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Here's a question that's been going around my head for about a week, and the time has come to get it out.
Bubbly, happy, effervescent, exuberant, extroverted people are sometimes called "irrepressible". That always has a nuance, to me, of "We'd ideally like to repress this person but have learnt from experience we can't". Yet, repression is universally considered a bad thing to do to a person. When done in childhood, it's damaging to the psyche and it often leads to major problems in later life. So, why would we make any allusion at all to repression when describing such a person? Why would there be any desire to change the way they are?
I see this as a little different from "unstoppable" or "unsinkable", btw. That's referring to natural forces having no impact on a person's will or drive. "Irrepressible" can only be about other humans theoretically wanting to confine the person in a mental/psychic cage of their own devising. It's funny that quiet, retiring, timid types are never called "repressible". Oh no, that would be a shocking thing to do to a person. Why any less shocking to do it to an extrovert? -- Jack of Oz [your turn] 02:59, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
Translating Jeffery Deaver's Edge, I found the sentences as follows: "Keep the partner down. But visible hostiles or neutral targets only."
The speaker is engaged in a gunfight, and the 'partner' is a sniper hidden in a bush.
Does 'neutral targets' mean non-human targets or what? -- Analphil ( talk) 06:00, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
I SLAMMED THE shifter into reverse; a three-point turn would have taken too much time. I shoved the pedal to the floor.
I heard a jarring bang from the side of our vehicle as the partner continued to fire on us from the bushes. But I’d moved just as he was pulling the trigger and the slug hit the sheetmetal, not tires. Which was good; run-flats are impressive but they’re not indestructible.
Another slam of a bullet on the body steel. The sound was very loud. Unlike in the movies, you never hear whining ricochets and you never see sparks. A bullet is a piece of lead that’s moving about three thousand feet a second. You hear a big, big bang when it hits your car and it usually stays where it’s sent and doesn’t bounce around the neighborhood.
“Covering fire,” I ordered. “Keep the partner down. But visible hostiles or neutral targets only. Do not shoot blind. Everybody else, stay down.”
In England, six or eight wine glasses used to stand grouped by each person's plate 1. a dinner party, and they were used, not left useless and empty; today there are but three or four in the group, and the average guest sparingly uses about two of them. We have not adopted this fashion yet, but we shall do it presently. We shall not think it out; we shall merely conform, and let it go at that. We get our notions and habits and opinions from outside influences; we do not have to study them out.
1. A) after B)of C)at D)for
What does "We shall not think it out" mean?
What does it mean to "let it go at that"?
What does it mean to "study them out"? — Preceding
unsigned comment added by
Freya3550 (
talk •
contribs) 09:51, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
The article Finnish cuisine was recently edited to change "Karelian pasty" to "Karelian pastry". Is it a pasty or a pastry? What is the difference between the two? JIP | Talk 19:13, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
What is the average sentence length in the English language? And how is this sentence length distributed (i.e. how many 4-word, 5-word, ... sentences are there relatively speaking)? What's the (mathematical) variation?
How does the average sentence length compare to recommended sentence lengths? E.g. sentences with under 15 words are in some areas regarded as too short (prose). In others too long (children's books).
How does spoken sentence length compare to written sentence length?
What about other languages? How does English compare to French, Spanish, ...?
How is sentence length affected by sector (financial, literature, science, ...)?
How is the evolution of sentence length over time? (From Readability:) "In Elizabethan times, the average sentence was 50 words long. In his own time, it was 23 words long."
The only material I could find showed an average sentence length of 14,3 words per sentence, but no references there whatsoever. http://able2know.org/topic/114565-1
In wikipedia, the article about Readability shows some useful information, but it's very limited. Roelvermeulen ( talk) 22:51, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
How does one transcribe the version of "Allahu Akbar" said in Iraqi Arabic?
In several of the Iraq War hostage videos I hear the perpetrators yell "Allah laykwut" - which sounds different from the "Akbar" that I expected. Does the Iraqi dialect of Arabic have a different word used in place of "Akbar" WhisperToMe ( talk) 23:11, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
Could you provide an example of one of the videos you are referring to? -- Soman ( talk) 12:17, 10 March 2011 (UTC)
Language desk | ||
---|---|---|
< March 8 | << Feb | March | Apr >> | March 10 > |
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. |
Here's a question that's been going around my head for about a week, and the time has come to get it out.
Bubbly, happy, effervescent, exuberant, extroverted people are sometimes called "irrepressible". That always has a nuance, to me, of "We'd ideally like to repress this person but have learnt from experience we can't". Yet, repression is universally considered a bad thing to do to a person. When done in childhood, it's damaging to the psyche and it often leads to major problems in later life. So, why would we make any allusion at all to repression when describing such a person? Why would there be any desire to change the way they are?
I see this as a little different from "unstoppable" or "unsinkable", btw. That's referring to natural forces having no impact on a person's will or drive. "Irrepressible" can only be about other humans theoretically wanting to confine the person in a mental/psychic cage of their own devising. It's funny that quiet, retiring, timid types are never called "repressible". Oh no, that would be a shocking thing to do to a person. Why any less shocking to do it to an extrovert? -- Jack of Oz [your turn] 02:59, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
Translating Jeffery Deaver's Edge, I found the sentences as follows: "Keep the partner down. But visible hostiles or neutral targets only."
The speaker is engaged in a gunfight, and the 'partner' is a sniper hidden in a bush.
Does 'neutral targets' mean non-human targets or what? -- Analphil ( talk) 06:00, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
I SLAMMED THE shifter into reverse; a three-point turn would have taken too much time. I shoved the pedal to the floor.
I heard a jarring bang from the side of our vehicle as the partner continued to fire on us from the bushes. But I’d moved just as he was pulling the trigger and the slug hit the sheetmetal, not tires. Which was good; run-flats are impressive but they’re not indestructible.
Another slam of a bullet on the body steel. The sound was very loud. Unlike in the movies, you never hear whining ricochets and you never see sparks. A bullet is a piece of lead that’s moving about three thousand feet a second. You hear a big, big bang when it hits your car and it usually stays where it’s sent and doesn’t bounce around the neighborhood.
“Covering fire,” I ordered. “Keep the partner down. But visible hostiles or neutral targets only. Do not shoot blind. Everybody else, stay down.”
In England, six or eight wine glasses used to stand grouped by each person's plate 1. a dinner party, and they were used, not left useless and empty; today there are but three or four in the group, and the average guest sparingly uses about two of them. We have not adopted this fashion yet, but we shall do it presently. We shall not think it out; we shall merely conform, and let it go at that. We get our notions and habits and opinions from outside influences; we do not have to study them out.
1. A) after B)of C)at D)for
What does "We shall not think it out" mean?
What does it mean to "let it go at that"?
What does it mean to "study them out"? — Preceding
unsigned comment added by
Freya3550 (
talk •
contribs) 09:51, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
The article Finnish cuisine was recently edited to change "Karelian pasty" to "Karelian pastry". Is it a pasty or a pastry? What is the difference between the two? JIP | Talk 19:13, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
What is the average sentence length in the English language? And how is this sentence length distributed (i.e. how many 4-word, 5-word, ... sentences are there relatively speaking)? What's the (mathematical) variation?
How does the average sentence length compare to recommended sentence lengths? E.g. sentences with under 15 words are in some areas regarded as too short (prose). In others too long (children's books).
How does spoken sentence length compare to written sentence length?
What about other languages? How does English compare to French, Spanish, ...?
How is sentence length affected by sector (financial, literature, science, ...)?
How is the evolution of sentence length over time? (From Readability:) "In Elizabethan times, the average sentence was 50 words long. In his own time, it was 23 words long."
The only material I could find showed an average sentence length of 14,3 words per sentence, but no references there whatsoever. http://able2know.org/topic/114565-1
In wikipedia, the article about Readability shows some useful information, but it's very limited. Roelvermeulen ( talk) 22:51, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
How does one transcribe the version of "Allahu Akbar" said in Iraqi Arabic?
In several of the Iraq War hostage videos I hear the perpetrators yell "Allah laykwut" - which sounds different from the "Akbar" that I expected. Does the Iraqi dialect of Arabic have a different word used in place of "Akbar" WhisperToMe ( talk) 23:11, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
Could you provide an example of one of the videos you are referring to? -- Soman ( talk) 12:17, 10 March 2011 (UTC)