05-16-2013, 12:26 AM | #31 |
Nodding at stupid things
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05-16-2013, 01:08 AM | #32 | |
Grand Master of Flowers
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Quote:
Care to explain the problem with my analogy? You can say "I don't give a rat's *ss," but you can also say "I could give a rat's *ss." Both mean the same thing. This has been studied a little bit. Steven Pinker thinks that it is meant sarcastically. Some linguists think that it may have started sarcastically and then normalized. But the most interesting theory (to me) is that [could] + [expression indicating extreme lack of interest, usually scatological] carries some sort implicit negative meaning. (You can substitute a lot of four letter words for "rat's *ss") in the example above. |
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05-16-2013, 07:13 AM | #33 |
Grand Sorcerer
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The one thing I remember is an English teacher telling me that "with" is not a proper word to end a sentence with.
The one thing I hate is the "English Disease". That is the tendency to write Dutch words separately, when they shouldn't be. In English, it's "computer screen", but in Dutch it's "computerscherm". "Computer scherm" is wrong. Writing words separately or not, can actually change their meaning, and quite drastically too. Last edited by Katsunami; 05-16-2013 at 09:58 AM. |
05-16-2013, 08:11 AM | #34 |
Cheese Whiz
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Yeah but not as quickly as . . .
Hai Karate cologne, and a perfect crooked James Bond smile.
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05-16-2013, 08:42 AM | #35 |
Wizard
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I'm a John-Barrowman's-smile kind of girl myself. Bond never did much for me.
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05-16-2013, 05:00 PM | #36 | |
Wizard
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Quote:
You're comparing apples to kumquats when comparing "I couldn't care less" and "I could care less" to your rat anatomy examples since the former examples do not mean the same thing (despite the erroneous common usage)while the latter examples do. |
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05-16-2013, 06:56 PM | #37 | |
Unicycle Daredevil
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05-16-2013, 10:17 PM | #38 |
Guru
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Anyone who can't be bothered to rise above a score of two should just give up on being lazy. Of course, I'm assuming that you're using the Lazenschafter Idleness Scale. Mo' lazy is mo' betta.
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05-16-2013, 10:42 PM | #39 | |
Unicycle Daredevil
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05-17-2013, 01:04 AM | #40 | |
Guru
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05-19-2013, 04:00 AM | #41 |
Member Retired
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What do you guys make of this line:
The epic battle between Apple and Google is ALL BUT over. Who won ? It's the title of a thread here on MR My interpretation is that it can be a lot of things EXCEPT over .. So the ensuing question makes no sense "who won ?" I am tempted to answer: If it's all but over then how should we know who won ? Wait till it is indeed fully over to find out. Am I turning into a grammar nazi ? https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=213447 Last edited by Quexos; 05-19-2013 at 04:04 AM. |
05-19-2013, 05:00 AM | #42 |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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"The epic battle between Apple and Google is ALL BUT over."
Means that the battle is nearly over, and (in the opinion the author) any remaining battling won't affect the result. "Who won ?" Implies that even though the battle has been decided and no more significant events will happen in the battle, it is unclear who won. It might even be a Pyrrhic victory? |
05-19-2013, 05:44 AM | #43 |
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05-19-2013, 03:34 PM | #44 | |
Country Member
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05-19-2013, 04:29 PM | #45 |
Fledgling Demagogue
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I read it as a short form of the phrase, in all things but in name.
Last edited by Prestidigitweeze; 05-19-2013 at 11:48 PM. |
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