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The 'What's That Word?' Thread


Falcon_BlizZACK

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Right, people always think schizophrenia refers to split personalities, but it doesn't - the actual psychological term for this is disassociative identity disorder, or DID. By contrast, schizophrenics are those who have an abnormal perception of reality, so may hear voices, or have hallucinations and so on.

 

This is a cool thread nonetheless.

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Right, people always think schizophrenia refers to split personalities, but it doesn't - the actual psychological term for this is disassociative identity disorder, or DID. By contrast, schizophrenics are those who have an abnormal perception of reality, so may hear voices, or have hallucinations and so on.

 

'tis true. But hey, if you can't beat them, you need a bigger stick.

*walks away quietly*

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Gah, I know the feeling oh so well!

 

I also often find myself needing a certain word from either Danish or English that I cannot find a fitting equivalent for in the other language.

Talking of Danish, could you possibly end a Danish sentence with a preposition for me, ideally with a word-for-word translation? I suppose it's kind of related to this thread...

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Talking of Danish, could you possibly end a Danish sentence with a preposition for me, ideally with a word-for-word translation? I suppose it's kind of related to this thread...

 

Hm, I'm not quite sure what you're asking. Do you have a sentence that needs to be translated? Or do you want me to come up with a sentence in Danish that ends with a preposition?

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Hm, I'm not quite sure what you're asking. Do you have a sentence that needs to be translated? Or do you want me to come up with a sentence in Danish that ends with a preposition?

The latter, apparently English and Danish are two of a very small number of languages it's possible in. (heh, ended that one with a preposition)

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Hm, let me see ...

 

Heh, I could actually use that sentence of yours.

 

"The latter, apparently English and Danish are two of a very small number of languages it's possible in. (heh, ended that one with a preposition)"

 

"Den sidstnævnte, engelsk og dansk er tilsyneladende to ud af et meget lille antal sprog, det er muligt på. (heh, sluttede den med en præposition)"

 

Notes:

 

"på" is the Danish preposition "on". It's used when talking about something that is possible "in a language"/"på et sprog".

 

"two of a very small number" needs to be translated using two prepositions in Danish: "to ud af et meget lille antal", which means "two out of a very small number".

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Hm, let me see ...

 

Heh, I could actually use that sentence of yours.

 

"The latter, apparently English and Danish are two of a very small number of languages it's possible in. (heh, ended that one with a preposition)"

 

"Den sidstnævnte, engelsk og dansk er tilsyneladende to ud af et meget lille antal sprog, det er muligt på. (heh, sluttede den med en præposition)"

 

Notes:

 

"på" is the Danish preposition "on". It's used when talking about something that is possible "in a language"/"på et sprog".

 

"two of a very small number" needs to be translated using two prepositions in Danish: "to ud af et meget lille antal", which means "two out of a very small number".

Awesomeness, thanks.

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thank god super grunch got in first, im terrible about the whole schizophrenia thing. ive been known to launch attacks on people who do the whole "i used to have schizophrenia but now im in two minds about it!" joke, telling them they are uneducated cretins. reeeeealy awkward christmas.

 

on the thread topic, i propose a 3rd type of wordy cock up, when you say a word so many times it loses its meaning. happened to me with money today.

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thank god super grunch got in first, im terrible about the whole schizophrenia thing. ive been known to launch attacks on people who do the whole "i used to have schizophrenia but now im in two minds about it!" joke, telling them they are uneducated cretins. reeeeealy awkward christmas.

 

on the thread topic, i propose a 3rd type of wordy cock up, when you say a word so many times it loses its meaning. happened to me with money today.

 

I know that, too! Repeating a word makes you begin to look at it as a bunch of sounds instead of something meaningful.

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Yep, I'm pretty sure that's a psychologically documented phenomenon, though I've forgotten what it's called in the literature. I suppose it mostly occurs because you realise that the relationship between the meaning of the word and its form (i.e. between the sign and the signifier if you're into Saussure) is totally arbitrary. There seems to be something else going on as well though, because the word starts to sound not only random but alien.

 

Anyway, I get it loads, and not only with words - grammatical constructions and so on as well. It comes from looking at them so much - one of our lecturers often says things like "I remember thinking this sounded right before I studied it, but now I don't really know."

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