrote:
<Pyurio> I think Doing sexual intercourse with plant would be rather ... itchy.
****
<Hokulani> Its officially summer. The Golden Trees are starting to bloom
<Kasadkad> Where are you, Valinor?

nd these two. Haaaa haaaaaaaaaaaa!

Some analyse double negatives in some languages as a kind of (negativity) agreement. IMO, this is a very good approach to the topic. This seems like a very good logical thing to have, and I wonder why more languages don't. What flexibility would be lost if compulsory negativity agreement was there?...

[*]Only tengado used the epiglottal stop />\/, and only CGreathouse had an epiglottal fricative /H\/. Did they contrast them with pharyngeals? Apparently most supposed pharyngeals are often actually epiglottal, so it's really only cool if you contrast the two . There isn't a pharyngeal stop for me ...

Khang wrote:http://zhongwen.com/s/ziyin.htm

Amazing site, thanks. About to become my favourite

Eww. Bodybuilders are hideous. That Methuselah dog thing was better looking.

Thanks a lot! That dog wins an award for most unfortunate creature. At least it looks like that woman looked after it well.

I'm still puzzled about how many claws that foot had....

Apparently, the thing was quite real, but died last November, at the age of fourteen. I wasn't able to find anything on just why it looked like that. Although I'm not sure if I'd really want to know. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_%28dog%29 I haven't read the wikipedia article [China], but one th...

Its actually a pure-breed chinese crested. (of course that breed is a little on the ugly side anyway) Is it supposed to look like that? And how old is it? It makes Yoda look young and sexy. And I can definitely count at least 6 claws on its front right paw. That is not normal. Is that thing real? A...

Deja vu. Didn't we just do this thread like last week or something? :? Anyway, about 700. you posted in this thread 3 days ago Bryan being ditzy in Khang's "how many roots in your conlang?" thread. He also varied his answer by a fairly hefty amount in the two diiferent responses. (1000 - 700) :P

Joecool wrote:
zebra + zebra

Best proof of Intelliegnt design ever:

The barcoding of animals.

<pic> Those things are gross. You know they use the finger for fishing ants an' stuff out of small places. Thats if I remember correctly/David Attenborough (sp?) isn't a big lying shite. They're not gross. The baby is cute in a Peter Jackson zombie movie rat-monkey kind of way. And as for the finge...

Those baby tarsiers are indeed the cutest things ever. Although the adults are rather weird looking - still cool though. Although not as odd as the ones with the really long spindly middle finger - aye-ayes. This is a baby aye-aye. It is not a special effect from a cheap horror movie, despite apeara...

The other day in Chinese class, I said "you're a good horse" instead of "how are you?" (ni3 hao3 ma3 vs ni3 hao3 ma1). Ni3 hao3 ma5 , actually. Ni 2 hao3 ma5, actually actually. The usually third tone ni changes to second tone when followed by another third tone. (I've also seen the transcription "...

chris_notts wrote:

-Klaivas- wrote:

Lingophile wrote:Try purring like a cat or imitate the sound of a revving engine.

I've read that so many times.

Is it just me who ends up doing a bilabial trill when trying to do cat sounds?

You had an odd cat.

I'm still not getting it. How high up should my tongue be? The tip should be fairly high - touching the alveolar ridge. I notice that my tongue might tend to be slightly asymmetric - one edge of the tip stays still against the alveolar ridge, and the other trills. If you try that perhpas it will be...