606 Matching Annotations
  1. Last 7 days
    1. * Give up on (modismo) = rendirme con. * El with en el ingles es mas limitado que en el español. Solo se usa para indicar compañía como un adicional a la oración que complementa sin cambiar el significado de esta. Ejemplo: I wrote a thesis with my best friend.

      • Cuando quieras usar los otros usos de con de las otras formas ,como en el español, hara referencia a una phrasal verb o preposicional-phrasal verb que lleve on.
    2. * nowhere = en ninguna parte. * you're nowhere near her level (modismo) = no estas ni cerca de su nivel. * tu estas en ningún lugar cerca de su nivel (literal). * Going on (modismo) = empezar/va a.

    3. * Is there a kind of guy or something ( that ) you like por que porque en inglés, es perfectamente correcto y muy común omitir el pronombre relativo (that, who, which) cuando no es el sujeto de la cláusula que sigue.

  2. Aug 2025
    1. * It's = esto es (falso sujeto). * "It's just killing" = es solo matar. <br /> * El falso sujeto sucede con el pronombre it y sirve para introducir situaciones donde el gerundio que le prosigue toma la función de sujeto.

    2. * Subject'd = contracción de subject would. * would (modal verb) = sirve para conjugar el verbo * principal a condicional simple. * filthy = asqueroso, muy sucio. * reeked = apestado. * get = llegar a. * closer = cerca. * Get closer = acercarse * Not ... Any (adverbio) = ni un poco, para nada, en absoluto. * Not get any closer to me = no se acercaran mas a mi. * El adverbio no solamente puede modificar al verbo, puede modificar también al adjetivo.

    3. * what's breakfast like? = como es el desayuno? * No usa how is breakfast? porque esta preguntando el como se ve(el como es) no su estado (parámetros generales de la cosa que se habla).

    4. * Seem (verbo copulativo) = parecer. * Seem like = parece que. * Beat it to us= adelanto a nosotros. * El verbo copulativo solo puede ir seguido de un adjetivo u otro verbo. Por eso se usa la contruccion seem like

      • "then you're supposed to be on our side, right?" (voz pasiva de una clausula infinitiva transitiva) = se supone que tu esta de nuestro lado , correcto ? .
      • infitnitivas transitivas = verb + objetct + to + infinitive
      • infinitivas intransitivas = verb + to infinitive
    5. * grateful (adjetivo) = agradecido * to you = se usa con algunos adjetivos para expresar el por quien esta así. * just like = justo como * treats = golosina * happily = felizmente * thing is = la cosa es

    6. said (pasado irregular) = dicho. said to = se usa el to por que el sujeto objeto actúa por defecto como sujeto directo al usar el say con alguna de sus conjugaciones lo que hace el to es señalar el objeto indirecto. Esto solo funciona cuando el sujeto objeto del verbo actúa como directo por defecto(esto depende del verbo). si fuera al revés no se ocupa el to para el indirecto pero carece de objeto directo.

      • willing (adjetivo) = dispuesto
      • willing + ly(adverbio) = voluntariamente, de buena gana
    7. * just = simplemente, solo. * of = con (cuando describes una característica que no se pueda distinguir físicamente del sujeto al que estas describiendo a diferencia del with que se usa con cosas que podemos ubicar en el espacio fuera del sujeto al que describimos. Of puede usarse como with pero rara vez se usa alrevez) * enough = suficiente

    8. * even (adverbio) = incluso. * Los adverbios van después del modal y antes del principal. En su traducción va antes del modal.<br /> * ...n't even = ni siquiera. * couldn't = no pude. * couldn't even = ni siquiera pude. * that(sustantivo) much(cualidad de no ser contable) = * tanto (sustantivo no contable) * could I? = verdad?

    1. I choose to think of it as the pre-chorus now typically the pre-chorus comes after the verse and before the chorus here there is no chorus that follows it it just goes straight into verse two but that's not totally unheard of in pop music and rock and things like that and the next time the pre-chorus happens it does lead into the chorus so I justify that

      pre-chorus 前副歌

      通常銜接副歌,但此處第一次出現後,又立即回到主歌。這在流行曲和搖滾樂並不少見。

    2. so so far the whole tune has been an unnatural minor but in that verse Paul McCartney switches from a natural minor to e Dorian mode and the two scales are a little bit different so here's a Dorian mode it's identical to E natural minor except for this this sixth scale degree so an e natural minor it's C natural you need Dorian it's C sharp and that's a subtle change but it does change the mood quite a bit

      mode 調式

      Dorian 多利安調式,最接近 Aeolian/自然小調,但是較不全盤悲傷憂鬱,因為有那一個突出的升高半音的第六音。

      想想 Scarborough Fair 的第二個樂句,本來以爲是自然小調,但聽到 35653#423 -> 應換成多利安來思考,於是變成 61216756 (不再有臨時升降記號)。全曲應該改成多利安調式的思考:第一樂句於是從自然小調 663337176 變成 226663432。很妙吧!

    3. that one all of a sudden instead of falling on the downbeat falls on beat three right in the middle of the bar

      (四四拍小節)第三拍:不能稱爲 downbeat(只能指第一拍),這是「次強拍」。

  3. Jul 2025
  4. Jun 2025
  5. May 2025
  6. Apr 2025
    1. "Log in" is a valid verb where "Login" is a valid noun. "Signin", however, isn't a valid noun. On the other hand, "Signup" and "Sign up" have the same relationship, and if you use "Log in", you'll probably use "Register" as opposed to "Sign up". Then there's also "Log on" and "Logon", and of course "Log off" or "Log out".
  7. Mar 2025
  8. Jan 2025
  9. Dec 2024
    1. the first one is the paradox of pronouncement. And here we recognize that language is both incredibly useful for us and is evocative and helps us create and and see and be in this reciprocal exchange. And we also are trying to open to a non dual embodied cognition that is beyond the written word and beyond the hegemony of the written word, and indeed the hegemony of the English written word

      for - paradoxes - first one - pronouncement - the written word - evocative - but also hegemonic - especially the English language - there are other oral traditions - try to open nondual embodied cognition using English - Post Capitalist Philanthropy Webinar 1 - Alnoor Ladna - Lynn Murphy - 2023

  10. Nov 2024
    1. Surprisingly, the American author who is quoted most in the OED isnot Mark Twain or Emily Dickinson or Edgar Allan Poe, but rather EdwardH. Knight, a patent lawyer and expert in mechanics who wrote the AmericanMechanical Dictionary and The Practical Dictionary of Mechanics. Knight isthe seventy-fourth-most cited author in the Dictionary, quoted morefrequently than Percy Bysshe Shelley, George Eliot or Ralph Waldo Emerson(who comes in at 116, the next-most quoted American).
    1. “There are a lot of people who mistakenly think intelligibility is the standard. ‘Oh, you knew what I was saying.’ Well, that’s not the standard. That’s a really bottom-of-the-barrel standard,” he says. “People who are concerned with English usage usually want to have their words taken seriously, either as writers or as speakers. And if you don’t use the language very well, then it hard to have people take your ideas seriously. That’s just the reality.”
  11. Oct 2024
  12. learn-eu-central-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com learn-eu-central-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com
    1. Collini turns to the OxfordEnglish Dictionary, which defines the humanitiesas ‘the branch of learning concerned with humanculture; the academic subjects collectively compris-ing this branch of learning, as history, literature,ancient and modern languages, law, philosophy, artand music’ (Collini 2021: 63

      This part explains the definition of Humanities according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

  13. Sep 2024
  14. Aug 2024
  15. Jul 2024
  16. Jun 2024
    1. Save this question. Show activity on this post. I'm from South East Asia, and in here, it's very common to use "kindly" as a written polite request to other people, and I often see it on the internet as well. But I've just discovered that from this website, "kindly" is regarded as a "low-brow, patronizing, and overly sensitive". Other people are recommending that you use the word "kindly". Please, never use the word "kindly" when interacting with Americans. In the view of Americans, only English-speaking Indians use this word. It comes across as low-brow, patronizing, and overly sensitive. Oh wow, I never know that. But coming from a non native western background and culture, I have nobody here I can crosscheck information with. Maybe someone here with the appropriate culture background knowledge can give some insight? Is this a general view, or just a partial view of Americans about this word? Should I stop using this word from now on, or I just overly worried over nothing? Thanks.

      TIL

      I didn't know that most people (outside of Asia) consider "kindly" to be patronizing. The many quirks of language!

    1. In​ 1880 Britain could with some justification be called the ‘workshop of the world’: it produced more than 20 per cent of global industrial output and about 40 per cent of the world’s manufactured exports. In the nearly half-century since Samuel published his essay of that name, historians have done much to undermine the narrative of an ‘industrial revolution’ bookended by the invention of the spinning jenny in 1764 and the New Poor Law of 1834.

      There's an interesting linkage going on here between the industrial revolution (and thus possibly Capitalism) with the creation and even litigation of "the poor" classes in Britain.

      Did "the poor" exist in the same way they do today prior to the Industrial Revolution? What are the subtle differences? (Compare with Thompson, E. P. “Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism.” Past & Present, no. 38 (1967): 56–97.)

    1. (the) Senior是指年紀很大的長輩,注意S要大寫、有the或省略才是指定用法。

      這不正確。在 the senior〈the + 形容詞〉中的 senior 是形容詞,就跟 the rich(富人)、the poor(窮人)一樣,這些形容詞並不大寫。the senior 泛指年長者。說「S要大寫」,也就是寫成「the Senior」的用法,有何根據?

      美國國會記錄一例: “the senior and their copayments and deductibles" (年長者和他們的[醫療]共同負擔及自付額)

      https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/RKBqFV7zSf23531bSYsVYQ.KPwCarv9OBrwrUPGzmN2VJ

      臉書原po (如果你看不到): https://www.facebook.com/TranslationMattersYi/posts/pfbid0uRtzHmGXNKU2PAoFMFQnSEEotLPLYZoMrcNxrrhqVL7VKmMEeQ7Ptt9cUMJE7Pcil (或:截圖) https://hyp.is/8VoKHC_0Ee-L9htYgJ5ZUQ/www.facebook.com/TranslationMattersYi/posts/pfbid02xyYBCvttDR4uxGQ2XzXCkuUHgEyHt2DTTukhnUeyfQoKNw6Djp4ZuYjcMv5ofrm8l

    1. what life might be that baby could be 00:38:31 born in an era 10,000 years ago and would be coming into its World learning to make sense of the relationships and the way that you 00:38:45 survive in this world

      for - Nora Bateson - response to interview question - Is English language more separating? - Gedanken - Entangled Worlds podcast

      response - Nora Bateson - Entangled Worlds podcast question - Is English more separating than other languages? - yes - Gedanken - Nora responds by posing a Gedaken that shows how culturally relative our worldviews are - Our enculturation plays a major role in shaping our worldviews - Ronald Wright's famous quotation about how the human brain has not substantially changed in the past 50,000 years implies that - between the present and anytime less than 50,000 years ago, - if we were transported back in time, we would simply adapt the same culturally norms at that time

      epiphany - time travel and a clue to the deepest part of nature within human nature - This Gedanken suggests something important, namely that - if the seemingly immovable worldviews we adopt are a consequence of enculturation - then perhaps that which is the most fundamental aspect of our nature is not dependent on culture? - In other words, if we remove our enculturation, what is left is the most profound set of qualities of being human, - one that transcends all relative cultural perspectives

      reference - Ronald Wright computer metaphor on progress traps - Ronald Wright's computer metaphor helps us see how fluid the enculturation of a neonate is - https://hyp.is/6Lb6Uv5NEe2ZerOrftOHfA/www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/321797-a-short-history-of-progress

  17. May 2024
  18. Apr 2024
    1. 艾森豪國際語言  · Spoontdsre85f8c3u11c4699061i8c1f143h78ahi7a0189t53fh3a7784lt  · Shared with Public: 聽說了嗎?那家公司被指控做Uncook the books。: 真的嗎?這太糟糕了,他們的信譽會受到很大損害。《Uncook the book(s)》是「作假帳」,這裡的the book(s)指的是帳本而非書本。做假帳就是在原本帳目上做點手腳,好像煮飯菜的時候要一點想像力,加一些調味料,因此cook the book(s)就是所謂的作假帳。【範例】★He lives his life uncooking the books for criminal organizations.他專門幫犯罪組織查假帳,並靠此維生。★The company was accused of uncooking the books.那家公司被指控做假帳。

      : 聽說了嗎?那家公司被指控做Uncook the books。 : 真的嗎?這太糟糕了,他們的信譽會受到很大損害。 《Uncook the book(s)》 是「作假帳」,這裡的the book(s)指的是帳本而非書本。做假帳就是在原本帳目上做點手腳,好像煮飯菜的時候要一點想像力,加一些調味料,因此cook the book(s)就是所謂的作假帳。 【範例】 ★He lives his life uncooking the books for criminal organizations. 他專門幫犯罪組織查假帳,並靠此維生。 ★The company was accused of uncooking the books. 那家公司被指控做假帳。

      It can't be true that "cook the book" and "UNcook the book" both mean 作假帳.

    1. It means the booth specifically, without any extra bits. By way of example: "Times Square" might often be used to refer to the area around Times Square, but may include things which are not actually part of the Square. To narrow such a usage, one might say "I mean only the actual Times Square" or "I mean Times Square proper."
    1. The Mzanzi kids multilingual language learning App was created for children between the ages of 2-6 years in South Africa. It was designed to stimulate visual, speech and language literacy skills at an early age by understanding basic everyday concepts and highlighting the correct pronunciation of speech in six (6) different languages; English, Afrikaans, IsiXhosa, IsiZulu, Sepedi and Setswana. The integration of images and phonetics provides a good foundation for children to learn and speak in their mother tongue or home language with confidence and fluency, but most importantly comprehend and appreciate the diversity of languages used by South Africans. This multilingual App provides a good introduction before entering a schooling environment, and offers a non-threatening, playful and fun way of learning languages using innovative technology.

      This is an app for multilingual language learning. Mine will focus on the mother tongue.

      I tried it out for a bit and found the audio very repetitive, which could be problematic. Minecraft had such good audio - C14 or C11? It is fantastically immersive, and the popularity of the game and audio is irrefutable if you look at longevity (games come and go often, and very few manage to stick and have a continuous impact, Minecraft is a good example of an exception to this, alongside other well adjusted and designed games.

      I had fun learning the clicks in isiXhoso - something I want to practice, but the audio became too much as i hit the image repeatedly.

      There's room for more resources. This application does not speak to all children, and no one application ever will, hence the need for many across a broad range of cultures and diversities.

    1. The students learn and understand at their own pace and engage in all aspects of language learning, including grammar, vocabulary, etc. the software contains over 1000 passages along with exercises in both English and Afrikaans. This software was developed to assist the education imparted through tablets and software in Africa. The teachers can add content and improve the student’s reading, comprehension, and visual memory capacity with this software.

      Agin only egnlish and afrikaans

    1. ◆ a row of ugly, squat houses *一排低矮難看的房子My edit:一排醜陋的違建;一排難看的違建 ★ squat houses 是「違建」,不是低矮的房子。

      蘇老師在此改掉錯誤理解 squat house 為「低矮的房子」,稱正解為「違建」,但我有不同看法如下。

      一、如果原例句中在ugly之後真如蘇老師所引述有一個逗號,那麼逗號後的squat根據文法必然是不折不扣的形容詞,意思就是低矮難看。經查,劍橋英英高階學習詞典的確在意爲「低矮難看」的形容詞squat詞項下給了這個例子,所以原翻譯「一排低矮難看的房子」是正確無誤的。

      二、假設我們看到的例子,ugly後沒有逗號:

      a row of ugly squat houses

      問題就來了,這樣寫,squat house視爲一個複合名詞(名詞+名詞)的機會更大,這裡名詞squat源自動詞squat(非法占用房屋)的意思,而squat house意思就是:被人非法占用的房屋。

      然而,理解為「違建」則是錯的。違建是建築物本身違法興建起來,但 squat house 本身除非特例,否則當爲合法的建築,只是恰被非法占用、占住,尤其在貧民區裡經常有遊民非法占用空置建築的情形。

      例如,以下找到某書中的 squat house 實際用例:有個人非法占住某間 squat house,被警察趕出。

      Blogpost

      結論:a row of ugly, squat houses 的確是「一排低矮難看的房子」,文法上不允許把「squat house」理解為「被占用的房子」,如果更進一步,不僅無視文法且誤解「squat」而誤解爲房子本身「違建」,那就該反省自己是否真的理解這句英文了!

  19. Mar 2024
    1. As soon as he was born, he cried not as other babes use to do, Miez, miez, miez, miez, but with a high, sturdy, and big voice

      Showing the parallel between him and other babies of his age, he describes that he did not shout "Miez, Miez, Miez, Miez", which translates to "no, no, no, no" in old germanic dialects like the other children. But instead, in a polar opposite manor, yelled "high, sturdy and big voice" shouted drink, drink, drink. Showing from an early age leadership, confidence, and "greatness".

    1. History of the United States (1834)

      1834 was also interesting with respect to this thesis as Britain was working at the "principles of 1834" which Beatrice Webb focused on and debunked in English Poor Law Policy (1910).

      see: https://hypothes.is/a/NLJSJAe7Ee2xvIeHyTL7vQ

      Would this 1832 work in Britain have bleed over to a similar set of poverty principles in the United States in the same era? Could this have compounded issues in America leading to greater class divisions in the decades before the Civil War?

  20. Feb 2024
    1. I major in English literature in University I major in interpreting you went to gr for my master degree I think more than 100 people applied and eight students were admit how many people finally passed the final exam two two two wow

      中間這位受訪的台灣人,父母在她英文學習上下重本投資,從小讀雙語幼稚園,課後上雙語補習班,中學上雙語私校,大學唸英語系,研究所唸了師大口譯所,錄取八名口譯組學生,最後專業考試還是唯一考過的兩人之一。從這些事實看來,她的英語應當可謂萬中選一,可是爲什麼英語發音還是有問題?

      我發現,評斷英語發音好壞,其實有一個巧妙的方法:讓AI機器語音識別轉寫文字,看文字是什麼。很多時候,雖有稍微的口音,機器仍然辨認正確,產出的英文是正確的。但當一個字的發音偏誤到更像另一個字時,機器就毫不客氣,產生另一個字了。發現語音辨識常有這種「誤植另一字」問題是,就表示英語發音有問題。

      AI機器輔助偵測辨識英語發音問題法,前提當然是,文字不能再經人工校正,必須是原始的結果。例如,本影片有兩個英文字幕,一個是後製在螢幕上的那個,那是人工校正過的,一個是YouTube自動生產的(也可透過Hypothesis顯示),我們要看的是後者。這個機器字幕在前4分鐘的內容中,指出她英語發音上至少兩個錯誤,不知各位有沒有光從聽就能察覺到?

    1. On 3 June 1912 Edward Peacock wrote inshaky handwriting to James Murray from his deathbed: ‘I have been so longill – more than a year and a half, and do not expect ever to recover, that Ihave made up my mind to discontinue The Oxford English Dictionary for thefuture.’ He added in a postscript, ‘I am upwards of eighty years of age.’ Bythen Peacock had been a volunteer for the Dictionary for fifty-four years,making him one of the longest-serving contributors. He had submitted24,806 slips and had given great service to Murray not only as a Reader butas a Subeditor and Specialist too.

      One of the longest serving OED contributors, Edward Peacock wrote 24,806 slips over 54 years which comes to approximately 1.25 notes per day.

    2. A quarter of the Americans in the address books were like Gildersleeveand Ernst, Specialists. The rest were Readers. Proportionally, there were halfas many Specialists in America than in Britain, which makes sense because adictionary editor usually wrote to a Specialist for a quick response, whileworking on a particular word, and the delay of the post to America wouldhave proved too slow for Murray and his tight schedule.
    3. A Professor of English at Mason College (later BirminghamUniversity), Edward Arber, kept Murray informed of new American bookswhich might provide Americanisms. He wrote to Murray on Christmas Eve1884, ‘Another book, quite a new one which I would also bring to yourattention is Bourke’s The Snake Dance of the Moquis of Arizona. It is full ofthe latest Americanisms, such as the verb “to noon” for taking the noontiderest, while a male lover is said to “whittle”, what that is, I have no idea. Is itan Americanism for connoodle? It is a most interesting book in itself andwould refresh you, if you read it yourself.’
    4. The American who sent in the most slips was a clergyman in Ionia,Michigan, Job Pierson. A Presbyterian minister, book collector, and librarian,Pierson had the largest private library in Michigan (which included a bookpublished in the earliest days of printing, from Vienna in 1476). Over elevenyears, from 1879 to 1890, Pierson, who had studied at Williams College andattended Auburn Theological Seminary, sent in 43,055 slips from poetry,drama, and religion. His correspondence with Murray shows the breadth ofhis reading, from Chaucer (10,000 slips) to books on anatomy (5,000 slips),and lumbering (1,000 slips).

      Job Pierson 43,055 slips over 11 years<br /> 10.7 notes per day

    5. Francis March was a Professor of English Language and ComparativePhilology at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. The study of Englishin higher education was a development of the nineteenth century, and it tooka long time for English studies to gain recognition. March’s appointment as aProfessor of English in 1857 had been the first in the world that had theprestige of a full professorship – Rutgers appointed its first English professorin 1860, Harvard in 1876, and Oxford in 1885.
    6. In this context, Marsh invited members of the American public to helpcreate a radical new dictionary of all English which applied the scientificmethod, was collaborative in its making, and was based on written evidence.They were asked to collect current words and especially to read books fromthe eighteenth century – because literature from earlier centuries was harderto get in America at the time. Marsh ended his appeal with the warning thatAmericans would be paid nothing for their help.
    7. Dr Minor would read a text not for its meaning but for its words. It wasa novel approach to the task – the equivalent of cutting up a book word byword, and then placing each in an alphabetical list which helped the editorsquickly find quotations. Just as Google today ‘reads’ text as a series of wordsor symbols that are searchable and discoverable, so with Dr Minor. A manualundertaking of this kind was laborious – he was basically working as acomputer would work – but it probably resulted in a higher percentage of hisquotations making it to the Dictionary page than those of other contributors.
    8. Murray responded a week later, giving instructions on how to read.This was towards the very end of his life and his instructions to Miss Taylorgive rare insight into Murray’s reading tips, especially instructions for readingfor desiderata, in this case words beginning with S, T, and U–Z: ‘I shouldsuggest looking it through and marking with a pencil dot such words as arementioned in the enclosed note, and any others that strike you as noteworthy,and then go through it copying out from the marked ones those immediatelywanted for the letters at which we are working the better parts of S & T, andsending these as soon as ready; then proceed to those in U to Z, and finallythe earlier words for our Supplement. I hope you will not find it too tedious;and I should be sorry if it were allowed to interfere with other calls.’

      James Murray's instructions to Miss E. Hilda Taylor in 1914 for how to read for excerpting of useful words for the Oxford English Dictionary.

      Compare this with his original instructions from circa 1879.

      Also: https://hypothes.is/a/3S08ysbDEe6Ca5tVAqEABQ

    9. The random selection of words by volunteers often resulted in themchoosing the same words with similar dates, and produced gaps in thequotation paragraphs, which Murray and his assistants had to fill by their ownmanual searching. This must have been like trying to find a needle in ahaystack. It was remarkable how successful Murray’s small team was at fillingthose gaps and finding earliest or latest quotations. Murray told thePhilological Society that this manual trawling for words had to be done forthe majority of words: ‘For more than five-sixths of the words we have tosearch out and find additional quotations in order to complete their historyand illustrate the senses; for every word we have to make a general search todiscover whether any earlier or later quotations, or quotations in other senses,exist.’

      see: https://hypothes.is/a/rYYCXsbDEe6fpR-_EMl5Fw

    10. And yet he desperately needed the help of Subeditors because the task wastoo massive to do alone. Two years into the job, Murray had estimated thathe had sent out 817,625 blank slips to Readers. If they returned them withquotations, and if he spent a minimum of 30 seconds reading each one andallocating it to the correct sense of an entry, it would take him three workingyears to get through a third of the materials gathered.

      By the second year into his editing work on the OED, John Murray estimated that he had sent out 817,625 slips to readers.

      At the average price of $0.025 for bulk index cards in 2023, this would have cost $20,440, so one must wonder at the cost of having done it. How much would this have been in March 1879 when Murray tool over editorship?

      How many went out in total? Who cut them all? Surely mass manufacture didn't exist at the time for them?

      Sending them out would have helped to ensure a reasonable facsimile of having cards of equal size coming back.

    11. Murray received a poignant letter in 1906 fromthe wife of William Sykes of South Devon who had been a one-timeassistant, and faithful Reader and Specialist for twenty-two years, sending in atotal of 16,048 slips: ‘My dear husband died last Friday, the day he receivedyour letter, he was able to read it, and wrote your name in one of the books Iam going to send you eight hours before he died. It took him an hour to writeit, but he made up his mind to do it, and did. The last words he ever wrotewere to you.’ A poignant last line from the impoverished widow reads, ‘I shallsend the books when the probate duty has been paid.’

      William Sykes 16,048 slips over 22 years<br /> (approximately 2 notes per day)

    12. From the moment in March 1879 whenMurray signed the contract with Oxford University Press to be the next Editorof the Dictionary, and he took possession of 2 tons of slips at his house, hisfamily was immediately part of the project (whether they liked it or not)sorting out the slips. Their house was a workplace and the family aworkforce.

      Perhaps one of the first sources of counting slips in weight rather than number!

    13. The most prolific Reader in Europe – we might call him a ‘super-contributor’ – was Hartwig Helwich, a professor at the University of Viennawho wrote out the entire Cursor Mundi onto 46,599 slips. His efforts madethe medieval poem the second-most-frequently cited work in the Dictionaryafter the Bible (though in the current OED, it has dropped to eleventh in thetop sources).

      This practice of writing out everything onto slips sounds like that used later (double check the timing) by the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae in creating their slip corpus for later work.

    14. We think of the OED as a radical dictionary because of its size, itsscholarship, and its methods, and it was radical for English. But if youcompare it with other languages, there was nothing about its creation in themid-nineteenth century that had not been done before in Europe. English wasrelatively late to the table. The English editors were able to pick and choosethe best methods from different European dictionaries. The OEDimplemented European lexicographic practices, and advanced upon them, tocreate something truly revolutionary, something that would in fact end upbeing the envy of Europe.
    15. By the time the OED project commenced, Europe already had majordictionaries under way or completed in German, French, Italian, Russian, andDutch, all of which were taking advantage of the new methodologies ofContinental philology. In Germany, the Brothers Grimm had begun theDeutsches Wörterbuch in 1838. In France, Émile Littré had begun theDictionnaire de la langue française in 1841 (a dictionary of post-1600French). In the Netherlands, Matthias de Vries had begun Woordenboek derNederlandsche Taal in 1852 (a dictionary of post-medieval Dutch).

      Oxford English Dictionary (1857 - )

    16. showing the hundreds of volunteers who corresponded with the brothers; theeditors’ lists of words and statistical counts of entries; the tracing ofetymology using the new scientific philological methods of the day; thegathering of citations from historical, published sources. I had worked in theOED archives for years and the contents of the Grimmwelt Museum lookedidentical.

      They looked exactly like the slips sent into the OED by the Dictionary People. There was a world map

      Lexicographer Sarah Ogilvie, a previous editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, said she "had worked in the OED archives for years and the contents of the Grimmwelt Museum looked identical" to them. She indicated that the similarity of the dictionary projects extended to the hundreds of volunteers, lists of words, counts of entries, etymology work, citations from published sources, and general philological methods used by the editors of the era.

    17. absolutely drew the line with a word which he considered so obscene it had tobe sent to Murray in a small envelope marked PRIVATE, sealed within alarger envelope. Inside the intriguing packaging was a message advising himnot to include the word condom. ‘I am writing on a very obscene subject.There is an article called Cundum ... a contrivance used by fornicators, tosave themselves from a well-deserved clap; also by others who wish to enjoycopulation without the possibility of impregnation’, he wrote to Murray.‘Everything obscene comes from France, and I had supposed this affair wasnamed after the city of Condom, which gives title to a Bishop.’ But he hadfound a quotation from 1705 referring to a ‘Quondam’ which made himrethink his assumption that it was named after the town in France. ‘I supposeCundom or Quondam will be too utterly obscene for the Dictionary’, heconcluded. Murray left it out.

      Each of Murray’s advisers had different notions of what was offensively salacious. His adviser on medical terms, James Dixon, who was a retired surgeon living in Dorking, Surrey, had been all right with including cunt, but

    18. By the time that section of the letter C was published for the OxfordEnglish Dictionary the only cunt that was listed by Murray was cunt-, a cross-reference to the prefixes cont-, count- with no mention whatsoever of thefemale body part. Fuck was also left out. Although these old words had beenin use since the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries respectively, they wouldhave to wait until the 1970s to be included in the OED. Murray did, however,include pudendum, a word derived from Latin for ‘that of which one ought tobe ashamed’, which he defined as ‘the privy parts, the external genital organs’with no reference to a woman or – God forbid – her vulva.

      1970s!

      the shame attached to pudendum has lasted culturally for a terrifically long time in the West.

    19. He had helped Murray with the very firstentry in the Dictionary – A: not only the sound A, ‘the low-back-wide vowelformed with the widest opening of the jaws, pharynx, and lips’, but also themusical sense of A, ‘the 6th note of the diatonic scale of C major’, and finallythe algebraic sense of A, ‘as in a, b, c, early letters of the alphabet used toexpress known quantities, as x, y, z are to express the unknown’. Ellis washappy to see these and other results of his work on the printed page, includingthe words air, alert, algebra.

      He here is A. J. Ellis

    20. the outright winner was a mysterious character called Thomas Austin Jnr whosent Dr Murray an incredible total of 165,061 over the span of a decade.Second place goes to William Douglas of Primrose Hill who sent in 151,982slips over twenty-two years; third place to Dr Thomas Nadauld Brushfield ofDevon, with 70,277 over twenty-eight years; with Dr William Chester Minorof Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum coming in fourth place with 62,720slips.

      Top slip contributors to OED: 1. Thomas Austin Jnr. 165,061 slips over 10 years (45.22 notes per day) 2. William Douglas 151,982 over 22 years (18.92 notes per day) 3. Thomas Nadauld Brushfield 70,277 over 28 years (1.98 notes per day) 4. William Chester Minor 62,720 slips over 23 years (to 1906) (7.5 notes per day)

    21. He devised a systemof storage for all the slips in shelves of pigeonholes that lined the walls of theScriptorium.

      The scriptorium for the OED relied on shelves of pigeonholes into which the slips could be sorted and stored.

      There are photos of Murray with these pigeonholes stuffed behind him. Dig one of these up.

      This pigeonhole practice is in marked difference to other projects like the TLL which relied on boxes on shelves.

    22. urray’s house at 78 Banbury Road to receive post (it is still there today).This is now one of the most gentrified areas of Oxford, full of large three-storey, redbrick, Victorian houses, but the houses were brand new whenMurray lived there and considered quite far out of town.

      Considered outside of Oxford at the time, Dr. Murray fashioned the Scriptorium at his house at 78 Banbury Road. Murray received so much mail that the Royal Mail installed a red pillar box just to handle the volume.

    23. Readers received a list of twelve instructions on how to select a word,which included, ‘Give the date of your book (if you can), author, title (short).Give an exact reference, such as seems to you to be the best to enable anyoneto verify your quotations. Make a quotation for every word that strikes you asrare, obsolete, old-fashioned, new, peculiar, or used in a peculiar way.’
    24. The volunteer ‘Readers’ were instructed to write out the words andsentences on small 4 x 6-inch pieces of paper, known as ‘slips’.

      Volunteer 'Readers' for the Oxford English Dictionary were encouraged to write down interesting headwords along with their appearances in-situ along with the associated bibliographical information. The recommended paper size was 4 x 6-inch pieces of paper which were commonly called 'slips'.

      (Double check this against the historical requests from James Murray.)

    Tags

    Annotators

    1. https://pages.oup.com/ol/cus/1646173949115570121/submit-words-and-evidence-to-the-oed

      The modern day digital version of an OED contribution slip includes database fields for the following:

      • Submission type (new word or sense of a word; information about origin/etymology; other)
      • the word or phrase itself
      • the part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, other)
      • pronunciation (recording, IPA, rhyming words, etc.)
      • the definition or sense number as defined in the OED
      • quotation evidence with full text, and bibliographical references/links)
      • additional notes

      Only the first two fields are mandatory.

  21. Jan 2024
  22. johnhalbrooks.substack.com johnhalbrooks.substack.com
    1. This image resonates with the earliest description of an English poet, which we find in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in the year 731. Bede, a prolific monk and scholar from the monastery of Jarrow in Northumbria, provides an account of a certain Caedmon, an illiterate brother at the abbey at Whitby, who is visited by God and taught to sing beautiful poetry. Caedmon remains an oral poet, but his literate brothers write down his poetry for him.
  23. johnhalbrooks.substack.com johnhalbrooks.substack.com
    1. I have left the word wyrd untranslated from the Old English. It means something like “fate” or “doom.” It is the ancestor of the modern English word weird. When Shakespeare refers to the witches in Macbeth as the “weird sisters,” he doesn’t mean that they are strange (though they are), but rather that they have to do with fate. Weird in its modern sense (meaning “strange” or “uncanny”) is probably connected to the mysterious or “weird” nature of fate.

      https://johnhalbrooks.substack.com/p/the-ruin-76

    1. 建築的拱窗高大漆黑,窗旁石磚等距排列,延伸到牆邊。

      Tall dark arched windows, framed with stone bricks, punctuated the front wall, equidistant from each other.

      這裡,punctuate 是句子的及物動詞,動詞的主詞是拱窗,不是石磚。

      是拱窗點綴前牆,不是石磚延伸到牆。 是拱窗彼此間等距,不是石磚等距排列。

      如要描述石磚,punctuated 會寫成 punctuating。

  24. Dec 2023
    1. AbstractThe first description of avian influenza (AI) dates back to 1878 in northern Italy, when Perroncito [Perroncito E. Epizoozia tifoide nei gallinacei. Annali Accad Agri Torino 1878;21:87–126] described a contagious disease of poultry associated with high mortality. The disease, termed “fowl plague”, was initially confused with the acute septicemic form of fowl cholera. However, in 1880, soon after its first description, Rivolta and Delprato [as reported by Stubs EL. Fowl pest, In: Biester HE, Devries L, editors. Diseases of poultry. 1st ed. Ames, IO: Iowa State College Press; 1943. p. 493–502] showed it to be different from fowl cholera, based on clinical and pathological properties, and called it Typhus exudatious gallinarum. In 1901, Centanni and Savunzzi [Centanni E, Savonuzzi E, La peste aviaria I & II, Communicazione fatta all’accademia delle scienze mediche e naturali de Ferrara, 1901] determined that fowl plague was caused by a filterable virus; however, it was not until 1955 that the classical fowl plague virus was shown to be a type A influenza virus based on the presence of type A influenza virus type-specific ribonucleoprotein [Schäfer W. Vergleichender sero-immunologische Untersuchungen über die Viren der Influenza und klassischen Geflügelpest. Z Naturf 1955;10b:81–91]. The term fowl plague was substituted by the more appropriate term highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) at the First International Symposium on Avian Influenza [Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Avian Influenza. Beltsville, MD. 1981, Avian Dis 47 (Special Issue) 2003.] and will be used throughout this review when referring to any previously described fowl plague virus.RésuméLa première référence à la grippe aviaire remonte à 1878 dans le nord de l’Italie, lorsque Perroncito [1] décrit une maladie contagieuse et hautement mortelle affectant la volaille. Cette maladie, appelée « peste aviaire »

      Fowl plague vs. fowl plaque/pox

      In the abstract of this scientific paper on avian flu, there are 5 instances of "fowl plague". The word "plague" is also confirmed by the French abstract: "peste aviaire".

      The funny thing is, in the conclusion of the same research paper, the author says: 'We have come a long way since the first description of “fowl plaque” in 1878.' This time, "plague" became "plaque". I intuitively think it's a historical typo, but this "fowl plaque" has been propagated on the web, in some printed books too. Google Ngrams shows "fowl plague" outweighs "fowl plaque" 20:1. It's also picked up by a government health publication in Taiwan: see here.

      家禽瘟疫 vs. 家禽斑塊/痘

      在這篇有關禽流感的科學論文的摘要中,有5處提到了「fowl plague」。法文摘要也確認了「peste aviaire」,其中的「peste」意指瘟疫。有趣的是,在同一研究論文的結論部分,作者提到:「自1878年首次描述『fowl plaque』(禽斑塊)以來,我們已經取得了長足的進展。」這一次,「plague」變成了「plaque」。病毒的確可以造成明顯可見的斑塊,或 pox(痘),所以或許plague、plaque/pox都說的通,但意思不同。「fowl plaque」的用法在網路上和一些印刷書籍中也流傳下來。Google Ngrams 顯示「fowl plague」的使用頻率比「fowl plaque」高出20倍。台灣疾管局的某份出版物中也採用了plaque用法。(#gptTrgWithRevision)

    1. 台式英語: Could you kindly reply by Tuesday? (可以請你周二前回信給我嗎?) 道地英語: Could you reply by Tuesday? Or, if you want to be very polite: Would you be able to reply by Tuesday? 用法: 很多台灣人在書信往來中常常會寫 "please kindly" ,以為這樣更客氣,但其實kindly,一點也不kind。在英文的用法中,加上kindly代表一種警告,例如 “Please kindly refrain from smoking on the premises (請不要在這裡抽菸)”  若你想要禮貌一點,只需要用 "please" 或是用 "Could you 或 Would you be able to"

      大錯。這種自信爆表、把話說死說滿的教法,真的可怕。每個字用在某個語境,都可以出現反諷義。

  25. Nov 2023
    1. 剛剛 在 一英英字典裡 看到 這個例句, 我很是納悶.We're dealing wiht decades of bad decisions that are coming back to roost now.一般來說, 若我要翻譯, 看到of我會由後往前翻, 但這裡的 decades of bad decisions 若這樣翻, 會很奇怪. 所以 來請教大家.

      這應該是填鴨式教育(rote learning)的遺害吧?看到「of」就自動由後往前翻,分明就是不問理由,只被教導要這樣做、這樣解題,我彷彿可以聽到某某國中英語老師或某補習班名師如此耳提面命:

      看到 A of B,意思就是 (屬於)B 的 A B 要先翻出來 不要問爲什麼,老師是教你如何秒殺 OF 介系詞。

      This is a doozy of an example of rote learning. 這是最棒的一個填鴨式教育的範例。

    1. Learning English American Way

      唉,一個教「道地」英文的粉專,英文名 Learning English American Way 大剌剌少了一個重要的定冠詞 THE (應作 Learning English the American Way,真的「道地」不起來啊。

  26. Oct 2023
    1. In this book, grammar refers to the manner in which the language functions, the ways that the blocks of speech and writing are put together. Usage refers to using specific words in a manner that will be thought of as either acceptable or unacceptable. The question of whether or not to split an infinitive is a consideration of grammar; the question of whether one should use literally in a nonliteral sense is one of usage."