Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2012 September 1

= September 1 =

A "displaced state"
In Mood (psychology) there is a sentence saying:"Good mood is usually considered a displaced state; people cannot pinpoint exactly why they are in a good mood." I wonder about the expression displaced state. What does it mean exactly? Lova Falk    talk   07:54, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * The term is defined by the clause that follows it. Displaced means without location (and can be used figuratively).  State means a manner of being.  So a displaced state means a manner of being without a location; that is it is a manner of being that exists without a known reason.  -- Jayron  32  14:27, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * As I understand by your answer and by the absence of others who answer, this expression "displaced state" is not a common expression for a manner of being. I'm thinking of removing it...  Lova Falk     talk   15:01, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't know that that is a great idea. The statement can be true without the phrase "displaced state" being official jargon.  It is a fine phrase whose meaning is clear.  -- Jayron  32  15:03, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Because, when reading it, I started wondering if "displaced state" was a concept within psychology for a state that I was not familiar with yet. But it is not!  Lova Falk     talk   15:16, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Yeah, but if I say "Pete was a tall man" it doesn't mean that "tall man" needs to be a concept within anything to be a valid descriptor of Pete. -- Jayron  32  15:19, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I would call "displaced state" jargon; it conveys nothing to this native speaker. -- Elphion (talk) 16:36, 1 September 2012 (UTC)


 * It's more like the article said "Pete was an extended man; a man of unusual height compared to the average height for men in the area where he lived." (That semicolon should be a colon really, since it introduces a description.) Card Zero  (talk) 16:56, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * No it doesn't. It means "moved": displace. There is the implication that something has moved it out of its proper place, but a good mood has no proper place, and there was nothing that moved it, so in the article the word is being used figuratively to mean "not having a place", where the idea of "place", as you say, is also being used figuratively, to mean "identified cause". This is what I would describe figuratively as "bananas". Since English seems to lack a word for "locationless" - not exactly a common concept - and since the idea of location is misleading in this context, I suggest editing "displaced state" into the phrase "a state without an identified cause", and then deleting it for redundancy. It does sound a lot like jargon, mainly because an odd pithy phrase has apparently been clarified with a definition following it, but also because it's redolent of jargon terms like displacement activity and referred pain. Card Zero  (talk) 16:45, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I followed the first of your suggestions. Thank you!  Lova Falk     talk   18:01, 1 September 2012 (UTC)

There is a proper phrase for this idea. Most emotions are about something, one is angry about being cut off in traffic. Moods aren't "about" anything, although we may be aware of what brought them on. Probably find something in Descartes' Error or another work by Antonio Damasio. μηδείς (talk) 17:25, 1 September 2012 (UTC)

Chinese help
I took some photos of some buildings. But what are the Chinese characters appearing in the following? Thanks WhisperToMe (talk) 21:32, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * File:ChinatownPrintingHoustonTX.JPG
 * File:MTTradingCorp.JPG
 * File:AFWholesale.JPG


 * File:ChinatownPrintingHoustonTX.JPG is 同连印制公司
 * File:MTTradingCorp.JPG is 美中貿易公司
 * File:AFWholesale.JPG 亞美食品批發公司.
 * r ʨ anaɢ (talk) 22:50, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Thank you so much! Also, in the film Infernal Affairs there is a character 徐偉強 (Tsui Wai-keung) - What is the Mandarin reading of the name? For "Del Piero" (迪比亞路) what are the Mandarin and Cantonese names? WhisperToMe (talk) 23:31, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * The first one should be Xu Weiqiang. 109.99.71.97 (talk) 08:58, 2 September 2012 (UTC)
 * 強 has qiáng and qiǎng - Which one is it? WhisperToMe (talk) 16:16, 2 September 2012 (UTC)

Another one: Yit Ing Ho has Chinese characters, but which ones are they? Thanks WhisperToMe (talk) 16:16, 2 September 2012 (UTC)
 * It is qiáng, and the characters are 一定好酒家 ('Definitely Good' Restaurant, which sounds just as ridiculous in Chinese as it does in English). 24.92.74.238 (talk) 19:05, 2 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Thank you! For the Cantonese name of the character, is 強 a koeng4 or a koeng5 ? WhisperToMe (talk) 21:42, 2 September 2012 (UTC)

Another Mandarin question: In File:Chinatown2.JPG What is the Chinese for "Southwest Heart Clinic"? And would one be able to tell the characters for "Lucky Pot" from that distance? On the door of Suite 150 (next to the "老地方") there are some more Chinese characters. What are those characters? WhisperToMe (talk) 23:50, 2 September 2012 (UTC)