Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006

Of interest:
http://csm.mml.ox.ac.uk/index.php?p=poemdata_view&rec=45
http://csm.mml.ox.ac.uk/index.php?p=miracle_view&rec=1713&col=50

I have been living abroad for too long. During the last 20 years or so the
English language has changed, but "my vocabulary" has become tainted with
the local dialect and new terminology. So can someone please explain to me a
couple of things?

A question on American English from a British English speaker:
Would you tend to say "it's gone nine o'clock" or "it's after nine
o'clock" or "it's past nine o'clock" (to mean that the time was later
than nine o'clock)?

Dear Sirs,
We are happy to introduce ourselves as manufacturers and exporters of
Handmade Crochet Products havingbeen established in this line since a
long time.

Fairly trivial but you may enjoy a quiz to test what kind of American accent
you have:
http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have
My accent is North East and I am "probably from north Jersey, New York City,

The matter of Domino's (an Upper Midwest company that franchises a product
called "pizza") recently marketed "Brooklyn Style Pizza" is the subject of
this interesting article in the New York (LCIA) Times:
http://tinyurl.com/y59cc9

       I am in two minds about which one of the following sounds better:
"I assumed it was a mere literal translation and anyone *would have
laughed* in my face *if I had ever used* it in a conversation."
"I assumed it was a mere literal translation and anyone *would laugh* in

I wonder what's the meaning of "to be in for a tennis tournament," is
it to be registed for one, or playing in it?
-------
Evie heard of her father's engagement when she was in for a tennis

To learn words with through pictures and interesting and useful
information available on Internet visit
http://visualvocabulary.blogspot.com
Related Google group:

To me, Rupert Murdoch's accent is 20% generic-USian, and 80% Australian.
How do you Americans, and others, hear it?
Stupot

It is with deep sorrow that I must report the death of longtime AUE
contributor Graeme Thomas.  Graeme was killed in a car accident
earlier today, and is being mourned by his family and the tournament
Scrabble community, of which he was an influential member.

Kant writes "...sie über die Grenze aller Erfahrung hinausgehen..."
But isn't 'transcend' sufficient for "...über die
Grenze...hinausgehen.."?
Merriam-Webster:

What is the stick called that a vagrant ties the red & white polka dot
handkerchief to?
I can google 'till the cows come home but I haven't found what that stick,
held over one shoulder, is actually called?

I am currently working on non-standard positions of discourse
connectives, esp. sentence-final positions of 'but', 'then', and 'so'.
I have used the spoken part of the British National Corpus, the spoken
part of the Scottish English corpus, and the Newcastle English corpus

Are there any `good` word list sort by their frequency of use?
Thanks.