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For my benefit

I am sure one could find many reasons to justify the use of English on this blag from time to time. For example, we would be able to reach a much larger audience. Which may be a goood thing. As we all remember, random people occasionally stumble across this site, and find something they like. We have for example the person who liked my post about reinforced concrete, or the people who enjoyed the insanely long posts about dead writers or some such. If these things were written in English, the number of potential readers would increase dramatically. I am not, however, thinking of those poor souls, even though they are deprived from reading my wisdom regarding reinforced concrete.

Also, if I wrote in English, it would be easier for Camillas English-speaking internet-friends, of whom I have met four, to read what I write. Which would be a good thing for them. Actually, one of them can read Norwegian, and I do not think he is a regular reader, so it might well be that they would not bother anyway. Still, it would be possible to use this as an argument to support writing in English. But I will not.

I am thinking, dear reader, only of myself. The thing is that I almost never write in English, as I discovered during my TOEFL-test last year. I read English almost every day, and I speak it occasionally, especially this last year, but apart from an email now and then, I hardly ever write in English. And since I aim to write here six times a week, I might as well post an English article from time to time, thus killing two birds with one stone.

As I mentioned, the important thing here is that i benefit from this. That means I appreciate comments about my writing, especially from any native English-speakers. And if such a thing exists, I would very much like to know the rule for when one should combine two words with a hyphen in English, which is a common problem when writing about physics. Is it for instance «high-energy limit», or «high-energy-limit»? «One-loop approximation» or «One-loop-approximation»?

In other news, I have an exam tomorrow, in applied quantum mechanics. And my university, probably in an attempt to save money, has decided to hold the exams in the available lecture theatres this year. Normally they are held in some nearby sports halls, which is far better, as you get a real desk and proper ventilation. As a result of this, my exam is in a building called «Verkstedhallen», which makes me a bit worried. I will be back with more on this tomorrow.

-Tor Nordam

Comments

Are,  22.05.07 23:06

Right!

"Camilla's", not "Camillas".

I will leave the hyphenation question to someone with more grammar knowledge. Though I am certain it should be "high-energy limit" and not "high-energy-limit". It just looks wrong. It turns out that there is (of course) a decent wikipedia article on hyphens, which explains this just as well as I could.

(Am I the only one thinking that we will soon be able to go through life writing nothing but links to wikipedia?)

I take it you are writing your thesis in English, since you are asking about hyphenation?

Skybert,  22.05.07 23:28

ai dont ønderstand a sjit.

Jørgen,  23.05.07 08:20

Ingen grunn til å bli bekymret med mindre det er snakk om verkstedhallen på Svartlamoen.

Skybert,  23.05.07 11:02

Er det grunn til å bli bekymret over snakk om verkstedhallen på Svartlamoen?

Matteus,  23.05.07 11:10

One Camilla, two Camillas, three Camillas, four.
Vet at det allerede er kommentert, men jeg kunne ikke dy meg. Blir noengang litt forvirret når alle Camillaene kommenterer samme artikkel om hverandre.

Dersom du ikke satser hardt på en offentlig og litt tung stil så kan det være kjekt å trekke samme ord, f.eks I will til I'll, I would til I'd, do not til don't osv. Ellers høres man fort ut som et av brevene til de sinte BBC-seerne i Monty Python's flying Circus: "Dear Sirs, I demand that you stop all these jokes about cannibalism." Ganske festlig der, men hindrer tekstflyten i en lengre tekst. Det sier i hvert fall engelsklæreren jeg deler kontor med.

Selv ikke de hardeste av nåtidens britiske forfattere unngår vel disse formene helt og holdent, eller tar jeg feil her.

Anders K.,  23.05.07 12:29

Matteus har rett, selv om sammentrekking egentlig er en smakssak, og jeg mistenker Tor for å legge skillet mellom piperøykende tweedjakke-og-ørelappstol-folk og kriminell gateungdom akkurat der.

Selv oversetter jeg ofte særnavn med betydning, rett og slett fordi poenget ellers forsvinner. Når man ikke vet hva Verkstedhallen betyr, er setningen verdiløs på engelsk, og det blir litt som når kidsa sier «Norway is sooo stupid, 'cause we have to go to the 'Vinmonopolet'». En engelsktalende person får på denne måten absolutt ingenting ut av setningen. Jeg foreslår «Factory Hall» og «Government Liquor Store», kanskje kanskje i anførselstegn for å vise at det ikke dreier seg om det formelle navnet.

Are,  23.05.07 12:55

Tor er vel i oppgaveskrivemodus, og mitt inntrykk er at man da gjerne ikke trekker sammen. Enig i at det fort kan bli litt tungt.

Matteus,  23.05.07 13:17

Satt prøvevakt for kriminell gateungdom, og fikk litt piperøykende tweedjakke-og-ørelappstol-tendenser. Dette er resultatet:

I sit up high, upon my perch,
and gaze down upon the sea
of all the lesser entities
that may not sit with me.

With all their shant's and don'ts and ain'ts
they pollute the written word,
all to save a breath or two.
"Absurd!" I say, "absurd!"

If one of these inferiors
should reach above his station,
and through an act of climbing
try to reach my elevation,

then I shall through a daring feat
make my noble feelings plain.
My boot will act the gentleman,
and help him down again.

Tor,  23.05.07 13:55

Fantastisk!

Camilla,  23.05.07 14:02

Briljant!

Ragnhild,  23.05.07 18:13

Fabulous!

Jørgen,  23.05.07 19:03

Nydelig! Det er for øvrig ingen grunn til å bli bekymret for verkstedhallen på svartlamoen. Men kanskje Tor ville ha blitt litt bekymret.

Kjellove,  23.05.07 22:04

«High-energy limit» etc.

Are,  24.05.07 02:01

Kult, Matteus!

"No no
no no no no
no no no no
no no
There's no limit"

På tide å legge seg...

Matteus,  24.05.07 12:44

Yay, positiv feedback. Fanget jeg synet ditt på slike folkelige sammentrekninger av det engelske språket, Tor?

Tor,  24.05.07 22:11

Jepp, du traff spikeren på hodet der.

B,  24.05.07 23:38

Men? Hva med Mr. Kite?
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