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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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 Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 8:02 pm Post subject: |
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What's with the obsession with yanks?
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To answer this requires at least two parts:
a) One part is that the US is endlessly fascinating. We are only getting our due. It should be noted however that we are usually completely oblivious to all the attention we get because we are only dimly aware anyone else is paying attention. The naturally cool are like that.
b) The other part of the answer has to do with character flaws in the people paying all the attention and being obsessed with people who barely notice the attention payers are alive. I suppose it has to do with the phenomenon of courtiers everywhere sucking up to the cool ones, just like in high school. They really should get over their obsession and get a life of their own. Their lives wouldn't be any more fulfilling than it is now, but at least it wouldn't be as pathetic.
PS: How many more posts before some unreconstructed Southerner comes on to note that not all Americans are Yanks? |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 8:29 pm Post subject: |
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Gopher wrote:
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Actually, I was uncertain about that. I though a possessive preceded the gerund in that situation. It looked awkward. But, c'est la vie.
How should I have articulated that idea? Probably in the simple past: "glad to see you finally came around."
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I think it's like this...
"Your assisting me really helped me with the project."
But...
You're assisting me this weekend, so don't make any other plans."
In the second sentence, the full phrase is the pronooun/verb combo "you are", so it's properly contracted into "you're". But in the first sentence, it's just the straightforward possessive adjective "your".
Since I think you mean to say "...you are finally coming around", then Big Bird's point was correct. But don't ask me to lay all this out according to the offical grammatical rules, because I wouldn't be able to. |
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Rusty Shackleford
Joined: 08 May 2008
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| Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 8:44 pm Post subject: |
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America is the biggest center of cultural influence, at least in the west. Therefore it isn't surprising that it is the source of a large number of conversations.
It also has a hell of a lot going for it which is sometimes obscured by the current political/economic eviron there. I'm not sure if he was trying to be sarcastic but I basically agree with what Yata Boy said. It's a pretty great place. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 8:59 pm Post subject: |
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| On the other hand wrote: |
| Since I think you mean to say "...you are finally coming around", then Big Bird's point was correct. But don't ask me to lay all this out according to the official grammatical rules, because I wouldn't be able to. |
But I did not mean to express anything in any progressive tense. I meant to reference "your coming around" as in a noun, as in "before your coming around" or "after your coming around." I think it simply does not work and it seems better to employ the simple past for this idea. Cannot say how I got onto that track, where I chose the convoluted over the simple expression.
I have always relied on the following three sources for grammar and style: Strunk and White, C. Hale's Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose, and Cliff's Quick Review for Writing: Grammar, Usage, and Style. I am sure they discuss this; and I am sure I violated some cardinal, keep-it-simple rule.
Very well, Big_Bird. I stand corrected. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 9:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Gopher wrote: |
| On the other hand wrote: |
| Since I think you mean to say "...you are finally coming around", then Big Bird's point was correct. But don't ask me to lay all this out according to the official grammatical rules, because I wouldn't be able to. |
But I did not mean to express anything in any progressive tense. I meant to reference "your coming around" as in a noun, as in "before your coming around" or "after your coming around." I think it simply does not work and it seems better to employ the simple past for this idea. Cannot say how I got onto that track, where I chose the convoluted over the simple expression. |
But you completely stuffed it up when you inserted a 'finally' into it. That acted as a modifier to a verb, not a noun phrase. Take out finally, and your is fine.
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| Very well, Big_Bird. I stand corrected. |
That's right! |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 12:26 am Post subject: |
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Back on topic...
BB, you seem to have missed a good opportunity in your very own neighbo(u)rhood to check out the phenomenon under question in the OP.
See this clip starting at the 2:00 mark:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677#30020384
Hollywood talks of 'a star-making turn' when an unknown turns in a performance that establishes a career. This performance is possibly the birth of an international superstar. |
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ChopChaeJoe
Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 3:27 am Post subject: |
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| What else of interest is going on that doesn't involve "the Yanks?" Pretty much have a finger in every pie. |
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ManintheMiddle
Joined: 20 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 3:43 am Post subject: |
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Big Bird, Shepherd of Grammar, bleated:
You got it right, this time. We Yanks sometimes get ourselves in a fine fix grammatically because we haven't gotten the education that you so richly cherish. Oh, please do forgive us.
 NEWS FLASH
Referring to Americans on a regular basis as "Yanks" went out with newsreels before movies. Do try to get with the times.
As for the original topic of this thread, from a Kiwi perspective I suppose even Australia seems to be in the news far too much. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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harlowethrombey
Joined: 17 Mar 2009
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 5:35 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Quote: |
What's with the obsession with yanks?
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PS: How many more posts before some unreconstructed Southerner comes on to note that not all Americans are Yanks? |
Thas' righ'! Gawdam northern dawgs is what ya'll are!
Down south, we don' much like their kind. . . |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 7:31 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Quote: |
What's with the obsession with yanks?
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To answer this requires at least two parts:
a) One part is that the US is endlessly fascinating. We are only getting our due. It should be noted however that we are usually completely oblivious to all the attention we get because we are only dimly aware anyone else is paying attention. The naturally cool are like that.
b) The other part of the answer has to do with character flaws in the people paying all the attention and being obsessed with people who barely notice the attention payers are alive. I suppose it has to do with the phenomenon of courtiers everywhere sucking up to the cool ones, just like in high school. They really should get over their obsession and get a life of their own. Their lives wouldn't be any more fulfilling than it is now, but at least it wouldn't be as pathetic.
PS: How many more posts before some unreconstructed Southerner comes on to note that not all Americans are Yanks? |
ROFL
But, Ya-Ta, I doubt many Brits could tell you why they call us Yanks in the first place. |
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Mr Crowley
Joined: 23 Mar 2006
Location: Suwon
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| Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 7:51 am Post subject: |
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| I hate the Yankees, I am a Braves fan. |
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nateium
Joined: 21 Aug 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 7:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Big_Bird wrote: |
| Kuros wrote: |
The US also makes up the majority of the English native speaker world, which is more relevant to this forum, since it is in English and caters to a profession for native English speakers.
US is 300m versus
GB 75m (roughly)
Australia 30m
Canada 30m
NZ 5m
SA (no idea, too lazy to look it up)
Ireland (also no idea, but prolly no more than 30m) |
YOu've left out India. There are a billion of them, and a sizeable proportion of them speak it. National newspapers and other media are likely to be in English, and many of them speak it as natives. The Indian variety is soon likely to be the most widely used one, if it is not already.
And what about places such as Singapore and Nigeria?
Really Kuros, go back re-do your maths. |
The number of "native speakers" in India only represents a tiny hard to measure fraction of the population. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 7:36 pm Post subject: |
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| nateium wrote: |
| Big_Bird wrote: |
| Kuros wrote: |
The US also makes up the majority of the English native speaker world, which is more relevant to this forum, since it is in English and caters to a profession for native English speakers.
US is 300m versus
GB 75m (roughly)
Australia 30m
Canada 30m
NZ 5m
SA (no idea, too lazy to look it up)
Ireland (also no idea, but prolly no more than 30m) |
YOu've left out India. There are a billion of them, and a sizeable proportion of them speak it. National newspapers and other media are likely to be in English, and many of them speak it as natives. The Indian variety is soon likely to be the most widely used one, if it is not already.
And what about places such as Singapore and Nigeria?
Really Kuros, go back re-do your maths. |
The number of "native speakers" in India only represents a tiny hard to measure fraction of the population. |
That depends on your criteria for 'native speaker.' I've seen interesting arguments about this in the literature. |
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nateium
Joined: 21 Aug 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 7:45 pm Post subject: |
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[quote="Big_Bird"]
YOu've left out India. There are a billion of them, and a sizeable proportion of them speak it. |
The number of "native speakers" in India only represents a tiny hard to measure fraction of the population.
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| That depends on your criteria for 'native speaker.' I've seen interesting arguments about this in the literature. |
How would you define it?
I'd say a native speaker is someone who grows up in a family where everyone speaks English at home nearly 100% of the time.
I doubt this applies to the vast majority of Indians (that's not to say many Indians don't speak English very well). |
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