Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2022 May 29
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May 29
editConchousness
editEnglish in not my native language. Most of the times I hear the word "consciousness" I have the impression that it is not pronunced with the standard /ˈkɑnʃəsnəs/ or /ˈkɒnʃəsnəs/ but with a "ch" sound (if I were to guess, a voiceless postalveolar affricate). Is this a known phenomenon? Thank you! --79.26.54.47 (talk) 07:35, 29 May 2022 (UTC)
- Interesting question. It's maybe a little of both. --←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 07:47, 29 May 2022 (UTC)
- 79.26.54.47 -- just about anywhere you have a sequence of stressed vowel + nasal + quasi-homorganic fricative, you can get a phonetic "excrescent" stop consonant inserted between the last two, in at least some dialects of English. It's more often noticed at the ends of words: "lens" pronounced "lendz", "fence" pronounced "fents", "triumph" with a [p] inserted between the "m" and "f". See article section Epenthesis#Bridging consonant clusters... AnonMoos (talk) 08:24, 29 May 2022 (UTC)
- P.S. Another example is that a "k" stop consonant can be inserted between the "ng" and "th" sounds in words like "length" and "strength"... AnonMoos (talk) 12:40, 29 May 2022 (UTC)
- Though some pronounce those words as if they were spelled "lenth" and "strenth". --←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:55, 29 May 2022 (UTC)
- "Why can't the English teach their children how to speak? / Norwegians learn Norwegian; the Greeks have taught their Greek... But use proper English you're regarded as a freak. / Why can't the English, / Why can't the English learn to speak?" (From My Fair Lady). Alansplodge (talk) 12:36, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
- Granted, the situation with Norwegian is far more complex than the lyrics would assume. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 17:37, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
"robot position" vs "robot's position"
editHello,
Should it be "robot's position" in the following sentence?
The robot position is calculated using encoder data.
Thank you. -- 46.225.152.174 (talk) 11:18, 29 May 2022 (UTC)
- Simple answer: either is correct, but "robot's position" is more clear and formal.
- Looking at the examples in the first paragraph of Adjective#Other_modifiers_of_nouns, "robot position" is fine. It leaves the ownership relation ambiguous. Does the robot have the position, or does the position have the robot? However, this is not important.
- Using this technique to remove every instance of 's from English is not advisable, at this stage of the language evolution. Card Zero (talk) 12:34, 29 May 2022 (UTC)
- A "robot position" could mean a special kind of position suitable for robots, while "robot's position" would be the ordinary position of a specific robot. AnonMoos (talk) 12:40, 29 May 2022 (UTC)
- 's is required. Does the encoder also calculate other positions like "downward facing dog"? I do not understand Card Zero's point: a "child's actor" is not the same as a "child actor". Rmhermen (talk) 23:44, 29 May 2022 (UTC)
- Hmm, you're right, none of those examples match the question very well. I guess the shoe size is a better equivalent. It might mean "the shoe's size" in the context of the description of a shoe, or it might mean "the size of shoe" in the context of a person's measurements. It can be about the shoe and the size that it has, or about the size and the quality of relating to shoes that it has. Card Zero (talk) 02:05, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
- And so, just as for "shoe size" vs "shoe's size", it is not possible to give a conclusive answer without knowing more about the context. If there is a robot somewhere at (or in) some (unknown) position, and its position is estimated based on a computation involving data derived from sensors, the best would seem to use "the robot's position". If the issue is to figure out what will be a good way to position a number of items, one of which is a robot, then either is fine. --Lambiam 07:36, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
- Hmm, you're right, none of those examples match the question very well. I guess the shoe size is a better equivalent. It might mean "the shoe's size" in the context of the description of a shoe, or it might mean "the size of shoe" in the context of a person's measurements. It can be about the shoe and the size that it has, or about the size and the quality of relating to shoes that it has. Card Zero (talk) 02:05, 30 May 2022 (UTC)