Talk:2152: Westerns

2019-05-21T06:32:16Z

162.158.93.159:

How many times longer than the {{w|Regency era}} (a decade) have {{w|Regency romance}} novels existed? A fair bit more than three, I'd guess! (Perhaps 8.4, if we credit 1935 as the start and the Regency period as ten years) [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 05:41, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
:A similar question has been answered about WW2 by Randall: https://what-if.xkcd.com/100/ [[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:53, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
::Trivia about What-if #100: in another example of xkcd-inspired achievements, there now exists a short movie about the Anglo-Zanzibar war (http://www.imdb.com/keyword/anglo-zanzibar-war/). Plot keywords: stupid world record, cell camera, anglo zanzibar war.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.241|162.158.154.241]] 10:14, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M*A*S*H_(TV_series) M*A*S*H TV show] lasted more than 3 times the length of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War Korean War].
[[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:36, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

I would have thought Randall would understand the difference between "longer than" and "as long as". [[User:Mattcoz|Mattcoz]] ([[User talk:Mattcoz|talk]]) 14:53, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

:Hmmm... "A is as long as B" means pretty much the same as "A is as short as B". But "A is 3 times as long as B" is very different from "A is 3 times as short as B". English is weird. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.46|172.68.54.46]] 15:47, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that using the same logic as this page, Trojan War, a 10 years long conflict which started to be depicted in Greek no later in 8th century BC when Illiad was written and continuing to be depicted in poems, literature and movies up to today, would easily win this. There could also be several contestants from Rome - while both Roman Republic and Roman Empire lasted hundreds of years, the time period depicting fall of the Republic and rise of the Empire, starting with First Triumvirate 60BC and ending with Nero's death AD 68, is 128 years heavily depicted in literature and movies since it happened to, again, now. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:32, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

This makes me think of how the British TV show [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dad%27s_Army Dad's Army] lasted for longer than the Second World War. --[[User:OliReading|OliReading]] ([[User talk:OliReading|talk]]) 23:12, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

The famous pony express existed only for 18 months. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.9|162.158.74.9]] 02:19, 21 May 2019 (UTC)

Bill Cody alias Buffalo Bill pulp and shows started around 1870
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.159|162.158.93.159]] 06:32, 21 May 2019 (UTC)

Talk:1736: Manhattan Project

2016-09-21T19:09:21Z

162.158.93.159:

The Manhattan Project employed up to 139,000 people, so it were not only the top minds, but a huge logistical effort. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.85.183|162.158.85.183]] 16:58, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

Maybe reference to "1217 - Cells" could be added. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.159|162.158.93.159]] 19:09, 21 September 2016 (UTC)--Dancsa

1709: Inflection

2016-07-26T12:06:24Z

162.158.93.159:

{{comic
| number = 1709
| date = July 20, 2016
| title = Inflection
| image = inflection.png
| titletext = "Or maybe, because we're suddenly having so many conversations through written text, we'll start relying MORE on altered spelling to indicate meaning!" "Wat."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|More on Latin conjugation...?}}

While walking, [[Megan]] tells [[Cueball]] that in {{w|inflected languages}} -- such as {{w|German language|German}} -- changes in the spelling of a word changes its' meaning, in a predictable way. Megan exemplifies this with how {{w|plural}} forms of {{w|nouns}} are created by sticking an 's' at the end, and {{w|past tense}} of a {{w|verb}} is done by the suffix 'ed'. Megan then explains that this works well in {{w|languages}} which build on {{w|alphabets}}.

She continues to explain that their {{w|Indo-European languages|language family}} belongs to those that are inflected, but the {{w|Modern English|English branch}} is becoming less inflected than it used to be. Specifically this explains why English do not have so many {{w|Latin conjugations}}.

Cueball then asks ''Could that mean that English writing might be ripe to become more pictographic?'' Instead of using traditional words, Megan replies with three {{w|emojis}} "Thumbs up" (like), "Applause", and a smiley -- thus showing a pictographic version of the writing which has become more popular in the last years.

The writing systems of many languages have both {{w|pictographic}} and {{w|ideographic}} origins. "Pictographic" means that they are pictures of some thing that will remind the reader of either the pronunciation or the meaning of the word. The letter 'A', for example, originated from a word meaning "ox", but was meant to remind readers of the sound of a vowel like what we pronounce today as 'A'. 'Ideographic' means that they are designed, through pictures, to illustrate some idea. In fact, the three emojis used in the third panel of this cartoon are all ideographic, not pictographic, under this definition. "Thumbs up" (like), "Applause", and the smiley, are all emojis that remind us of a concept of approval.

{{w|Egyptian hieroglyphics}} contain many pictorial elements, some of which are pictographic in the sense that they are meant to represent the thing that they picture, but many are more abstract (ideographic) or are used for their {{w|phonetic}} value (as 'A' was used in early alphabetic systems). Similarly, in the {{w|Chinese character}} writing system, many of the elements have pictographic or ideographic origins; but they are often, and even usually combined in ways that are phonetic and not related to the pictures that were the origins of the characters.

Early modern English (think Shakespeare or the KJV Bible) used more forms for the tenses than we do today, which can help illustrate the trend away from inflected forms. In contrast, verbs in English today are often conjugated with auxiliary verbs. See below for a details on [[#Modern verb conjugation in English|modern verb conjugation in English]].

The title text points out that some intentional misspelling are used in Internet slang to alter the meaning of a word: "what" becomes "[https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wat wat]" to [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/wat express] confusion, disgust or disbelief. The title text also uses the intentional misuse of grammar to emphasize the word MORE by using all capital letters. Such emphasis is difficult to show with inflected language alone.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan, holding a hand up, are seen walking together from afar in silhouette.]
:Megan: Inflected languages change words to add meaning, like "-s" for plurals or "-ed" for past tense.
:Megan: Alphabets—where symbols stand for sound instead of words—work well for them, since you can show the changes through spelling.

:[Zoom in on the two as Megan turns her head back towards Cueball and spreads her arms out.]
:Megan: Our language family is inflected, but the English branch has lost most of its inflection over the millennia. It's why we don't have all those Latin conjugations.

:[Cueball speaks as they walk on and Megan replies with three orange-yellow emoji: Thumbs Up Sign pointing right, Clapping Hands Sign pointing up left with two times three small lines to indicate the clapping and Smiling Face With Blushing (red) Cheeks and Smiling Eyes. Below given the closest match possible as of the release of the comic.]
:Cueball: Could that mean English writing is ripe to become more pictographic?
:Megan: <font color="orange">👍 👏 😊</font>

==Trivia==
===Modern verb conjugation in English===
In the table below is a sample of a modern verb conjugation in English.

In all of these conjugations, the only inflections on the main verb "walk" are "-s", "-ed", and "-ing". (The highly irregular helper verbs, "be" and "have", have somewhat more interesting inflections.) And although this table shows only the third person, the first and second person would not introduce any additional words whatsoever; similarly, the table shows only the indicative mood, but the subjunctive and imperative moods would not introduce any additional words, and the conditional mood would only introduce the helper verb "would" (an inflection of the irregular helper verb "will") without any additional inflections on the main verb "walk". If instead we made this table in Spanish (for example), then there would be many more inflections on the main verb (12 in the third-person indicative alone, 45 including all persons and moods, if I didn't miscount).

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Verb: Walk
!Voice->
!colspan="2"|Active
!colspan="2"|Passive
|-
!Tense
!Singular (he/she/it)
!Plural (they)
!Singular (he/she/it)
!Plural (they)
|-
|Present
|walks
|walk
|is walked
|are walked
|-
|Present progressive
|is walking
|are walking
|is being walked
|are being walked
|-
|Present perfect
|has walked
|have walked
|has been walked
|have been walked
|-
|Present perfect progressive
|has been walking
|have been walking
|has been being walked
|have been being walked
|-
|Past
|walked
|walked
|was walked
|were walked
|-
|Past progressive
|was walking
|were walking
|was being walked
|were being walked
|-
|Past perfect
|had walked
|had walked
|had been walked
|had been walked
|-
|Past perfect progressive
|had been walking
|had been walking
|had been being walked
|had been being walked
|-
|Future
|will walk
|will walk
|will be walked
|will be walked
|-
|Future progressive
|will be walking
|will be walking
|will be being walked
|will be being walked
|-
|Future perfect
|will have walked
|will have walked
|will have been walked
|will have been walked
|-
|Future perfect progressive
|will have been walking
|will have been walking
|will have been being walked
|will have been being walked
|-
|Conditional
|would walk
|would walk
|would be walked
|would be walked
|-
|Conditional progressive
|would be walking
|would be walking
|would be being walked
|would be being walked
|-
|Conditional perfect
|would have walked
|would have walked
|would have been walked
|would have been walked
|-
|Conditional perfect progressive
|would have been walking
|would have been walking
|would have been being walked
|would have been being walked
|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Language]]

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2152: Westerns

Talk:1736: Manhattan Project

1709: Inflection