Teacher Discussion Forums

Oh, and also, I'm sure I used to use a corpus which gave me some kind of information on how often words or phrases are used. Can anyone help on suggesting one of these? For example, I came across a teacher wanting to include the word hocus-pocus in a teaching syllabus, but I feel this is really not ...

Hi all, Just wondering whether you can point me to your favourite online dictionary and corpus? Preferably, the dictionary will have extensive examples of usage, classify verbs into transitive, monotransitive etc and basically do a lot of my thinking for me. The corpus would ideally be contemporary ...

It's gone a bit quiet in here...
Did fluffy's sanctions get bought over onto this forum?

Perhaps I stretched my analogy a little too far. In that case, I can settle for the obvious. They have simply been overused and have become common. Or it could be due to word level hypercorrection. Labov reckoned that people from lower middle class and upper working class tend to over enunciate, or ...

I don't recognise (1) as modern day usage.

Possibly, 'How could I not hear?'

and this thread is like kicking a dead whale up the beach?

ha ha (didn't want to say lol )... the imagery, oh the imagery.

But good work though fluffy.

I like the idea of them being linguistic tics. Although I can't help but think the reason people don't like these phrases, is because they are 'out' already. They have expired or become over used. Cliche. Then it's like anything with fashion. It's cool (let me stretch the analogy a little) when you'...

I guess it comes down to context/register too really. When speaking, I'd probably say 'I found a massive tabby with festering wounds and bought it into my house.' The original quote was from a newspaper I believe, and would have looked better being made passive. It's one solution. A manager of a com...

They put in a safe the money they had meticulously planned on stealing for the past several months, whilst under constant surveillance.

It does sound odd doesn't it.

Thanks for your responses though.

Yes. I understand the reason for the switch, but there must be a more satisfactory linguistic explanation - or 'rule'

I would actually say B (if with fellow native speakers) over the other two examples.

The Criminal Investigation Bureau on Friday took into custody a manager of a company that sold illegal software allowing those interested in obtaining private information to send unidentified SMS text messages to infect cellphones. You don't normally take into custody someone, rather you take someon...

'It' isn't a dummy subject in this sentence.

Please have a look at this from the general discussion forum.

My account is inactive on that forum because I tried to change my e-mail.

I want to reply but can't.

What do you think?

http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=65421

Thanks.

I agree with you that people need to understand that perhaps they will face resistance when using their regional accents and language patterns when trying to climb the economic/professional ladder. It is expected that people should use standard forms of language. It always has been that way for most...