User talk:Msh210: difference between revisions

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My bad my uncomplete sentences and mind goes off the wall and sometimes threw the wall like a rampaging charging rhino juggernaut, for my train of thought just goes of track/topic most times, your not the first or last. Just curious if wiktionary allows plasma or laser physics equations to be added to their index, cause I don't know what qualifies as a definition, is it only actions like kill terminate and different slaughter like terms and notable laser plasma particle accelerators like the [[laser-plasma accelerator]] which sounds common, but by adding other similar laser plasma accelerator concepts like [[laser plasma ion acoustic spaser accelerator]] which I just made up as a example which is similar to a laser particle accelerator but it uses a different mechanism technique, which may be like a sub type of a laser particle accelerator, but wiktionary may just want only one type of laser particle accelerator. There's vulture in this wiktionary but it may not have all the sub species types names in it even if it is notable enough, is vulture in the wiktionary because vulture could be used to describe something spying on u like a vulture or ferocious raptor, by using these bird names as a action. I just was wondering if u knew any dictionaries or encyclopedia's that have only words, things, equations ,experiment machines like the [[large hadron collider]] which is a type of particle accelerator and probably qualifies in this wiktionary, and not maps location people names like if I type in lighting on the index prefix of wikipedia it shows all lighting related terms places and names of people. And the sci fi book plot summary length that cant be to long on wikipedia just wondering if u knew any other sites that show all detail of the plot summary, wikia's have some but not enough.[[User:Shawn Worthington Laser Plasma|Shawn Worthington Laser Plasma]] 02:18, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
My bad my uncomplete sentences and mind goes off the wall and sometimes threw the wall like a rampaging charging rhino juggernaut, for my train of thought just goes of track/topic most times, your not the first or last. Just curious if wiktionary allows plasma or laser physics equations to be added to their index, cause I don't know what qualifies as a definition, is it only actions like kill terminate and different slaughter like terms and notable laser plasma particle accelerators like the [[laser-plasma accelerator]] which sounds common, but by adding other similar laser plasma accelerator concepts like [[laser plasma ion acoustic spaser accelerator]] which I just made up as a example which is similar to a laser particle accelerator but it uses a different mechanism technique, which may be like a sub type of a laser particle accelerator, but wiktionary may just want only one type of laser particle accelerator. There's vulture in this wiktionary but it may not have all the sub species types names in it even if it is notable enough, is vulture in the wiktionary because vulture could be used to describe something spying on u like a vulture or ferocious raptor, by using these bird names as a action. I just was wondering if u knew any dictionaries or encyclopedia's that have only words, things, equations ,experiment machines like the [[large hadron collider]] which is a type of particle accelerator and probably qualifies in this wiktionary, and not maps location people names like if I type in lighting on the index prefix of wikipedia it shows all lighting related terms places and names of people. And the sci fi book plot summary length that cant be to long on wikipedia just wondering if u knew any other sites that show all detail of the plot summary, wikia's have some but not enough.[[User:Shawn Worthington Laser Plasma|Shawn Worthington Laser Plasma]] 02:18, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
:We don't allow entries for ''things'': our entries are for ''words'' (or, as we like to call them, terms. They may be phrases, containing spaces). That's because we're a dictionary, not an encyclopedia (or product catalogue, vel sim.). So the fact that two terms describe the same thing doesn't mean we won't have both entries; on the other hand, that they describe different things doesn't mean we will. One of [[wt:CFI|our criteria for inclusion, in Wiktionary, of a term]] is what we like to call "idiomaticity": see [[[[WT:CFI]]]] for more on this, but roughly it means that the term, if composed of multiple words, has a meaning more than, or different from, the sum of those parts. Thus, for example, we allow an entry for {{term|monkey business}}, since one can't figure out its meaning from {{term|monkey}} and {{term|business}}, but we don't allow {{term||restaurant business}}, which is just {{term|restaurant}} + {{term|business}}. Now, I don't know anything about these lasers and what-have-you that you are referring to, but if a phrase you wish to add can be broken down meaningwise into its parts, then it's probably not inclusible; if not, it probably is. I hope that this helps. Please feel free to ask further here if not (and even if yes).<span class="Unicode">&#x200b;—[[User:Msh210|msh210]]℠</span> 06:57, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
:We don't allow entries for ''things'': our entries are for ''words'' (or, as we like to call them, terms. They may be phrases, containing spaces). That's because we're a dictionary, not an encyclopedia (or product catalogue, vel sim.). So the fact that two terms describe the same thing doesn't mean we won't have both entries; on the other hand, that they describe different things doesn't mean we will. One of [[wt:CFI|our criteria for inclusion, in Wiktionary, of a term]] is what we like to call "idiomaticity": see [[[[WT:CFI]]]] for more on this, but roughly it means that the term, if composed of multiple words, has a meaning more than, or different from, the sum of those parts. Thus, for example, we allow an entry for {{term|monkey business}}, since one can't figure out its meaning from {{term|monkey}} and {{term|business}}, but we don't allow {{term||restaurant business}}, which is just {{term|restaurant}} + {{term|business}}. Now, I don't know anything about these lasers and what-have-you that you are referring to, but if a phrase you wish to add can be broken down meaningwise into its parts, then it's probably not inclusible; if not, it probably is. I hope that this helps. Please feel free to ask further here if not (and even if yes).<span class="Unicode">&#x200b;—[[User:Msh210|msh210]]℠</span> 06:57, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

== Removed vote ==

[[No worries]], I'll revisit it again, care to notify me when it's ready? :) -- '''[[User:Cirt|Cirt]]''' ([[User talk:Cirt|talk]]) 00:28, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Revision as of 00:28, 14 February 2012

If you write me something here, I will respond here. If you specifically request a response elsewhere, I may (but may not) honor that request.

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Please note


Kham, efshar, kal, etc.

Hi msh210,

I've been thinking we should have a category for adjectives like (deprecated template usage) חם (kham), (deprecated template usage) אפשר (efshár) (sp?), (deprecated template usage) קל (kal), etc. that frequently lead off sentences. ("Kham bakhútz." "Efshár mei-ha'ugá?" "Kal l'havín otó.") Does that seem like a good idea to you? If so, what do you think of the name Category:Hebrew impersonal adjectives?

Thanks in advance,
RuakhTALK 21:15, 8 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I assume you mean "that frequently start sentences" as a handy description, not as the criterion for inclusion in the category. (Can any adjective start a sentence, somehow? I suspect so.) What is the criterion, then? Cham (and kar) seems different to me from kal and efshar (and naim (google:נעים-לפגוש) and kashe), in that the latter are followed by l'- verbs and the former not. But maybe that's incorrect. (I've never heard efshar mehauga, but assume it's an elision of leechol, yes?) Why do you want to call them "impersonal": is that what they're usually called?—msh210 21:26, 8 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Re: handy description vs. criterion: Er, I kind of did mean it as the criterion. :-/   It's true that any adjective can start a sentence, though with most I can only think of sentences that would sound either poetic ("Khakhamim hem she-yod'im l'sameakh et nashoteihem") or ridiculous ("U-m'fugarim hem she-lo"). These adjectives are notable in that it's normal for them to start a present-tense clause, and in other clauses for them to be preceded only by a form of hayá. (Not counting adverbs and such.) Though, they can be preceded by l'- phrases — basically subjects in the dative case, if Hebrew had cases — as in "Lama l'Yosi mutar v'lo li?" I'll grant that I haven't given a very formal criterion, but to me these words seem to form a natural class; do they not to you? (N.B. most of them also have non-sentence-starting uses — "Ein mayim khamim" — just as in English many adjectives are also nouns, etc. But, not all: I can't think of any sentence using "efshar" as a normal adjective; in all cases I'd prefer "efshari" for that.)
Re: infinitivity vs. not: Maybe. google:"חם לגעת" does get some hits, though admittedly it's not the most natural phrase in the world. BTW, I'd "translate" "Efshár mei-ha'ugá?" as either "Efshár l'kabél mei-ha'ugá?" or "Efshár lakákhat mei-ha'ugá?", depending on the situation, but I suppose "Efshár le'ekhól mei-ha'ugá?" is basically the same.
Re: "impersonal": *shrug* They're always masculine singular, and they seem analogous to the impersonal constructions in English ("it's hot outside", "it's easy to understand it/him"), though of course not every such Hebrew expression translates to such an English one and vice versa ("I'm hot" = "kham li", "Can I have some?" = "Efshar?"; conversely, "It's raining" = "yored geshem"). I don't know what the usual name for them is.
RuakhTALK 23:48, 8 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Re "I haven't given a very formal criterion, but to me these words seem to form a natural class; do they not to you": Well, yes and no, for two reasons. (Well, yes, for the reasons you state, and no, for two reasons.) (1) The "infinitivity" (?) business. It seems like two classes, not one. Note, though, that you can say זה-לא-אפשר also (although I think "bilti efshari" is more common now). So maybe it's just one class. (2) It seems (contradicting what you said above) that every one of these adjectives can also be used in the normal adjective fashion (can you find one that's not?), which kinda dilutes the strength of the category. Perhaps call it "Hebrew adjectives that can be impersonal" or something.—msh210 17:38, 9 December 2008 (UTC) Small edit in light of Google's no longer supporting that syntax.​—msh210 14:43, 10 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I'd be down with two categories, if you can clarify them well enough that I can apply them accurately. Re: "'infinitivity' (?)": It's not a real word, if that's what you're �ing. Re: normal adjective use: Yeah, maybe. I mean, they are adjectives, and I'm not suggesting otherwise. Re: "Hebrew adjectives that can be impersonal": That seems a bit wordy, and it also risks bringing in non-grammatical senses of "impersonal" (mechanical/robotic; distant/standoffish); are you saying that "Hebrew impersonal adjectives" would be misleading? —RuakhTALK 20:29, 9 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Somewhat misleading, yes. No?—msh210 21:01, 9 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Or maybe not; we seem to have several such categories with such names; e.g., English uncountable nouns and English abstract nouns (which latter include fireside).—msh210 21:16, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Did we reach a conclusion here? I can't tell. —RuakhTALK 19:07, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
There were a few issues we discussed:
  1. What words get included? Criteria? — This seems to be the (somewhat subjective, but that's okay) criterion that it's usual for such words to start sentences (preceded by "to be" in past and future).
  2. Are there two categories: things followed by "to" verbs and things not? — You think not, and, even if yes, we can always fine-tune later.
  3. What to call the category. — I have no objection to you original suggestion, Hebrew impersonal adjectives, if that's what they're called in English and they have no English name in Hebrew. (By that latter I mean, of course, that Anglophone grammarians/linguists have no name for this type of Hebrew adjective.)
So we seem to be good to go. I assume, incidentally, that yesh and en will be in this category (even though they aren't preceded by "to be" in past and future but are instead replaced by it)?—msh210 19:19, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
So, we did decide to create at least one category?
  1. Sounds good.
  2. O.K.
  3. I don't know if there's an English name for them, period, applied to either language. google:"impersonal adjective|adjectives" gets only 68 hits (257 raw), and most of them aren't in this sense (though some are). I'm suggesting this name because I don't have a better one; because these are adjectives; and because impersonal verb, impersonal expression, and impersonal construction are standard terms. (In a lot of languages, including at least English and French, you can't use an adjective like this on its own — you have to say something like "it is good/understood/obvious that [] " or "it is cold/hot/rainy in [] " or "it is easy/difficult/interesting to [] " — so it makes sense to view the construction or expression as a whole as impersonal. In Hebrew, you just say "tov/kamuvan/barur she [] " or "kar/kham/[n/a] b'- [] " or "kal/kashe/m'anyen l'- [] ", so it seems like the adjective itself is being used impersonally. And we're a dictionary, so it's more convenient for us to describe these as properties of individual words. (If this were standard category with a standard name — which it may well be, but if so I don't know it — then I don't think it would have occurred to me to ask anyone about it, I would have just created the category. I'd like your opinion because I'm not sure about this, it's just an idea I had. And I think it's a good idea, but maybe not, and anyway not all good ideas work out in practice.)
And I wasn't thinking that yesh and ein would be included, since they don't seem to be adjectives at all, but more like quasi-verbs. For example, they (especially ein) can function as copulas in formal Hebrew (as in Template:Hebr or Template:Hebr). Funnily enough, my Hebrew–English dictionaries all give yesh as an adverb, which I think they're using a catch-all POS, and my Hebrew dictionary seems to give it only as a noun, apparently on etymological grounds. (Speaking only of the grammatical/existential use here. Certainly it has lexical uses as a noun, as all dictionaries agree.)
RuakhTALK 16:14, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Hm. I maintain that yesh and en are used the way adjectives are, and seem to be adjectives. But having thought about it some more, I suppose they're not adjectives of the sort we're discussing here. After all, yesh li sefer is like kasha li handasa=handasa kasha li: still an adjective, just not of the sort we're discussing. Or so it seems to me at the moment.
More importantly: I suggest that the fact that these adjectives are "impersonal" is perfect material for a usage note; perhaps draft a usage-note template that can be included in all these pages and that categorizes.—msh210 19:59, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for all your advice. I've gone ahead and created Category:Hebrew impersonal adjectives. I haven't written the usage-note template yet — I've thought a bit about what it should say, but it's still kind of vague in my head — so right now the category is still empty. I know how you like to keep your talk-page clean, but I'd kind of like to keep this conversation around. Is it all right if I copy it to the category's talk-page? Thanks again. —RuakhTALK 00:46, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If you like, you certainly can, but it's unnecessary: I'll keep it as long as you like, and archive it thereafter. Nice explanation in the cat.—msh210 15:48, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If I may intervene, and I apologize for not reading the entire discussion, I might be able to contribute on certain points that I did read:

  • The words yesh and eyn have been baffling Hebrew grammarians for a long time. In Hebrew they function like verbs with null subject. The ultra-conservative grammarians claim the thing stated as existent or non-existent is the sentence's subject (and there is the famous pseudo-philosophic mnemonic: ma she-yésh u-ma she-éyn hu ha-nosé). However, this theory doesn't hold much water for Modern Israeli Hebrew (I don't have enough information regarding Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew). First, since the unmarked word order in MIH is S-V-O, it is quite remarkable that yesh/eyn sentences are unmarkedly built as V-S and never have direct objects, according to the ultra-conservative theory. It would be more reasonable to assume that yesh marák ("there is soup") is analogous with holkhim habayta ("It's time to go home", lit. "going home"). Furthermore, native MIH-speakers insist (intuitively) on inserting the clitic et before the alleged subject in yesh/eyn sentence, when it is definite, e.g. kvar yésh li et ha-séfer hazé or kvar yésh li ta-sèfer-azé. Since in MIH et always introduces direct object (unlike Biblical Hebrew where et functions in a more complicated way), this implies that the thing stated as existent/non-existent is actually the object of the sentence. Of course teachers at school frown upon saying yesh li et ha-sefer and insist it should be yesh li ha-sefer, but even careful radio/TV announcers introduce et in this position when interviewing rather than reading from the teleprompter.
  • Stepping up to a higher register of Modern Israeli Hebrew, yesh and eyn have nominal inflection (namely, yeshní, yeshkhá and the somewhat peculiar yeshnó; eyní/eynéni, eynkhá, eynó/eynéno). So we see here something that behave nominally but normally occupies the verb slut of the sentence.
  • efshár has a nominal form (in Hebrew nouns and adjective are extremely similar morphologically, so nominal here refers to adjectives too). It seems to behave somewhat like a modal verb in English. It introduces a base-form verb, it has a special negation (namely, í-efshàr, just like you say "can't" and not "don't can"). You've noticed that efshár lagáat is grammatical while kham lagáat is not, because the adjective kham don't have the modality feature that efshár has.
  • To sum it all up, the classification of these words to parts of speech is difficult, and even experienced grammarians differ on this issue. Perhaps a special category of "quasi-verbs" or "modals" or something similar would be a solution. Drork 17:56, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
That seems to be a common practice. They did the same in the company I used to work for as linguist. Drork 04:47, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

ASL index

I thought you might be interested in Tom's recommendation at User talk:Positivesigner, "... assign Sign Writing pictographs for each [symbol in his sign jotting system]. The lookup would be visual enough to not even need to know English and it would be general enough to isolate a group of similar signs in a few steps. My code would not be seen except by the computer programs we use to create the slightly-inaccurate Sign Writing indicies. Once the entry is located, you can have it translated from a video to Sign Writing, PSE, and English."

I'm excited about the possibility of creating a useable index, as the current system still doesn't seem terribly easy to maintain or even to navigate. Your feedback is welcome. —Rod (A. Smith) 18:41, 13 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Why use the current system for the index? If we're switching to ASLSJ, do so for the index, too. Or am I missing something? In any event, I think that since SignWriting (the real thing, not our version) will, I hope, be Unicode characters, we'll be switching over anyway, so any current system is temporary and need not be ideal; so we might as well leave it the way it is for now even if we do think ASLSJ is better.—msh210 18:47, 13 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
No, I don't think a full conversion to ASLSJ (temporary or otherwise) is on the table, because it doesn't seem to solve any problems of the current transcription system. Tom's recommendation was to combine SignWriting symbols with ASLSJ just to organize (and automatically maintain) our sign language indices. I'm sketchy on the details, but presumably the reorganized index would make it easier for a reader to find the entry for a sign of unknown meaning. I told him to be bold with one or two of the existing Index:American Sign Language pages, so we can at least see how his vision might unfold.
Browsing around the Internet, I cannot find any new information on the integration of SignWriting into Unicode. The layout issues seem so much more complex than Unicode combining characters can accomodate, so I suspect it will be several years, at least. —Rod (A. Smith) 20:37, 13 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I have a working solution for encoding Binary SignWriting to Unicode. Binary SignWriting uses sequential 16 bit codes to represent the spatial information needed for SignWriting. You can read about the plane 4 solution. You can view the Hello world. page. You can view the BSW JavaScript library (see function char2unicode). I'm currently rewriting the SignWriting Image Server to use Binary SignWriting rather than comma delimited data. It should be ready next week. -Steve 12:49, 08 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
SignWriting Image Server beta 5 has been released to view and download. Section 3 has the Binary SignWriting definition with ABNF for data and Regular Expressions for tokens. -Steve 19:35, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Morphology presentation template

I have prepared a first draft of a morpheme-presentation and -autocategorization template, {{morph}}. It is probably botched in its treatment of he|yi and lacks the categorization of the second morpheme, but its use is illustrated at referentiality. Like confix, from which this is derived, it is limited to three arguments. A variant (or a called subtemplate?), capable of handling more morphemes, at least six for normal English, more for Joycean terms, would be desirable.

It is intended to facilitate the separation of morphology (aka "synchronic etymology") and etymology (aka "diachronic etymology") and complements DoremitzWR's ideas at WT:BP.

Please tell me what you think and fix what needs fixing. DCDuring TALK 15:06, 24 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, I've been away a little. It looks like this template has been worked on quite a bit since you've posted this request, which is therefore no longer relevant. Right? Thanks for seeking my input, though. — This comment was unsigned.
Hope you're relaxed.
I'm working up the courage and energy to present a proposal about the presentation of etymology, especially historical and morphological etymology using auocategorizing templates like, {{prefix}}, {{suffix}}, {{confix}}, and {{derv}} which requires some resolution of the confounding of historical and morphological derivation that now characterizes our Etymology section. Part of the problem is that different languages are at different levels of readiness for presenting etymology information of the two kinds. A bigger problem is that autocategorizing requires the creation of a lot of categories, even for a deployment limited to derivations within English. And the category-naming convention should be consistent with all-language deployment. DCDuring TALK 22:14, 11 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I've seen recent talk about categorizing by etymon, and don't quite see the point for the rarer etyma. As I mentioned elsewhere (though I'm darned if I know where now), how many descendants in English are there of Middle English withdrawen (verb)? Presumable just withdraw. Do we need or want an "English descendants of Middle English withdrawen" category? I say absolutely not. (OTOH, do we need or want an "English descendants of Latin canere/cano" category? That, yes, or at least maybe.) I am very much in favor of clearly marking morphological (or whatever it's called) etymology, where we have it, as such.​—msh210 15:51, 12 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"Artistic works"

Thank you for reviewing categories of fiction, apparently to reflect the results of a recent poll. However, Asterix, Astro Boy and Care Bears are defined as works of fiction (among other definitions); so, in my opinion, your decision of removing them from Category:Artistic works is not constructive and should be reverted. If you don't mind, I would be happy to repopulate that specific category with these terms. --Daniel. 23:04, 16 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

As Fiction is a subcategory of Artistic works, categorizing them as Artistic works is redundant and per that poll a Bad Thing.​—msh210 23:11, 16 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
"Fiction is a subcategory of Artistic works" is a complex concept, which I wasn't aware of and was implemented in the category tree minutes ago. Let me try to rationalize it.
As I see it, a title of a work of fiction is among the many terms that fit the umbrella of "fiction", so it may be categorized into Category:Fiction.
Similarly, a title of an artistic work is among the many terms that fit the umbrella of "art", so it may be categorized into Category:Art.
If we have Category:Works of fiction and/or Category:Artistic works, then a number of titles of works may be placed into these two categories and removed from Category:Art and/or Category:Fiction.
In short:
There is not necessarily a relation between the concepts of "artistic works" and "fiction", so my initial opinion remains, and my request too. --Daniel. 23:32, 16 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Huh? Isn't every work of fiction an artistic work? I do not understand your argument.​—msh210 05:06, 17 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, wait, I do now. You're saying that the cat "Artistic works" is only for titles of artistic works, and is not a cat devoted to artistic works generally (despite its name). Recall that as a dictionary our entries are terms, not referents, so that Artistic works as the title of a category makes it sounds like either (1) the words in the category are artistic works, which doesn't make much sense, or (2) it's a topical category on the topic of artistic works generally, which would not restrict it to titles. A cat devoted to titles would not be a topical category but a lexical one (though IMO it shouldn't exist) and would be, according to our current naming scheme, named English titles of artistic works. So IMO either switch the current use of the category as now named to the more general one, delete it as overly specific, or rename it per above. Thoughts?​—msh210 16:55, 17 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, I have been considering Category:Artistic works a good place to have only titles of artistic works. In fact, Category:Art serves well the different purpose of being devoted to art (including artistic works) generally.
As long as we have a certain number of entries defined as titles of artistic works, it seems natural to me having a category for them. (It's roughly like having both Category:Geography and Category:Place names.)
To make the objective of Category:Artistic works clearer, I would support it being renamed to Category:Titles of artistic works, but not Category:English titles of artistic works. It's a topical category to me, like Category:Languages and perhaps Category:Sex positions. --Daniel. 02:33, 18 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Spelling the unspelled

You mentioned that someone who doesn't know how to correctly title a page may put it under the "sign gloss" namespace. I feel that I could create a title for a sign-word page. But that does not necessarily make my title "correct." Is it first come, first serve? If someone feels it doesn't match the existing pattern, does that make it wrong? If I feel the pattern is wrong, how would I get a change approved?

I currently don't see how the phoneme / hold-move structures are helping to accomplish the overall goal of being able to "lookup the correct spelling or meaning" of a sign-word in a two-dimensional medium. Indeed, the goal of an orthography is to ease the flow of thought from mind to paper and paper to mind. Does the entry "A@InsideShoulderhigh-PalmBack-FlatB@NearCenterChesthigh-PalmDown Frontandback" help anyone to do that? If a new signer sees a person speaking in ASL, is there any chance they could "sound out" the spelling to find the meaning if they don't understand about the spacial aspect of ASL grammar?

My biggest problem is that I don't know anyone to talk to about some different ideas I have for these issues, or to whom I can express my concerns. I was e-mailing Rodasmith regularly at the end of 2009, but he told me that he had some better things to do. So that's why I'm writing to you here. Thank you for your patience. - Positivesigner 03:06, 13 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding your first point, we need canonical page titles. There's some discussion about this at [[User talk:Rodasmith#another ase entry, and some ramblings about dimensionality]]: what directions can be assumed and not included in titles. If we're keeping our current page-title system, this should be codified.
By the way, as discussed in the past somewhere, if and when SignWriting is included in Unicode, all the entries should be moved to SignWriting titles.
You're 100% right that it's very hard to find an entry by looking it up directly; as you know better than I, [[Index:American Sign Language]] is meant to ease looking up entries. Note incidentally that the difficulty of looking up a word one hears is not limited to sign languages; a Soundex-like search mechanism would be a wonderful addition to this site.
No one to talk with is a function of there being no ASL (or other SL) editors. If you have a specific idea you want implemented, I suggest you raise it at [[Wiktionary talk:About sign languages]] and point to it with a heads-up at the talkpages of the various SL editors (Rodasmith, Di gama, ECUgrad96, Neskaya, me, perhaps others); even absent editors might have an e-mailed notification in place for edits to their talkpages. Seeing support there, implement it; or, seeing no opposition, bring it to the Beer parlour. I think that'd usually be a good way to do it. If what you have is not a specific idea to be implemented but a concern to be discussed, then, again, bring it to [[Wiktionary talk:About sign languages]] with links from editors' talkpages. I don't know what else to tell you, I'm afraid; there just isn't much of a community of SL editors here (to put it mildly).​—msh210 08:07, 13 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Or just being it straight to the BP, bypassing the SL talkpage, perhaps. Few people will care, and it will clutter up an already cluttered BP, but at least more people will notice it.​—msh210 16:12, 13 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I did reply to you. Sorry I did not immediately notice the discussion was talking place on the talk page. -- Cat chi? 13:26, 28 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, the nomination failed because of your oppse vote (I suppose it would have failed either way in the absence of any kind of support) so I'd like to discuss the bot with you before nominating it again. Feel free to ask me any question you may have. -- Cat chi? 02:43, 29 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Might I suggest that you instead post to the BP, outlining exactly what the script in question does, and seeking public opinion on (a) whether we want such redirects 'fixed' and (b) whether we want a bot to take care of them? And then, if the answer to (a) seems to be yes and the answer to (b) is, at worst, unclear, propose the vote again.​—msh210 04:04, 29 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
It is the standard redirect.py (double redirect script) I run at every other wiki but here and one other wiki as I told you at the bots talk page which you did not respond to while maintaining your oppose vote. :)
Sure, I can post it there though I am unsure what to really say as the task is a simple one.
-- Cat chi? 02:36, 5 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I posted it at Wiktionary:Beer parlour#Bot_edits_to_fix_Double_redirects -- Cat chi? 02:50, 5 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! You've explained it very nicely (at last).​—msh210 18:26, 5 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your prompt reply to my first-ever Wiktionary post! I am wondering if the discussion of this topic to which you allude has been kept anywhere. If there is a community of users interested in this topic, I would love to try to form a consensus. Thills123 01:42, 30 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There's discussion at [[Wiktionary:Beer parlour archive/2009/March#Request for comment on language for two up/down votes on definition format]]; the votes discussed there also have talkpages with some more discussion. There may be some more elsewhere, too, but I don't know where.​—msh210 02:03, 30 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Help on adding words

What qualifies as a word. Does laser designator count, I see u guys have laser-plasma accelerator, laser gun and so forth. I understand their articles of weapons or things or mechanisms/equations does it have to be notable like plasma lamp and not plasma parameter which is a plasma equation. If cannot put these laser or plasma article like words is their any wiki like dictionary or list of words that involve application to things in the order of a index. I understand wikipedia has contents for a-z index but a lot of maps and places/names get in the way. Do u know any website that shows books like sci fy related of there full plot summary instead of just a couple of paragraphs. Check out my List of plasma (physics) articles, List of laser articles, and list of infrared articles Iv'e created on Wikipedia. Wikipedia:Articles for deletion of these articles is up for debate. I can add decent new word like articles fast because My raw watch list has 23,000 articles most are science related.Shawn Worthington Laser Plasma 07:17, 12 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Could you try that again in different words, please? Maybe I'm dense or something, but I'm really not sure what you're asking me. The following might be relevant to your question: (1) Our criteria for inclusion are very different from Wikipedia's, and for good reason. (2) Wiktionary is the wrong place to discuss policies of, or debate deletions at, Wikipedia: we have no say here in what goes on there.​—msh210 19:39, 12 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

My bad my uncomplete sentences and mind goes off the wall and sometimes threw the wall like a rampaging charging rhino juggernaut, for my train of thought just goes of track/topic most times, your not the first or last. Just curious if wiktionary allows plasma or laser physics equations to be added to their index, cause I don't know what qualifies as a definition, is it only actions like kill terminate and different slaughter like terms and notable laser plasma particle accelerators like the laser-plasma accelerator which sounds common, but by adding other similar laser plasma accelerator concepts like laser plasma ion acoustic spaser accelerator which I just made up as a example which is similar to a laser particle accelerator but it uses a different mechanism technique, which may be like a sub type of a laser particle accelerator, but wiktionary may just want only one type of laser particle accelerator. There's vulture in this wiktionary but it may not have all the sub species types names in it even if it is notable enough, is vulture in the wiktionary because vulture could be used to describe something spying on u like a vulture or ferocious raptor, by using these bird names as a action. I just was wondering if u knew any dictionaries or encyclopedia's that have only words, things, equations ,experiment machines like the large hadron collider which is a type of particle accelerator and probably qualifies in this wiktionary, and not maps location people names like if I type in lighting on the index prefix of wikipedia it shows all lighting related terms places and names of people. And the sci fi book plot summary length that cant be to long on wikipedia just wondering if u knew any other sites that show all detail of the plot summary, wikia's have some but not enough.Shawn Worthington Laser Plasma 02:18, 13 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

We don't allow entries for things: our entries are for words (or, as we like to call them, terms. They may be phrases, containing spaces). That's because we're a dictionary, not an encyclopedia (or product catalogue, vel sim.). So the fact that two terms describe the same thing doesn't mean we won't have both entries; on the other hand, that they describe different things doesn't mean we will. One of our criteria for inclusion, in Wiktionary, of a term is what we like to call "idiomaticity": see [[WT:CFI]] for more on this, but roughly it means that the term, if composed of multiple words, has a meaning more than, or different from, the sum of those parts. Thus, for example, we allow an entry for (deprecated template usage) monkey business, since one can't figure out its meaning from (deprecated template usage) monkey and (deprecated template usage) business, but we don't allow (deprecated template usage) restaurant business, which is just (deprecated template usage) restaurant + (deprecated template usage) business. Now, I don't know anything about these lasers and what-have-you that you are referring to, but if a phrase you wish to add can be broken down meaningwise into its parts, then it's probably not inclusible; if not, it probably is. I hope that this helps. Please feel free to ask further here if not (and even if yes).​—msh210 06:57, 13 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Removed vote

No worries, I'll revisit it again, care to notify me when it's ready? :) -- Cirt (talk) 00:28, 14 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]