Discussion Groups / English Usage / April 2010

I'm not getting
"After a little show of indecision, which there were none to see but
the two or three amphibious creatures."
Does Dickens/Pip mean to say that they themselves were very firm, and

The BBC showed an old b&w clip of Johnny Speight's Till Death Do Us
Part where the Garnett family are waiting to give blood at a hospital.
Alf Garnett (Warren Mitchell) looks around and spots a black man - he
says to the others...

The English orthography is a bottomless well for surprises how words
are spelled/pronounced...
English has borrowed a ton of words from French.  In that language
the pronunciation of -s- and -ss- between vowels is straightforward:

Would you check on this voice if you may?
It sounds like "all the world", but I'm not sure.
http://www.lightstriking.com/test/07.mp3
If you need to listen to the whole context, here is the source:

Oh my.  When's the next series of Mad Men?  When, when, when?
BTW, from about half way through the final episode, we were shouting
"Send for Joan!" at the telly.  Thank goodness that Roger Sterling heard us.

"a cool four thousand"
Is this meaning of "cool" invented by Dickens, or just ironized by
him?
(BTW, is "ironized" OK here?)

Are the following sentences grammatical? Thanks.
(1) Either John will read Chapter 3 or Mary will.
(2) Either John will read Chapter 3 or Mary.
(3) John will read Chapter 3 or Mary will.

I need some explanation of this expression from the UK.  The context
suggests either to entertain or to irritate or to inform one. One also
refers to the process as a "wind-up."
Uncle Ben

“Which it air, old chap."
Is this "air" for "is?" Or for "are?"
---
[Joe comes over to help Pip, who's gravely ill]

Is `I'm done' AmE? I think so, but I want to be sure.
Thanks.

"weazen"
could it mean here
"your thin/shrunk body?"
Also, what does this mean

I just thought I'd check in and see who's around & who ain't. You may
not recall me, but I used to to be a heavy lurker & light poster at AUE.
It seems that most of the old names are still present.
ObAUE: Just recently on an internet forum I used the word 'rigmarole'.

Cameron has a degree from Oxford university, and was educated at Eton.
Talking about British debt he said:
"Babies are born with debt on their head."
Since their is a plural, this makes no sense to me to say "their

Why is "would" and not "should" used here
"that I would half believe?"
I  mean this is first person, BrE, at a time when "should" was mostly
used for the 1st person.

This "were" for "are" could be an overcorrection. Do you still hear
it?
"not a bit on it"
is this an idiom meaning