English Matters

Discussion in 'Education & Personal Growth' started by Ansuya, Dec 20, 2008.

  1. Purple2017

    Purple2017 Silver IL'ite

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    Alas! nobody commented on my efforts......
     
  2. sokanasanah

    sokanasanah IL Hall of Fame

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    May you succeed always!
    Well, in future attempts I mean!:wink1:
     
  3. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    I don't know if those were your serious attempts or facetious pokes. Assuming just for fun, that sounds like an insurance chap selling a policy to me or a Mormon evangelist selling a Bible to me "Your happiness, my concern". Now that my quantified happiness has been outsourced, I only need a shell company to transfer illicit funds to safeguard that transacted happiness.
     
    Last edited: Jun 22, 2017
    kalcandu likes this.
  4. Purple2017

    Purple2017 Silver IL'ite

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    Please mind the language of your comments...nobody wants your advice in this matter...the person who has initiated this debate is supposed to give opinion...in a dignified way.....
     
  5. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    There are distinct greeting and farewell catchphrases in English, and similarly in other Indian languages echoing the verbal pranaams. But if we look at Hebrew, they have a singular "shalom" [peace] to greet and bid farewell. For clarity, one can denote farewell with the derivative "shalom aleikhem". I am thinking how few languages make do with limited utterances. Or may be there is a deeper and traditional respect to utter the same word to greet and bid. Er, your Hebrew helping hand needed here.
     
  6. sokanasanah

    sokanasanah IL Hall of Fame

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    Moved to gabfest.
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2017
  7. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    Moved to Gabfest
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2017
  8. sokanasanah

    sokanasanah IL Hall of Fame

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    Moved to Gabfest (not an English Matter!).
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2017
  9. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    Recently, social media was abuzz with the iceberg news. It broke away, it cracked away, it split away, or other form of dissent from its parent. Here is one such news article: breaks off

    While the activists were showing their angst in an unabated form in the social media with their wrenching cry, I noticed something in the press media like the said article. "Satellite data confirms ‘calving’ of trillion-tonne, 5,800 sq km iceberg from the Larsen C ice shelf, dramatically altering the landscape."

    This particular article enclosed the word in single quote. Few other articles had a friendly pointer on iceberg terminology.

    calve (of cows and certain other large animals) = give birth to a calf.
    "Galloway cows have wide pelvises and calve easily"

    calve (of an iceberg or glacier) = split and shed (a smaller mass of ice).
    "glaciers were calving icebergs directly into the sea"

    What an evocative birth pangs of a stoic iceberg!
     
  10. Nonya

    Nonya Platinum IL'ite

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    Yes. evocative. Some followup questions.
    Who gets more pang in the birth? The mom-glacier, or the baby-berg?
    If the glacier is wide, like the Galloway Cow, would it pang less ?
    Did the usage 'calve' for iceberg splitting off come about after women started having calves in the water (in their bath tubs)?
     

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