Nonsense Expressions

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by StrangerInAStrangeLand, Sep 2, 2008.

  1. Mr. Hamtastic whackawhackado! Registered Senior Member

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    lol yeah my bad.
     
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  3. Mr. Hamtastic whackawhackado! Registered Senior Member

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    How do those flowers smell? I have no idea, I didn't realize they had olfactory senses.
     
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  5. Mr. Hamtastic whackawhackado! Registered Senior Member

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    How do you feel? with my hands, generally
     
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  7. StrangerInAStrangeLand SubQuantum Mechanic Valued Senior Member

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    Thanks, Fraggle. I did think it would be fun. But I'm serious also. Language & communication are important & I believe we'd communicate better if we'd more often just say what we mean & mean what we say. & See below.
     
  8. StrangerInAStrangeLand SubQuantum Mechanic Valued Senior Member

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    Tim840, I'm well aware of the facts you presented. As for the opinions:You think PIN number & MLB baseball are pretty dumb & I think they're all absurd. In my experience, many people do not know half full & half empty are the same. I'm tired of people asking me such ridiculous questions & acting disgusted when I give a sensible answer.
    Maybe you think everyone's as smart & educated as you are or you're accustomed to dealing with intelligent people but I can testify there are plenty out there who do not know or understand the things you explained.
    Biscuit was a joke. But while mucking about on a farm, it would be much riskier to carry 2 baskets with 32 eggs each than 1 basket with 64 eggs.
    Obviously things people say need to make sense most of the time or we'd never get anything accomplished. I draw the line at a diferent level than you.
     
  9. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    But they're not, and that's the whole point. Surely you understand that there's more than one type of meaning. The denotations of "half full" and "half empty" may be the same, but the connotations are different.

    The complete statement of the homily is not that one glass is half full and one is half empty. It is that one person perceives the glass as half full and the other person perceives the same glass as half empty. To say that a container is half empty tells us that you are already focusing on the problem you're going to have when it becomes completely empty. To say that it's half full tells us that you're focusing on what great things you can do with that generous amount of liquid that's still there.

    One person is going to spend fully half of his time with that glass of liquid worrying about what to do when it runs out. The other person is enjoying his drink.
     
  10. Oli Heute der Enteteich... Registered Senior Member

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    And wondering who's going to buy the next round...
     
  11. StrangerInAStrangeLand SubQuantum Mechanic Valued Senior Member

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    One world government. As opposed to a 9 world government???
     
  12. CutsieMarie89 Zen Registered Senior Member

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    Or when people say they could care less, but what they really mean is that they couldn't care less. Is it supposed to be sarcasm?
     
  13. StrangerInAStrangeLand SubQuantum Mechanic Valued Senior Member

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  14. domesticated om Stickler for details Valued Senior Member

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    Here's one:

    "It doesn't matter if you win or lose. It's how you play the game"

    That's a bunch of bologna. You always play to win--- winning is determined by how you play the game.

    Having fun while playing is a given. Games in and of themselves are forms of leisure.
     
  15. Ophiolite Valued Senior Member

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    "It was in the last place I looked"

    Traditionally, it has been observed that this is obvious, since you would not continue to look for 'it' once 'it' was found. I don't like tradition, so now when I find something I have been looking for I continue to look in a couple of more places for 'it' before quitting. I recommend this to everyone.
     
  16. Oli Heute der Enteteich... Registered Senior Member

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    No no no.
    I've just quoted something similar in another thread: It's more important to take part than it is to win.

    I suspect that both of these may be (peculiarly) English (okay, possibly British).
    They are about the concept of sportsmanship, probably cricket at that.
    It was (and only slightly to some extent still is) far, far more important to be a "good sportsman" than it was to actually win.
    The result hardly counted because the game was played for the form of the thing and how you played (not how well) was a test AND show of character.
     
  17. StrangerInAStrangeLand SubQuantum Mechanic Valued Senior Member

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    Shoot! I made a list like my OP but fell asleep before hitting Post. When I woke it was gone.
     
  18. StrangerInAStrangeLand SubQuantum Mechanic Valued Senior Member

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    Be careful. Pizza may be hot.
     
  19. StrangerInAStrangeLand SubQuantum Mechanic Valued Senior Member

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    OK I logged in, made another list & hit the Post button. It told me to refresh & it lost my post. WTH???
     
  20. CutsieMarie89 Zen Registered Senior Member

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    "There's no 'I' in team." But you can spell "me" if you want.
     
  21. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    How many times must I repeat myself?
     
  22. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    As opposed to more than one hundred national governments.

    "One" stresses the hypothesis that we'd be better off with just one gigantic slow-moving tax-sucking thirty-level bureaucracy instead of dozens of smaller and slightly more responsive and efficient bureaucracies. "World" stresses the hypothesis that we'd be better off with a "one size fits all" philosophy being applied to Americans, Chinese, Nigerians and Azeris, instead of just Texans and New Yorkers.
    It was originally sarcasm, said with that peculiar whiney, disgusted voice that's supposed to identify sarcastic speech. But it's lost the voice and people don't notice that they're not saying what they mean.
    Why is that a nonsense expression?
     
  23. CutsieMarie89 Zen Registered Senior Member

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    I thought so.

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