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I have read the definitions given in wikipedia and dictionaries.
I saw an old Vincent Price movie-believe the title to be "Diary of a Madman" but I may be wrong. The invisible demon was called a horta and destroyed by fire. It "spoke" to Price and the children in the school where he taught. To avoid communicating his intentions to the children or the horta, he had to think of a stone wall. Apparently the horta was unable to leave a locked room.
I think I have heard or seen the word used in this context before, but don't know where or how it came into being. Perhaps Yiddish?
Can anyone give me a clue?
Thank you!!
A recent "correction" to an article prompts me to wonder which is correct: "these are four different types of PDF file" or "these are four different types of PDF files"? Context: Portable Document Format#External links. Notinasnaid 18:18, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
Why do people keep on asking questions that assume there is only one answer? Language doesn't work that way.
You're welcome to carry on saying 'two types of files' Kjoon, but however 'definitely' you do so, you're not going to stop me saying 'two types of file'. Definitely. ColinFine 16:02, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
Does anyone know where this term originates (e.g. 'doing a half assed [or 'half arsed' for the Brits] job')? I notice that WP has an article on the Half Ass (or Onager). Does this have anything to do with it at all? Which came first anyway - 'half assed' or 'half arsed'? -- Kurt Shaped Box 19:15, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
The correct phrase is "I couldn't be asked" meaning I can't be bothered to do something voluntarily and wouldn't even do it if you asked me to. In short meaning "I can't be bothered" Arsed has come into usage due to mis-hearing badly spoken English "asked" where the K is not pronounced is easier to say than "asked" where the k is pronounced.
Half-Cocked has nothing to do with Half-arsed. Half arsed means incomplete or not very well thought out. Half Cocked means that something will not work as it should. It originates not from the priming of a flintlock weapon but the fact that the hammer had two positions. Pull back once would raise the hammer so the weapon could be primed (ie gunpowder put into the flashpan) In this position it would not fire by depressing the trigger. The hammer had to be pulled back further to position 2 to render it useable. Hence half-cocked = will not work
Article Wiki claims: "waka waka, a Hawaiian-language word for fast." Is that true? -- Li-sung 20:27, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
Ever since I moved to the UK it's been bugging me that people sometimes add an r at the end of some words, seemingly at random. "No idear" (no idea) would probably be the best and most common example.
Why do people do this, does it have a name and is it an exclusively British thing? My reason for thinking it's a British thing is that when I lived in Sweden, most of the English that'd come to me through movies, TV, etc would be American, where I never noticed the "r thing". - O bli ( Talk) ? 22:27, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
I'm sorry but the ease of pronunciation argument doesn't work. When one vowel follows another, the easiest thing to do is to is not to insert an [ɹ], but a glottal stop, dissimilate, or simply drop one element. No one would insert an [ɹ] (meaning consonantal r) in the ant you either dissimilate as in standard rules or drop the schwa as in many non-standard variaties or insert a glottal stop. Also, the hypercorrection explanation makes no sense in Britain because the non-rhotic varieties are more prestigious than the rhotic ones.
The answer is, as Kjoonlee also says, entirely phonological rule. Here's the somewhat complicated explanation: First phonologically non-rhotic speakers have a phoneme /r/ in words like lore car and deer, meaning that the /r/ is there in mental representation of the word. There are different variants to this phoneme. That means the speaker has rules that says that this phoneme can be realized in different ways depending on various factors. One variant is zero (meaning silence) and another is [ɹ] in cases like lore. Another possibility is [ə] (schwa) in cases like deer. Which alternative to [ɹ] is used (zero or schwa) depends on the preceding vowel and dialect. In either case, [ɹ] is used fairly systematically before vowels, but in many non-rhotic dialects in cases of emphasis. However, the bulk of the time, the /r/ is zero or schwa, depending again on the preceding vowel.
Second, speakers often classify words that happen to end in vowel combinations that are also the results of the r-dropping phonological rule as having an /r/. Sometimes, these become homonyms of words ending in /r/: such as law and lore. Therefore, in circumstances, such as a following vowel or emphasis that they would pronounce the /r/ as [ɹ] in lore, the do the same with law . At other times, they are not strictly homonyms, such as with idea, which has the characteristic vowel plus schwa combination of r-dropping. Where they would pronounce an [ɹ] in deer they do it with idea. Proof that this is right explanation is that they do not add an intrusive r to words like dew Jew"' or "bee or see because these vowels are not the results of r-dropping. That's as simple as I can think to make it. mnewmanqc 14:27, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Language desk | ||
---|---|---|
< November 6 | << Oct | November | Dec >> | November 8 > |
Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives |
---|
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages. |
I have read the definitions given in wikipedia and dictionaries.
I saw an old Vincent Price movie-believe the title to be "Diary of a Madman" but I may be wrong. The invisible demon was called a horta and destroyed by fire. It "spoke" to Price and the children in the school where he taught. To avoid communicating his intentions to the children or the horta, he had to think of a stone wall. Apparently the horta was unable to leave a locked room.
I think I have heard or seen the word used in this context before, but don't know where or how it came into being. Perhaps Yiddish?
Can anyone give me a clue?
Thank you!!
A recent "correction" to an article prompts me to wonder which is correct: "these are four different types of PDF file" or "these are four different types of PDF files"? Context: Portable Document Format#External links. Notinasnaid 18:18, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
Why do people keep on asking questions that assume there is only one answer? Language doesn't work that way.
You're welcome to carry on saying 'two types of files' Kjoon, but however 'definitely' you do so, you're not going to stop me saying 'two types of file'. Definitely. ColinFine 16:02, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
Does anyone know where this term originates (e.g. 'doing a half assed [or 'half arsed' for the Brits] job')? I notice that WP has an article on the Half Ass (or Onager). Does this have anything to do with it at all? Which came first anyway - 'half assed' or 'half arsed'? -- Kurt Shaped Box 19:15, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
The correct phrase is "I couldn't be asked" meaning I can't be bothered to do something voluntarily and wouldn't even do it if you asked me to. In short meaning "I can't be bothered" Arsed has come into usage due to mis-hearing badly spoken English "asked" where the K is not pronounced is easier to say than "asked" where the k is pronounced.
Half-Cocked has nothing to do with Half-arsed. Half arsed means incomplete or not very well thought out. Half Cocked means that something will not work as it should. It originates not from the priming of a flintlock weapon but the fact that the hammer had two positions. Pull back once would raise the hammer so the weapon could be primed (ie gunpowder put into the flashpan) In this position it would not fire by depressing the trigger. The hammer had to be pulled back further to position 2 to render it useable. Hence half-cocked = will not work
Article Wiki claims: "waka waka, a Hawaiian-language word for fast." Is that true? -- Li-sung 20:27, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
Ever since I moved to the UK it's been bugging me that people sometimes add an r at the end of some words, seemingly at random. "No idear" (no idea) would probably be the best and most common example.
Why do people do this, does it have a name and is it an exclusively British thing? My reason for thinking it's a British thing is that when I lived in Sweden, most of the English that'd come to me through movies, TV, etc would be American, where I never noticed the "r thing". - O bli ( Talk) ? 22:27, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
I'm sorry but the ease of pronunciation argument doesn't work. When one vowel follows another, the easiest thing to do is to is not to insert an [ɹ], but a glottal stop, dissimilate, or simply drop one element. No one would insert an [ɹ] (meaning consonantal r) in the ant you either dissimilate as in standard rules or drop the schwa as in many non-standard variaties or insert a glottal stop. Also, the hypercorrection explanation makes no sense in Britain because the non-rhotic varieties are more prestigious than the rhotic ones.
The answer is, as Kjoonlee also says, entirely phonological rule. Here's the somewhat complicated explanation: First phonologically non-rhotic speakers have a phoneme /r/ in words like lore car and deer, meaning that the /r/ is there in mental representation of the word. There are different variants to this phoneme. That means the speaker has rules that says that this phoneme can be realized in different ways depending on various factors. One variant is zero (meaning silence) and another is [ɹ] in cases like lore. Another possibility is [ə] (schwa) in cases like deer. Which alternative to [ɹ] is used (zero or schwa) depends on the preceding vowel and dialect. In either case, [ɹ] is used fairly systematically before vowels, but in many non-rhotic dialects in cases of emphasis. However, the bulk of the time, the /r/ is zero or schwa, depending again on the preceding vowel.
Second, speakers often classify words that happen to end in vowel combinations that are also the results of the r-dropping phonological rule as having an /r/. Sometimes, these become homonyms of words ending in /r/: such as law and lore. Therefore, in circumstances, such as a following vowel or emphasis that they would pronounce the /r/ as [ɹ] in lore, the do the same with law . At other times, they are not strictly homonyms, such as with idea, which has the characteristic vowel plus schwa combination of r-dropping. Where they would pronounce an [ɹ] in deer they do it with idea. Proof that this is right explanation is that they do not add an intrusive r to words like dew Jew"' or "bee or see because these vowels are not the results of r-dropping. That's as simple as I can think to make it. mnewmanqc 14:27, 8 November 2006 (UTC)