Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2021 September 25

= September 25 =

Dialog doubt in Loving Vincent
Armand and Marguerite are discussing Vincent's life:


 * Armand: I know that he tried hard to prove he was good for something.
 * Marguerite: Yes, he did. That's why I take flowers to his grave. That's all I can do for him now. He would appreciate the delicate beauty of their bloom even each blade of their grassy stems.

What is the meaning of "blade of their grassy stems"? Rizosome (talk) 02:43, 25 September 2021 (UTC)
 * What kind of flowers were they? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 07:15, 25 September 2021 (UTC)
 * It is irrelevant what kind of flowers they were. The question is about the stems, which we are told are grassy, i.e. like grass, being thin and flat like blades of grass. Maybe the flowers were something like montbretia.--Shantavira|feed me 11:01, 25 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Since the OP didn't seem to understand what grass and stems are, I was trying to find out more information about the flowers. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 18:49, 25 September 2021 (UTC)


 * Here the last sentence of the quote above is rendered as two sentences: He would appreciate the delicate beauty of their blooms. Even each blade of their grassy stems. This is more likely how this was written in the script. The laminae (flat parts) of grassy leaves are commonly referred to as "blades". --Lambiam 11:43, 25 September 2021 (UTC)


 * It's certainly sounds a bit odd to have blade-like stems, but irises could be described that way I suppose. The film is about Vincent van Gogh who painted those plants several times, notably in Irises. Note that "grassy" can mean either "covered in grass" or "resembling grass". Alansplodge (talk) 21:04, 26 September 2021 (UTC)
 * The stems are grassy and have blades. That does not imply the stems are blade-like, merely that they are like the stems of a grass. --Lambiam 10:50, 27 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Hmmm... if you ignore the "grassy" adjective, the quote certainly describes the stems as blades, and actually iris stems are rather blade-like in my opinion, although a lot more substantial than blades of grass. But it's certainly a confusing construction. Alansplodge (talk) 17:49, 27 September 2021 (UTC)
 * If I write "each of my house's windows", do I describe the house as window-like? —Tamfang (talk) 02:59, 28 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Point taken (but the stems are still blade-like). Alansplodge (talk) 13:59, 29 September 2021 (UTC)
 * It is well worth noting, since no one else has, that irises are monocots, a group that also includes grasses, and which shares many morphological features, including blade-like leaves and stems. -- Jayron 32 11:12, 28 September 2021 (UTC)