Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2021 December 5

= December 5 =

Word "choosing" confusing me here.
Here it says: The next night on Raw, Randy Orton was scheduled to face Daniel Bryan once again at Hell in a Cell in a Hell in a Cell match with the audience choosing Booker T, Bob Backlund or Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee, with Michaels winning the vote. Orton won the match after Michaels superkicked Bryan for attacking Triple H.

Why "choosing" used here if it is confusing? I thought "choosing" mean, audience choose all three : Booker T, Bob Backlund and Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee. Rizosome (talk) 03:18, 5 December 2021 (UTC)


 * No. The "or" means only one could be the referee. Clarityfiend (talk) 04:06, 5 December 2021 (UTC)


 * It is confusing, A better wording would have been: "with the audience choosing between Booker T, Bob Backlund and Shawn Michaels". --Lambiam 09:14, 5 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Not really. The singular "referee" makes it unambiguous. Clarityfiend (talk) 05:11, 6 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Not really. Just considering the part "with the audience choosing T, B or M as the referee", it might be the case that the audience had a free choice between many candidates, and that the reporter does not know whom they chose, but has enough information to eliminate everyone except for the three candidates mentioned. Compare this dialogue: "Who do you think the audience will choose as the referee? — I don't know, but I'm fairly sure they will choose T, B or M; the other candidates made a bad impression." It is only by the final clause, "with M winning the vote", that this possible interpretation is ruled out. --Lambiam 08:27, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

I understand from this line: A better wording would have been: "with the audience choosing between Booker T, Bob Backlund and Shawn Michaels". Rizosome (talk) 01:19, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

Occurring writing style
Can someone please tell that his writing style, as shown in this revision of Illmatic, is strange and poorly formed? Another example is this revision of Bitches Ain't Shit. Piotr Jr. (talk) 11:47, 5 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Can someone who can read at a learned, adult level tell that my only transgression was writing at too advanced a level for some users, and that the fix is fairly simple, not getting on my talkpage cursing, misquoting, lying about me, and then falsely crying edit war when I make the exact fixes that this person asked for, simpler syntax? Occurring (talk) 12:46, 5 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Take it to your user pages, or to the talk page for the article. The language reference desk is not the proper place to discuss such a dispute. --Viennese Waltz 12:49, 5 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Or Third opinion if you can't sort it out between you. See also Civility. Alansplodge (talk) 15:22, 5 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Maybe humanity has yet to advance to the linguistic level of Yoda, Piotr Jr. (talk) 16:20, 5 December 2021 (UTC)