English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

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Mick F
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Mick F »

Skelmersdale ............. like an Airdale? :lol:

Going back to Skem, Dad worked for the Refuge Insurance Company in Wigan for many years.
The office was on the street opposite the market at the bottom of Makinson's Arcade.
Just here.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.54751 ... 312!8i6656
Greif !!! :shock:
What the heck have they done to Wigan? :shock:

Any road up, we moved from Wrightington out to Newburgh when Skem was first being "renewed" and Dad got a transfer form the Wigan office to work from home, and to do his rounds in the Skem/Newburgh/Parbold/Ormskirk/Burscough/Upholland areas.
Mick F. Cornwall
Jdsk
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Jdsk »

Mick F wrote: 1 Jul 2022, 9:38amI remember it before it was a "new town" but just a village.
Skelmersdale was already a town well before the development in the 1960s.

It had a population of 6,627 in 1891 and 6,309 in 1961.

And a Town Hall:

Image

The Heritage Society has a good collection of photos:
https://www.facebook.com/skemheritage/

Jonathan
Jdsk
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Jdsk »

From another thread... any thoughts about different from and different than?

Jonathan
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Bmblbzzz »

Jdsk wrote: 1 Jul 2022, 6:11pm From another thread... any thoughts about different from and different than?

Jonathan
My thoughts are different to either of those.
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Jdsk »

: - )

Jonathan
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Mick F
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Mick F »

Thank you for putting me right on Skem.
I first saw the place in 1966 or so. I was 14yo and used to cycle round there. It never struck me as a "town" but it must have been to have a town hall. The only town I knew and was familiar with, was Wigan. In those days it had maybe 80,000 population.

Talking of towns, Princetown up on Dartmoor isn't a town. No town hall, no town council, and no mayor.
Mick F. Cornwall
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Mick F
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Mick F »

PS:

Hamlet = collection of dwellings.
Village = hamlet with facilities ........... church/chapel, shop(s), pub etc.
Town = hamlet with more facilities ........... more than one church, bigger shops, pubs, etc ............ and has a town hall and town council etc.
City = used to have to have a cathedral irrespective of needing to be a big town, but city status is awarded these days.
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Jdsk »

From another thread:
...
I would have written sentence, but I'm not sure it qualifies without a verb?
...
No verb = not a sentence.
I suspect that many of us were taught that. But I'm not sure that it's particularly useful.

The OED has:
In Grammar, the verbal expression of a proposition, question, command, or request, containing normally a subject and a predicate (though either of these may be omitted by ellipsis).

Which covers the most common reason why that definition is problematic: the implied but missing verb/predicate for example in short replies, such as:

How many wheels has a Windcheetah?

Three.


Where Three is an ellipsis of It has three.

Wikipedia uses major sentence and minor sentence, and that might work better.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_(linguistics)

Jonathan
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Mick F
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Mick F »

Statements may or may not be sentences.

A sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop.
The full stop is included in ? or ! as well.
It must always contain a subject and a predicate.
Predicate is the part of a sentence with a verb, or saying something about the subject.

"Jesus wept." is a famous two word sentence. A sentence cannot have only one word.
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Jdsk
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Jdsk »

Mick F wrote: 2 Jul 2022, 10:34am ...
A sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop.
The full stop is included in ? or ! as well.
It must always contain a subject and a predicate.
...
Why?

Who sets this rule?

Many linguists disagree, as does the OED, see above.

Thanks

Jonathan
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by thirdcrank »

From my 4th edition Fowler
Fowler (1926) had no doubts about the nature of a sentence (...) Modern grammarian, by contrast, are nervous about defining the traditional terms of grammar ....
Jdsk
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Jdsk »

thirdcrank wrote: 2 Jul 2022, 10:44am From my 4th edition Fowler
Fowler (1926) had no doubts about the nature of a sentence (...) Modern grammarian, by contrast, are nervous about defining the traditional terms of grammar ....
What did Fowler say about those short things like Really? and No. and Go. and Three., as above?

Thanks

Jonathan
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by thirdcrank »

The last paragraph of the main "sentence" article begins
Verbless or otherwise incomplete sentences (stylistically acceptable in context) .....
which is followed by examples.
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Jdsk »

thirdcrank wrote: 2 Jul 2022, 11:06am The last paragraph of the main "sentence" article begins
Verbless or otherwise incomplete sentences (stylistically acceptable in context) .....
which is followed by examples.
Thanks.

Sounds right to me.

Jonathan
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Bmblbzzz »

Jdsk wrote: 2 Jul 2022, 10:36am
Mick F wrote: 2 Jul 2022, 10:34am ...
A sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop.
The full stop is included in ? or ! as well.
It must always contain a subject and a predicate.
...
Why?

Who sets this rule?

Many linguists disagree, as does the OED, see above.

Thanks

Jonathan
What about spoken sentences or those that are written in alphabets which don't use capital and full stops?
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