What do you call ...

[Emily]

phone tree

[jal]

Actually, in Dutch this is termed a belboom.

Apart from the fact that I've never heard this term (maybe it's Belgian Dutch?), it's also different from a telefoonketen, as with the latter each person calls one other person, not two (although I can see variations where people call two, and I've also seen variations where more than one person calls a specific person to make sure nobody's left out - ah, those were the days).

phone tree

Same, a tree isn't a chain :).


JAL

[Creyeditor]

Actually, in Dutch this is termed a belboom.

Apart from the fact that I've never heard this term (maybe it's Belgian Dutch?), it's also different from a telefoonketen, as with the latter each person calls one other person, not two (although I can see variations where people call two, and I've also seen variations where more than one person calls a specific person to make sure nobody's left out - ah, those were the days).

phone tree

Same, a tree isn't a chain .


JAL

This one is called Telefonlawine in German.

[Raholeun]

What would you call such rhetorical rhymes? Do you know others?

Hätte, hätte Fahrradkette
"would have, would have, bicycle chain"

Daarom is geen reden, als je van de trap af valt ben je gauw beneden
"That's why is not a [valid] reason, falling down the stairs gets you down quick.

[Raphael]

What would you call such rhetorical rhymes? Do you know others?

Hätte, hätte Fahrradkette
"would have, would have, bicycle chain"

Daarom is geen reden, als je van de trap af valt ben je gauw beneden
"That's why is not a [valid] reason, falling down the stairs gets you down quick.

Hm, they are too informal to really count as "sayings" (English) or "Sprichwörter" (German) (or at least the first is). Not sure what term to use instead. In English, perhaps "turns of phrase"?

(Oh, and for the record, for those who don't speak German, the first one, "Hätte, hätte Fahrradkette", is roughly equivalent to English "shoulda, coulda, woulda". Or at least I think so.)

[Raholeun]

Perhaps my favorite Dutch one is helaas, pindakaas "alas, peanutbutter", meaning something like "too bad", often used a bit sardonically. Again, the first element of the phrase contains the meaningful element, the second part is merely a nonsensical rhyme that emphasizes the previous.

[Creyeditor]

Wiktionary has a category called rhyming phrases. This might be a fit: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Catego ... ng_phrases

Perhaps my favorite Dutch one is helaas, pindakaas "alas, peanutbutter", meaning something like "too bad", often used a bit sardonically. Again, the first element of the phrase contains the meaningful element, the second part is merely a nonsensical rhyme that emphasizes the previous.

We have Schade Schokolade in German, which is very much similar, I guess.

[Linguoboy]

phone tree

Thanks, "phone chain" just didn't sound right to me at all.

A chain might not be a tree, but then again a series of phone calls is neither. I don't think I've ever seen an English-speaker make this sort of distinction. (Googling "phone chain" finds mostly hits for bling mobile phone accessories.)

[Linguoboy]

Hm, they are too informal to really count as "sayings" (English) or "Sprichwörter" (German) (or at least the first is). Not sure what term to use instead. In English, perhaps "turns of phrase"?

"Idiom" perhaps, since the meaning isn't recoverable from a literal or even metaphorical parsing of the constituents.

So now my favourite one of these is: 大吉大利，晚上吃雞. The first half of the couplet is an existing chéngyǔ (dàjídàlì "great luck, great prospertiy") but the second part (wǎnshang chījī "tonight eat chicken") is a calque of English "winner winner chicken dinner". Apparently the cool kids just reduce this to the last two characters and even use it as a nickname for the video game where this phrase first caught on.

[Raphael]

Is there a word or expression for the various more or less geometrically shaped thingies made of painted wood or maybe plastic that have long been used to clutter all kinds of TV studios?

[bradrn]

Is there a word or expression for the various more or less geometrically shaped thingies made of painted wood or maybe plastic that have long been used to clutter all kinds of TV studios?

Er, what do you mean? A picture might help…

[Raphael]

Er, what do you mean? A picture might help…

Well, for instance, some of the things in this first photo on the Wikipedia page for "Television Studio":

I guess most of the things I'm talking about count as either desks or lecterns, though.

[WeepingElf]

Is there a word or expression for the various more or less geometrically shaped thingies made of painted wood or maybe plastic that have long been used to clutter all kinds of TV studios?

Props?

[Linguoboy]

Is there a word or expression for the various more or less geometrically shaped thingies made of painted wood or maybe plastic that have long been used to clutter all kinds of TV studios?

Props?

Not props. Those are objects you can interact with, like dummy telephones. These are part of the set. (Says the former high school theatre set crew kid.)

I'd just call that "set decoration".