Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2014 May 29

= May 29 =

The city is a container that holds a stage for challenges and embraces in daily life.
Can "container" be used metaphorically to refer to a city, as in "The city is a container that holds a stage for challenges and embraces in daily life"? Thank you. -- 00:53, 29 May 2014 114.249.208.208


 * Almost anything can be used as a metaphor for almost anything else. Not sure what else to tell you.  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  01:05, 29 May 2014 (UTC)


 * It might be better to just say "The city is a stage ..." Also, "embraces" is a bit of an odd word choice. Clarityfiend (talk) 01:07, 29 May 2014 (UTC)
 * This is a bit of a mixed metaphor. That is to say, you are using two different, unrelated things to make your metaphor.  In this case, you've said that the city is a "container" that holds a "stage".  There are no containers in real life that holds stages, so it's a strange-sounding combination.    As Clarityfiend points out, "stage" is good enough. Mingmingla (talk) 02:54, 29 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Indeed. Condensing the ideas slightly, why not just "The city is a stage for challenges and embraces in daily life"? However, in either version "embraces" seems inappropriate — "for embracing the challenges of . . ." is a more common construction. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 212.95.237.92 (talk) 13:04, 29 May 2014 (UTC)


 * "Container" can be used metaphorically. But I am not sure the solitary sentence provided above is supplying us with reason for thinking of a city as a container. Are "challenges" and "embraces" associated with "containers"? It could be that surrounding sentences shed light on the notion of a city as a "container". This might lend validation to the metaphor of city as container. One can certainly think of a city as a container. But I think the question concerns whether or not thinking of the city as a container contributes in some way to the verbal communication one is endeavoring to accomplish. We can also think about what “container” means. A container of coffee? There are container ships—they carry a certain form of container. The word container has a variety of meanings. Is the word “container” constructive in that particular usage? Only the writer can really know. It occurs to me that perhaps the word “platform” could substitute for the word container in the example sentence. Bus stop (talk) 13:29, 29 May 2014 (UTC)

translating wikipedia page
i have found a wikipedia article on a german author i am interested in. unfotunately the article is in german. can you tell me if there is an easy way to translate it into english? regards kim halik -- 10:16, 29 May 2014 User:Kimhalik


 * Which author? Presumably you are looking at the German Wikipedia.  If you look on the left hand side of the page there is a section where it says "In anderen Sprachen".  If English is listed there you can just click the link for the English Wikipedia article on the author.  Or else you can just look him/her up on the English Wikipedia, but maybe you've already done that.  For easy translation you can put the article into Google Translate, this will give a pretty approximate translation with lots of mistakes but will give you the general gist of the article. --Viennese Waltz 10:38, 29 May 2014 (UTC)


 * And if there is no article in the English Wikipedia, please let us know. Either you can create it, or one of us can. 86.146.28.105 (talk) 18:15, 29 May 2014 (UTC)