Talk:1383: Magic Words

In this comic, Mr. Munroe makes a joke. As of yet, it is unclear what this joke IS, specifically, but it can be assumed that it's a funny one. ‎108.162.215.120 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

the clue was in "anapest"... for those more ambitious to explain and understand [1] 108.162.221.83 04:13, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Each sequence has four words with the same stress pattern, which makes them the same type of poetic foot (the first group is all iambs, the second is all trochees, the third is bacchius). Basically it's a pun. 173.245.54.185 04:25, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Is Cueball really as much of a cunning linguist as Megan makes him out to be? If not, she is going to be extremely unsatisfied in bed. 108.162.208.25 08:36, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Ha! Cunning linguist! *snicker* 108.162.254.157 08:42, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Before the explanation, I was wondering where "correct horse battery staple" was... 141.101.98.219 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Hmmm - surely there is some role the choice of words plays in this, beyond having a particular meter. Any ideas? Nealmcb (talk) 12:19, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

What about Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? =8o) Jarod997 (talk) 12:44, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

I did not initially state that "a-na-pest is an anapest. But now I have tripple checked amongst other with a school teacher and the dictionary that I link to in the link. I have thus correct this back again. Please do not change it back! Kynde (talk) 15:01, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

There seem to be some disagreement about the pronunciation of the word anapest - or at least what it means to stress a syllable. I'm no expert, but had two other hear the word from the link to the pronunciation given in the explain. There is now two different people who have written that anapest is an anapest (I'm one of them) and two others who have changed it back to being a dactyl, without commenting down here... The last who did it wrote that I had misread how the stress was in the dictionary. But I cannot see where this is defined? I just listened to the word. If someone can post a link to how the word is pronounced, and can explain to me how to read it, (so it can be made clear what is correct instead of starting an editing war...) that would be great. In case it is the first syllable that is stressed then the two definitions on Wikipedia for what an anapest is will give two different conclusions for the word. This I have now included in the anapest explanation. Kynde (talk) 09:18, 19 June 2014 (UTC)

'Anapest' is definitely an anapest, by BOTH definitions, when I pronounce it. What's more, when I intentionally try to pronounce it as a dactyl, it is very difficult for me to do so--it feels unnatural. California-raised with a Master's in English from an Ivy League school, if anyone cares. Anyway, my experience in both the world and the classroom lead me to believe that 'anapest' is an anapest for American English. If it can also be a dactyl, I'd say that's a British pronunciation. I'm pretty sure whatever any of us think, Randall thinks 'anapest' is an anapest... 173.245.48.196 14:34, 19 June 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the input. From this I have rephrased the anapest discussion an moved it into a trivia section. Kynde (talk) 20:14, 19 June 2014 (UTC)

'Anapest' is a dactyl because the stress is on the first syllable, according to Dictionary.com (in bold), Merriam-Webster, and Oxford Dictionaries (notice the accent mark at the beginning of the word). The inflection of the pronunciation also indicates stress on the first syllable. For example, compare the way you say "anapest" to "an apple", and how your voice rises at the beginning of the former but the middle of the latter. I haven't seen any examples showing the stress on the last syllable, so unless someone has one, I'm going to revert back to the correct explanation. Prometheusmmiv (talk) 00:39, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

Also, note that all these phrases are grammatically correct, but semantically nonsensical, Chomsky-style: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorless_green_ideas_sleep_furiously 141.101.104.41 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I don't think "story water paper doorway" is gramatically correct. Whether you take water or paper to be the verb, both the noun and the object would need to be plural and they're not.

Also, there's nothing nonsensical about "strawberry scorpion poetry"

The strawberry scorpion's sweet
Though juicy you never should eat-
In case you get stung
Just call 911
And try your best to stay upbeat
[[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]]) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Does anyone else think these words were chosen because they have whispering qualities would produce an 'autonomous sensory meridian response'? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_sensory_meridian_response 199.27.128.207 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

This is certainly contro-verse-ial. 108.162.216.6 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

As a linguist who dreams word-play, this comic is fantastic on so many levels. Thanks, Randall! Clumsy (talk) 21:34, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Holy crap, I had no freaking idea what was going on in this one. The cool thing is it's funny enough to still give me a chuckle after reading the explanation. Most jokes die a painful death if they have to be explained. Also, I have no idea how to properly sign my posts so I'm ignorantly copying others, likely incorrectly. jakeepooh

I read the comic and the explanation, and I still have no clue. Guess no poetic foot fetish action for me. 108.162.216.34 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I agree with the opinion that anapest is an anapest, and I've seen no comments to the contrary so unless there's other evidence to support it being a dactyl, it should remain anapest. Also, apparently the last person to change it didn't even read the entire sentence, because they left it as an autological word and not a heterological word. 108.162.216.60 19:46, 19 June 2014 (UTC)

Though almost nobody in America has heard the word "anapest" spoken aloud in our entire lives, I think most of us would assume, since words like "analog" and "Everest" are both dactyls, that "anapest" is obviously a dactyl unless there is some special cited reason that it's not. 199.27.128.90 00:51, 20 June 2014 (UTC)