Collocating the adjective "complicate".

guest   Wed Jun 04, 2008 1:56 pm GMT
<<Ask a hundred native speakers and report back on the results. ** >>

I'd wager that 100% would say: "Shouldn't that be 'complicated'?"

'Complicate' meaning 'complex, involved, folded' is a reserved/special word not used anymore in regular English. It's one of those inkhorn-type Latinisms that is falling out of the (spoken) language at an amazing rate. It has officially been on life support for some time: Science and Literature are the only things keeping it alive.
MollyB   Wed Jun 04, 2008 10:48 pm GMT
I'd wager that 100% would say: "Shouldn't that be 'complicated'?"

Probably be the same 100% who would say that Derek Bentley was justly hanged. :-)
MollyB   Wed Jun 04, 2008 10:50 pm GMT
<Science and Literature are the only things keeping it alive. >

Both pretty big areas of the activity of reading, right?
guest   Thu Jun 05, 2008 1:37 pm GMT
<<<Science and Literature are the only things keeping it alive. >

Both pretty big areas of the activity of reading, right? >>

Well, obviously not big enough for either me or some other posters on this thread. Like them, I had to admit, I was acquainted with the word for the first time here, and I'm an educated native speaker.

Frankly, the English language has too many superfluous words that we stress ourselves out over trying to maintain. It borderlines on the ridiculous.
Pos   Thu Jun 05, 2008 10:41 pm GMT
<Well, obviously not big enough for either me or some other posters on this thread. Like them, I had to admit, I was acquainted with the word for the first time here, and I'm an educated native speaker.>

How many more words do you think you're not acquainted with?
Guest   Thu Jun 05, 2008 10:45 pm GMT
<Well, obviously not big enough for either me or some other posters on this thread. Like them, I had to admit, I was acquainted with the word for the first time here, and I'm an educated native speaker. >

Life's full of surprises, Mr Native.

"I’ve been an amateur astronomer for a long time but I had never heard the word “polytrope” before. It turns out it is an important concept in stellar astrophysics. It also, in a round about way, brings me back to my first job at a recording studio."

http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/index.php/category/astrophysics/feed/


"Frankly, the English language has too many superfluous words that we stress ourselves out over trying to maintain. It borderlines on the ridiculous."


Superfluous to whom?

BTW, do you think "whom" could be one of those superfluous words?
Pos   Thu Jun 05, 2008 10:52 pm GMT
Fuller and fuller of surprises:

"Here I am, a native speaker of English who used to read a dictionary to prepare for spelling bees, now a retired editor, and I never knew that the word precautious existed until today. Had I heard it pronounced correctly, I would have assumed that the speaker was mispronouncing precocious."

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/print/thread.jspa?threadID=1562135&limit=10000

Being educated and a native speaker doesn't automatically give you access to every single English word, friend.
MrPedantic   Fri Jun 06, 2008 12:03 am GMT
<OK, I'll do that, but why do YOU think they are typos? Can you analyse the texts for us?>

To what end? If you're the writer's editor, you can correct the spelling. If you're not, you can't.

<Probably be the same 100% who would say that Derek Bentley was justly hanged.>

A taste for hangings is no guarantee of linguistic incompetence.

<Life's full of surprises, Mr Native...Being educated and a native speaker doesn't automatically give you access to every single English word, friend.>

Enjoyably menacing, old chap. (I bet you're a big Lee Marvin fan.)

All the best,

MrP
Guest   Fri Jun 06, 2008 5:58 am GMT
What does "Pos" mean? Piece of shit?
Guest   Fri Jun 06, 2008 9:58 am GMT
*A taste for hangings is no guarantee of linguistic incompetence.*

But it could be as sign of such.
Guest   Fri Jun 06, 2008 10:02 am GMT
<<Enjoyably menacing, old chap. (I bet you're a big Lee Marvin fan.) >>

I'd say that waving the OED in our faces is quite "menacing"...
guest   Fri Jun 06, 2008 2:51 pm GMT
“polytrope” is rather technically a term, or field specific terminology. Those words cannot be superfluous, but are necessary, like 'complicate' in the field of medicine/botany.

As an everyday word, they qualify as excessive and unnecessary.

'whom' is a form of a word--'who'--also not superfluous, like 'him' or 'her', although its distinction from the similar sounding (and more easily pronounced "who") is declining
Pos   Fri Jun 06, 2008 3:10 pm GMT
<“polytrope” is rather technically a term, or field specific terminology. Those words cannot be superfluous, but are necessary, like 'complicate' in the field of medicine/botany.

As an everyday word, they qualify as excessive and unnecessary. >

I'm assuming you're not a native speaker, guest. Am I right?
Pos   Fri Jun 06, 2008 3:11 pm GMT
Those words cannot be superfluous, but are necessary, like 'complicate' in the field of medicine/botany.

Do you feel that "complicate (adj.)", when used outside the field of medicine/botany", is equivalent in meaning to "complicated"?
Guest   Fri Jun 06, 2008 3:28 pm GMT
Pos yer an idjit