7 ms·
Why dont they use the simple english to understand?
by imsurajkadam 2y ago
Why dont they use the simple english to understand?
- noduerme 2y agoEnglish is a very beautiful language. There are many ways to say something similar, but each have slightly different meanings. In this case, the writer decided to use "flowery" language, which is usually to create a detailed picture, smell, and feeling for the reader. The point is not only to convey facts but to convey a sense of place. That is the reason for the complicated language. For example, it says: "A woman in her forties sits on a bench, fixing the shrine with her gaze." This means that the woman sits on a bench looking at the shrine. But "fixing" it "with her gaze" means that she is staring at it with deep meaning and (possibly) reverence.
- assimpleaspossi 2y agoTo me that says her gaze is fixing the shrine.
- dambi0 2y agoWhat meaning do you infer from what it says?
- marky1991 2y agoI legitimately would have to guess what they meant. The obvious reading to me is that she is magically repairing it by looking at it, though I would know that's not what they meant, which leaves brute force guessing. You can say that someone is 'fixed on' something, which means to look doggedly, but 'fixing something' is totally different, who says that? Subjective of course, but I just think it's a bad sentence.
- 0xEF 2y ago> who says that? People who watch US TV shows about the American South. Having lived there for awhile and still travel there for work today, I can say with some certainty that the folksy dialect that media gives to people of that region is either largely embellished or made-up. If we stay on the word "fix," I mostly hear it in context of someone making a meal ("Fixing breakfast," etc). The Appalachian regions are must more creative and cant-like with the language historically, but even that is being lost as the generations are exposed to more modern settings, I think. In my experience, the idioms used usually come down to the individual, which has more to do with how their sense of identity was cultivated, a concept that runs quite deep in the American South, but that is a much longer and more complex thread for another day, I reckon.
- marky1991 2y ago"("Fixing breakfast," etc)." Yes, this makes sense, you can fix ('make', off the top of my head, only used in this sense for cooking really) breakfast, but surely the author doesn't mean the woman was materializing/cooking a shrine as a dish with her eyes either.
- genghisjahn 2y agoIn Texas we’d say things like “I’m fixing to go over yonder.” Meaning “I’m about to go over there.”
- mock-possum 2y agoNo, it’s “fix” in the sense of “fix in place” - to pin something to one spot. “I can’t move the table, it’s fixed in place.” Her gaze is fixed upon - her gaze is fixing. Within her field of view, her deliberate staring at the shrine has fixed it in place. Her eyes are fixed in place, focused on the shrine. ‘In place’ is implied by the context.
- Someone 2y agohttps://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fix https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fix: to direct one's attention or efforts : FOCUS also : DECIDE, SETTLE —usually used with on had fixed on the first Saturday in June All eyes fixed on her as she entered the room.
- SideburnsOfDoom 2y ago> Subjective of course, but I just think it's a bad sentence. IDK, you could just look up the idiom that you are unfamiliar with? So that next time you come across it, you are better informed. https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/fix+his+with+a+gaze https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/fix+his+with+a+gaze https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/fix-a-gaze-on https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/fix-a-g...
- bmacho 2y agoCollins is a counterpoint, right? Well it is, as it doesn't know this phrase. Thefreedictionary I don't now what that is. I'd be much more convinced if it cited examples from actual usage from books, articles, subtitles. Looks more machine generated to me than human work.
- SideburnsOfDoom 2y agoIf you want cites google "fix him with your gaze" or "fix it with your gaze" - including the quotes.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- bmacho 2y agoIt has ~3 results. 1 talks about making something immovable with your gaze with a spell in a fantasy setting. The other 2 are in blogspam articles of German companies, one of them is also available in several other languages, presumably machine translated.
- SideburnsOfDoom 2y agoThere are hits for other permutations such as ""fix them with your gaze", "fix me with your gaze", "fix her with your gaze" etc. If you're claiming that this is "wrong" then I think that's disproven. I don't even know what the point of that exercise would be. Just finally accept it as an opportunity to learn a new turn of phrase. You don't have to even use it, just accept that others do. IDK what the gatekeeping is about. If you still feel the need, then IDK, write a strongly worded letter about it to the editor of The Critic? It says "Britain's Most Civilised Magazine" on the home page. Have at it, present your credentials, see if you get anywhere. Or if you don't want to engage with the piece on its own terms, then maybe it's not for you. Not everything is written for everyone, and it's useless to complain about that.
- noduerme 2y agoFixing one's gaze on something is a standard English expression, it's just the active form of to be fixed on, which is passive. It means, literally, that one's line of sight is 'fixed upon' something. One's mind can also be fixed upon something. The verb is to fix or to affix. 'Fixed to' simply means 'attached to', but 'fixed on' usually implies something lighter attached to a weightier, possibly vertical surface, or something attached by glue or paste. You can also say that a postage stamp is fixed on an envelope. It's a great sentence if you understand the different things it is communicating compactly and efficiently.
- marky1991 2y ago"fix one's gaze on" is not the construction used in the article.
- Galatians4_16 2y agoDepends on the correct spelling of gaze.
- bmacho 2y agoWhat it means. The most annoying about that quote is that it is a correct sentence, with one single trivial meaning. Easy right? Your favorite type of sentence. Well guess what, in the text it stands for a totally different thing (without any particular reason or benefit). I much prefer GP's broken sentence. It is syntactically broken, but it has all the words, much better than if it was syntactically correct with an entirely different meaning than the intended one.
- SideburnsOfDoom 2y agoExactly, and "fixing" in this sense means "nailing to the spot", or "fastening upon, halt, stop moving, be immobile like a fixed point or fixed price". It's a poetic expression.
- bmacho 2y ago> For example, it says: "A woman in her forties sits on a bench, fixing the shrine with her gaze." This particular example I don't think is poetic rather it is broken.
- SideburnsOfDoom 2y ago> I don't think is poetic rather it is broken. No, it is not. You are merely unfamiliar with this sentence construction. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/fix-a-gaze-on https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/fix-a-g... https://dictionary.cambridge.org/thesaurus/fix-one-s-gaze https://dictionary.cambridge.org/thesaurus/fix-one-s-gaze https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/fix+his+with+a+gaze https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/fix+his+with+a+gaze
- bmacho 2y agoCollins and Cambridge don't know about it (despite Cambridge having one of the best and largest corpus of spoken and written English). Thefreedictionary I don't accept as reliable. Seems like this proves my point tbh.
- smcin 2y agoGP post cites Collins defining "fix a gaze on"! https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/fix-a-gaze-on https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/fix-a-g... Yes Collins knows about it. Even this lesser-known site knows about it: https://texttospeech.io/thesaurus/gaze https://texttospeech.io/thesaurus/gaze > Definition of gaze: (n): a long fixed look; "he fixed his paternal gaze on me"
- bmacho 2y agoWe are talking about 'fixing smth with a gaze' and not 'fixing gaze on smth'. The verb, the object and the subject are different.
- 2y ago
- xyzsparetimexyz 2y agoThat's a broken sentence.
- dambi0 2y agoBroken seems a bit harsh. It might not be idiomatic, it might fall foul of some grammatical standard. But you know what it means.
- xyzsparetimexyz 2y agoNo, I do not! It is absolutely derived of context.
- nindalf 2y agoKinda like how I understood what you meant here ("absolutely devoid of context") in spite of your error ("derived of context"). Sometimes we need to make an effort to understand. I wouldn't make you feel bad by saying "that's a broken sentence! I can't understand it!"
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- DeathArrow 2y agoIt is not an informative article, it's a piece designed to convey emotions and sentiments so readers are more willing to embrace author's view.
- nottorp 2y agoThere seems to be an agenda there. If you check wikipedia at least, the muslim-christian population exchange between Greece and Turkey wasn't quite like the article describes it. The facts may be somewhere in the middle, but certainly not in this article.
- KineticLensman 2y agoFWIW The Critic is associated with the British conservative movement so there is definitely a leaning to the political right (This is a comment on the magazine that published TFA, not TFA itself)
- Texasian 2y agoYou say that as if it’s a bad thing. Not all writing needs to be as dry as a technical bulletin.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- nottorp 2y agoThat’s how you do a proper propaganda piece, you write an emotional article that is mostly correct and insert subtle nudges to your actual topic :)
- nindalf 2y agoCould you describe how the muslim-christian population exchange actually happened? What is the agenda of this piece?
- nottorp 2y ago
- Galatians4_16 2y agoBe glad it's not Pidgin.
- type0 2y agoHere you go: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thessaloniki https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thessaloniki