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New Merriam-Webster recently admitted that: Yes, they Do make MIstreaks (too)
(Too lazy to search just now for the money-quote, but I will)
THIS is one such:
Synonyms for imply
allude, hint, indicate, infer, insinuate, intimate, suggest


It is bogus once-and twice-removed. Just as Mike avers. As do I. (Maybe could get a gang to pile-on ..hmm).
A) It is not a 'synonym'
B) It is an 'antonym'
C) for alleged-Lexicographer(s) to make such a confounding Error--is pretty-much inexcusable.
But they're Human (oddly).

Note too that: Infer is a passive-voice (which has implications..)
Imply is an active-voice (which has implications..)
The twain(?) do not mix ..if you're playing in amateur-Lexicographer street-races.

Rest case.
New Infer can be used active
No, they aren't 1-for-1 replacements for the same idea. In use:

He implied that all cops are racist.

I inferred that he doesn't like cops.

So you can make an inference based on an implication. But they really are so close phonetically, and so related logically, that mis-using one for the other in an off-the-cuff discussion is hardly proof of any glaring deficiency.
--

Drew
New Sorry, but.. [edited]
Both sentences are themselves, "reports", in 'passive voice' re. 'events' ... that happened-already.
Unless I'm missing something sub-tul-er.

Still and all: there IS an Uncertainty Principle operative within Language Itself (as seems to mock/ blend-in? pursang-Physics/Math-theyselves (!?)
Prolly Bertie could map this out in twenty? forty? pages, but I can't do-Mr. Kant-levels ..unless paid-in-advance. :^>

But I'll buy your last ..unless someone opens a Switchblade, threatening Death or dith-shevelment



PS: The 'Predicate ..'subjunctive-Case' in Engrish: opens up a lot of--sometimes-vital--'implications' when we try to write rilly-Exact statements {sigh}

LANGUAGE is all we Have; sometimes it does create! or save-from! hideous Violence from all those Reptile-brainz-aflutter: Out There.
Ergo: its POWER is giga-Tonnes beyond mere planet-destroying Bomb-things (as all derive from the Reptile-brainz-part).
Expand Edited by Ashton June 25, 2020, 05:12:48 PM EDT
New One of us doesn't know what "passive voice" means
And I'm afraid it's you. :-P

Active: He implied all cops are racist.

Passive: The idea that all cops are racist was implied.

Passive voice means that an action happened / happens to someone, rather than someone did the thing. That it's past-tense isn't relevant.

Passive voice is frequently used to exonerate the guilty. Practical example:

John Smith was involved in an officer-involved shooting.

vs.

A police officer shot and killed John Smith.

(Example shamelessly stolen, and unconscionably condensed, from here. Go read it.)
--

Drew
New Mc Sweeneys.. unimaginable a few decades past..
Seemingly thay have applied the ~early-'90s techniques I first saw in a Brit-program headed by a (once) Wunderkind Host ... teaching at edge of that techno; "Knowledge": was part of the show-title. 'Twas there that I saw physics, math symbols automated (..thinking) ..Wow--had we Had That, why.. ...

In that wow-demo the numerical/unit-sizes/colors! of variable-symbols altered on both sides of the essential [=] separator, as you inserted, what-Ifs?
Algebra, Calculus, some partial-Differentials ..other nested-dependent-variables ... Grew or shrunk ..like here.

McS takes the optics to Language (possibly inspired by? those 40-yo first examples I saw). Anyway I punt on atempting a better definition-set than the hasty stab; obviously: the teaching of (arcane-even) Language rules, habits and corrections via careful Academese-as-spoken: is superseded.

(Worst case: many might well forget how-to? extemporaneously): craft some instructive-tale so as to kindle [only a small flicker of initial Class-interest] into
---> a roaring, Let's hear Moar!

40

:oTpy
Expand Edited by Ashton June 25, 2020, 11:05:40 PM EDT
Expand Edited by Ashton June 25, 2020, 11:09:10 PM EDT
New I think you're saying ... you liked it? :-)
My favorite line*:
... the past exonerative tense, so named because culpability is impossible when actions no longer exist.


* Though taking just an excerpt impels me to mis-quote the movie Mozart: There are just as many words, Majesty, as are required. Neither more nor less.
--

Drew
New That line is indeed, Boffo :-0
And yess, these folk appear to be exemplars about applying the effective science Demo(s) sanely to the more-difficult on n-levels: daily Ranguage events.
And clearly, even more progress could find many (who thought.. "eh? it's too cerebral!) to get woke-up and smellin' the (Rose-coloured) phrases much more-better.

All as promps wondering just how many other sites might also be toiling? in the fields of Disinformation -vs- de-Fanging that scourge on the asshole of humanity.
Concur that they are striving for some new Clarity? (without any snark like: recall' Captain Clarity?') wayback when dinosaurs roamed ..just-beyond the perimeter of IWE.

Thanks for the Intro! it's now in my 'https' listicle, stored just off-screen-right: a one-line-piece of TextEdit protruding as, 'SAVE SAVE".
[Beats bookkeeping, and last I heard, that's the only word with two-'k's] :-รพ
New Addressed here:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/infer#usage-1

tl;dr: infer to mean 'indicate' is fine, but it has been tarred with the same feathers as 'suggest/hint'. Even that is a relatively recent development compared to how long both meanings have been in use.

Sir Thomas More is the first writer known to have used both infer and imply in their approved senses in 1528 (with infer meaning "to deduce from facts" and imply meaning "to hint at"). He is also the first to have used infer in a sense close in meaning to imply (1533). Both of these uses of infer coexisted without comment until some time around the end of World War I. Since then, the "indicate" and "hint or suggest" meanings of infer have been frequently condemned as an undesirable blurring of a useful distinction. The actual blurring has been done by the commentators. The "indicate" sense of infer, descended from More's use of 1533, does not occur with a personal subject. When objections arose, they were to a use with a personal subject (which is now considered a use of the "suggest, hint" sense of infer). Since dictionaries did not recognize this use specifically, the objectors assumed that the "indicate" sense was the one they found illogical, even though it had been in respectable use for four centuries. The actual usage condemned was a spoken one never used in logical discourse. At present the condemned "suggest, hint" sense is found in print chiefly in letters to the editor and other informal prose, not in serious intellectual writing. The controversy over the "suggest, hint" sense has apparently reduced the frequency with which the "indicate" sense of infer is used.


Also, if it was good enough for Shakespeare: "this doth infer the zeal I had to see him"
Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
Expand Edited by malraux June 25, 2020, 06:57:04 PM EDT
New Well Done! (I'll nearly-always bow to successfully pellucid argumentation :-)
[Drat.. I'd thought it was 1527, when More wasn't yet {fatally..} a thorn-in-side re. allegiance to Der KInk]
--new research says I was off 9 months and 4 days; mea culpa.. ;^>

Must correct Otrona /CPM floppy, by June 31.
     Time for the Veepstakes! - (malraux) - (55)
         if Joe coughs out, who has the chops for a second term win should be the answer -NT - (boxley)
         Simplest take, then.. - (Ashton) - (1)
             At this point only one thing matters - (drook)
         Watching Kamala Harris during the Kavanaugh confirmation clinched it for me. - (a6l6e6x) - (48)
             It's essential to energise the youth vote - (pwhysall) - (3)
                 Unarguable that.. a Sqreaker all the --> way to ... the last hours.{sob} -NT - (Ashton)
                 Rachel Bitecofer says things are so polarized in the USA now that... - (Another Scott) - (1)
                     The numbers don't lie - (drook)
             I like Kamala too, but... - (Another Scott) - (5)
                 But who's better? - (pwhysall) - (3)
                     dick_nixon likes Warren. - (Another Scott) - (1)
                         Re: dick_nixon likes Warren. - (pwhysall)
                     I like bottoms - (boxley)
                 She's certainly a lightweight when it comes to the English language (see below) -NT - (mmoffitt)
             There was one thing about her questioning I found profoundly troubling. - (mmoffitt) - (37)
                 My God! That's the most disturbing thing I've ever heard! -NT - (drook) - (17)
                     I KNOW!!1 -NT - (Another Scott) - (16)
                         If we've learned nothing from Covid, we should have learned that incompetence kills. -NT - (mmoffitt) - (15)
                             Your standard for incompetent is ... not useful? Yeah, not useful. -NT - (drook) - (14)
                                 Are you really that thick? Or are you just playing. - (mmoffitt) - (13)
                                     Yes, words matter ... but *those* words are the ones you're hung up on? -NT - (drook) - (12)
                                         As I said in the preamble, my father was an English teacher. - (mmoffitt) - (11)
                                             That's a great endorsement - (drook)
                                             You're an odd duck, Mike. - (malraux) - (9)
                                                 Merriam-Webster recently admitted that: Yes, they Do make MIstreaks (too) - (Ashton) - (8)
                                                     Infer can be used active - (drook) - (5)
                                                         Sorry, but.. [edited] - (Ashton) - (4)
                                                             One of us doesn't know what "passive voice" means - (drook) - (3)
                                                                 Mc Sweeneys.. unimaginable a few decades past.. - (Ashton) - (2)
                                                                     I think you're saying ... you liked it? :-) - (drook) - (1)
                                                                         That line is indeed, Boffo :-0 - (Ashton)
                                                     Addressed here: - (malraux) - (1)
                                                         Well Done! (I'll nearly-always bow to successfully pellucid argumentation :-) - (Ashton)
                 Am I to imply from your comment - (rcareaga) - (14)
                     Not at all. - (mmoffitt) - (12)
                         Whoosh -NT - (drook)
                         Re: Not at all. - (pwhysall) - (9)
                             Am I a prosecutor or running for high office? No. - (mmoffitt) - (8)
                                 Ahem - (drook) - (2)
                                     I took that as a joke. -NT - (mmoffitt) - (1)
                                         Correctly. -NT - (rcareaga)
                                 It's not. It's a slip of the tongue. - (pwhysall) - (4)
                                     I'm not trying to convince anyone. - (mmoffitt) - (3)
                                         The word has been used that way for 400 years -NT - (malraux) - (1)
                                             As has a certain song, "I Wish I Was in Dixie, Hurrah! Hurrah!", er ;^> - (Ashton)
                                         So, you did not sense that she had second thoughts after she said it? - (a6l6e6x)
                         You're trolling us, aren't you? Well done. -NT - (Another Scott)
                     I see what you did there. -NT - (Ashton)
                 Oh, ffs. - (pwhysall) - (2)
                     politically prosecuting unwinnable cases to get elected is a little worse -NT - (boxley) - (1)
                         ..now that was Cute truthiness :-) ..try to Go-->there ... more often(?) -NT - (Ashton)
                 (Always a pleasure) to acknowledge a cohort ..in One's Outlier-Club, oft despised by masses :-) - (Ashton)
         for Susan Rice - (lincoln) - (2)
             Quite a good Atta-girl! pitch (mayhap 'She' needs to be darker hued..?) considering The Times. -NT - (Ashton)
             She's more than qualified. - (a6l6e6x)

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