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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3597 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 4, 2022

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Can you, from errors made by an ESL person when communicating in English, deduce their native language?

Spoken or written?

For spoken, IME basically everybody who started with another language and learned English later will have a very noticeable accent with characteristics of their native language. This seems to be very difficult to avoid without years of effort to adjust your accent.

Written tends the other way. Sometimes there are errors or odd ways of phrasing things characteristic to a particular native language, but it's harder to notice and easier to avoid. It tends to come out more in more casual communication.

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A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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