Teacher Discussion Forums

So if there's a discussion going on and you start wrecking it, anyone who doesn't like it has to get out. Incorrect. I said YOU should choose to both not read MY posts and stay out of threads that upset you. You choose. The most important thing is that silver56 is allowed to stay on top, beating hi...

Only because you are determined to see it that way! Your determination to see things a certain way has kept you posting in this thread, hasn't it? I'm all for language discussions. But "discussion" is hardly the word I'd use to describe many of your posts. Conclusion: don't read or respond to them....

Of course not, but neither is "don't feel intimidated". You seem to feel otherwise but can't explain why. I explained why: it sounds wussie. You cling onto straw men harder than I ever saw anyone cling on to a teddy . LOL! I see you clinging on to this thread more than most others. Now, are you rea...

Maybe you would like to explain how anyone who understands English can interpret "keep posting and don't feel intimidated" (which is basically what I said) How about "feel imtimidated by all means - life and language conflicts can get rough after all - but get over it quickly and keep posting". Now...

fluffyhamster wrote: And is anyone going to make it out of this ever-expanding catfight and onto the 'Linking Prepositions' poll thread that a new member (ouyang) recently started?

Ask Revel, he left it yonks ago.

How about if Metal 56 proves himself to be a normal, decent human being, fit to be in charge of young people, by apologizing for any hurt and offence his rude behaviour has caused.

Do you feel that you are a young person and that I should be in charge of you here?

How anyone with more than basic literary skills and a rudimentary grasp of the English language can interpret my post as a call for "applied wussying" is beyond me Hm. Would your post be attacking the idea or the person, there, lolwuss? I agree with Lucy that Stephen is rude, but rigorous, . Would ...

I am afraid if you banned metal56 there would not be much linguistics left on this forum. We would just have vapid feel-good fluff from people like yourself and FH (whose posts I gave up reading a couple of years ago). This is a linguistics forum, not a substitute teddy bear. Indeed not. Who was it...

How dare somebody with only half a dozen posts to her name insult a fellow linguist! Close ranks, lads! :lol: Lucy - keep posting and don't let anyone intimidate you! We need more posters, not fewer. That's it, the forum for applied wussying is on its way. You might get to be mod, lolwhiteas. Would...

I guess from your much-reduced posting rates these past few years that you didn't read or want to respond to many of metal's posts either, SJ. Could it be that he (too?) in fact makes less of a positive or useful contribution than you're now making out (he does)? How dare somebody with only half a ...

I know it isn't pretty when well-to-do, middle-class and university educated ESL teachers gang up on a working class person However, moderator, I think the time has come to act. You warned him, and he threw it in your face. It seems to me that the tribe has spoken. Metal 56 has been voted out. I'm ...

I see what SJ means: He's not an angel. He's no angel. The first is what he isn't but we don't know what he is: he may be a cherub. The second is what he is: unangelic. How about here: What's her little boy like? Is he well-behaved? Well, he's no saint/not a saint, but, yes, he's reasonably well-be...

So "I'm not happier" is what I'm not without saying what I am, but "I'm no happier" is what I am: as happy as before. I'm not happier than I was a year ago." sounds like "true" negation. Sound like negation of something that has gone before, e.g. a comment, thought, assumption, etc. "I'm no happier...

This one is sublime:

The three girls in the beaver bonnets were no handsomer than the turnips that skirted the roadside.

The History of Pendennis. Thackeray.

And: "The biggest sort of these were not bigger than larks, some no bigger than wrens, all singing with great variety of fine shrill notes; and..." Jespersen says that not above 30 means either 30 or less than 30, but no more than means "as little as" and no less than means "a much as". He gives an ...