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Does this include issues of punctuation? – Robert Cartaino Jun 1 '10 at 20:28

Could somebody with power fix the "for for linguists" in the description? – Dan Dumitru Jun 1 '10 at 21:23

I'm signed up to this proposal, but I don't like the direction it is headed. There's a tendency for people who make many categorical assertions about English usage to be ignorant of relevant linguistic knowledge, such as about register, the relationship between spoken and written English, how standard English came to be, and the actual facts about what constitutes standard English. Is the core of this site meant to be experts or pontificators? How should our preference be reflected in the example questions we choose? – Charles Stewart Jun 10 '10 at 11:14

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64 Example Questions (8 closed)

active newest votes

up vote 22 down vote

added by Jaydles Jun 1 '10 at 20:22

This is clearly on-topic, but I'll be very disappointed if the answers towards this tend to the typical peevology, rather than the reasonable, evidence-supported answer (that there is no difference). – JSBձոգչ Jun 16 '10 at 23:54

up vote 22 down vote

added by ire_and_curses Jun 1 '10 at 22:25

Ultimative guide: theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon :-) – splattne Jun 3 '10 at 10:56

up vote 21 down vote

added by moioci Jun 4 '10 at 7:54

oo, good question. – quack quixote Jun 4 '10 at 10:15

up vote 21 down vote

added by John P Bloch Jun 8 '10 at 23:39

	Ambiguous: is it about use or typography? – Charles Stewart Jun 9 '10 at 8:45
	Sorry, I realize now how ambiguous that was... Fixed now. – John P Bloch Jun 9 '10 at 20:47

up vote 20 down vote

added by sblair Jun 2 '10 at 9:39

	Awfully basic. I thought this site was to attract real language mavens. – moioci Jun 8 '10 at 16:06
	@moioci Perhaps a better phrasing would be: "Should I use who or whom in [this sentence], and why?" This might help to engage the experts more. – sblair Jun 9 '10 at 20:55
	Actually, the whoever/whomever distinction is more likely to trip me up. – moioci Jun 16 '10 at 13:18

up vote 20 down vote

added by Charles Stewart Jun 7 '10 at 12:51

up vote 13 down vote

added by Good Person Jun 1 '10 at 18:57

up vote 13 down vote

added by Good Person Jun 1 '10 at 18:59

Since this talks about the specifics of English grammar it is on topic although a bit basic – Good Person Jun 1 '10 at 18:59

Actually, the rule that drives the answer might be interesting - I know intuitively that "green nine apples" is wrong, but don't know that I can explain why. – Jaydles Jun 1 '10 at 21:17

As a non-native english speaker I could say that yes there is such a rule (it has 9 parts ;) – A Thing Jun 7 '10 at 9:44

For this sentence, "nine" is not an adjective, it's a determiner - like "the" in "the green apples". For two adjectives like "mouldy old peaches" vs. "old mouldy peaches", I think it's just a matter of how it rolls off the tongue. – Blorgbeard Jun 8 '10 at 16:53

up vote 12 down vote

added by Robert Cartaino Jun 2 '10 at 0:48

	I would hope that lots of questions would include example text, just like sample code on Stack Overflow. – Don Kirkby Jun 18 '10 at 6:23
	I hope there will be good reasoning with the correct punctuation. – Lukas Cenovsky Jun 18 '10 at 8:53

up vote 11 down vote

added by ire_and_curses Jun 1 '10 at 22:40

This is argumentative and has no definitive correct answer, unlike, say, the average airspeed of an unladen swallow. It's asking the age-old "Is grammar descriptive or proscriptive?" question. Perhaps the question could be improved by asking when it might be more or less appropriate to boldly split an infinitive. – moioci Jun 4 '10 at 7:45

I would argue that this question is more about style, since disallowing split infinites isn't really about grammar as much as avoiding the confusion and wordiness caused by widely split infinities, such as "to loudly and rudely, just like the time my great grandma met General Lee, masticate". – Stefan Rusek Jun 5 '10 at 6:05

@Stefan Rusek: Your great grandma met General Lee and all she could do was chew? :p – Randolpho Jun 11 '10 at 15:59

Obviously from descriptive grammar point of view it's correct, native speakers do not hesitate to frequently use split infinitives. The question is about some prescriptive grammar / style guideline. Would be better if scope was narrowed down, e.g. "in U.S. English formal writing". – dbkk Jun 17 '10 at 9:17

up vote 11 down vote

added by Jaydles Jun 4 '10 at 21:37

up vote 8 down vote

added by John P Bloch Jun 8 '10 at 23:38

up vote 8 down vote

added by fmark Jun 10 '10 at 12:16

up vote 7 down vote

added by Dan Dumitru Jun 1 '10 at 21:24

up vote 7 down vote

added by moioci Jun 4 '10 at 7:52

Do you really want this to be a site about American Cliche's or turns-of-phrases? – Stephen Furlani Jun 18 '10 at 15:16

up vote 6 down vote

added by moioci Jun 8 '10 at 16:02

@Moici, I hate to vote this "not a good example" since I think the first clause is a great one, but this should be two questions - they're not related in any real way. – Jaydles Jun 8 '10 at 16:43

@moioci can't these basic questions just be looked up in a dictionary? you were previously complaining that the site was supposed to be for "real language mavens". – Zombie Praeclarum Jun 8 '10 at 18:10

I'm taking Jaydles's recommendation. By way of explanation, I used to think I knew what acronym and homonym meant. Recently, reading wikipedia, I ran into initialism and homophone, which seem to be very fine shades of meaning different from those terms I was familiar with. So that's why I lumped these together, and those fine distinctions are what I was intending to address. – moioci Jun 8 '10 at 20:22

@moici, +1, I like the question much better as worded, but I'm not sure the "homo-words" have much to do with the other two. Homonyms are words that have the same spelling and pronunciation, but different meanings; homophones are words that have the same pronunciation, but not necessarily the same spelling. I see no real connection to the other two: Acronyms are initials that are pronounced like a word (SCUBA) and initialisms are initials that are pronounced like letters (ATM). – Jaydles Jun 8 '10 at 21:42

Not even dictionaries agree on the answer. See the Wikipedia article's talk page for years of debate on this point. Not sure if that makes this a good question or a bad one. – nohat Jun 11 '10 at 21:46

up vote 5 down vote

added by Ward Jun 10 '10 at 22:40

up vote 4 down vote

added by sth Jun 8 '10 at 3:10

closed as off topic by Maxim Zaslavsky, Ward, Rob Hyndman, Dan Dumitru, Gordon Gustafson Jun 16 '10 at 21:16

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

Though this is not strictly about usage, it is a linguistic question. I think the community of a site like this would enjoy answering (debating) it. – Matt Sherman Jun 15 '10 at 2:55

this is better for dual-language sites like spandict.com Otherwise we'll get flooded with people who want to translate russian, chinese, and esperanto, while this site it strictly about english. – Gordon Gustafson Jun 16 '10 at 21:17

I think this is admissible only in case the foreign expression does not have the suitable direct translation (and thus points to an underlying cultural/linguistic issue). Otherwise, it seems like a learner's question. – dbkk Jun 17 '10 at 9:26

That's why it would be off-topic. Good example! – Donal Fellows Jun 18 '10 at 8:33

up vote 4 down vote

added by Charles Stewart Jun 10 '10 at 11:16

up vote 3 down vote

added by Good Person Jun 1 '10 at 19:00

	not sure about this one... – Good Person Jun 1 '10 at 19:00
	I think should be OK - unless it gets too basic. – A Thing Jun 7 '10 at 9:43

up vote 3 down vote

added by sblair Jun 1 '10 at 23:33

up vote 2 down vote

added by Arlen Beiler, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jun 1 '10 at 20:46

Obvious homework question, can be looked up easily if it isn't. – Arlen Beiler Jun 1 '10 at 20:08

is the lack of "?" intended. – juanformoso Jun 1 '10 at 20:45

I think a better question might be, "Why do gerunds take possessives, for example, 'Her car's constant breaking down was a real problem for Becky'?" – moioci Jun 8 '10 at 6:13

up vote 2 down vote

added by Good Person Jun 2 '10 at 7:08

up vote 2 down vote

added by Jaydles Jun 4 '10 at 10:38

up vote 1 down vote

added by Arlen Beiler Jun 1 '10 at 20:07

up vote 1 down vote

added by Good Person Jun 2 '10 at 7:08

This is great example of a homework question. – A Thing Jun 7 '10 at 9:43

up vote 1 down vote

added by John P Bloch Jun 8 '10 at 23:41

There's a more generic version of this question with 8 votes already. You're probably better off voting for that one instead. area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/1269/… – Senseful Jun 16 '10 at 19:54