How to properly express this?

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A student wrote: Apple is a fruit [but the apple in "Adam's apple" has a totally different meaning}.

The teacher remarked: You may remove the square brackets with their content.

What the teacher wanted to express is "to remove all [but the apple in "Adam's apple" has a totally different meaning}" (thus the student's sentence becomes "Apple is a fruit"). Has the teacher clearly conveyed what he intended to express? Should he have said "you may remove the square brackets along with their content"?

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Type: Question • Score: 3 • Views: 1,278 • Replies: 29

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@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

A student wrote: Apple is a fruit [but the apple in "Adam's apple" has a totally different meaning}.

The teacher remarked: You may remove the square brackets with their content.

What the teacher wanted to express is "to remove all [but the apple in "Adam's apple" has a totally different meaning}"
(thus the student's sentence becomes "Apple is a fruit"). Has the teacher clearly conveyed what he intended to express?

Should he have said "you may remove the square brackets along with their content"?

Yes; that 's clearer, but what the teacher wrote is OK.
Note that it begins with a square bracket
and it ends with a French brace, also known as a "curly bracket".

This failure of consistency is sloppy writing,
and it is indicative of sloppy thinking.

David

2 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

oristarA wrote:

A student wrote: Apple is a fruit [but the apple in "Adam's apple" has a totally different meaning}.

The teacher remarked: You may remove the square brackets with their content.

What the teacher wanted to express is "to remove all [but the apple in "Adam's apple" has a totally different meaning}"
(thus the student's sentence becomes "Apple is a fruit"). Has the teacher clearly conveyed what he intended to express?

Should he have said "you may remove the square brackets along with their content"?
Yes; that 's clearer, but what the teacher wrote is OK.
Note that it begins with a square bracket
and it ends with a French brace, also known as a "curly bracket".

This failure of consistency is sloppy writing,
and it is indicative of sloppy thinking.

David

Thank you Dave.

Of course that's "[...]", not "[...}". A typo. Clear in mind, sloppy in hand. Razz

1 Reply

@oristarA,

acknowledged

0 Replies

@oristarA,

You might like to know why the Adam's apple is so called.

Or the Achillies heel.

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Quote:

This failure of consistency is sloppy writing,
and it is indicative of sloppy thinking.

That's rich coming from you, Om, a leader in sloppy thinking when it comes to language.

2 Replies

@McTag,

McTag wrote:

You might like to know why the Adam's apple is so called.

Or the Achillies heel.

Go ahead please.

0 Replies

@JTT,

JTT wrote:

Quote:
This failure of consistency is sloppy writing,
and it is indicative of sloppy thinking.

That's rich coming from you, Om, a leader in sloppy thinking when it comes to language.

I've failed to get the exact meaning of David's reply"acknowledged", JTT. What does it mean?

1 Reply

@JTT,

DAVID wrote:

This failure of consistency is sloppy writing,
and it is indicative of sloppy thinking.

JTT wrote:

That's rich coming from you, Om, a leader in sloppy thinking when it comes to language.

As u know, I don 't take u seriously, J,
any more than a loud dog in the naborhood, in that u cannot reason.

As a general rule, I am rigid in my observation of correct English grammar
because, for the most part but not 1OO%, it bears good fidelity to logic.
There are a few exceptions e.g., the rule against splitting infinitive verbs.
That is unjustified. I disregard it.

David

3 Replies

@oristarA,

It means that I acknowledged what u said, Oristar.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

It means that I acknowledged what u said, Oristar.

David

Thank you Dave.
My dict tells me that "acknowledged" means "accepted". I'm not sure if it is exact.

1 Reply

@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

OmSigDAVID wrote:

It means that I acknowledged what u said, Oristar.

David

Thank you Dave.
My dict tells me that "acknowledged" means "accepted". I'm not sure if it is exact.

Dictionary.com:
1. to admit to be real or true; recognize the existence, truth, or fact of: to acknowledge one's mistakes.
2. to show or express recognition or realization of: to acknowledge an acquaintance by nodding.
3. to recognize the authority, validity, or claims of: The students acknowledged the authority of the student council.
4. to show or express appreciation or gratitude for: to acknowledge a favor.
5. to indicate or make known the receipt of: to acknowledge a letter.

What I had in mind was that I recognized and understood what u said.
That is neither to agree nor to disagree with it,
but merely to say that your statement was received and understood.
For instance, if u said that u voted for obama
and if I acknowledged that, it is to say that I heard what u said
and I understood what u said, not that I agree with your having done such a thing.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

oristarA wrote:

OmSigDAVID wrote:

It means that I acknowledged what u said, Oristar.

David

Thank you Dave.
My dict tells me that "acknowledged" means "accepted". I'm not sure if it is exact.
Dictionary.com:
1. to admit to be real or true; recognize the existence, truth, or fact of: to acknowledge one's mistakes.
2. to show or express recognition or realization of: to acknowledge an acquaintance by nodding.
3. to recognize the authority, validity, or claims of: The students acknowledged the authority of the student council.
4. to show or express appreciation or gratitude for: to acknowledge a favor.
5. to indicate or make known the receipt of: to acknowledge a letter.

What I had in mind was that I recognized and understood what u said.
That is neither to agree nor to disagree with it,
but merely to say that your statement was received and understood.
For instance, if u said that u voted for obama
and if I acknowledged that, it is to say that I heard what u said
and I understood what u said, not that I agree with your having done such a thing.

David

Excellent!

0 Replies

Anyone who thinks "shud" should be pronounced like "should" is guilty of sloppy thinking, not to mention an abysmally poor concept of phonetics. And, whether you think it should be rhymed with "cud" or, as David does, think it should be "should", then neither of those uses would enable "u" alone to be pronounced like "you" as David uses it. David is advocating a system riddled with inconsistency, which is again sloppy thinking.

1 Reply

@MontereyJack,

MontereyJack wrote:

Anyone who thinks "shud" should be pronounced like "should" is guilty of sloppy thinking, not to mention an abysmally poor concept of phonetics. And, whether you think it should be rhymed with "cud" or, as David does, think it should be "should", then neither of those uses would enable "u" alone to be pronounced like "you" as David uses it. David is advocating a system riddled with inconsistency, which is again sloppy thinking.

I respect your right to disagree.
I re-iterate, again, that final polishing of fonetic spelling will be
left to fonetic lexicografers when thay publish their dictionaries.

I will admit to practicing inconsistency for several reasons,
for instance: if I were to convert RIGHT to rite,
I 'd encroach upon another extant word with a different definition (meaning ceremony).

In addition, I 've been inconsistent in an effort to avoid over-doing
fonetic spelling by causing too much inconvenience in the minds of readers
who DON 'T wish to read a fully alien new language.

VICTORY is INEVITABLE !

David

0 Replies

English orthography is lacking in regard to phonetic spelling. There are something like fifteen different vowel sounds in a typical American dialect, yet there are only seven letters that represent vowel sounds in the alphabet.

Another problem with attempts at phonetic spelling is differences of dialect, and deciding which to use as the basis of a phonetic spelling.

1 Reply

@InfraBlue,

InfraBlue wrote:

English orthography is lacking in regard to phonetic spelling.
There are something like fifteen different vowel sounds in a typical American dialect,
yet there are only seven letters that represent vowel sounds in the alphabet.

There r long and short vowel pronunciations.

InfraBlue wrote:

Another problem with attempts at phonetic spelling is differences of dialect,
and deciding which to use as the basis of a phonetic spelling.

Thay shud use the most popular one; fortunately, that 's mine.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

You sound like a broken record, Om - same ole same ole stories. Tell us about how you were seduced by a New York judge.

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Quote:

As a general rule, I am rigid in my observation of correct English grammar because, for the most part but not 1OO%, it bears good fidelity to logic

You're rigid in your observation of English because you, like every other native speaker, learned the rules of grammar by the time you were about five years of age.

Quote:

There are a few exceptions e.g., the rule against splitting infinitive verbs. That is unjustified. I disregard it.

Most of these rules that you think you know aren't even rules. You disregard the nonsense rule above because it's just that, a nonsense rule. And it's the same with all the other "rules" that you have put forward, mistakenly believing that you follow logic.

If you put your mind to it, you probably could figure out one or two of the actual rules of English but so far you've shown little to no ability in that regard.

You've never addressed that one topic despite all the promises. You've taken this path because you know that you know little about the grammar of English.

1 Reply

@JTT,

In JTT's delusions & hallucinations, he imagines
that HE knows what I know.

He dreams of himself being a telepathic mind reader.

1 Reply

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