HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener)
Subject: Re: Collecting Funny Mistranslations
Reply-To: gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 03:19:08 GMT

In article <C0pK6n.LFs@vcd.hp.com> dmunroe@vcd.hp.com (Dave Munroe) writes:
>Linda Zinn writes:
>
>	"Congratulations on your purchase of our 9600 bps modem..."

Another common phrase in English instruction manuals might be something
like "Thank you for purchasing our 9600 baud modem."

>the foreign translator, thinking in his own language, but using our words,
>might begin with:
>
>	"Please enjoy rapidly moving data with this modem..."

I find that Japanese-translated manuals use "Please" a little too much, such
as in:

	"To select autofocus mode, please move the switch to the right."

Most native English speakers in writing the above would probably omit the
please, since you're not insisting that anyone do anything.


--
Gabe Wiener - Columbia Univ.     "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings 
gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu       to be seriously considered as a means of 
N2GPZ in ham radio circles        communication. The device is inherently of
72355,1226 on CI$                 no value to us." -Western Union memo, 1877
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: roger@crux.Princeton.EDU (Roger Lustig)
Subject: Re: Person
Originator: news@nimaster
Reply-To: roger@astro.princeton.edu (Roger Lustig)
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 04:32:07 GMT

In article <12283@sorley.ed.ac.uk> iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski) writes:
>In article <1993Jan7.151439.19910@Princeton.EDU> roger@astro.princeton.edu (Roger Lustig) writes:
>>In article <hayesstw.161.726389345@risc1.unisa.ac.za> hayesstw@risc1.unisa.ac.za (Steve Hayes) writes:
>>>"thpic" [...] is an acronym for "the human person in community", 
>>>which is what I normally understand, and mean, by "man".

>>Yeah.  "A man walks down the street."  You don't think gender?  Most of
>>us do, and Paul Simon certainly expected us to.  

>So what should one say, Mr Lustig?  "A person walks down the street"?

Paul Simon was speaking of a specific man, one he proceeded to describe 
further.  "Man" is correct.  

>"A human being walks down the street"?  You still don't think sex (I
>take it that's what "gender" was meant to mean)?  I mean, if I'm made
>to visualise a (yet unspecified) human being (even if the word "man"
>hasn't been used), I'll certainly have to attribute to him a sex, age,
>skin colour, approximate appearance and much else.  I can't visualise
>him otherwise.  But, of course, since all those assignments will be
>arbitrary, I'll be prepared to cancel any of them.

Exactly.  You would seem to be agreeing with me -- the poster I was
responding to claimed that he would *not* think of a male when 
presented with that sentence or one like it.

>That being said, "man" in "A man walks down the street" may have to
>mean a male (adult) human.  But it also may not.  With no context, it
>is difficult to say which one.  Sorry, I'm not too well acquainted
>with P Simon.

You should be; his song lyrics have gotten quite strange lately.  
(He's the only songwriter I know who could get away with a phrase,
utterly unexplained, like "Ever since the watermelon."  That's from
"The Myth of Fingerprints," a song on the same album -- _Graceland_ --
as "You can Call Me Al", whose first line is the above.)

Roger
From: roger@crux.Princeton.EDU (Roger Lustig)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: ``Functionality''
Date: 12 Jan 93 04:52:20 GMT
Reply-To: roger@astro.princeton.edu (Roger Lustig)
Distribution: alt
Organization: Princeton University
Originator: news@nimaster

In article <1993Jan12.043809.7417@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> sborders@nyx.cs.du.edu (Scott Borders) writes:
>briand@tekig5.pen.tek.com (Brian D Diehm) writes:

>>>"Functionality" is merely the noun form of the adjective "functional."

>>And what ever happened to "function"? Is that an outdated modality?

>"Function" is a noun.
>"Functional" is an adjective derived from "function".
>"Functionality" is (unfortunately) a noun derived from "functional".

>What's next, an adjective derived from "functionality"?  And yet 
>another useless noun derived from that adjective?  Have we invented
>linguistic ping-pong yet?

Long, long ago.  Long before "service" and "reverence" became verbs.

There's a hill in England called Torpenhow Hill.  Tor, Pen, How, and 
Hill all mean the same thing in four languages.  At different times 
the place was called Tor, Torpen, and Torpenhow.

Roger
From: smk@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Stefan Kahrs)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: Back from the UK
Date: 11 Jan 93 16:40:44 GMT
Distribution: alt
Organization: University of Edinburgh, LFCS

In article <30023@castle.ed.ac.uk> benha@castle.ed.ac.uk (Ben Hambidge) writes:
[...]
>   In British English, quite can have two meanings. The main one, similar
>   to 'ziemlich' in German, is the one Gabe came across, meaning 'fairly'
>   or 'a bit' challenging. However, we do sometimes use quite to mean
>   'completely', as seems to be the standard US usage.

German 'ziemlich' is a bit closer to 'rather',
it can even be used for understatements.

British English 'quite' seems to me quite closely related to German 'durchaus'
or 'recht'.  For example, the last sentence translates nicely into German as:
"'Quite' im Britschen Englisch scheint mir recht nahe verwandt
zum Deutschen 'durchaus' oder 'recht'."
Similarly, if something is "quite challenging" in British English,
then it is "durchaus eine Herausforderung" in
German --- "eine ziemliche Herausforderung" would be too strong here;
"eine rechte Herausforderung" is correct too, but a bit old-fashioned.

--
Stefan Kahrs
From: sngoetze@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Sebastian Goetze)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: Comments in source code
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 20:12:09 GMT
Organization: CSD., University of Erlangen
NNTP-Posting-Host: faui00d.informatik.uni-erlangen.de

In <1992Dec29.191042.13088@news2.cis.umn.edu> charlie@umnstat.stat.umn.edu (Charles Geyer) writes:

>In article <1992Dec29.060209.17732@g2syd.genasys.com.au>
>roberts@g2syd.genasys.com.au (Robert Swan) writes:
 [deleted]
>>Who are `we'.  Me and my program?  Me and the other programmers?
>>The royal we (since I am creator of the universe in my program,
>>I suppose I could put on royal airs)?

>I venture a guess that it's the influence of hackish.  From the Jargon File

>   Semantically, one rich source of jargon constructions is the hackish
>   tendency to anthropomorphize hardware and software.  This isn't done in
>   a na"ive way; hackers don't personalize their stuff in the sense of
>   feeling empathy with it, nor do they mystically believe that the things
>   they work on every day are `alive'.  What *is* common is to hear
>   hardware or software talked about as though it has homunculi talking to
>   each other inside it, with intentions and desires.  Thus, one hears "The
>   protocol handler got confused", or that programs "are trying" to do
>   things, or one may say of a routine that "its goal in life is to X".
>   One even hears explanations like "...  and its poor little brain
>   couldn't understand X, and it died."  Sometimes modelling things this
>   way actually seems to make them easier to understand, perhaps because
>   it's instinctively natural to think of anything with a really complex
>   behavioral repertoire as `like a person' rather than `like a thing'.

>This suggests the "we" is all those little homunculi.

>-- 
>Charles Geyer

I agree. When I'm writing programs, "we" is usually me and the machine...

Sebastian
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: sue@netcom.com (Sue Miller)
Subject: Re: New light on the apostrophe
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 18:42:06 GMT

In article <20231.2b4aa5bc@ul.ie> mckeonj@ul.ie writes:
>If the apostrophe ('s) is a contraction for "his", should it
>not be suppressed from written usage on sexist grounds?
>Such a suppression would certainly make life easier for
>our less literate brothers.
>-- 

You're going to wear yourself out with all this swinging at
nothing.


Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: evan@hpl.hp.com (Evan Kirshenbaum)
Subject: Re: chaps
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 23:11:43 GMT
Reply-To: kirshenbaum@hpl.hp.com
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories

In article <38161@uflorida.cis.ufl.edu> djohns@elm.circa.ufl.edu (David A. Johns) writes:
>In article <1993Jan4.183114.6696@hplabsz.hpl.hp.com> evan@hpl.hp.com (Evan Kirshenbaum) writes:
>
># I'm a big fan of women's basketball, and its quite common to refer
># to the other team as "these guys" or "those guys".
>
>Hmmm.  I can do that too, but it's kind of a special case, I'd say.
>
>At a party, could you say "Ask the guys out on the porch if they want
>to order a pizza" if you knew only women were on the porch?

I said "the guys" worked a little differently.  If I knew that the
group was all female, I probably wouldn't say it.

>How about
>"See if those guys want to kick in on a Christmas party" at the
>office, pointing at two women?

Perfectly acceptable and likely my first choice.

>These don't work for me, and I don't think I've ever heard them.  But
>it wouldn't surprise me if "guys" were progressing in that direction.
>I distinctly remember the shock of hearing "you guys" for the first
>time in my life when I went away to college in 1959, so apparently the
>town I grew up in, in Massachusetts, wasn't using it at that time.

This may just be a historical change.  It has always been part of my
dialect, but I wasn't born until 1964.  It might also be regional (I
grew up in Chicago).  My father (b. 1943, Chicago) uses it, but I
don't know he used it that way as a kid.  I think he's also is more
likely to mark all-female groups.  (Interestingly, he (and his father,
come to think of it) use "gals" for all-female groups, whereas my
generation uses "girls".)

Evan Kirshenbaum		       +------------------------------------
    HP Laboratories		       | Feeling good about government is like
    3500 Deer Creek Road, Building 26U | looking on the bright side of any
    Palo Alto, CA  94304	       | catastrophe.  When you quit looking
				       | on the bright side, the catastrophe
    kirshenbaum@hpl.hp.com	       | is still there.
    (415)857-7572		       |                   P.J. O'Rourke
From: briand@tekig5.pen.tek.com (Brian D Diehm)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: ``Functionality''
Date: 12 Jan 93 19:17:24 GMT
Reply-To: briand@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM
Distribution: alt
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.

>>>"Functionality" is merely the noun form of the adjective "functional."
>
>>And what ever happened to "function"? Is that an outdated modality?
>
>"Function" is a noun.
>"Functional" is an adjective derived from "function".
>"Functionality" is (unfortunately) a noun derived from "functional".
>
>What's next, an adjective derived from "functionality"?  And yet 
>another useless noun derived from that adjective?  Have we invented
>linguistic ping-pong yet?

Thank you! Somebody picked up on my point. Roger was so busy name calling
that he missed it entirely.

The next step is no doubt "functionality-ness." Eventually, as it comes
into common usage, the hyphen will be dropped.

Yes, functionality does have a slightly different meaning from function.
But, can the meaning be better expressed (more simply) using existing terms?
Others here have demonstrated just that.

Sure, language can evolve over time, and sure, it is a living thing. But
really, folks, is it right to perform continual genetic engineering on it?
For no good reason other than ignorance and laziness? Jive "happens," but that
doesn't mean we need to seek it out, or contribute to it.

-Brian

P.S. to Roger - Musicologists can have tin ears, too. Even in music, though
I didn't accuse you of that. I know how your ear is in linguistics, can you
share with us some of your music so we can judge that too? ;-}
--
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: ytsuji@cfi.waseda.ac.jp ("Y.Tsuji")
Subject: Re: Back from the UK
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: zoo.cfi.waseda.ac.jp
Organization: Shagaku, WASEDA University, Tokyo
Distribution: alt
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 00:28:40 GMT

In article <CANNAM.93Jan11110601@borodin.sc.ZIB-Berlin.de> Cannam@sc.ZIB-Berlin.de (Chris Cannam) writes:
>
>In article <1993Jan11.020701.9391@news.columbia.edu> gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener) writes:
>
>   d) The word "quite"
>
>[...]
>
>   I would say that something "quite challenging" is more challenging
>   than something "challenging," and something "quite easy" is easier
>   than something "easy."
>
>But you do get `oh, *quite*' as an interjection to show complete
>agreement, and in the north east of England (which is where I come
>from) you get `fairly' used colloquially something like the US
>`quite'.  ("It's fairly difficult" -> "It's very difficult")
>
>							Chris
Oh please stop driving me mad. It took me years to learn that when 'quite'
precedes an adjective of digital type (e.g. right, correct) it means
completely and when it precedes one of analog type (e.g. good) it means
'fairly' (i.e. your English is quite good is a very bad assessment).
 Now, 'fairly' means otherwise in some part of the country!! Learning
English is either a torture or a fun. It is both to me.

Cheers,
Dr Yoshimasa Tsuji,
Tokyo
-- 
				
				ytsuji@cfi.waseda.ac.jp
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: nadeau@bnr.ca (Rheal Nadeau)
Subject: Re: Left field
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd., Ottawa
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 93 20:52:32 GMT

In article <dolonsgh.726504060@unix1.tcd.ie> dolonsgh@unix1.tcd.ie (D.) writes:
>What exactly does the expression "Out of left field" mean?
>What is its origin?

I've heard "out in left field", to mean someone is out of it, and "out
of the blue" for something unexpected, but I don't remember hearing
"out of left field".

I'd be interested in knowing which of these expressions are familiar to
people (I may just have got it wrong).

       The Rhealist - nadeau@bnr.ca - Speaking only for myself
From: wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Concertise: I give up
Date: 8 Jan 93 17:25:52 GMT
Organization: Oxford University VAX 6620

Many of you will no doubt recall the anguished gnashings of teeth we had last
year about the word `concertize' (or `concertise'). I asserted that it was not
a British word, nor even an English word if it comes to that. I hereby 
announce that I was wrong. Unfortunately. David Mellor, former British Minister
of Heritage (everything from music to old buildings) in his Guardian column
today used it of the new Scottish Opera Orchestra, formed by an amalgamation of
the BBC Scottish Orchestra and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera. As well as
accompanying opera, it will apparently also record and concertise. I still
think the word's ugly, though.
-- 

Stephen Wilcox             |   For Sale: Posts in British Government. Suit
wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk    |   outgoing American. Highest bids accepted.
From: TSOS@uni-duesseldorf.de (Detlef Lannert)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: Concertise: I give up
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 12:38:46 GMT
Organization: Universitaetsrechenzentrum, Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet, Duesseldorf
NNTP-Posting-Host: lannert.rz.uni-duesseldorf.de
Summary: Don't give up; the explanation is simple.

In article <1993Jan8.172552.11170@vax.oxford.ac.uk> wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:

>Many of you will no doubt recall the anguished gnashings of teeth we had last
>year about the word `concertize' (or `concertise'). I asserted that it was not
>a British word, nor even an English word if it comes to that. I hereby 
>announce that I was wrong. Unfortunately. David Mellor, former British Minister
>of Heritage (everything from music to old buildings) in his Guardian column
>today used it of the new Scottish Opera Orchestra, formed by an amalgamation of
>the BBC Scottish Orchestra and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera. As well as
>accompanying opera, it will apparently also record and concertise. I still
>think the word's ugly, though.

After considering and rejecting many other possibilities, I arrive at the 
following two conclusions:

(a) Retired British Ministers read usenet.news; in particular a.u.e.
    (Of course the volume of a.u.e makes it impossible for them to do 
    this during their active time in the government. Gee, I know what 
    I'm talking about ...)

(b) Roger has convinced at least one (British) person of the usefulness 
    of the term "to concertise/-ize".

Congratulations to both: to David for a good idea how to spend his 
leisure time, to Roger for the successful plea.
--
Detlef Lannert      DC3EK      E-Mail: tsos@rz.uni-duesseldorf.de
"Gedanken sind nicht stets parat,
man schreibt auch, wenn man keine hat."             Wilhelm Busch
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: baron@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Dennis Baron)
Subject: Re: Re:K Street
Organization: University of Illinois
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 15:15:18 GMT

How about Tobacco Road?
Tin Pan Alley?
Grub Street?
Basin Street?


and what's the alley Eliot mentions -- Fish Alley comes to mind
but doesn't sound quite right -- anybody got the quotation in
their (sic) head?  I used to know these things.

--
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: mckeonj@ul.ie
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: New light on the apostrophe
Date: 6 Jan 93 09:26:20 GMT
Organization: University of Limerick, Ireland

If the apostrophe ('s) is a contraction for "his", should it
not be suppressed from written usage on sexist grounds?
Such a suppression would certainly make life easier for
our less literate brothers.
-- 
"Ich am of Irlonde" (medieval fragment used by Yeats)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
John McKeon, Material Science Dept. University of Limerick, Ireland
Xref: sparky alt.timewasters:23 alt.tla:36
From: kxj6@po.CWRU.Edu (Kijin Jung)
Newsgroups: alt.timewasters,alt.tla
Subject: test
Date: 10 Jan 1993 19:06:46 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: kxj6@po.CWRU.Edu (Kijin Jung)
NNTP-Posting-Host: thor.ins.cwru.edu


testing, testing, 1,2,3
-- 
 __ Kijin Jung ________________________ To affect the quality of the day, __
|   kxj6@po.cwru.edu                 |  that is the highest of the arts.    |
|   Case Western Reserve University  |                                      |
|__ (216) 754-1101 __________________|________________________ -Thoreau ____|
From: tonyz@hpwrce.mayfield.hp.com (Tony Zugates)
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 00:28:11 GMT
Subject: stripes
Organization: the HP Mtn.View Resp. Cntr.
Newsgroups: alt.autos.antique

I own a 65 porsche 356SC.. the speedometer has some vertical stripes
starting at about 20 mph and ending at about 35 mph... I have the original
owners manual but I can find nothing that references these stripes...
there are about 3 of these vertical stripes next to each other...

Anyone know what these mean?

Thanks, all.

Newsgroups: alt.autos.antique
From: sehari@iastate.edu (Babak Sehari)
Subject: What new innovation, software or products do you want to see?
Followup-To: poster
Originator: sehari@du139-208.cc.iastate.edu
Organization: Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Ames, Iowa.
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 01:39:51 GMT

---

What type of new innovation, software or products do you want to be
introduced to the market place.  No answer is stupid.  The things
that might be unachievable to you, might be very easy to produce
by others.  You could become part of history by initiating the process of
innovation.

Send your answers, along with it's possible applications to me via
Email.  We might be able to produce things that you might never thought
possible, for you. My Email Address is sehari@iastate.edu.

Thank you.

                       With highest regards,
                            Babak   Sehari.

P.S.  This message is being automatically posted to all unix wide bbs'. 
This post does not mean that I approve or disapprove this newsgroup.  Also,
the moderator of the moderated newsgroups, such as rec.humor.funny, should 
decide if they want this posting in their newsgroup.

-- 
Newsgroups: alt.autos.antique,rec.autos.antique
From: porta@wam.umd.edu (David Palmer)
Subject: Corvair (for sale)
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Distribution: dc
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1993 04:24:31 GMT



	I have a '64 Monza Coupe forsale.  Engine is in good shape,
but the body needs work(what's new?) I have many spare parts with this car
that are included.  I love this car, but I do not have the experience, time,
or money to restore my old friend.  I can't stand to see it deteriorate
any more.  I'm in school and can't afford body work.  Any reasonalble
offer will be accepted.

Thanks  

-- 
***************************** porta@wam.umd.edu ****************************

                     Still looking for an interesting quote. 
Newsgroups: alt.autos.rod-n-custom
From: sosc1092@wc14.writer.yorku.ca (Vijay Doobay)
Subject: Ford Mustangs/Capri's
Keywords: DECH
Organization: York University
Distribution: Anywhere, and Everywhere
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 16:13:40 GMT


Does anyone out there have a Ford Mustang/Capri??  I own an '86 Capri  
RS, with some engine, and suspension modifications under it.  All the  
work has been done by DECH Motorsport in Concord, Ontario.  The cars  
produced there are the number one solosport cars in Canada, and the  
USA.  

Is anyone else out there interested in Ford Performance??  If so,  
reply to this, and let's get a discussion going on this!

Mr. Vijay Doobay
York University
Toronto, Canada


-- NewsGrazer, a NeXTstep(tm) news reader, posting --
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Newsgroups: alt.autos.rod-n-custom