Let's share highly specific and unhelpful example sentences

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Zegpoddle
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Re: Let's share highly specific and unhelpful example sentences

Postby Zegpoddle » Thu May 16, 2019 11:51 pm

seito wrote:I work for a very large aerospace company. A couple of years ago, the latest bit of corporatese that they introduced us to was "word class proDUCE company" (not "world class PROduce company"). But given that they were written the same way, even the managers couldn't resist mocking the discussions about how to turn us into a world class produce company.


Ask your company's world class publicize department where they learned their world class write skills. Then refer them to a learn module on the form English verbs usually take when repurposed as prenominal adjectives. It might be an enlighten experience for them. ;)

[Before someone chimes in with examples like dive school instead of diving school, or punch card instead of punched card or punchable card...those are cherry-picked exceptions to the predominant pattern. Produce company (with the stress in produce on the second syllable) sounds like a desperate attempt to avoid producing company, which means something entirely unconnected to aerospace. A more diligent copywriter would have continued hunting for a more appropriate verb, particularly one that can’t be easily mistaken for a noun with identical spelling but different internal stress and meaning.]

I think the managers' instinct to mock corporatese that violates a commonly-observed morphological expectation was spot-on. It worries me when slogans like "proDUCE company" get a stamp of approval from who knows how many layers of supervisors and CEOs and boards of directors. It makes me want to shake them and cry, in the words of a certain first lady, Be best! :roll:

[Edit: Revised first sentence of last paragraph to make it sound less prescriptive.]
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Re: Let's share highly specific and unhelpful example sentences

Postby Eriol » Fri May 17, 2019 6:45 am

FSI Conversational Finnish contains the sentence: "Voi miten kaunis tuhkakuppi!" (Oh what a beautiful ashtray!) Now I'm constantly looking for a reason to use it...
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Re: Let's share highly specific and unhelpful example sentences

Postby seito » Fri May 17, 2019 1:46 pm

Zegpoddle wrote:Ask your company's world class publicize department where they learned their world class write skills. Then refer them to a learn module on the form English verbs usually take when repurposed as prenominal adjectives. It might be an enlighten experience for them. ;)


This was handled exactly the way it normally is in corporate environments. They realized there was a problem two weeks later and it went straight down the memory hole.
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Re: Let's share highly specific and unhelpful example sentences

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Fri May 17, 2019 4:59 pm

HTLAL, 2012:

Quirky things in old language materials

jeff_lindqvist wrote:Dieser Rinderbraten schmeckt mir nicht. Er ist nicht nach schwedischer Manier zubereitet. Bitte, bereiten Sie mein Beefsteak nach schwedischer Manier zu; die deutsche Küche schmeckt mir nicht.


(Have a look at the Japanese examples by meramarina on page 4. :lol: )
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Re: Let's share highly specific and unhelpful example sentences

Postby PfifltriggPi » Wed Nov 11, 2020 3:01 pm

Моя дочка вратила майже всі монети які вона зібрала - My daughter lost almost all the coins she collected.
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Re: Let's share highly specific and unhelpful example sentences

Postby chove » Wed Nov 11, 2020 4:11 pm

"Do you have contacts at the archive?" is what one (beginners) Polish textbook thought was essential within the first five lessons.
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Re: Let's share highly specific and unhelpful example sentences

Postby cathrynm » Wed Nov 11, 2020 4:50 pm

Saw this go by on Clozemaster. Not sure about it, but thought enough to record the Google Translate.

Image
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Re: Let's share highly specific and unhelpful example sentences

Postby MrPenguin » Wed Nov 11, 2020 6:33 pm

cathrynm wrote:Saw this go by on Clozemaster. Not sure about it, but thought enough to record the Google Translate.

"Muna" normally means "egg", though in everyday language, it can also refer to, well, that...

Edit: a cursory glance in the dictionary indicates that it can also mean "balls", as in, the other part of the male anatomy. So I guess that sentence probably means something along the lines of "Does he/she have enough balls for that?"

Edit 2: though it uses a different case for the subject in the example sentences when talking about someone having guts, the inessive case instead of the adessive, so judging by that, it should then be "Hänessä on munaa" for "he/she's got balls". To be honest, with my limited Finnish knowledge, I can't tell if the sentence refers to having enough literal eggs for something, or being daring enough. :oops:

Edit 3: wiktionary has the answer:
5. (slang) guts, balls (courage)

Onko sulla munaa tehdä se?

Do you have the balls to do it?

It uses the adessive case, so that's definitely acceptable. So I guess my first edit had it right after all. :lol:
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Re: Let's share highly specific and unhelpful example sentences

Postby Carl » Wed Nov 11, 2020 6:58 pm

In the first few lessons of the Japanese textbook my dad and I used in 1979, example sentences included
This is a book.
This is my book.
This is my shirt.

All very well and good, until they introduced adjectives. With the limited vocabulary that had already been introduced, we got
Kore-wa watashi-no taisetsu-na shatsu desu (if I remember correctly), translated as "This is my precious shirt."

On the other hand, my dad and I had such fun with such silly sentences that, even though I didn't learn a whole lot of Japanese, and I basically haven't used it for over 40 years, I still remember that sentence. For that matter, the sentence helps me remember that adjectives take -na after them if they modify a noun. So even though I've never had occasion to use it, maybe the sentence was helpful.
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Re: Let's share highly specific and unhelpful example sentences

Postby cathrynm » Wed Nov 11, 2020 8:55 pm

MrPenguin wrote: Onko sulla munaa tehdä se?
Do you have the balls to do it?


That makes sense to me, now that I think about the, err, geometry of this. Wonder how Google ended up with 'dick'? I think that translation is not quite right now.
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