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Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature

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john wrote:

> Thomas said:

This is not a proper attribution line.  There are many people with first 
name “Thomas” on the Net, which is why I am not only posting using my first 
name.   Thus, this should be reflected in the line attributing text to me 
(likewise for all other people).
 
> "But then again, you are just the 'nym-shifting troll, well known for
> their defective understanding of the English language."

It is considered appropriate quotation style to precede each quoted line 
from the precursor by the quotation sign “>” rather than putting the quoted 
text into double-quotes.

> I'll fix this:

There is no fix required here.

> - But then again, you are just *a* 'nym-shifting
> troll, *who is* well-known for *his* defective
> understanding of the English language.-
> 
> better, or
> 
> -But then again, you are just *one of
> those* 'nym-shifting troll*s who are*
> well-known for their defective understanding
> of the English language.-

Incorrect, because the meaning I wanted to convey was:

  1. there is only one ’nym-shifting troll here;
  2. his/her/its gender is unknown/irrelevant.

Fact (1) requires using the definite article “the” instead of the indefinite 
article “a(n)” [see also: 
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_(grammar)>].

(2) In the English language there is the possibility to use the singular 
“they”, respectively the possessive singular “their”, if the speaker wishes 
to express that the gender of the person referred to is unknown or 
irrelevant.  Thus, singular “they” and “their” can replace constructions 
such as “he/she” and “his/her”, respectively.

,-<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They>
| 
| They /ðeɪ/ is the third-person plural personal pronoun (subjective case) 
| in Modern English. It can also be used with singular meaning, particularly 
| in informal contexts, sometimes to *avoid specifying the gender* of the 
| person referred to.

,-<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They#Singular>
| 
| Singular
| 
| The singular they is the use of this pronoun as a gender-neutral singular 
| rather than as a plural pronoun. The correctness of this usage is 
| disputed.[1][2] The Oxford Dictionaries have an article on the usage, 
| saying that it dates back to the 16th century.[3]
| 
| The singular pronoun they is even found in formal or official texts. For 
| example, a 2008 amendment to the Canadian Criminal Code contains the 
| following text:
| 
|   if a peace officer has reasonable grounds to believe that, because of 
|   their physical condition, a person may be incapable of providing a 
|   breath sample... (subparagraph 254(3)(a)(ii))

(emphasis by me)

The “who” relative pronoun followed by the predicate “is”, which would not 
need to be preceded by a comma, can be omitted when replaced with a comma 
indicating a relative clause.

Whether the compound “well known” needs to be hyphenated is disputed:

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyphen#Compound_modifiers>

> also better, but, since the original is
> such a mishmash, it's hard to tell
> what the original was supposed to
> convey.

I think that the meaning I wanted to convey was rather clear.

> Those who use English as a second language
> should never believe it when someone
> says they speak it well.

However, sometimes some non-native speakers of a language know some parts of 
that language better than some of its native speakers because they were 
required to learn the standard variety of it in a structured way, according 
to rules, instead of learning it primarily from one’s social environment 
(relatives and friends) according to one of the language’s regiolects or 
slang varieties which, among other distinctive features, tend to use a 
simplified grammar.

On the other hand, it is possible that you are not a speaker of English as 
first language as well.


PointedEars
-- 
Q: Why is electricity so dangerous?  
A: It doesn't conduct itself.

(from: WolframAlpha)

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Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Euclid Baumann <eubaum@parallelnetwork.org> - 2015-10-15 18:43 +0000
  Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Euclid Baumann <eubaum@parallelnetwork.org> - 2015-10-15 18:47 +0000
    Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2015-10-15 22:20 +0200
      Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Euclid Baumann <eubaum@parallelnetwork.org> - 2015-10-15 20:29 +0000
      sclar noTthaTguY <abu.kuanysh05@gmail.com> - 2015-10-15 13:55 -0700
  Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2015-10-15 22:09 +0200
    Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Euclid Baumann <eubaum@parallelnetwork.org> - 2015-10-15 20:25 +0000
      Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2015-10-15 23:36 +0200
        Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Euclid Baumann <eubaum@parallelnetwork.org> - 2015-10-15 21:46 +0000
          Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Mahipal <mahipal7638@gmail.com> - 2015-10-15 15:11 -0700
            Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Euclid Baumann <eubaum@parallelnetwork.org> - 2015-10-15 22:15 +0000
              Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature noTthaTguY <abu.kuanysh05@gmail.com> - 2015-10-15 15:22 -0700
              Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Mahipal <mahipal7638@gmail.com> - 2015-10-15 15:23 -0700
                Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2015-10-16 09:18 +0200
                PageRank Jeff-Relf.Me <@.> - 2015-10-16 02:04 -0700
                Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Mahipal <mahipal7638@gmail.com> - 2015-10-16 10:09 -0700
                Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2015-10-16 20:24 +0200
                Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Mahipal <mahipal7638@gmail.com> - 2015-10-17 07:17 -0700
                Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature "Efftard K. Donglemeier" <invalid@example.com> - 2015-10-17 09:10 -0700
                Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Mahipal <mahipal7638@gmail.com> - 2015-10-17 09:23 -0700
                Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature "nuny@bid.nes" <Alien8752@gmail.com> - 2015-10-17 12:35 -0700
                Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Mahipal <mahipal7638@gmail.com> - 2015-10-17 13:21 -0700
                Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature "nuny@bid.nes" <Alien8752@gmail.com> - 2015-10-17 20:25 -0700
                Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Mahipal <mahipal7638@gmail.com> - 2015-10-18 05:43 -0700
                Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature HVAC <mr.hvac@gmail.com> - 2015-10-18 06:42 -0700
                Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Mahipal <mahipal7638@gmail.com> - 2015-10-18 07:13 -0700
                Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature HVAC <mr.hvac@gmail.com> - 2015-10-18 07:26 -0700
                Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Mahipal <mahipal7638@gmail.com> - 2015-10-18 07:43 -0700
                Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature benj <none@gmail.com> - 2015-10-18 19:11 -0400
                Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature john <johnsefton288@gmail.com> - 2015-10-19 06:57 -0700
                Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature HVAC <mr.hvac@gmail.com> - 2015-10-17 17:11 -0700
                Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature benj <nobody@gmail.com> - 2015-10-18 03:06 -0400
    Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature john <johnsefton288@gmail.com> - 2015-10-15 13:30 -0700
      Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2015-10-16 14:37 +0200
        Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature john <johnsefton288@gmail.com> - 2015-10-16 06:18 -0700
          Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2015-10-16 16:54 +0200
          Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature jay moseley <jaymoseley@hotmail.com> - 2015-10-16 10:27 -0700
  Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Double-A <double-a3@hush.com> - 2015-10-15 16:37 -0700
  Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature "Paul B. Andersen" <relativity@paulba.no> - 2015-10-16 15:26 +0200
    Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Euclid Baumann <eubaum@parallelnetwork.org> - 2015-10-16 13:37 +0000
  Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature Double-A <double-a3@hush.com> - 2015-10-17 11:08 -0700
  Re: Giant alien 'megastructures' against Spacetime Curvature "nuny@bid.nes" <Alien8752@gmail.com> - 2015-10-17 12:42 -0700
    Gauss' canonical formulation of curvature (one over diameter noTthaTguY <abu.kuanysh05@gmail.com> - 2015-10-18 15:23 -0700

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