{...never heard....} + {....never heard....}....Dr. G. Ok, well, I certainly did not make up the phraseology myself, that is for sure. It apparently is said in some parts of the country, though I do not know boundaries. But fair enough, thanks for comments. Well, I had these so-called 'clutch' phras...

I can understand the self-documenting terms "what's-his-face/what's-her-face"; "what's-his-name/what's-her-name"; "what-d'ya-call-him/what-d'ya-call-her" (or 'words' to that effect) , but why, in the same vein, do we say "What's-his-clutch/what's-her-clutch" ?...

Thank you for making an effort to at least post a response, whether or not it directly deals with the question. I suppose people are just too busy running around with their hair on fire (economy, weather disasters, or whatever) to pay much attention to a linguistic site these days. Sometimes I do en...

......maybe it is a question I will pose on Chicago Manual of Style site also and see what happens there.

My initial reaction was the reasoning put forth by Saparris and shored-up by Sluggo. I had always thought that was a cluster of words that needed to be "conjoined" into one adjective modifier, as in my original question of "not-too-distant". To not put hyphens there seemed akin t...

I'm not so sure the question here is about "not so" with or without the hyphen. I do believe it's the hyphen itself. For example, in a recent magazine article I came across a phrase that almost threw me. It spoke of a bench that was of a size commonly used in laboratories. It was a bench ...

Which is correct: "not-so-distant past" or "not so distant past" ? I have always written: "not-so-distant past" to indicate one adjective modifier of "past". But it may be the case that "not so" is a standalone adverbial phrase modifying "distan...

I had a student in class once, and he was called 'Tootsie Pop" as a nickname. The round candy with Tootsie Roll center on a thin stick. If he appeared "sans clothes" I think he would have disappeared, except for his head. Sort of like Harry Potter when he first puts on the "disa...

Oh, I forgot to mention that "Why?" is usually a philosopher's question, and for better or for worse, I have that bent. I am always looking for reasons, motivations, and undercurrents. As I mentioned about "deck chairs/Titanic", I can sometimes be in outer space when I should be ...

Actually, my friend, who is American, but a teacher of Russian, eventulally did reply to me in an email, rather than this forum. I suggested he post here directly with his response, but for whatever reason, he has not yet. However, I will take the liberty of excerpting (I hope he does not mind) beca...

The question I would ask is why is there **NOT** extensibility of Russian motion-verb forms to non-motion verb forms? Or you COULD go the other way by simply asking, "what makes motion verbs (declared to be 14 or so sets) so special that they merit special forms, when something like "pour&...

??WHY?? do Russians, in their language, choose to ???NOT?? make the forms used for action verbs extensible to other verbs as a means of expression? So, speaking of only indicative mood, for instance, for "to go (on foot)" there is ходить imperfective aspect; indefinite form -----------past...

I was just trying to explain "Shut up and eat your shrimp" to a foreigner, and I realized I had no idea what in the world "shrimp" is doing there. Sometimes such things are famous lines from a movie, etc. "I coulda(sic) been a contenda(sic)". Or, likewise, from somethin...

Is there some "technical term" for "piece of", as used in "piece of advice"? For example, if I say to you, "Let me advise you further about this matter.", it is just interpreted as a neutral informative statement. But the minute we hear, "Let me give you ...

Well, since life as you knew it has been irrevocably altered due to the untimeliness of an answer, I'll give you an answer-- Yes. Obviously just a guess as I've never heard of the child's game you mentioned. Would you tell about it? "Since life as......untimeliness of an answer" ....Well,...