Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2016 June 18

= June 18 =

Purpose of the royal "we" and others.
As I understand it the royal "we" is used to emphasise the identity of sovereign and state - akin to Louis XIV's supposed claim "L'Etat, c'est moi". The nurse's "we" as in "How are we feeling today?" is meant to indicate empathy. However, I'm struggling to clearly define the function of the teacher's "we" - "Then we carefully pour in the acid" which is also used in academic articles and textbooks. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 08:05, 18 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Is the teacher demonstrating how to do it, with the assumption that the students will then do the same experiment? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 08:22, 18 June 2016 (UTC)
 * During an actual demonstration or lecture it makes sense as an instruction or command, but I don't see a good reason why it is also used like that in descriptive articles or textbooks - "we observed that male penguins are very agressive during breeding season" even though the writer is the only actual observer. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 09:10, 18 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Do any of the broadly accepted academic style manuals address this matter? Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 09:21, 18 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Original research here—when I was in grade school in the US in the 1960s, we were taught that using "I" in written work makes the author seem too focused on himself, too conceited. I've always assumed that the journal style "We observed the penguins..." (even with just a single author) is an extension of that odd notion. Note that some journals follow that rule and others do not. Loraof (talk) 14:41, 18 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Others will refer to themselves in an oblique way, such as "this reporter". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:07, 18 June 2016 (UTC)
 * I was taught (currently at a South African university) to use the third person: "the researcher found that..." Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 17:11, 18 June 2016 (UTC)
 * That's the convention used in Wikipedia user boxes: "This user is a wabbit" or whatever. I find that style stilted and annoying. "We" might be a bit pretentious too, but at least it's shorter than "this writer". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:15, 18 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Would be great if someone could cite an academic style guide or two on this topic. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 17:22, 18 June 2016 (UTC)


 * BTW are my assumptions about the royal and nurse's "we" correct? Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 17:16, 18 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Have you read Royal we? As for the "nurse's we", Alan King was once in the hospital with an illness. The nurse came in and asked, "How are we doing?" Alan said to himself, "We? I thought I was the only one who was sick. Suddenly there's an epidemic!" ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:23, 18 June 2016 (UTC)


 * And the article Royal we links to the article Nosism on the more general usage of singular "we" to mean "I". I would note that the second person "we" is also used by waiters ("Are we ready to order?) and the singular "we" is used by by politicians admitting a mistake. Loraof (talk) 19:16, 18 June 2016 (UTC)
 * English plural personal pronouns also have an indefinite quality. Nurses and doctors say 'we' so as to not get an automatic and unhelpful response to the social 'how are you'. Peter Grey (talk) 01:13, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

Kakuro
Pronunciation please. My first guess is: ca(as in cat) - coo(as in cool) - ro (as in robot). I have never heard the game pronounced. -- Preceding unsigned  comment  21:19, 18 June 2016 (UTC)


 * (UK) /ˌkɑːˈkʊərəʊ/; (US) /kɑˈkʊroʊ/ —Stephen (talk) 22:48, 18 June 2016 (UTC)


 * So, if you don't know IPA, your guesses are correct except that the first syllable is kah (as in calm). The stress is on the second syllable. Deor (talk) 23:04, 18 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Many thanks. -- Preceding unsigned  comment  23:51, 18 June 2016 (UTC)