Comments on: H Is H: August 22-27, 2005

By: linkhyrule5

linkhyrule5 — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 20:41:51 +0000

"Bring" vs. "Take" makes me wonder about bad grammar and grammar police in other languages. For example, in Japanese, kureru means "(you/they/outgroup) give (me/us/ingroup) something", while morau means "(I/we/ingroup) receive something from (you/them/outgroup)". This is if anything more finicky than bring/take, as both of them involve you getting something from someone else. Is this one of the places Japanese people slip up and get snobbishly corrected by gramma nerds on? Or is this super obvious and the real confusions are somewhere else?

By: DanD

DanD — Sat, 12 Dec 2020 17:43:29 +0000

“So I sez to Mabel” etc. apparently originates in the Great Gatsby, as exactly this, a sample of interrupted conversation with no precedent or antecedent. At which point it is much closer to common American English than it is when the Simpsons used it. I’d first heard it in a production of “On the Town”, so it’s been picked up more than once.

By: Waffle Sorter

Waffle Sorter — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 03:18:19 +0000

With the (somewhat dubious) benefit of additional experience, I just want to say about Saturday’s strip:

That’s very prescriptivistic of you in the second panel, gentlemen.

By: Seph

Seph — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 15:49:59 +0000

_I_ enjoy the linguistics jokes.

By: David Harmon (mental_mouse)

David Harmon (mental_mouse) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 22:11:49 +0000

And a bit of foreshadowing... eventually Artie will have a little list. ;-)

By: Tiff Hudson (tiff_hudson)

Tiff Hudson (tiff_hudson) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 22:11:48 +0000

"So I says to Noam, I says..." is pretty much standard English in parts of the county where I grew up. The verb is pronounced, and often spelled, like a Shriner hat.

By: Adam Underfoot (unnatural20)

Adam Underfoot (unnatural20) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 22:11:47 +0000

I can’t be the only person who thinks this whole strip is just adorable. Antonio Smith and Artie’s enthusiasm, Zeta’s crestfallen expression…

By: Leon Arnott (l)

Leon Arnott (l) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 22:11:46 +0000

Saturday:

Silent penultimate panels: 43.

By: Kay Gilbert (kaygilbert)

Kay Gilbert (kaygilbert) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 22:11:45 +0000

tune: "Ten Minutes Ago I Saw You," Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Cinderella, 1957

Ten minutes ago I saw you
I arrived at the grant-awards site
She hoped I would ram her
But fixing her grammar
Has brought us together tonight

Ten minutes ago, I met you
Antonio Smith, how'd you do?
We're talking linguistics
I need some heuristics:
I'm strangely attracted to you

Though you're short and
Almost hairless
You're a man I could talk to all day
Suddenly, I
Want to wear less . . .
Oh, good heavens, I think that I'm gay!

In the bar we discuss Noam Chomsky
As I feel an ever-growing yen
And I like it so well
Even Zeta can tell
She may never get laid again
Unless she sets her sights on stupid men

By: Carl Fishman (carlfishman)

Carl Fishman (carlfishman) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 22:11:44 +0000

@Tiff; Well, until you remember what Artie actually did with his money! At which point big gorillas start to look pretty harmless.