Recent content by Oeconomist

But your attempted refutation doesn't work if I did not. And, when I introduce into this discussion a comparison with the relationship between Mandarin and Cantonese, I called them two languages, not two dialects: I explicitly used the word “language”. It can. I too checked. The idea that...

The vast majority of Anglophones don't even know that Frisian exists; but that does't mean that it isn't a language similar to English.

A worthless cat-raper who cannot multitask and does not properly prioritize, so he turns his back on his little daughter waiting at the intersection, so as not to be distracted by her as he writes. A worthless cat-raper who operates an automobile in an area filled with people, without paying...

Not merely cursory research, but cursory thought, and only cursory thought. I didn't claim that Ukrainian and Russian were dialects of the same language, as some Chinese imperialists claim that Mandarin and Cantonese are dialects of the same language. But denying that Ukrainian and Russian are...

Two worthless cat-rapers, and one dead child.

Then all hope is lost. Still, it would be cool if a writer who had prostituted himself was literally beaten for doing so by his pimp.

In America, for a time the Bell Telephone company tried to use boys on roller-skates as operators; but, well, boys will be boys. So the firm switched to women. Almon Brown Strowger, an undertaker, was convinced that one or more of his rivals were bribing the operators to redirect business away...

Your question willfully misinterprets my use of “proper”, which I have explained clearly, with a different use. And that willful misinterpretation is to sophistically beg the question. My concern was exactly for correct use of the verb “recommend”, which you don't know because you blithely...

The editor should have grabbed the writer by the nose with as much force as he could manage, and then have explained that, when next the author dragged-out a chapter by having the characters communicate poorly, the editor would likewisse grab the author's nose, and then slap him with as much...

Beat that woman and every one of her living ancestors. Then exile all of then to Detroit.

“We have an emergency, and could get something to eat as we travel; but let us have a two-person committee meeting!”

No, your first reaction, before any comment, was to deliver a community strike. So you're falsifying the history of discussion, and I'm supposed to read the revision and start over. Not gonna happen. You need to read about a construction called “the historic[al] present tense”. What you...

YMMV, as they say. I have seen many of constructions very alien to the practices of native speakers become fashionable in scanlations.

Well, we now have choice between this easily read translation and that awful something posted earlier.

Your case fails, because the purpose of language isn't to communicate just the thought at hand, but thoughts that will follow it over years to come. What merely suffices to communicate the thought at hand can undermine our ability to communicate other thoughts later. The folk who argue for...