What's in a word?
- Bicycle Bill
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What's in a word?
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.
-"BB"-
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.
-"BB"-
Yes, I suppose I could agree with you ... but then we'd both be wrong, wouldn't we?
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Re: What's in a word?
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
snailgate
Re: What's in a word?
And if you're solely of Finnish ancestry and marry the wrong woman, you're completely Finnish and completely finished.
- Bicycle Bill
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Re: What's in a word?
You're right, BP, I'm sure it's as bogus as a four-dollar bill. But I thought it was humorous.Burning Petard wrote: ↑Sun Jan 24, 2021 11:14 pmI 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
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.
-"BB"-
Yes, I suppose I could agree with you ... but then we'd both be wrong, wouldn't we?
- MajGenl.Meade
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Re: What's in a word?
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
Re: What's in a word?
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.”
Re: What's in a word?
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
- Econoline
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Re: What's in a word?
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
— God @The Tweet of God
Re: What's in a word?
Koreans, Japanese, Egyptians, Assyrians, Maya, Tlingit et al.
yrs,
rubato
yrs,
rubato
Re: What's in a word?
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.
- MajGenl.Meade
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Re: What's in a word?
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"?
Kamsahamnida
Kamsahamnida
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
Re: What's in a word?
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...
- MajGenl.Meade
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Re: What's in a word?
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
Re: What's in a word?
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.”
Re: What's in a word?
Maybe, maybe not, or maybe not applicable. Kind of like sleeves on a vest.
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Re: What's in a word?
What's in a letter?
Words, mainly. Even in China, Korea, Japan and so on.
Words, mainly. Even in China, Korea, Japan and so on.
Re: What's in a word?
And what's in an envelope? A letter.
- MajGenl.Meade
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Re: What's in a word?
"Watson! A letter opener"
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
Re: What's in a word?
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.
Re: What's in a word?
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.