Zompist Bboard Again

MacAnDàil wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2019 5:13 am Just in case, I would like to mention that Halloween has been celebrated in Scotland and Ireland for at least a few centuries before immigrants from these countries modified it in the US. The pumpkins were originally turnips/rutabaga (neeps) and changed to pumpkin in the New World precisely because turnips weren't available.

Vijay wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2019 2:27 pmWhat does the bolded phrase long-term what the category needs mean here? Maybe it's just the use of the word "category" that's confusing me.

Moose-tache wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2019 2:29 am I think being taken aback by "pumpkin spice" but not by "bonfire spice" is the most British thing Sal has ever said. At least pumpkin is a food! What is bonfire spice, anyway? Spilled whiskey and soot?

Ser wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2019 2:34 pmI'd need to actually read the article...

Vijay wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2019 2:27 pm I'm not sure whether this is innovative usage or something else, but as a co-worker once said (I may not be remembering the exact phrasing), can someone translate from English to English for me? From Time magazine (September 20):

"Juul executives have been working for months to keep up with an ever changing regulatory environment, and among the hundreds of open jobs on its website is a dedicated FDA regulatory counsel. There's no question that the White House's crackdown on flavors will hit Juul where it hurts. More than 80% of the pods the company sells are flavored, so pulling those from the market will result in a huge revenue hit. But a company source calls the potential result of the government's actions 'short-term pain, but potentially long-term what the category needs,' since driving down youth use is pivotal to securing FDA authorization and keeping Juuls on the market."

What does the bolded phrase long-term what the category needs mean here? Maybe it's just the use of the word "category" that's confusing me.

Salmoneus wrote: ↑Wed Oct 02, 2019 5:26 pm Another one has taken to selling (in theory - the staff warn people not to order it because it's disgusting) "bonfire spice" flavour, which at least makes a little more sense but is still a pretty weird concept...

quinterbeck wrote: ↑Tue Oct 08, 2019 4:12 amIf it wasn't for the cardamom I'd say it sounds pretty good

Raphael wrote: ↑Tue Oct 08, 2019 10:23 amI've heard about "pummeling" someone in the sense of beating or pounding that person, but not about a pommeling heart.

Linguoboy wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2019 10:41 pm I love our tendency to backform verbs from deverbal noun compounds. Two new instances spotted in the wild today:

“The person after me has scuba dived.”
“his boyfriend looks like he will serial kill someone”

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 6:19 am

Linguoboy wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2019 10:41 pm I love our tendency to backform verbs from deverbal noun compounds. Two new instances spotted in the wild today:

“The person after me has scuba dived.”
“his boyfriend looks like he will serial kill someone”

Somehow, the first one makes perfect sense to me, while the second one doesn't.

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 6:19 am

Linguoboy wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2019 10:41 pm I love our tendency to backform verbs from deverbal noun compounds. Two new instances spotted in the wild today:

“The person after me has scuba dived.”
“his boyfriend looks like he will serial kill someone”

Somehow, the first one makes perfect sense to me, while the second one doesn't.

Linguoboy wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 10:36 am

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 6:19 am

Linguoboy wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2019 10:41 pm I love our tendency to backform verbs from deverbal noun compounds. Two new instances spotted in the wild today:

“The person after me has scuba dived.”
“his boyfriend looks like he will serial kill someone”

Somehow, the first one makes perfect sense to me, while the second one doesn't.

I interpreted it as "to kill someone in the manner of a serial killer". The entire phrase is more or less equivalent to "his boyfriend looks like a serial killer" but with a greater sense of urgency; you can have the stereotypical look of a serial killer without actually giving the impression that you would kill someone.

holbuzvala wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 10:10 am I heard a neat shift today where someone pronounced "monosyllabic" as /mɒnəʊsɪˈlɪbɪk/, which was neat to see the /a/ raised to an /ɪ/ (perhaps thanks to the surrounding /ɪ/s), but it struck me as weird because it was on a stressed syllable.

Estav wrote: ↑Fri Oct 11, 2019 12:30 am

holbuzvala wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 10:10 am I heard a neat shift today where someone pronounced "monosyllabic" as /mɒnəʊsɪˈlɪbɪk/, which was neat to see the /a/ raised to an /ɪ/ (perhaps thanks to the surrounding /ɪ/s), but it struck me as weird because it was on a stressed syllable.

An alternative explanation I can think of is that, if the person you heard had the weak vowel merger, they might have the phoneme /ɪ/ in their pronunciation of monosyllable (/ˈmɒnəʊˌsɪlɪbl/ or something like that) and have converted it to stressed /ɪ/. I asked a little while ago about people using /ɛnt/ in the stressed syllable of words spelled with -antal, like consonantal and covenantal, which I think could be caused by influence from the pronunciation of unstressed word-final -ant (although in that case there could also be influence from -ental words like elemental and continental, while I can't think of other /ɪbɪk/ adjectives).