Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2009 July 16

= July 16 =

Vokuhila
Why can't *vokuhila be a Hawaiian or Japanese word? --88.77.230.244 (talk) 09:12, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Because Japanese doesn't have any [l] phoneme, and [v] in Japanese is a rather "foreign" sound (rarely used except in certain loanwords). Hawaiian has a [v] allophone, but it's usually spelled with the letter "w"... AnonMoos (talk) 09:55, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Vokuhila actually starts with the [f] sound, but Hawaiian doesn't have that either. +Angr 10:45, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

Zzxjoanw
Why can't *zzxjoanw be a Maori word? --88.77.230.244 (talk) 11:39, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Why do you keep asking questions like this? Is there any language it can be a word of? +Angr 11:46, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I suspect he's an alien taking informations on us Earth inhabitants... --pma (talk) 11:56, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm pretty sure he's a first-year English student cheating on his Linguistics 101 test. We had very similar questions on our take-home tests. --Ashenai (talk) 11:57, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * In fact, he's asking a legitimate question, about a hoax that fooled lexicographers for years - see Zzxjoanw - which is almost unbelievable. A simple check of the orthography of the Māori language would have revealed it could not possibly have been a Māori word, because that alphabet does not contain J, X or Z.  I'd be surprised if there's any language of which it could possibly have been a word.   So much for lexicographical expertise.  --  JackofOz (talk) 12:21, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * well it's an interesting method for learning languages. Drop all words that are not in a vocabulary, and you are left with the whole of it. --pma (talk) 13:08, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

Harold Thomas
Why can neither *harold nor *thomas be an Australian Aboriginal word? --88.77.230.244 (talk) 11:45, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Because they're both English names. +Angr 11:46, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Over a hundred different indigenous Australian languages are known, so its not entirely clear that the question makes any sense - it's like asking "why can't *jozxyqk be a European word". However, the article on indigenous Australian languages does list some characteristics that are common to most of these languages, which may point you in the direction of the expected answer. Gandalf61 (talk) 15:15, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

Who is Harold Thomas? --88.77.230.244 (talk) 16:24, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Harold Thomas. Algebraist 16:26, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Given the context, probably Harold Thomas (activist). —Tamfang (talk) 20:40, 26 June 2016 (UTC)

Who is Thomas Harold? —Tamfang (talk) 17:10, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Book on linguistics.
Hi, I don't know if anyone can recommend a book that generally delves into linguistics? It's a subject that interests me a lot, but I have too many other books to read, so something that covers a bit of everything would be nice. Thanks, · AndonicO  Engage. 12:19, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Take a look at Category:Linguistics books (but ignore the dictionaries !). Gandalf61 (talk) 12:44, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Ah, good call, thank you. · AndonicO  Engage. 23:55, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
 * We used Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct in my Intro to Linguistics class. I found it very interesting, and it does cover a very wide range of topics. -Elmer Clark (talk) 08:01, 17 July 2009 (UTC)
 * That's the one I always recommend to people, as it is written for a non-specialist readership, and very readable. It should be noted, however, that not all linguists approve of the strongly Chomskian position he argues from. --ColinFine (talk)


 * I didn't like it much, but can't remember why. — For an overview of the field I like The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language by David Crystal. The title is a bit misleading; it's not all that useful as a reference, because it only has enough examples to give a flavor of each of the subfields. —Tamfang (talk) 20:18, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

Vuvuzela
Why can't *vuvuzela be a Hawaiian or Japanese word? --88.78.5.162 (talk) 18:59, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
 * This was already explained above. Who then was a gentleman? (talk) 19:06, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Warum ist WP:AGF kein deutsches Wort in Nordrhein-Westfalen ? --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 19:12, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Is this addressed to me? Who then was a gentleman? (talk) 19:36, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
 * No. As the indentation indicates, it is a response to the querent, whose IP addresses indicate a location in the area of Essen in the state NRW.  --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 19:39, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Does the indentation indicate that your second post is a response to yourself? — Emil J. 11:48, 17 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Indentation is WRONG! It indicates nothing! It will always be wrong! ~ A H  1 (TCU) 04:48, 19 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Then why did you indent your post? --  JackofOz (talk) 20:25, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Chinese
Would 燕 be acceptable as a girl's name (part of the first name)? I usually only see the character as part of the names of those states (Northern Yan, etc.). 80.123.210.172 (talk) 20:09, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
 * It means "swallow (bird)" and is very commonly found in girls' given names. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 00:38, 17 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks 80.123.210.172 (talk) 08:22, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

Is/Are
Which of these sentances is correct?

"There is a large number of pauses throughout the play"

"There are a large number of pauses throughout the play" Chaosandwalls (talk) 21:56, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Are. "Pauses" is plural. Bus stop (talk) 21:58, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Thats what I first thought, but couldnt the are/is be referring to "number", which is singular? Chaosandwalls (talk) 22:02, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I don't know. I could be wrong. Bus stop (talk) 22:07, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * With the word "quantity" it would be "is," as in "There is a large quantity of marbles in the hallway." I don't know, but maybe "quantity" and "number of" are different. Bus stop (talk) 22:13, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * There is only one number (even if it is 3.7 million). One number is singular, so it is "is". If you want to use "are" you have to say "there are many pauses", as the verb then applies to the plural 'pauses'.- KoolerStill (talk) 22:27, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Wrong. If we were talking about the number, we might say "the number of pauses".  If you say "a number of pauses", you are talking about the pauses and it is construed as plural.  See the usage note under "number" in the online American Heritage Dictionary, or an example in the online Merriam-Webster (under sense 1), the first two dictionaries I checked at www.onelook.com.  This is one of many examples in English where a grammatically singular construction takes a plural verb or vice versa, with the verb agreeing with the sense rather than the grammatical form.  Curiously, this one does not seem to be covered in the long article on the English plural.  --Anonymous, 22:34 UTC, July 16, 2009, links edited in later.
 * Alternatively, you could reword the sentence to something such as "Many pauses occur during the play". Nyttend (talk) 02:21, 18 July 2009 (UTC)
 * But why should you? There is nothing wrong with "There are a large number of pauses", except that generations of grammarians with a flawed conception of how language works have taught many of us to feel uncomfortable with it. --ColinFine (talk) 07:36, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Not saying that it's wrong: just that, since there's uncertainty about the original phrase, this could be used as a way to cut the Gordian Knot. Figure out how to say the original phrase properly, and I'll not see anything improper about doing it that way.  Nyttend (talk) 03:54, 21 July 2009 (UTC)


 * "The play pauses often." :P  —Tamfang (talk) 04:34, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Trying to remember the word....
What do you call a person who is constantly blaming others for something he or she has done himself, or in general the quality of doing this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.32.46.2 (talk) 21:58, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * A person who doesn't take responsibility for their own actions. Bus stop (talk) 22:02, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Or inactions. Bus stop (talk) 22:03, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Not sure, but you might be thinking of Determinism, Machiavellianism, or Dissociation there are also several possibilities if you mean pathological behavior. 71.236.26.74 (talk) 22:40, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * A semi-technical psychological term is "projection", but I'm not sure that there's a commonly-used term for people who project. The closest term in ordinary language would probably be "hypocrite"... AnonMoos (talk) 02:35, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

Or people say "a bad workman blames his tools" for those who try to shift the blame on their performance to something else. Hypocrite is a bit different as that's about doing something that you tell others not to do (so in this scenario it'd work if they were blaming someone for passing-the-buck when they do it themselves all the time). Perhaps buck-passer? 194.221.133.226 (talk) 08:58, 17 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I think the word he's looking for probably is hypocrite, and hypocrisy. --Ashenai (talk) 10:22, 17 July 2009 (UTC)
 * self-serving bias. Robinh (talk) 11:18, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

The act itself is called blame shifting. While one could call a person who does it a "blame shifter," I've never heard the phrase used in that way. Hypocrisy doesn't quite carry the same meaning, IMO. Shifting blame would be to say something like "I wouldn't have overslept, missed the meeting, and lost the big account if the GE knew how to make a decent alarm clock." Hypocrisy would be lobbying to defeat gay rights legislation by day, and cruising the "men seeking men" ads for dates by night. Some jerk on the Internet (talk) 13:11, 21 July 2009 (UTC)