HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: scafati@incoming.med.ge.com (Victor-charles Scafati 4-6784 MR Srv)
Subject: Re: Is there an actor on the newsgroup?
Organization: GE Medical Systems
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 93 20:25:40 GMT

In article <1jpkh4INNbmu@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu>, rcosby@bcm.tmc.edu (Randy C. Cosby) writes:
|> In article <1993Jan13.191549.26071@cs.nott.ac.uk>, cizrc@unicorn.nott.ac.uk (Roy Candler) writes:
|> > An evening class in Eng Lit/Language is having a problem.  The course
|> > includes the play 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead' by Tom
|> > Stoppard, and we are puzzled by one of the stage directions, which is
|> > 'beat.'  None of us has any theatrical experience and we are, well,
|> > beat.  Can anyone shed some light on the meaning of the word in this
|> > context?  I am assuming it is some kind of standard instruction to the
|> > actors, such as 'pause'.
|>
|> I was a theatre major....
|> 
|> Since the word "beat" was taken out of context, my guess is 
|> that it is used to cause a pause or break....
|> 
|> as in Shakespeare, for those who know it well, there is an
|> understood pause, or beat, midsentence, that goes hand in
|> hand with Iambic Pentameter.  
|> 

This is essentially correct.  However, "beat" as a stage direction is not
used to indicate a proper cadence- an actor should be able to do that
without instruction.  It is used to indicate a comedic or dramatic pause.

Example:

This evening has brained the drains out of me. (beat)  I am so drunk.

or

But why would he have killed his own brother?  (beat)  Unless he didn't
know it was his brother.


"Beat" is used by the playwright to indicate how he or she wants a line
delivered.  When presented with a beat instruction, actors usually
think "Well, no kidding!".  I'm currently doing a show that is littered
with them, and they are all obvious.

-- 
________________________________________________________________________________
                        |     The views expressed herein do not     |    Fear
 Victor-charles Scafati |   necessarily represent the views of the  |     no 
 scafati@mr.med.ge.com  |  author, let alone his employer or client |    Art!
________________________________________________________________________________
From: wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: "Registrating" or "Registration"?
Date: 26 Jan 93 11:29:28 GMT
Distribution: alt
Organization: Oxford University VAX 6620

In article <glen.727736610@cs.wisc.edu>, glen@slate.cs.wisc.edu (Glen Ecklund) writes:
> etxsvkl@garboa03.ericsson.se (Svante Kleist) writes:
> 
>>	imagine that something is registered somewhere, e.g.  a report is
>>	registered at an office.
> 
>>	What do you then call that office?  "The registration office"
>>	or "The registering office"? (I suspect the former being correct.)
> 

You register births, marriages and deaths at the Registry Office. I suppose
there's no reason other than cussedness why that word isn't used of other
offices.
-- 

Stephen Wilcox             |   For Sale: Posts in British Government. Suit
wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk    |   outgoing American. Highest bids accepted.
From: crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: The Second Syllable of "Clinton"
Date: 25 Jan 93 20:21:42 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <1993Jan24.091351.13915@cc.uow.edu.au> boon@cc.uow.edu.au (Boon Chye Lee) writes:

>Watching the inauguration ceremony of Bill Clinton on TV, I was
>struck by how his name is pronounced over there in the US: 
>"Clin-n" as opposed to how it's pronounced here in Australia,
>"Clin-tn".

And then there's how the truly cool folks in Philly say it -- "Clin-TONE!" 





-- 
I can identify with steelworkers.  I can identify with workers that have
had a difficult time.      -- Former Vice-President Danforth Quayle
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lauren Crawford  //  crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: pelton@ecf.toronto.edu (PELTON MATTHEW ALAN)
Subject: Re: Canadian English
Organization: University of Toronto, Engineering Computing Facility
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 00:27:47 GMT

In article <1993Jan23.055835.22666@galileo.cc.rochester.edu> mjhf@troi.cc.rochester.edu (Michael James Horsfall) writes:
>In <AfM4vQW00iUzI4RNRl@andrew.cmu.edu> Matthew Isaak <mi0n+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>
>>Linda Zinn writes:
>>>Example: When I (an American) say, in reference to food, for instance,
>>>"I'm not too fussy about hamburgers," I mean any old burger will do.
>>>When my Canadian fiance says "I'm not too fussy about hamburgers,"
>>>he means he doesn't like hamburgers very much. (This could be compounded
>>>by the fact that he's a first-generation Canadian whose speech is often
>>>flavored by his Scottish heritage.)
>
>>Thank you for pointing this out.  Im a Canadian who lives in Pittsburgh
>>now.  When i say fussy, as in "I'n not too fussy about hamburgers", I
>>mean I dont like hamburgers.  If I wanted to say that any old burger
>>will do, I would say "I'm not too *picky* about hamburgers.  This is
>>general to Canada and not an artefact of your husbands heritage. 
>
>An alternate form I grew up with in Canada was "I'm not too *finicky* about
>hamburgers".

  We all say "I'm not too *crazy* about burgers."



Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: gtoal@pizzabox.demon.co.uk (Graham Toal)
Subject: Re: Query: semiliterate quotation marks
Organization: Cuddlehogs Anonymous
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 11:20:33 GMT

In article <EMCOOP.93Jan22173140@bcars148.bnr.ca> emcoop@bnr.ca (hume smith) writes:
:you have.  short-term memory is all i have so far.  if there's such

That was the point.  A full article on this subject was posted only three
days ago.  Well, four now.  It's probably still in your spool area.  It's
normal net practice to read a group for three or four days before first
posting, just to make sure you have the right feel of the group and don't
dive in with FAQs that are regularly answered.

:desperate need for a FAQ in your opinion, you'd better throw some effort
:into it yourself, instead of blasting the firat innocent trying to
:improve his understanding of the language.

If you'd read what I said you might possibly have concluded that someone
is writing it as we speak... (that point was made last week too)

:this explanation of apostrophe usage was quite new to me.  no-one else
:i've ever mentioned it to had heard of it.  it sounded plausible to me,
:but i wanted some more information before i decided to store it under

The meta-comment about apostrophes being for missing letters was almost
right; the possessive 's is from a case of the language which no longer
exists, a possessive by way of genitive I think.  So John's dog is
from Johnes dog. Or something like that.

G
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: house@helios.usq.EDU.AU (ron house)
Subject: Re: Canadian English
Organization: University of Southern Queensland
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 02:09:15 GMT

mjhf@troi.cc.rochester.edu (Michael James Horsfall) writes:
>"I don't like hamburgers very much" = "I'm not too *fussy* about ..."
>                                    = "I'm not too *crazy* about ..."

>"Just put anything in/on my hamburgers" = "I'm not too *picky* about ..."
>                                        = "I'm not too *finicky* about ..."

Come to Australia:
"I don't like..." = "I'm not fussed..."
"I don't care which..." = "I'm not fussy..."

--

Ron House.                 USQ
(house@helios.usq.edu.au)  Toowoomba, Australia.
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 14:45:32 -0500 
From: Matthew Isaak <mi0n+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Canadian English

Linda Zinn writes:
>Example: When I (an American) say, in reference to food, for instance,
>"I'm not too fussy about hamburgers," I mean any old burger will do.
>When my Canadian fiance says "I'm not too fussy about hamburgers,"
>he means he doesn't like hamburgers very much. (This could be compounded
>by the fact that he's a first-generation Canadian whose speech is often
>flavored by his Scottish heritage.)

Thank you for pointing this out.  Im a Canadian who lives in Pittsburgh
now.  When i say fussy, as in "I'n not too fussy about hamburgers", I
mean I dont like hamburgers.  If I wanted to say that any old burger
will do, I would say "I'm not too *picky* about hamburgers.  This is
general to Canada and not an artefact of your husbands heritage. 
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: etxsvkl@garboa03.ericsson.se (Svante Kleist)
Subject: "Registrating" or "Registration"?
Organization: Ericsson
Distribution: alt
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 09:50:46 GMT

	Hi everybody,

	imagine that something is registered somewhere, e.g.  a report is
	registered at an office.

	What do you then call that office?  "The registration office"
	or "The registering office"? (I suspect the former being correct.)

		

	/Dumb Swede.

Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: baron@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Dennis Baron)
Subject: Re: 3 guesses
Organization: University of Illinois
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 14:51:46 GMT

In article <30722@castle.ed.ac.uk> benha@castle.ed.ac.uk (Ben Hambidge) writes:
>Path: news.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uwm.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!pipex!warwick!uknet!edcastle!benha
>From: benha@castle.ed.ac.uk (Ben Hambidge)
>Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
>Subject: 3 guesses
>Message-ID: <30722@castle.ed.ac.uk>
>Date: 25 Jan 93 11:48:21 GMT
>Organization: Edinburgh University
>Lines: 13
>
>Does anyone know the origin of 'three' in the phrase 'I'll give
>you three guesses'?
>
>Ben.
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Ben Hambidge    |                       |Bread is the staff of life; Toast is
>4 Merchiston Ave| benha@castle.ed.ac.uk |a decadent capitalist luxury.
>EDINBURGH       |-----------------------|------------------------------------ 
>EH10 4NX        |Tel: +44 31 447 4047   |Smile they said, life could be worse.
>U.K.            |                       |So I did, and it was.
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

debaron@uiuc.edu               (\                   217-333-2392
                               \'\             fax: 217-333-4321
Dennis Baron                    \'\           __________
Department of English           / '|         ()_________)
Univ. of Illinois               \ '/          \ ~~~~~~~~ \
608 S. Wright St.                 \             \ ~~~~~~   \
Urbana IL 61801                   ==).            \__________\
                                 (__)             ()__________)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: roger@crux.Princeton.EDU (Roger Lustig)
Subject: Re: Will vs. Shall
Originator: news@nimaster
Reply-To: roger@astro.princeton.edu (Roger Lustig)
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 05:40:10 GMT

In article <1993Jan23.190644.10119@midway.uchicago.edu> djb6@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>Questions about the use of the verb "will" vs. the verb "shall"

>- What's the difference?  Many people in America apparently don't
>know and use "will" in all cases.  My intuitive guess was that 
>"shall" was subjunctive.  Lately I've been told that they are the
>same verb, except that "shall" is used for the first person and
>"will" in other cases.  This sounds correct to me.  Is it true?

In England, more or less.  In America, no, not really.  Some people 
insist on such a standard; but it's not standard American usage.
You might want to check the Usage Note in the AHD3, which points out 
that getting *all* of the complicated English pattern of shalls and
wills right is something that few Americans ever succeed in doing,
and that the distinction you mention above tends to sound mannered.
"Shall" is generally reserved for interrogatives (Shall we dance?)
and a few other things in this country.

>-Can the abbreviation apostrophe l l ('ll) be used to abbreviate
>both "will" and "shall," or just "will"?

Sure.  We'll overcome someday...8-)

Roger
From: briand@tekig5.pen.tek.com (Brian D Diehm)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: discs, was Re: Presently
Date: 22 Jan 93 19:24:07 GMT
Reply-To: briand@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.

>>Anyone here from Germany who votes to change "computer" to "komputer"?
>
>I don't (fwiw). Btw, the korrekt spelling should be "Kompjuter", and all 
>acronyms would have to be changed ("PK"; "Kuh" for "kompjuterunter-
>stuetzte Herstellung"="computer-aided manufacturing")...

Nice rise to the bait, Detlef!

>To my ears, hi-fee sounds ridiculous. Or would anyone in the English-
>speaking world say so??

This is interesting, because the "fi" sound in English is similarly
ridiculous. The word is not pronounced "FI-del-i-tee" where the first
syllable rhymes with "eye." The word is pronounced "fih-DEL-ih-tee"
with a short "I" sound and the accent on the second syllable.

(U.K. usage may differ.)

So, saying "hi-fi" or "hi-fee" equally misrepresents the word being
abbreviated. Neither can be more ridiculous than the other, IMHO.

-Brian
--
Brian Diehm
Tektronix, Inc.                (503) 627-3437         briand@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM
P.O. Box 500, M/S 19-286
Beaverton, OR   97077
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: baron@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Dennis Baron)
Subject: Re: Learning the ropes of "Ins and Outs"
Organization: University of Illinois
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 14:45:03 GMT


>Sorry, but your coworker was correct. "Ins" and "outs"
>are simply plurals of "in" and "out," so there's no 
>need for an apostrophe.
>
-- 
>________________________________________________________________________
>* Linda Zinn                    When you point a finger at someone,    *
>* au500@cleveland.freenet.edu   you're pointing three back at yourself *
>* ******Wanted: Books by E.D.E.N. Southworth; cattail dinnerware****** *

So what do you do with do's and don'ts?

Dennis
--

debaron@uiuc.edu               (\                   217-333-2392
                               \'\             fax: 217-333-4321
Dennis Baron                    \'\           __________
Department of English           / '|         ()_________)
Univ. of Illinois               \ '/          \ ~~~~~~~~ \
608 S. Wright St.                 \             \ ~~~~~~   \
Urbana IL 61801                   ==).            \__________\
                                 (__)             ()__________)
From: G.M.Suddes@newcastle.ac.uk (Gareth Suddes)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Plurals
Date: 27 Jan 93 13:05:18 GMT
Organization: University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, NE1 7RU


 Something I noticed the other day.
 Why is it we often refer to 'nothing' as a plural?

   eg 0 people                0 men
      1 person                1 man
      2 people                2 men
      3 people....            3 men...

Curiously,
Gareth
 ______________________________________________________________________________
(   As the days go by we face the increasing inevitablity that we are alone    )
 \        in a godless, uninhabited, hostile and meaningless universe.        /
  \_____Still, you've got to laugh haven't you?_______G.M.Suddes@ncl.ac.uk___/
From: briand@tekig5.pen.tek.com (Brian D Diehm)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: Words that are Opposites...
Date: 22 Jan 93 02:50:30 GMT
Reply-To: briand@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.

>The verb "to cleave", depending on context, can mean "to split apart" or
>"to cling together".

This is actually incorrect; as someone recently pointed out in this group
(and I believe *everything* I read here!) one of the two opposite meanings
came from a mistranslation in the King James Bible.

>A "fat chance" and a "slim chance" are one and the same.

Well, first came "slim chance" which is straightforward. Then came the
sarcastic variant "fat chance." All you have to have now is for people
to completely forget "slim chance" ever existed, and hey presto, you get...

Ta DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The British usage of the word "quite!"

(I think there's a smiley in there, but I'm not sure which side of the
Atlantic needs it. However, since the Americans only know one meaning,
and the Brits use two "depending on inflection," it could very well be
that way. But really, I'm just pulling tails here.)

-Brian
--
Brian Diehm
Tektronix, Inc.                (503) 627-3437         briand@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM
P.O. Box 500, M/S 19-286
Beaverton, OR   97077
From: LMEBGO@kiera.ericsson.se (Bengt G{llmo, L M Ericsson, Stockholm, Sweden)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: 3 guesses
Date: 28 Jan 1993 02:30:36 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

benha@castle.ed.ac.uk (Ben Hambidge) writes:

>Does anyone know the origin of 'three' in the phrase 'I'll give
>you three guesses'?

Certainly from some fairy-tale or another, I would guess at the 
collection of Arabian ones that is called 'A thousand and one nights',
in some languages.  I don't know what it is called in English. 'Arabian
nights'? 

Of course, 'three' is a universal constant in such contexts.

Bengt 
-- 
Forwarded-By:
Bengt Gallmo                        e-mail: lmebgo@kiera.ericsson.se
Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson    phone:  +46 8 719 1940
S-126 25 STOCKHOLM                  fax:    +46 8 719 3988
SWEDEN

The bad thing about good things is that they usually come to an end.
The good thing about bad things is that they, also, usually come to an end.
From: francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: Have to
Date: 29 Jan 1993 05:11:21 GMT
Organization: Stanford Exploration Project
NNTP-Posting-Host: oas.stanford.edu

John Hall writes:

	Do you pronounce the word "have" differently in the following
	statements?

		I have two apples.

		I have to leave.

This is an interesting situation. The two different "too"s are
irrelevent. I can -- for whatever reason -- put long pauses after
the "have"s, and the HAF/HAV difference remains. I CAN say "I HAV
to leave", but it takes quite an effort, and means something a little
different. Oh yes. I talk received English.

						Phil Log
From: dlytle@OAVAX.CSUCHICO.EDU (Don Lytle)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: The Association for the Study of Play conference
Date: 21 Jan 93 16:31:39 GMT
Reply-To: dlytle@OAVAX.CSUCHICO.EDU
Organization: California State University, Chico
NNTP-Posting-Host: oavax.csuchico.edu

ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS

TASP 1993 - St. Paul, MN
The Association for the Study of Play
April 22 - 24, 1993 % The St. Paul Hotel % St. Paul, Minnesota

       The Association For The Study of Play (TASP) will hold its 1993 annual meetings in St. Paul, Minnesota.  The conference will begin Thursday and continue until Saturday, April 24.  There will be featured speakers, playshops, and forums for the discussion and presentation of research papers on all aspects of play research, theory, performance and behavior.
	TASP conferences traditionally have provided a mechanism by which researchers in diverse fields have the opportunity to share ideas and interact in a friendly and collegial atmosphere.
       Papers and proposals for panel sessions or tutorials related to the broad study of play are invited.  Sessions include, but are not limited to:
 - Humor, laughter
 - Computer and cyperspace play
 - Folklore
 - Children's play behavior
 - Cross-cultural play
 - Body work and play art
 - Performance 
 - Anthropology of festive play
 - Sport
 - Literary playfulness

Deadline for submission of abstracts is February 5, 1993.

Send abstracts (100 word maximum), audio-visual needs, and registration fees ($60 professional and $20 student made payable to TASP) to:

Dr. Don Lytle
Department of Physical Education
California State University, Chico  95929-0330. 
Bitnet/E-Mail: DLYTLE@OAVAX.CSUCHICO.EDU; FAX: 916 898-4932; 
Phone: {916} 898-6617 or 898-6373 {message}/894-5028 {evening}.
From: au500@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Linda Zinn)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: Canadian English
Date: 24 Jan 1993 02:54:27 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: au500@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Linda Zinn)
NNTP-Posting-Host: thor.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, pelton@ecf.toronto.edu (PELTON MATTHEW ALAN) says:

>In article <1993Jan23.055835.22666@galileo.cc.rochester.edu> mjhf@troi.cc.rochester.edu (Michael James Horsfall) writes:
>>In <AfM4vQW00iUzI4RNRl@andrew.cmu.edu> Matthew Isaak <mi0n+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>>
>>>Linda Zinn writes:
>>>>Example: When I (an American) say, in reference to food, for instance,
>>>>"I'm not too fussy about hamburgers," I mean any old burger will do.
>>>>When my Canadian fiance says "I'm not too fussy about hamburgers,"
>>>>he means he doesn't like hamburgers very much. (This could be compounded
>>>>by the fact that he's a first-generation Canadian whose speech is often
>>>>flavored by his Scottish heritage.)
>>
>>>Thank you for pointing this out.  Im a Canadian who lives in Pittsburgh
>>>now.  When i say fussy, as in "I'n not too fussy about hamburgers", I
>>>mean I dont like hamburgers.  If I wanted to say that any old burger
>>>will do, I would say "I'm not too *picky* about hamburgers.  This is
>>>general to Canada and not an artefact of your husbands heritage. 
>>
>>An alternate form I grew up with in Canada was "I'm not too *finicky* about
>>hamburgers".
>
>  We all say "I'm not too *crazy* about burgers."
>

Oh my! Now I'm confused again. Should I assume that in this case *not too
finicky* means the same as *not too picky* (above)? And does *not too crazy*
about them mean you don't like them?

Sheesh, I hope someone points out some of the more important 
differences between Canadian and American shades of meaning before the 
wedding! Am I safe in assuming that *I do* means *I do* in Can-English? 
(I just might be in trouble here.) =:)
-- 
________________________________________________________________________
* Linda Zinn                    When you point a finger at someone,    *
* au500@cleveland.freenet.edu   you're pointing three back at yourself *
* ******Wanted: Books by E.D.E.N. Southworth; cattail dinnerware****** *
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: emcoop@bnr.ca (hume smith)
Subject: Re: Query: semiliterate quotation marks
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
	<1j76rjINNgdd@shelley.u.washington.edu>
	<casseres-180193111944@missmolly.apple.com>
	<1993Jan19.000811.4537@netcom.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 16:36:26 GMT

In article <1993Jan19.000811.4537@netcom.com> mdb@netcom.com (Mark Bisgeier) writes:

   casseres@apple.com (David Casseres) writes:

   >reading "Egg's"...That's no accident of illiteracy...

   You're right -- it's *deliberate* illiteracy!

and you've no idea how much i itch when i see that sort of thing! :-)

this reminds me of something i heard from someone once and i'd like
some sort of confirmation.  i.e.: there is a very simple rule about
when the apostrophe is used - ONLY for contractions - keeping
in mind (and here's the part i'm worried about) that possessives
such as "Doug's" and "the dog's" were, once, long ago, "Doug his" and
"the dog its".

can someone REALLY into the history of the language confirm or
deny this for me?

(BTW - forgive my not capitalising where i should. it's my own little
usenet style.  probably exactly the sort of thing this group hates.)
--
Hume Smith                                Honour sick and davey cris-cross
hume.smith@acadiau.ca                     McTruloff sentimie
emcoop@bnr.ca                             A parsnip inner pair threes.