What do you call ...

[Rounin Ryuuji]

I would probably simply describe it phrasally as something like the point where a river becomes a delta, or perhaps the junction between the river and the delta.

[Linguoboy]

I'd probably call it the "head" or "apex".

[Raphael]

I'd probably call it the "head" or "apex".

I don't think I would have understood that, in that context, before now, but then again, my first language is not English.

[Linguoboy]

I'd probably call it the "head" or "apex".

I don't think I would have understood that, in that context, before now, but then again, my first language is not English.

In English we have the term "headwaters" to refer to the origination point of a watercourse (and a related term "fountainhead" when these headwaters take the form of a spring), so I think there's a strong existing association between "head" and "upstream" that can be brought into play.

"Apex" I think works in more technical contexts since deltas are classically triangular (hence the name) and of course "apex" in geometry refers to the top point of a triangle.

[Raphael]

Thank you!

[Raphael]

What do you call this thing I use to regulate how much sunlight goes through my window?

More: show

[Travis B.]

Blinds.

[Linguoboy]

Specifically, Venetian blinds.

[Raphael]

Thank you! Wow, "Venetian" makes it sound a lot more posh than anything I'd usually associate with my place.

[Linguoboy]

Thank you! Wow, "Venetian" makes it sound a lot more posh than anything I'd usually associate with my place.

Well, in many languages, blinds of any sort are called "Persians" (e.g. Spanish persianas). I'm not sure if that sounds more or less posh. There are also Roman blinds (more properly called Roman shades). Most other styles are named for their appearance or the mechanism which operates them (e.g. "roller", "pleated", "vertical").

Personally, I have such a strong association between Venetian blinds and office buildings that they seem anything but posh to me. I wonder if my sister got Roman shades instead for mainly this reason.

[Raphael]

What do you call a street that is full of bars and restaurants?

[Travis B.]

What do you call a street that is full of bars and restaurants?

I don't think I have a special term for that.

[Travis B.]

Thank you! Wow, "Venetian" makes it sound a lot more posh than anything I'd usually associate with my place.

Well, in many languages, blinds of any sort are called "Persians" (e.g. Spanish persianas). I'm not sure if that sounds more or less posh. There are also Roman blinds (more properly called Roman shades). Most other styles are named for their appearance or the mechanism which operates them (e.g. "roller", "pleated", "vertical").

Personally, I have such a strong association between Venetian blinds and office buildings that they seem anything but posh to me. I wonder if my sister got Roman shades instead for mainly this reason.

"Persian" sounds posh to me. "Venetian" does too. I don't really use the term "Venetian blinds" much myself, but they themselves don't come off as posh to me, OTOH.

[xxx]

What do you call a street that is full of bars and restaurants?

restaurant district,
nightlife district...

[jal]

Is there a term for use of a form of "can" where it is kinda superfluous, and taken literally would not mean what is meant, as in:

He could see the danger approaching

This doesn't mean that he wasn't blind, so capable of seeing, nor that the reason for being able to see the danger was that it wasn't hidden, it just means that the danger was visible, and that he saw it. I'd never interpret this meaning that he would've seen it if he looked, but because he didn't, he didn't see it.


JAL

[bradrn]

Is there a term for use of a form of "can" where it is kinda superfluous, and taken literally would not mean what is meant, as in:

He could see the danger approaching

This doesn't mean that he wasn't blind, so capable of seeing, nor that the reason for being able to see the danger was that it wasn't hidden, it just means that the danger was visible, and that he saw it. I'd never interpret this meaning that he would've seen it if he looked, but because he didn't, he didn't see it.

I don’t understand your argument here. It is parallel to a sentence like:

I can read.

That is, your sentence is a statement of ability (i.e. dynamic modality), rather than singling out a specific event, though the distinction gets quite blurred in the past tense.

Or, to put it another way, would you consider ‘was able to’ superfluous in the following sentence?

He was able to see the danger approaching.

[jal]

I don’t understand your argument here. It is parallel to a sentence like:

I can read.

That is, your sentence is a statement of ability (i.e. dynamic modality), rather than singling out a specific event, though the distinction gets quite blurred in the past tense.

Indeed. "I can see the ship approaching" means that you actually see the ship approaching, and doesn't mean something all that different from "I see the ship approaching". While "I can read" means something quite different from "I read".

Or, to put it another way, would you consider ‘was able to’ superfluous in the following sentence?

He was able to see the danger approaching.

I find that a bit of a stilted sentence, but yeah, I don't see a difference with "He saw the danger approaching", except in the case where it's juxtaposed with some others who weren't able, but then still...

Perhaps I just want to know how other languages handle this, is it a kind of universal or not? But in order to google that, one needs to know how this is called...


JAL

[elgis]

I don’t understand your argument here. It is parallel to a sentence like:

I can read.

That is, your sentence is a statement of ability (i.e. dynamic modality), rather than singling out a specific event, though the distinction gets quite blurred in the past tense.

Indeed. "I can see the ship approaching" means that you actually see the ship approaching, and doesn't mean something all that different from "I see the ship approaching". While "I can read" means something quite different from "I read".

I think this is a peculiarity of verbs of perception in English. Here are some example sentences from Wiktionary:

• Can you hear that?
• I can feel the baby moving inside me.

To me, these sentences have the same meaning as:

• Do you hear that?
• I feel the baby moving inside me.

[hwhatting]

Those examples also work in German, but it may be English influence - the examples of können plus verbs of perception I can find with a quick googling that are not clearly about ability are recent and frequently translations of English texts.

[Linguoboy]

The OED has this to say: "When used with verbs of perception, such as hear, see, or smell, sometimes equivalent to the simple tense of the verb." The first unambiguous example is relatively recent (1776): "We can see..a small breast work thay have heft up."

I suppose this is an example of pleonasm?