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7 votes
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The philosophical reason you shouldn’t call people liars
3 votes -
Language learning thread: Share your tips, progress and questions
As discussed and suggested here. What are you learning? How is it going? Share your progress, tips and tricks. Ask other learners questions. Writing in non-English languages is welcome in this...
As discussed and suggested here.
What are you learning? How is it going? Share your progress, tips and tricks. Ask other learners questions.
Writing in non-English languages is welcome in this thread if you want to practice, but please at least include a Google Translate or Deepl translation in a foldable paragraph, using
<details>[your translation]</details>
17 votes -
Interesting histories: Female — Male — Woman — Man
6 votes -
The six villains of language learning
6 votes -
A homework task prompts kids to reflect deeply on learning, and its limits
6 votes -
How Mormon missionaries learn new languages in 6-9 weeks
7 votes -
What is the Cyrillic alphabet?
15 votes -
Beside the point? Punctuation is dead, long live punctuation
3 votes -
Interactive International Phonetic Alphabet
5 votes -
Greenland offers a roadmap for how to get Inuktut taught in Nunavut's schools
3 votes -
How the French Foreign Legion learns languages fast
9 votes -
Duolingo on Ukrainian and Russian: How do these languages differ?
19 votes -
Bad Words: Philosophical Perspectives on Slurs
3 votes -
New gender-neutral pronoun is likely to enter the official Norwegian language within a year, the Language Council of Norway has confirmed
17 votes -
The English language rules we know – but don’t know we know
17 votes -
From respair to cacklefart – the joy of reclaiming long-lost positive words
8 votes -
On communicating accurately with Americans
11 votes -
The rise and fall of rationality in language
7 votes -
Democrats fall flat with ‘Latinx’ language
20 votes -
The melancholy decline of the semicolon
17 votes -
Longstanding discourse w/ my SO about the phrase "a couple of..."
#couple Defined as: noun: couple; plural noun: couples 1. two individuals of the same sort considered together. "a couple of girls were playing marbles" a pair of partners in a dance or game....
#couple
Defined as:noun:
couple;
plural noun: couples
1.
two individuals of the same sort considered together.
"a couple of girls were playing marbles"a pair of partners in a dance or game.
MECHANICS
a pair of equal and parallel forces acting in opposite directions, and tending to cause rotation about an axis perpendicular to the plane containing them.
2.
two people who are married, engaged, or otherwise closely associated romantically or sexually.
"in three weeks the couple fell in love and became engaged"3.
INFORMAL
an indefinite small number.
"he hoped she'd be better in a couple of days"
verb:
couple;
3rd person present:
couples
past tense:
coupled
past participle:
coupled
gerund or present participle:
coupling
1.
combine."a sense of hope is coupled with a palpable sense of loss"
join to form a pair.
"the beetles may couple up to form a pair"2.
mate or have sexual intercourse.
"as middle-class youth grew more tolerant of sex, they started to couple more often"
#Discourse of the use of the word/phrase in this particular case
You
"how many would you like?"
Them
"just a couple."
When someone requests 'a couple of...' I respond with something similar to: 'How many do you want specifically?', which leads to the discourse of, 'A couple is two, a few is >2, several is <x' and so on.
I agree with the first two clearly stated definitions of 'couple', but in the informal use of a couple (eg. a depiction of a quantity) is not specifically two...nor is 'a few' three. How many specifically is several..?
I understand the semantics within the conversation. But, the expectation of understanding that two, and only two, is implied in the use of the phrase 'a couple' in a request; is ambiguously stating what one party desires. I'm the asshole now, just tell me how many you want.
And now...your thoughts, please.
12 votes -
Dead as a doornail
3 votes -
Gender in Latin and beyond
3 votes -
RIP Cure Dolly, YouTube Japanese teacher
3 votes -
Why do multiple meanings of words so often map across languages
The English word 'crane' means a large bird or a giant lever-thing for moving heavy stuff. The Hungarian word 'daru' means both of the same things. English and Hungarian are about as unrelated as...
The English word 'crane' means a large bird or a giant lever-thing for moving heavy stuff. The Hungarian word 'daru' means both of the same things.
English and Hungarian are about as unrelated as languages get ... and yet, I keep bumping into parallels like that.
Thoughts, anyone?
14 votes -
Someone dead ruined my life ... again. (Tiffany follow-up)
32 votes -
Against Theory, now with bots! On the persistent fallacy of intentionless speech
3 votes -
💖 The tale of Tiffany 💖
15 votes -
Kempt, couth, ruth: On the disappearing antonyms of “grumpy” words
7 votes -
Change in the implied meaning of "masked men"
Has the sentence "the masked men entered the store" changed meaning post the pandemic. I think it feels less ominous than perhaps it used to. Now the words could imply "responsible men that wear...
Has the sentence "the masked men entered the store" changed meaning post the pandemic. I think it feels less ominous than perhaps it used to. Now the words could imply "responsible men that wear masks in accordance with guidelines entered a store" where it would previously almost certainly imply "robbers entered the store". Since I'm not a native speaker I'm curious if this is just in my head or a more general thing? Are there other similar statements that has change?
11 votes -
The private language argument
3 votes -
Surprising shared word etymologies
10 votes -
A century ago Ludwig Wittgenstein changed philosophy for ever
4 votes -
Roads into Norway will get new signs with the country name also written in the indigenous Sámi language depending on the region
10 votes -
Why West Africa keeps inventing new scripts
3 votes -
Tower of Babble: Non-native speakers navigate the world of 'good' and 'bad' English
4 votes -
Where does music come from? (An abridged history of music, memory and language)
3 votes -
Duolingo ends its volunteer Contributor program
7 votes -
Why the Buzzfeed News style guide will no longer hyphenate "antisemitism"
6 votes -
Esperanto, the invented language that found a second life online
9 votes -
Ido: A reformed and simplified offspring of Esperanto
12 votes -
Grammarly's predatory model and cultural biases
10 votes -
Birds: Surprisingly connected etymologies
5 votes -
A brief overview of popular slang of the 1920s in the US
2 votes -
Why is the shape (❤) called a heart? And why is biological heart called a heart as well?
4 votes -
What does "performative" mean?
Judith Butler has some influential pieces that talk about performative or performativity. I see online lots of people seem to think there's no difference between "performance" and "performative"....
Judith Butler has some influential pieces that talk about performative or performativity.
I see online lots of people seem to think there's no difference between "performance" and "performative".
So, in philosophy, what do theyean when they say performative?
7 votes -
Disney brought its streaming service to Iceland last year – the country's education minister has sent a letter of complaint over the lack of Icelandic dubbing and subtitling
5 votes -
Denmark sermons law could stifle free worship, warns Church of England bishop – Robert Innes says proposed translation law could affect religious freedoms across Europe
13 votes -
Salami slicing
6 votes