MSGID: 1:153/716.0 170ed3d0   
   REPLY: 2:221/6.0 61652640   
   CHRS: IBMPC 2   
   Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
   ak>  I am not sure I know the correct word [...].   
      
   AH>  When I looked up "twit" in THE FREE DICTIONARY I found quite    
   AH>  a lot of stuff you might find useful, including definitions    
   AH>  & synonyms.  In summary... a twit is a foolish, stupid,    
   AH>  annoying, and/or insignificant person.  I'm guessing that is    
   AH>  more or less what you were thinking of here.   
      
   AK>  Did you use "twit" as "beep" when somebody on TV swears?    
   AK>  Is "goat" so indecent?   
      
      
             I don't consider either to be a "swear word"... but I do consider it   
   rude to describe anybody that way within their hearing.  If the director spoke   
   in Russian, assuming none of his visitors would understand, he was wrong.   
      
             Because the word "goat" often has negative connotations in English I   
   understood what you meant.  Because you were asking about synonyms, however, I   
   chose one which might elicit more useful information from a desk dictionary...   
   and in this case THE FREE DICTIONARY didn't disappoint me.  It reports the way   
   people actually speak, yet gives us fair warning about "coarse slang"....  :-)   
      
      
      
   ak>  The director sees them into his cabinet   
   AH>                                  |private office   
      
   AK>  Yea, there are many words in Russian when we are sure that    
   AK>  they mean the same in English. :)   
      
      
             I've had the same experience myself... but this usage is more common   
   in French than in English & may not be listed in English\English dictionaries.   
      
      
      
   AH>  a tense change in mid-paragraph, unless the logic is    
   AH>  obvious to me, still sounds wrong according to what    
   AH>  I was taught.  :-Q   
      
   AK>  I agree. Although I saw many examples of it in the modern   
   AK>  literature.    
      
      
             In modern literature you'll also see things like dangling modifiers,   
   sentence fragments, and what I'd call "wrong word" errors.  During the 1960's,   
   some influential linguists deemed it unnecessary to teach grammar to e.g. kids   
   in junior high school whose major goal was to fit in with their contemporaries   
   on the assumption that native speakers pick up on it intuitively.  As a "front   
   line worker" I can tell you this idea doesn't always work in practice....  :-Q   
      
      
      
   ak>  and says to his secretary girl, "Well dear --                  
   AH>                  |female secretary   
      
   AK>  Although such informal "dear" can be applied to the girl    
   AK>  only.    
      
      
             His use of the word "dear" in such a situation implies the secretary   
   is female... and maybe we needn't specify there... but in general, I would not   
   expect to hear any employee addressed that way in a business office.  IMHO the   
   informality could be taken to mean there's some extracurricular activity going   
   on which she feels she must participate in if she'd like to keep her job.  The   
   relationship may be more of a father-daughter one, but we can't be quite sure.   
      
             My objection, though, was to the use of the word "girl" in reference   
   to a grown woman doing what some people consider to be a menial job.  Although   
   not uncommon, it does imply a feeling of superiority in various cases....  :-)   
                                                                  
          
                                                       
   AK>  It is not necessary that the translator wanted to drink   
   AK>  alcohol.    
      
      
             Agreed.  What matters is that the translator knew what was going on,   
   and had the power to make or break any prospective business deal... [chuckle].   
      
      
      
   AK>  The understanding depends on our feeling of black humour.   
      
      
             Yes.  IMHO black humour depends for its effect on having an audience   
   with life experiences similar to one's own.  Russians often seem to imply they   
   enjoy alcoholic beverages, but I hear this about others too.  Such details may   
   be most amusing when the joke is told by a Russian to a Russian audience.  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
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