- Why has my question been moved to "English learners"? There's no reason given that I can see.
- What happened to all of the comments, why were some of them removed?
- What exactly was wrong with my question about usage?
Here is a link to the moved question!
Personally, I don't think the two commenters understand my question (as perhaps I didn't explain it correctly), and instead thought I was asking a very simple question when, from my perspective, I was asking about a peculiar usage of the word "how" that I've recently noticed people using and is a usage that I find completely unique. I wanted to know if this usage was common elsewhere, or just where I'd noticed it.
In additions to the above meta-questions, I've written a clarification to my original question. Naturally I should edit this into my original question, but I'd like to leave it untouched until this meta-issue is resolved.
The clarification is between the two breaks. There are some more meta-stuff after it.
I was not asking "How do you use the word 'how'"? I was specifically asking about what I believe to be a unique usage pattern that I've never encountered in my entire life of speaking fluent English. I wanted to know if this usage pattern was in widespread use (e.g. in American English?) or whether it was localised to the specific place I'd observed its apparent common and easy use.
Examples of usage:
- "How is Mastodon live?"
- "How is Winter Voices?"
Which I think I would normally hear phased as:
- "How good are Mastodon live?" / "What are your opinions of Mastodon's live performance?"
- "How much fun is Winter voices" / "What are your opinions of Winter Voices?"
These are questions that are clearly asking for opinions on the given subject.
tchrist and Scott seem to have confused my usage examples with common ones such as "How are you?", which are questions that enquire into someone or something's health.
Here are some examples of the usage they thought I was asking about:
How are you? -> Are you in good health?
How is Jim's car? -> Is the car working OK?
How is Jane? -> Is Jane feeling well?
How is the fire? -> Is the fire lit and burning ok?
Am I mistaken, and these are in fact the same thing, but a usage I've simply never noticed before? I would say no, these are different, as then:
How are Mastodon? -> What is the current state of Mastodon? (aka Are the members of Mastodon feeling well?)
Which is exactly how I read this kind of question when I see "How is Mastodon" in someone's post. Note: This, to me, is different from:
How were Mastodon [last night] -> How well did Mastodon perform last night?
Which is more inline with the normal "health/state" check.
I've never heard the usage of "how is " to enquire about qualities of X other than their "health". Is this usage common in some dialects, or is it a universal thing that I've somehow failed to notice before?
So: Is this an absurd and ridiculous thing to ask? Is this "How is " (which means "What are you opinions on ") usage so common to the moderators involved that they fail to see it as being an interesting and unique phenomenon?
As far as I can tell, all of the definitions and examples given by the following dictionaries support my "status/health" question usage and do not in anyway reference the "opinions on" usage, which to me means it is new?