thang

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Jan 26	comment	Does anybody use the elative degree in modern speech? @JonHanna, If elative is also synonymous with absolute superlative, then that is the source of our disagreement. I did not know that. I guess OP should probably clarify... and again, I am also under the impression that the -est form should always be used when it is available. For example, "it is one of the bravest actions" instead of "it is a most brave action", and "it is the bravest action" instead of "it is the most brave action". In the first case, it implies that more than one exhibiting superlative may exist. Comment on this?
Jan 26	comment	Does anybody use the elative degree in modern speech? @JonHanna, elative in Finnish is not a degree. It's a subset of locative case, which I guess is merged into the more common ablative (maybe?), which doesn't exist in English. Regardless, it is totally related.
Jan 26	comment	Does anybody use the elative degree in modern speech? I know but he also asked specifically about elative. I think he may be thinking that what is given is the elative form, which isn't true.
Jan 26	comment	Does anybody use the elative degree in modern speech? I don't think that's what he's asking about. Elative degree has a specific meaning. That is, it encompasses both comparative and superlative. I know for sure that certain languages lack the distinction between the two.
Jan 26	comment	Does anybody use the elative degree in modern speech? @Robusto, superlative, so it has the same meaning in degree. My understanding is that most is used only when the -est form doesn't exist. Is this wrong?
Jan 26	comment	Does anybody use the elative degree in modern speech? @Robusto, what does it mean? is it the same as "it is the bravest action"?
Jan 26	comment	Does anybody use the elative degree in modern speech? "it is a most brave action" sounds awkward to me. I think that it is grammatically incorrect. I think that the only correct version that is closest to what you want is: "it is the bravest action". "It is bravest action" also is awkward. This is what I meant. The elative degree in English requires you to explicitly state whether it is one form or another: "braver" or "bravest". There is nothing in between and nothing left to context. In that sense, there is no elative degree.
Jan 26	comment	Does anybody use the elative degree in modern speech? I see. The answer is no. I think that comparative and superlative are almost always separate. In certain cases, it can be explicitly made indefinite, but the answer is no. You're probably thinking of something like the Arabic version where differentiation between comparative and superlative is made based on context (e.g. akbar)? There is no English equivalent.
Jan 26	comment	Is there a word for numbers between 10 and 99? 10s? i guess that implies 10,20,30,...
Jan 26	comment	“length in bytes” vs “length by the byte” and “paid in hours” vs “paid by the hour” @FumbleFingers, or equivalently the dollars equal to my time for a month. between the two, i would prefer the dollars. i guess i am greedy :p well, dollar is more flexible in that i can choose not to work for a month with the dollars, or i can choose to work for a month and get more $.
Jan 26	comment	“length in bytes” vs “length by the byte” and “paid in hours” vs “paid by the hour” @Z3r0n3 no, it doesn't. It means you get paid on a per-hour basis.
Jan 26	comment	“length in bytes” vs “length by the byte” and “paid in hours” vs “paid by the hour” paid in hours means you get paid with monetary unit of hours, which is probably not what you want to say. i would definitely like to be paid in dollars instead of hours :p in the same sense, bytes is the measurement unit of the buffer.
Jan 26	comment	Does anybody use the elative degree in modern speech? what is elative degree? do you mean elative case? if you mean elative case, then no. there is no elative case in english. not old. not new. it's not in latin, and it's also not in german.
Jan 25	comment	“I have been keeping ignoring you.” The problem with having an "inner grammarian" is that it is learned from experience. This would mean that everyone has a different one. What sounds right to one person may not to another. I am wondering if someone has defined, in a model-theoretic framework, some sort of decidability rule for correctness of English (or any natural language, for that matter) that is at least mostly in agreement with many native speakers. Does anyone know?
Jan 24	comment	What is a more politically correct way to call something a “Red-Headed Step-Child”? ginger offspring? :p
Jan 23	comment	They've insist or they insisted My understanding is that present perfect ("have <past-participle>") is used to convey that an event happened in the past at a time that cannot be known, cannot be expressed (e.g. because it's not a single time point), or that the speaker does not want to convey.
Jan 23	awarded	Supporter
Jan 22	comment	How does “pussy” come to mean “coward”? And for that matter, how does pussy come to mean a woman's genitalia?
Jan 22	comment	Difference between “transparent” and “translucent” remark that transparent can be used more abstractly (as in, "a transparent idea"), but it would be more awkward to do the same with translucent.
Jan 21	comment	Why “most of them” and not “most of they”? @JohnLawler, even when used as a predicate nominative? I think that may be true for spoken English, but for written, it seems a little unusual.