Re: "Frustrated by the programme marginalising her sexuality."
Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 6:26 pm
A group for contestants and lovers of the Channel 4 game show 'Countdown'.
http://www.c4countdown.co.uk/
I always thought that Gary Glitter was indiscriminate.
I wonder if I was the only one who read "shocking" as meaning that Glitter had come out gayer than Charlie (you know, what with all this recent 'evidence')Ian Volante wrote:Another shocking result:
http://www.whichisgayer.com/compare/cha ... ry+glitter
Doesn't mean we have to stop though, does it?Phil Reynolds wrote:Just a hunch here, but I'm guessing Charlie felt this joke had already worn rather thin about six hours ago.
When did you last see it? Try looking in the last place you remember having it. If it's not there, call the police. Alternatively, PM me your home address and credit card details and I'll arrange for a new one to be sent to you.Dinos Sfyris wrote:It seems I've completely lost my gay edge
Phil Reynolds wrote:Well, it did use to be a capital offence...Chris Corby wrote:I love the way George writes 'homosexuality' in the middle of a sentence as 'Homosexuality' - as in 'God'
Is what a mistake where? I'm not immune to making mistakes (though it's nice to know I have a reputation for infallibility), but having re-read those particular nine words of mine several times, they seem fine to me. It does seem a bit perverse to say "is that a mistake" without actually giving some clue as to what you're talking about.Lesley Jeavons wrote:Oh blimey, sorry Phil, can't resist, but is that a mistake there?
Hmm, shall I? Yeah.Pink Paper wrote:Countdown is no stranger to controversy. Last year mainstay presenter Carol Vorderman was sensationally fired following the sudden death of original compere, Richard Whitely.
I think that you possibly did use the wrong tense.Phil Reynolds wrote:Is what a mistake where? I'm not immune to making mistakes (though it's nice to know I have a reputation for infallibility), but having re-read those particular nine words of mine several times, they seem fine to me. It does seem a bit perverse to say "is that a mistake" without actually giving some clue as to what you're talking about.Lesley Jeavons wrote:Oh blimey, sorry Phil, can't resist, but is that a mistake there?
If you mean by dropping the d of "used to" when used in a clause with "did" (either for emphasis, as in my case, or to form a question or a negative - "did you use to...?", "I didn't use to..."), then not according to this and numerous other sources. Most authorities seem to fall into one of two camps: the majority say that "did use to" is correct, while a significant minority say that either "did use to" or "did used to" is acceptable in informal English, but formal writers should try to avoid using either.Brian Moore wrote:I think that you possibly did use the wrong tense.
Yes, interesting thread, thanks Phil. I'd be in the used camp, as it were, but only through usage, not through any logical linguistic reasoning. I'd guess that it was that to which Lesley was referring anyway. I think I'll just avoid the phrase now out of pure paranoia. It wasn't one of my favourites in any case, so I won't miss it.Phil Reynolds wrote:If you mean by dropping the d of "used to" when used in a clause with "did" (either for emphasis, as in my case, or to form a question or a negative - "did you use to...?", "I didn't use to..."), then not according to this and numerous other sources. Most authorities seem to fall into one of two camps: the majority say that "did use to" is correct, while a significant minority say that either "did use to" or "did used to" is acceptable in informal English, but formal writers should try to avoid using either.Brian Moore wrote:I think that you possibly did use the wrong tense.
There is an interesting (well, relatively interesting) discussion about it here.
It was, as we have subsequently confirmed by PM.Brian Moore wrote:I'd guess that it was that to which Lesley was referring anyway.
If nothing else, I am delighted to have discovered (via the second link I posted) that "used to" is "a defective quasimodal verb", a phrase I shall lose no time in dropping into conversation at the Cricketers' Arms.I think I'll just avoid the phrase now out of pure paranoia.
That catchy terminology caught my eye too. It's just the setting up of the conversation so that one can casually use it that's going to need some planning .... I just hope no-one asks me to explain the difference between a quasimodal verb and a defective quasimodal verb.Phil Reynolds wrote:If nothing else, I am delighted to have discovered (via the second link I posted) that "used to" is "a defective quasimodal verb", a phrase I shall lose no time in dropping into conversation at the Cricketers' Arms.
Careful! In this thread you are liable to be accused of quasimodo-phobia.Brian Moore wrote:I just hope no-one asks me to explain the difference between a quasimodal verb and a defective quasimodal verb.
So far as I am aware, "use" is perfectly normal, but "used to" only refers to the past so it is defective in that you can't say "I will have used to". Well, you could say it, just as you could say "he wants to can", but it wouldn't be considered correct.Charlie Reams wrote:Normally a defective verb is one which has missing inflections, e.g. there is no infinitive of "can" (so you can't say "he wants to can to swim", you have to say "he wants to be able to swim.") But "use" doesn't seem to fit this. Can anyone clarify?
What Rosemary said. The forum I posted a link to seems (uniquely among Internet forums, it would appear) to be populated exclusively, and somewhat scarily, by people who know what they are talking about. As someone called Travis explains:Charlie Reams wrote:Normally a defective verb is one which has missing inflections, e.g. there is no infinitive of "can" (so you can't say "he wants to can to swim", you have to say "he wants to be able to swim.") But "use" doesn't seem to fit this. Can anyone clarify?
It's worth a read if you're that interested."Used to" seems to be a defective quasimodal verb; unlike other quasimodal forms, such as "have to" and "need to", it lacks a present form, and only has a preterite/past participle form ("used to") and an infinitive form ("use to").
Although I'm not even in the foothills of understanding linguistics (I probably haven't even got out of the airport), I think I've worked out why "I did use to ..." sounds so strange to me. I think it's because I'm hearing the whole "I used to ....." construction as a type of past tense, being neither finished ("I farted"), nor ongoing at the time ("I was farting"), but implying a past ongoing habit that has now stopped ("I used to fart"). If that is the case, neither "I did use to fart" nor "I did used to fart" makes any more sense than "I did farted" or "I did was farting". All of which proves nothing more than how little I know, as people do say "I did use(d) to ....". I think I'll read Phil's link again, even if only for the thrill of the 'defective quasimodal verb' reference.Gavin Chipper wrote:I haven't read all of that but my understanding was that "I used to" is "standard" and fine, "I did use to" isn't "standard" but is quite common and "I did used to" is just weird.
I think when people say "I did use(d) to" they probably still are referring to an ongoing act in the past, but I think it often happens accidentally. Sometimes I find myself in a sentence that just goes that way, although I would never intentionally construct a sentence that went "I did use to". What happens if you find yourself in this conversation:Brian Moore wrote:Although I'm not even in the foothills of understanding linguistics (I probably haven't even got out of the airport), I think I've worked out why "I did use to ..." sounds so strange to me. I think it's because I'm hearing the whole "I used to ....." construction as a type of past tense, being neither finished ("I farted"), nor ongoing at the time ("I was farting"), but implying a past ongoing habit that has now stopped ("I used to fart"). If that is the case, neither "I did use to fart" nor "I did used to fart" makes any more sense than "I did farted" or "I did was farting". All of which proves nothing more than how little I know, as people do say "I did use(d) to ....". I think I'll read Phil's link again, even if only for the thrill of the 'defective quasimodal verb' reference.Gavin Chipper wrote:I haven't read all of that but my understanding was that "I used to" is "standard" and fine, "I did use to" isn't "standard" but is quite common and "I did used to" is just weird.
Brilliant.David Roe wrote:I think Kate's sexuality has been thoroughly marginalised by now!
I think you're right. But it's just a hunch.Rosemary Roberts wrote:Careful! In this thread you are liable to be accused of quasimodo-phobia.Brian Moore wrote:I just hope no-one asks me to explain the difference between a quasimodal verb and a defective quasimodal verb.
What's so special about French that the verb for "to rain" is only used in the third person singular? Surely that's true in any language, including English.Martin Gardner wrote:I didn't even know that there were defective verbs in English, now I do.
Seems a bit odd to me as well. You might want to say poetically "I was the sky and I rained", which apparently you just can't say in French.Phil Reynolds wrote:What's so special about French that the verb for "to rain" is only used in the third person singular? Surely that's true in any language, including English.Martin Gardner wrote:I didn't even know that there were defective verbs in English, now I do.
True story: I once made a tit of myself at a wedding reception in France by confusing "pleuvoir" with "pleurer", so instead of asking whether it was likely to rain, I ended up asking the groom's mother if she thought he'd be crying later. How we laughed.
I don't speak French, apart from the few rusty words left over from my schooldays, but a few years ago - presumably when a woman was first appointed to a professorship at a French university - I remember seeing a lot of fuss about the contrived construction "elle est belle, le professeur", which sexist academia preferred to coining a word like "professeuse". So at a push they might be willing to construct something like "moi, il pleuvait". (E&OE)Charlie Reams wrote:You might want to say poetically "I was the sky and I rained", which apparently you just can't say in French.
True. Or perhaps, and (arguably) more plausibly: "My opponent thought he'd surged into the lead with ORCHESTRA for 9 but I rained on his parade by equalling him with CARTHORSE."Charlie Reams wrote:You might want to say poetically "I was the sky and I rained"
Basically yes. Same in Spanish as well I think. And professeure is now the somewhat theoretical feminine form of professeur. It's really a back formation from la prof as people use le prof as la prof.Phil Reynolds wrote:True. Or perhaps, and (arguably) more plausibly: "My opponent thought he'd surged into the lead with ORCHESTRA for 9 but I rained on his parade by equalling him with CARTHORSE."Charlie Reams wrote:You might want to say poetically "I was the sky and I rained"
So Martin, are you saying that idioms like the above are actually impossible in French because the first and second person forms simply don't exist?
I confused the very near homophones se tromper and se tremper once. Instead of saying I made a mistake, I said "I soaked myself". Julian could confirm this, other than the fact he doesn't read anymore.Phil Reynolds wrote:What's so special about French that the verb for "to rain" is only used in the third person singular? Surely that's true in any language, including English.Martin Gardner wrote:I didn't even know that there were defective verbs in English, now I do.
True story: I once made a tit of myself at a wedding reception in France by confusing "pleuvoir" with "pleurer", so instead of asking whether it was likely to rain, I ended up asking the groom's mother if she thought he'd be crying later. How we laughed.
Aw Phil, you've outed my ignorance!Phil Reynolds wrote:It was, as we have subsequently confirmed by PM.Brian Moore wrote:I'd guess that it was that to which Lesley was referring anyway.
If nothing else, I am delighted to have discovered (via the second link I posted) that "used to" is "a defective quasimodal verb", a phrase I shall lose no time in dropping into conversation at the Cricketers' Arms.I think I'll just avoid the phrase now out of pure paranoia.
Just read the link.Phil Reynolds wrote:There is an interesting (well, relatively interesting) discussion about it here.
I guess this has been my solution too, seeing as how this use of use / used is new to me. I'm likely to have writen "did used to" in my time, felt it didn't sound right, so restructured the sentence.""Did used to" is also considered non-standard English. In a formal document, I would avoid it -- but not by using "did use to" instead. Rather, I would prefer to reword it altogether and avoid the problem. Anyway, despite its non-standard status, "did used to" appears to be much more common, and it's the form that looks more natural to me. I think it's OK to use it in colloquial writing, but that's only my opinion. "
Yes, "to be" is the only verb in English which has a distinct subjunctive, so most of the time you can just ignore it. It's used to denote a kind of uncertainty or hypotheticality, e.g. "If he were to win, he would be the greatest ever."Hannah O wrote:This all makes sense! Now that we're onto grammar, a quick question- does English still have a subjunctive? If so, how/when do you use it? In some languages it has a definite use, e.g. in French to express doubt, but is there something similar in English? Someone tried to use it in English and I believe they came up with something like "If I were you" and various sentences involving substitutions of the correct form of "to be". In fact, now I've mentioned an infinitive, it makes me think of other languages- why is it that in various foreign languages their infinitives are one word, e.g. "avoir" meaning to be, yet in English we always use two words, e.g. "to play"? Does it seem slightly unwieldy in comparison?
Don't we also use the subjunctive in a similar way to the French use of 'falloir' - as in "il faut qu'il finisse..." ("it is necessary that he finish...")? It always strikes me odd that the subjunctive is used in such apparently contrasting ways - to denote both uncertainty and obligation. I think that sometimes I deliberately don't use subjunctive formulations in informal speech because of the danger of sounding like a pedantic prat, even if, deep down, I really am one. I guess that I do use the "were" formulation, though, from time to time - I rather like it, and it doesn't sound too prattish, IMHO.Charlie Reams wrote:Yes, "to be" is the only verb in English which has a distinct subjunctive, so most of the time you can just ignore it. It's used to denote a kind of uncertainty or hypotheticality, e.g. "If he were to win, he would be the greatest ever."
I answered this here.Hannah O wrote:This all makes sense! Now that we're onto grammar, a quick question- does English still have a subjunctive? If so, how/when do you use it? In some languages it has a definite use, e.g. in French to express doubt, but is there something similar in English? Someone tried to use it in English and I believe they came up with something like "If I were you" and various sentences involving substitutions of the correct form of "to be". In fact, now I've mentioned an infinitive, it makes me think of other languages- why is it that in various foreign languages their infinitives are one word, e.g. "avoir" meaning to be, yet in English we always use two words, e.g. "to play"? Does it seem slightly unwieldy in comparison?