Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Non comprendo bene questa frase

dalla recensione di 
gamespy.com
 del gioco F-Zero GX per GAMECUBE (se
non lo conoscete F-Zero GX è un gioco di corse futuristico e il
gamecube è una console di giochi) leggo:
"F-Zero GX takes the classic franchise up a notch or three over the
last Nintendo64 (vecchia console) incarnation."
non riesco a capire bene "franchise up a notch"
grazie!

 non riesco a capire bene "franchise up a notch"
l'espressione e' "up a notch". A "notch" is a small cut
in something, e.g. a piece of wood or leather. "notch"
is also used for the marks indicated e.g. volume levels
on hi-fis, since they are marked with small lines.
"Turn the volume up a notch" would mean turning the volume
from 7 to 8, for instance, though really it's probably
used to mean "turn the volume up by a noticeable amount".
"Take X up a notch" can be used of more general X, to mean
"advance X to a significant degree".
So "Take the classic franchise up a notch or three" means
"advance the classic franchise by one or three steps". Normally
one would say "a notch or two". "a notch or three" is supposed
to be extra-dramatic.
-- 
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http://www.Mailgate.ORG

 in something, e.g. a piece of wood or leather.
    I generally hear the expression "a cut above the others". Is it a
(quasi-)synonym, or do the two expressions differ, by any chance (perhaps in
the collocations)?
    Regards,
                 Nicola
--
Multa non quia difficilia sunt non audemus, sed quia non audemus sunt
difficilia (Seneca).
[it, en, ru, es, (fr, pt, la, zh, ar)]

 the collocations)?
You can't "turn things up a cut" or say something is "a notch
above the others". I don't know if they derive from the same
sort of thing.
People also notionally make notches in bed-posts to record
sexual conquests, and make notches in things to record
events of various kinds: "He notched up another victory".


 events of various kinds: "He notched up another victory".
There is also the expression "a quantum leap" (salto quantico),
that implies, however, some effort to reach it (just like an electron
that "jumps" to the next orbit).
-- 
Er Roscio.

 wrote:

Giustissimo. Ma e' un idioma che mi fa sempre arrabbiare. In inglese,
si dice "quantum leap" di solito nel senso di un salto grandissimo.
Invece, nella fisica, "quantum leap" o quantum qualsiasi cosa, e' il
passo piu' piccolo possibile.  Pedantesco, lo so, ma.... "Now that our
new 960-seater Airbus is in service, we have taken a quantum leap in
air transport."  Grrr.
-- 
"The past resembles the future as water resembles water"  Ibn Khaldun
My .
mac.com
 address is a spam sink.
If you wish to email me, try alan dot lothian at blueyonder dot co dot uk

air transport."  Grrr.
Yes, you're right. But, IIRC, a quantum leap is not just a step, it's
a sort of "jump" to a higher level of energy. This, from the view
point of a subatomic particle, is a considerable change, and most of
the times an instable one. All comes back to normal when the electron,
for example, "releases" the extra energy in the way of a photon (a
light quantum) whose frequency is determined by the energy gap between
the excited electron and the normal electron.
E "Quantum Leap" è un grande telefilm. :)
Sebastiano
-- 
The pen is mightier than the sword... only if the
sword is very small and the pen is very sharp.

 nettamente separato e discontinuo rispetto al precedente.
Esatto. Una metafora [finalmente! ci sono riuscito! Mai piu' per me i
metafori]  potentissima, ma sprecata.
