(L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here [2010-2019]

[Dormouse559]

I could imagine in French "Andrew se croit aimé par tout le monde" (Andrew 3SG.REFL think.3SG love-PST_PTCP by all DEF world), for the reflexive meaning. The idiom "se croire sorti de la cuisse de Jupiter" has an analogous structure.

[eldin raigmore]

"se croire sorti de la cuisse de Jupiter"

"to believe oneself come out from the ass of Jupiter"?

[Dormouse559]

"se croire sorti de la cuisse de Jupiter"

"to believe oneself come out from the ass of Jupiter"?

"the thigh of Jupiter", but otherwise, yes. It means "to be full of oneself; to think one is God's gift". Think Dionysus.

[eldin raigmore]

"to believe oneself come out from the ass of Jupiter"?

"the thigh of Jupiter",

Oops!

but otherwise, yes. It means "to be full of oneself; to think one is God's gift".

That's what I thought!

Think Dionysus.

Thanks!

[GrandPiano]

"to believe oneself come out from the ass of Jupiter"?

"the thigh of Jupiter",

Oops!

Perhaps you were thinking of cul?

[eldin raigmore]

"to believe oneself come out from the ass of Jupiter"?

"the thigh of Jupiter",

Oops!

Perhaps you were thinking of cul?

Yes, I was, GrandPiano.

[Lambuzhao]

se croire sorti du cul de Jupiter....


Seriously, though... which god(dess) sprang from Jove's bum?


Not really all that serious

[GamerGeek]

se croire sorti du cul de Jupiter....


Seriously, though... which god(dess) sprang from Jove's bum?


Not really all that serious

Athena (What's the Roman version?) came from Zeus's head... (Which is close enough... sort of... ...not really...)

I don't think the Greeks knew how this stuff works

[All4Ɇn]

Athena (What's the Roman version?) came from Zeus's head... (Which is close enough... sort of... ...not really...)

I don't think the Greeks knew how this stuff works

Minerva. I was just about to post a similar joke when your post popped up

[Salmoneus]

I don't think the Greeks knew how this stuff works

Physically, Athena was born from the womb of her mother, Metis, just like anyone else. It's just that Zeus had just eaten Metis, and when Metis gave birth the infant got stuck in Zeus' head until she was cut out of it.

Metaphorically, the point is that Zeus' greatest powers of creation are not sexual but intellectual, that he birthed his remodelled world from the thoughts conceived in his own mind. And of course, it should also be remembered that all of Zeus was in Zeus' head, because Zeus was everybody's mind and consisted of nothing but mind.

[fun overlooked fact: it was widely believed by the Greeks that there was only one mind, and everybody had the same mind. The Mind was mystically considered to be Zeus.]

[sangi39]

"The Birth of Athena" as part of "Mythology with Dael Kingsmill", a Geek and Sundry blog

[Trebor]

In natlangs with noun cases and (especially prenominal) relative clauses, are the arguments of the latter ever marked for the former in some special way? For instance:

English: John lost the book. + Nick lent it to him. = John lost the book Nick lent to him.

Hypothetical natlang*: John the book lost. + Nick it to him lent. = John the Nick to him lent book lost.

John.NOM the-ACC Nick-NOM**-ACC lend-PASS.PTCP-ACC-ACC 3SG-ACC-DAT book-ACC lose-3SG-PAST

*SOV is taken as assumed since, AFAIK, it's languages with this word order, plus the SVO Mandarin Chinese, which have prenominal relative clauses.

**If such were possible... maybe through some special case ending or additional use of a preexisting case.

[Lambuzhao]

John the Nick to him lent book lost.

This has the hallmarks of Classical Attic Greek. They sandwiched those types of attributive phrases between the Definite Article and the noun in question :


John the Nick to him lent book lost. ::

Ἰωάννης τò κεχρημένον ὑπò τοῦ Νῑκολᾱ́ου βιβλίον ἀπώλεσεν.
<John>NOM.SG DEF.N.ACC.SG lend<PFT.PASS.PTCP>N.ACC.SG PRP DEF.M.GEN.SG <Nicolas>GEN.SG book.ACC.SG <AOR>lose.AOR.3SG

One could also translate 'to him' with αὐτῷ , but, in context, it seems sort of pleonastic to include IMHO.

Now that I think of it, Ancient also liked to suffix those kinds of phrases after the noun with an additional Definite Article as referant:

Ἰωάννης τò βιβλίον τò κεχρημένον ὑπò τοῦ Νῑκολᾱ́ου ἀπώλεσεν.

<John>NOM.SG DEF.N.ACC.SG book.ACC.SG DEF.N.ACC.SG lend<PFT.PASS.PTCP>N.ACC.SG PRP DEF.M.GEN.SG <Nicolas>GEN.SG <AOR>lose.AOR.3SG

As a futher note, I put the verb at the end of the sentence, making it appear SOV. In Ancient , because of its super-high inflection, word order was relatively free. Thus, ἀπώλεσεν could go immediately before or after Ἰωάννης, as well as at the end of the sentence. I think it might also be able to go right between βιβλίον and the second τò in the second example above.

Such it was in Greekdom of yore.

[GamerGeek]

Is the relative halting of English's phonological development due to linguistic prescriptivism?

[Sumelic]

Is the relative halting of English's phonological development due to linguistic prescriptivism?

I'm not convinced of the premise of this question. How do you know that English phonological development has slowed? What time period are you talking about?

[GamerGeek]

Is the relative halting of English's phonological development due to linguistic prescriptivism?

I'm not convinced of the premise of this question. How do you know that English phonological development has slowed? What time period are you talking about?

Reletive to other languages, English hasn't changed much. (Particularly when it comes to approximants)

[zyma]

Is the relative halting of English's phonological development due to linguistic prescriptivism?

I'm not convinced of the premise of this question. How do you know that English phonological development has slowed? What time period are you talking about?

Reletive to other languages, English hasn't changed much. (Particularly when it comes to approximants)

Source?

[GamerGeek]

Is the relative halting of English's phonological development due to linguistic prescriptivism?

I'm not convinced of the premise of this question. How do you know that English phonological development has slowed? What time period are you talking about?

Reletive to other languages, English hasn't changed much. (Particularly when it comes to approximants)

Source?

Just looking at languages like German and Greek

[zyma]

Is the relative halting of English's phonological development due to linguistic prescriptivism?

I'm not convinced of the premise of this question. How do you know that English phonological development has slowed? What time period are you talking about?

Reletive to other languages, English hasn't changed much. (Particularly when it comes to approximants)

Source?

Just looking at languages like German and Greek

Again, source? Preferably an actual academic source? Also, like Sumelic, I'm curious about what time period you're talking about.

[Parlox]

Does anyone know of a good searchable proto-germanic to english word list?