Until I moved from the dead bird site to Mastodon I never realized that I had so much pent up civility.
Conversation
Notices
-
Embed this notice
Ham on Wry (hamonwry@mastodon.world)'s status on Thursday, 01-Jun-2023 11:15:30 JST Ham on Wry
-
Embed this notice
Zombie Pirate Gator 🐊 (wendymsgator@aus.social)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 16:24:11 JST Zombie Pirate Gator 🐊
It's teddibly polite here. Even the rage is polite on Mastodon.
clacke likes this. -
Embed this notice
clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 16:24:12 JST clacke
@Tergenev
The definition of "continent" is potentially not the same in every variant of English and none of them are the same as the definition of "kontinent" in Swedish. Layman's English and geographer's English may disagree too.What we call a "continent" is entirely a linguistic/semantic question, not one of geography.
I can't know if @LRRRonEarth 's argument was prescriptivist or descriptivist, but obviously either way that level of aggression has no place in a trivia thread.
-
Embed this notice
Tergenev (tergenev@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 16:24:13 JST Tergenev
@LRRRonEarth @HamonWry Wow. “Linguistic prescriptivist”. Just, wow. It’s amazing how some people can be so smart and yet so utterly idiotic at the same time. “Continent” isn’t a linguistic definition, it’s geological. But, mostly just, what the Hell is wrong with people?
-
Embed this notice
LRRR :bc: (lrrronearth@beige.party)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 16:24:14 JST LRRR :bc:
@HamonWry I WENT BACK TO THE ZUCKERVERSE FOR A DAY. SOMEONE CALLED ME A LINGUISTIC PRESCRIPTIVIST AND TOLD ME TO KILL MYSELF BECAUSE I ARGUED THAT ALASKA IS PART OF THE CONTINENTAL U.S. IT WAS A GEOGRAPHY TRIVIA MEME. I MEAN, I... WHUH.
THIS PLACE IS A SACRED GROVE.
-
Embed this notice
clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 16:24:20 JST clacke
Definition of "continent" aside, the definition of "continental USA" is yet another different thing. It would seem obvious to mean everything on the main continent, but potentially through some historical quirk it could have meant something else. The only real evidence is how people use it in practice.
The below confusion is likely what happened:
> Some sources incorrectly mix up the continental United States with the contiguous United States (which consists simply of the lower 48 states and the District of Columbia). The contiguous United States (also known as the United States Mainland) does not include Alaska, Hawaii, or any other territories under the control of the United States. -
Embed this notice
LRRR :bc: (lrrronearth@beige.party)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 16:26:32 JST LRRR :bc:
THIS MISUNDERSTANDING WAS THE FOUNDATION OF THE JOKE.
clacke likes this. -
Embed this notice
clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 16:26:33 JST clacke
@LRRRonEarth I'm mainly responding to " “Continent” isn’t a linguistic definition, it’s geological" and being curious what the US definitions actually are.
I don't understand your persona well enough to understand what's a joke or not.
-
Embed this notice
LRRR :bc: (lrrronearth@beige.party)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 23:43:27 JST LRRR :bc:
I AM FUNDAMENTALLY UNSERIOUS. DON'T LET ME GET IN THE WAY.
clacke likes this.
-
Embed this notice