All Questions
3,429
questions
2
votes
1answer
31 views
Why is a question about pronunciation “opinion-based”?
A while ago, I asked this question: Is the diphthong /aʊ/ generally realized as [ɑʊ] in British English? [closed] (now closed). I did not receive any answer which is fine but I don't see why this is ...
4
votes
1answer
64 views
What is the difference between the “history” and “historical-change” tags?
How does one decide which tag to use:
History: Questions about the history and trends of the English language
Historical Change: For questions about how the English language has changed over time.
...
9
votes
1answer
134 views
Single-word-request rule clarification needed
My question Alternative to trumped was recently closed for being opinion-based. However, the tag single-word-requests has 300+ pages of questions similar to mine.
Why is there the tag single-word-...
1
vote
1answer
98 views
Why is the question off-topic?
I can see that users are voting to close the question Where does Martian meaning inhabitant of Mars come from? as off-topic.
What’s the problem with the above question? or is it just a question of ...
2
votes
0answers
69 views
traditional versus modern grammar book
Am I correct in describing A Student's Introduction to English Grammar by E. Huddleston and G. K. Pullum as modern grammar? It makes a distinction between complements and adjuncts, for example.
If ...
7
votes
2answers
113 views
Why can edits to a closed question be rejected as “should have been written as a comment or an answer”?
Although a long-time reader of various SE sites, I'm new to active participation and still learning the rules and conventions. My question here is about the possible stock reasons for rejecting edits ...
7
votes
2answers
92 views
Are video-only questions on-topic?
Do questions on EL&U need to contain the text that forms the topic of the question, or can they essentially be just a link to a video?
Consider this question:
What does the woman say in the movie?...
3
votes
0answers
33 views
Windows app or software for suggesting our own vocabulary list daily as little popup? [migrated]
I need a software like eye saving software that are popping up after a while to keep our eyes healthy, but what I want to show in that pop up is, my own listed vocabularies that I gradually added to ...
7
votes
1answer
71 views
Just doubled up on gold Steward badges… badging bug?
I have, for some time now, had all 6 gold Steward badges for 1000 reviews of each type. These badges explicitly say they are awarded once per review type only. (And I haven't made 2000 reviews of ...
10
votes
2answers
243 views
Why are older posts being edited to remove the [etymology] tag?
I have seen at least 10 (and counting) proposed edits on the review queue from the same lower-rep user. For the most part, they are deleting the [etymology] tag, as seen in this post:
The reason for ...
6
votes
1answer
70 views
Why are questions about the usage of synonyms off-topic?
Example question: How is “account” be different with “theory”, “model” or “approach”?
This question is closed for being off-topic. One close-voter says:
I’m can voting to close this question. A ...
1
vote
2answers
42 views
Website for finding Hypernyms [duplicate]
There are a lot of questions on this Stack Exchange asking "What is a hypernym for ___ and ___". Is there somewhere you can enter a list of words and it will suggest hypernyms?
This question ...
-7
votes
1answer
71 views
Proposed tag: unword or deanthropomorphize
A common theme on English Stack Exchange is someone who has a certain well-known word in their vocabulary, who understands this word may have undesired negative undertones for certain groups of people,...
1
vote
1answer
69 views
Where can I find the rules of the English SE?
It's been a long time since I was last active on SE in general. Now, in the last weeks I've been super pensive about the role of language in my life, especially the ones I learned as a grown up, in ...
7
votes
0answers
76 views
2020: a year in moderation
As we say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new one, we have a tradition of sharing moderation stats for the past 12 months.
As most of you here are aware, sites on the Stack Exchange network ...
1
vote
1answer
87 views
What should I do if mods declined a flag I think was legitimate and regard violation of the code of conduct?
There's a user who's been posting pointless, off topic comments where I post genuine questions.
Yesterday they chose to necropost on a 3 years and 4 months old question of mine, in a clear attempt to ...
2
votes
3answers
63 views
Where can I find a large corpus of contemporary English writing? [closed]
Where can I find a large corpus of contemporary English writing?
I am a computer programmer, and I would like to execute a program which searches the corpus for certain text-patterns.
I am willing to ...
3
votes
1answer
69 views
Is it good to migrate questions which are on-topic and have answers?
Question in question: What is the difference between an account and an approach?
This question is on-topic on ELU and received two answers. The accepted answer says that the usage of "account&...
-1
votes
2answers
275 views
Questions are now being edited to say “grammatically acceptable” instead of “grammatically correct”?
Two questions of mine were edited to change "grammatically correct" to "grammatically acceptable" in the title and similarly in the body by the same moderator.
To seek ...
8
votes
0answers
93 views
Would it be appropriate to reopen the “'Home page' or 'homepage'” question from seven years ago?
The question "Home page" or "homepage"? was closed seven years ago on the following grounds:
This question is too basic; it can be definitively and permanently answered by a ...
1
vote
1answer
60 views
Should we post an identical answer if we provide different (maybe better) research?
I read an answer to a single word request question. It was exactly what the OP had asked, but the answer provides only an article about the single word, no actual definition from a dictionary, or a ...
7
votes
1answer
172 views
Is ELU tag guidance required to “accord” with Linguistics.SE guidance?
Is ELU tag guidance required to "accord" with tag guidance at Linguistics.SE? I ask because a recent update-change I made to the tag guidance for etymology was rolled back by a moderator, ...
1
vote
1answer
36 views
Are word lists forbidden in the rules?
I replied to a poster who asked me to supply a list of words in a particular category, that this was not allowed in the rules. See
When I tried to search for the rule, I couldn't find it (or indeed ...
9
votes
3answers
253 views
Is there any way of knowing who is serial down-voting me?
For new users...serial down-voting is strictly discouraged.
It requires a certain amount of venom and dedication to go through another user's list of questions and answers and then methodically DV ...
4
votes
1answer
113 views
dictionary for American English
I have already Oxford Advanced Learner´s Dictionary, which I use at my home, but I want another one to my office. So I decided to take rather American dictionary but which one?
After reading some ...
2
votes
1answer
41 views
Linked question is absent in “This question already has answers here” banner [duplicate]
I came across this question:
Should personal pronouns always be placed at the end of a list?
This question was closed eight years ago as duplicate of some other question. That question is not visible. ...
0
votes
1answer
45 views
Why is this question a duplicate?
I would like to understand why this question was classified as a duplicate. Is it not a bit stretched? I can see the similarity, but the structures present in the body of each question are in fact ...
1
vote
2answers
83 views
Blatant Grammatical Error [closed]
I have just Googled 'damn or damned' and was presented with a post on your site. Imagine my absolute horror when I saw in the explanation you gave, a grammatical error.
You write 'Damn'is a verb........
1
vote
1answer
42 views
Why marked duplicate?
I have a question about my English Language & Usage Stack Exchange post: What is it called to use random error as evidence?
Why was this ever marked duplicate? Why not just migrate?
0
votes
1answer
39 views
Problems loading chat: hangs forever
Recently, I cannot access the chat room. I only get this forever message ( I have left it for up to 24 hours and it still hangs) :
This started after the last updates around 4-5 months ago. Possibly ...
4
votes
1answer
30 views
How does one appeal a closed question, duplicate?
I understand there is a need to close duplicate answers, but shouldn't there be some clear instructions about what one can do to appeal? I'm not talking about the option to edit (which is clearly ...
4
votes
0answers
156 views
Is the fact that a question is a duplicate a good reason to downvote?
When I first came across this question, it was closed only temporarily and I assumed that it was not a duplicate (otherwise it would have been closed as one). So I went on and did my research and ...
12
votes
2answers
239 views
What's up with locking new questions?
Recently, I (and others) have noticed that there is a trend to 'lock' new questions. I understand that there is some dispute about the appropriateness of answering in comment; many here are guilty of ...
2
votes
1answer
34 views
Move a question about hyphens and dashes from graphicdesign.stackexchange.com
Few days ago I asked a question whether to use the hyphen or the en dash in cases like Anglo-Saxon England and The Washington–Moscow hotline on https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/.
https://...
0
votes
2answers
153 views
The appropriateness of having an 'Italian' tag (no slight intended: I've just become aware of this particular flag)
Isn't having a tag such as italian inviting questions requiring at least some knowledge of Italian? Isn't 'loan-words' sufficient? Aren't cross-language questions more appropriate on Linguistics?
3
votes
0answers
38 views
Reference for the history of the English alphabet
I am looking for a text or book that discusses the history of the English alphabet, as in, how the shapes of the alphabet came to be, why certain sounds are associated with certain letters, and how ...
4
votes
2answers
158 views
Would it still be on-topic to ask a question to define the year? i.e. 2020: The year of…?
In 2016, Mari-Lou A asked a question appropriate for the times.
2016 The Year of ...?
"2016 is drawing to an end, and nobody can say it was an unexceptional year. On the contrary, it was ...
1
vote
2answers
88 views
When users express irritation in their answers or comments, is this enough reason to flag them as unfriendly?
I have come across questions that became debates and users got evidently irritated in their answers or comments (I am not the one to judge if on good grounds or not). Is this enough reason to flag ...
5
votes
1answer
67 views
When can we use screenshots?
I was very glad to read an ELL question on screenshots and I totally agree. While reading it I tried to guess when the use of screenshots would be actually allowed, but I would really like to read a ...
6
votes
4answers
63 views
Should we change the default suggested tags?
The "Ask Question" form currently suggests tags in the placeholder text: grammar, word-choice, etymology. I would guess that these are the most common tags used.
However, are they the most ...
3
votes
2answers
37 views
Are there any good online services or tools for reading text and catching new words?
For example, I started reading a new book and want to highlight unknown words in it. So this service collects my known words and filters them from the others (unknown), then highlights new words (with ...
0
votes
1answer
17 views
Is there a tool to check whether I'm using the top N most common words
Along the lines of Randall Munroe's tool used to determine whether a word is one of the most common thousand words in English (https://xkcd.com/simplewriter/), I'm wondering if there is a tool that ...
0
votes
1answer
46 views
Apparent missing link to the original question
Article when there is an adjective before a noun
There is a banner saying that this question is already asked some other place but link to that other place is absent.
0
votes
1answer
31 views
The “needs improvement” close reason doesn't contain an option for migration
When I click the "needs improvement" option I don't see any option to migrate to another website. Is this a mistake?
2
votes
4answers
110 views
Are questions about local dialects necessarily “opinion-based”?
Are questions about local dialects necessarily "opinion-based"? (If not, I believe my question was closed without proper justification)
4
votes
1answer
125 views
Single-word requests. The annoying and constant problem of inexactitude
Here's a simple example of the problem:
"What is a word that describes someone who covers the ground quickly"
What's wrong with that? Well we don't know what part of speech is required. We ...
2
votes
0answers
52 views
Are there any resources for 18th and 19th Century English Grammar?
I recently asked a question regarding archaic English grammar and one of the comments recommended that I make a resource request here on the Meta.
I'm looking for any books or websites that ...
8
votes
2answers
193 views
Would “Is 'maiden name' now considered sexist” be off-topic? Can I ask if née replaces it in the same question?
In a comment I wrote
because of the inherent implications of "maiden", these days née is often used instead though it still caries a gender reference, e.g. Sunita Lyn Williams (née Pandya; ...
1
vote
2answers
69 views
Finding snippets on Ngrams before 1800
This is probably off-topic, but recently Ngrams made a schlimmbesserung on their site, and now I cannot find snippets before 1800.
example
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=broadcast&...
3
votes
0answers
82 views
How to avoid an “opinion based” question regarding listening comprehension?
As a non-native English speaker I pronounce "bomb", "climb", "thumb" etc... with a clear B at the end. I know I shouldn't, but it's automatic.
So, I was interested in ...