Help with English

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by Saint, Aug 24, 2011.

  1. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    No, it means to pick only those that you want. If you were to pick cherries from a tree to eat, you wouldn't systematically pick every single one but only the ones that you think would benefit you the most (e.g. ripest). And you would not pick the rest.

    So it means to select just the best things.
     
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  3. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Not just to pick the ones you like, but also to ignore the ones you don't like. That ignoring, turning a blind eye, is an important part of "cherry picking".

    For example, suppose I want to argue that a certain drug is effective. Cherry-picking the evidence might mean citing only studies that support its effectiveness, while failing to mention other studies that show that it is ineffective.
     
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  5. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    why flammable and inflammable same?
     
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  7. geordief Valued Senior Member

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    "in" as a prefix can have the sense of "not" or "into" .It is used in the latter sense in "inflammable" and so the two words have more or less exactly the same meaning.

    It is unfortunate that the word "inflammable" is used at all as it lends itself to misunderstanding (I used to be regularly confused and even if one is not confused ,how is one to know if it is being used correctly or incorrectly by the speaker?)
     
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  8. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Flammable and inflammable are synonyms (in practice).
    Their antonym is nonflammable.
     
  9. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    There were two Latin words that were very similar: flammare which means "to set on fire" and inflammare which means "to be caused to be set on fire".
    My understanding was that flammare was the deliberate act of setting something on fire, whereas inflammare was more for just the state of being set on fire. So a house could be caused to be set on fire by a chip pan accident, lightning strike etc, but a torch or candle would more likely just to be set on fire.
    Something like that, anyway.

    These days, however, the two words do tend to mean the exactly the same.
    I've heard one distinction between them being that "flammable" simply means "can be (deliberately) set alight", whereas "inflammable" means "can catch fire (with no deliberate act involved)". Maybe this is correct, but I'm not sure.
     
    Last edited: Oct 20, 2018
  10. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    Actually in this case the "in-" has the meaning of "causative", or "intensive". It is similar to "imperil", which doesn't mean "not be peril" but means "cause peril".
    I think the UK government officially uses "flammable" so as to avoid that confusion.
     
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  11. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    To further complicated the issue, a part of the body can be "inflamed" - i.e. coloured like a flame.
     
  12. geordief Valued Senior Member

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    I sometimes go to these people for advice on Latin or Greek as mine has gone down the tube but not far enough to kill off my curiosity.

    http://latindiscussion.com/forum/
     
  13. RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

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    inta infa intro intra
     
  14. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    Continuous vs continual, what difference?
     
  15. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Continuous means happening all the time, on and on without stopping.
    Continual means happening repeatedly. It usually means something happens frequently or at closely-spaced intervals, but there are breaks in between happenings.

    Do you own a dictionary? Got google?
     
  16. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    I did all the jobs, but he piggybacked on the outcomes and claim credit.

    Correct?
     
  17. RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

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    "hijacked my job then claimed credit"
    "pretended to help then stole all the glory"
    "exploited my good nature then stole the credit for my work"
    "came along for the ride then stole the lime light"
     
  18. geordief Valued Senior Member

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    For someone supposedly trying to learn English,it would be more convincing if some of the basic grammatical errors were cut out.

    It should read "claimed credit"

    The past tense is pretty universally employed across all languages,I would suppose?
     
  19. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    I would not quite put it that way.
    Piggybacking - to me - is not a negative term. Piggybacking usually costs the piggybackee little or nothing.
    Parasitism or leeching are the negative terms. They hurt the piggybackee.

    I'm not sure if piggybacking applies well do doing school work or work-work. It is sort of expected that each person will contribute according to their ability, so there is some implicit harm if he does not do the work himself.

    Piggybacking is much more like hitchhiking. It costs you nothing to help someone else not have to make the journey on their own.
     
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  20. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    hinder and hamper means the same?
     
  21. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    Pretty much, yes.
    There is a slight difference, in that the underlying sense of hinder is "to keep back", so obstacles in your path hinder your progress, and keep you back from your goal.
    "Hamper", however, has more of a meaning of being restrained from moving, so your progress could be hampered if you have to carry a large weight.

    But in everyday use they pretty much mean the same thing.
     
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  22. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    sacrosanct = too important to dismiss ?
     
  23. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    • Please do not spam sciforums.
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 2, 2018

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