What's in a word?

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Bicycle Bill
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What's in a word?

Post by Bicycle Bill »

Take the two words, "completed" and "finished".  What is the difference?  For years, no dictionary has been able to define the difference — until Sun Sherman, an American Indian, offered the following observation at a linguistics conference in England.

His response?
• When you marry the right woman, you are 'complete'.
• When you marry the wrong woman, you are 'finished'.
• And if the right woman catches you with the wrong woman, you are 'completely finished'.

His answer received a five-minute standing ovation.
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-"BB"-
Yes, I suppose I could agree with you ... but then we'd both be wrong, wouldn't we?

Burning Petard
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Re: What's in a word?

Post by Burning Petard »

I am sorry BB, but with no factual information at all about the post above, I smells like a urban legend to me and the post belongs in the Laffs file not lifestyle.

snailgate

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Joe Guy
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Re: What's in a word?

Post by Joe Guy »

And if you're solely of Finnish ancestry and marry the wrong woman, you're completely Finnish and completely finished.

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Bicycle Bill
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Re: What's in a word?

Post by Bicycle Bill »

Burning Petard wrote:
Sun Jan 24, 2021 11:14 pm
I am sorry BB, but with no factual information at all about the post above, I smells like a urban legend to me and the post belongs in the Laffs file not lifestyle.

snailgate
You're right, BP, I'm sure it's as bogus as a four-dollar bill.  But I thought it was humorous.

And 'humorous' can have a place in a regular thread too. I refer you to the "Bernie" meme thread in the "General Stuff and Tabloids" page, for example.
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-"BB"-
Yes, I suppose I could agree with you ... but then we'd both be wrong, wouldn't we?

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MajGenl.Meade
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Re: What's in a word?

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

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For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

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Gob
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Re: What's in a word?

Post by Gob »

What's in a word? Letters mainly.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

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dales
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Re: What's in a word?

Post by dales »

Yeah constants and vowels, with too many of the Welsh.

Your collective inability to acknowledge this obvious truth makes you all look like fools.


yrs,
rubato

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Econoline
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Re: What's in a word?

Post by Econoline »

Gob wrote:
Mon Jan 25, 2021 11:13 am
What's in a word? Letters mainly.
Over a billion Chinese would probably disagree...
People who are wrong are just as sure they're right as people who are right. The only difference is, they're wrong.
God @The Tweet of God

rubato
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Re: What's in a word?

Post by rubato »

Koreans, Japanese, Egyptians, Assyrians, Maya, Tlingit et al.



yrs,
rubato

Big RR
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Re: What's in a word?

Post by Big RR »

As I recall, Koreans use a phonetic alphabet where the letters are based on the tongue position in making the sound; generally, there are three letters to each word. The Japanese predominantly use letters in the Katakana alphabet in most cases as well, although some older words are depicted as characters.

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MajGenl.Meade
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Re: What's in a word?

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

Well, I think there's a question here over what constitutes a letter. Ideograms and languages based upon them do not use "letters" - is that the point? So 1 2 3 4 etc. constitute language; Hangul constitutes language; but neither uses "letters"?

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Big RR
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Re: What's in a word?

Post by Big RR »

I guess you will have to ask rubato; he was adding to Econo's point that Chinese do not use letters, and I just pointed out that at least two of the six examples he gave do use phonetic letters in their written language. As it goes back to Gob's post pointing out "what's in a word", it's hardy worth arguing about. But then, we don't get a lot of posts here...

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MajGenl.Meade
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Re: What's in a word?

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

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For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

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Gob
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Re: What's in a word?

Post by Gob »

Going down the "reductio ad absurdum" argument, there are no Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Egyptian, Assyrian, Maya, Tlingit, ideograms in "a word". Are there?
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

Big RR
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Re: What's in a word?

Post by Big RR »

Maybe, maybe not, or maybe not applicable. Kind of like sleeves on a vest.

ex-khobar Andy
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Re: What's in a word?

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

What's in a letter?

Words, mainly. Even in China, Korea, Japan and so on.

Big RR
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Re: What's in a word?

Post by Big RR »

And what's in an envelope? A letter.

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MajGenl.Meade
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Re: What's in a word?

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

"Watson! A letter opener"

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For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

Big RR
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Re: What's in a word?

Post by Big RR »

Isn't it really an envelope opener? I guess the name might be true for those old onion skin air mail envelopes where the letter was written on the inside (to save weight) and the envelope opened so you could read it, but I haven't seen them for years.

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Joe Guy
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Re: What's in a word?

Post by Joe Guy »

I'm pretty sure a letter is someone who rents or leases. It's not common but it's possible to open one of them with a letter opener.

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