tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post3146777479868396072..comments2024-03-16T00:21:43.240+00:00Comments on Separated by a Common Language: a [adjective] asklynneguisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-43462592879412564292014-04-06T06:08:09.611+01:002014-04-06T06:08:09.611+01:00Wow, this post brought out a lot of reactions from...Wow, this post brought out a lot of reactions from me. In no particular order then:<br /><br />For some reason I hardly give a second thought to nouns becoming verbs, but the reverse floors me every time.<br /><br />The use of ask as a noun to mean a favor seems to parallel the usage of "request".<br /><br />The use of ask as a synonym of challenge seems to combine the questioning nature of ask as a verb with another word, "task".<br /><br /><br />Finally,as an American, (s)he has a big ask (ahead), makes me smile as I say it with a short a, especially if the k is truncated, is shifted to a glottal stop or otherwise de-emphasized.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02138260302522477243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-47958232332244872052010-11-05T12:40:16.453+00:002010-11-05T12:40:16.453+00:00As a New Zealander brought up speaking British Eng...As a New Zealander brought up speaking British English (and still preferring it) I thought usage with 'a (adjective) ask' were New Zealand dialect! <br />(Although as New Zealand English becomes Americanised a process that's happening very rapidly) I expect that the bits of AusE we hear/use here will start to disappear.Debbienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-225613117357347312009-04-15T08:27:00.000+01:002009-04-15T08:27:00.000+01:00Drives me fucking crazy when I hear colleagues use...Drives me fucking crazy when I hear colleagues use "ask" as a noun. It's unnecessary and inane shorthand. It's like saying, "What's the drive to the restaurant?" instead of, "What's the way" or "What's the route?"Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05528027546389254830noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-67711807379860362492007-04-16T00:29:00.000+01:002007-04-16T00:29:00.000+01:00I've heard it without the adjective too, primarily...I've heard it without the adjective too, primarily in AmE business-speak (I work for an American company's U.K. office). In that sense ("What's the ask?") it's usually in reference to a customer's requirements, i.e. simply shorthand for "What are they asking for?"Wesleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14120779956357887988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-80636054515112561752007-04-15T03:54:00.000+01:002007-04-15T03:54:00.000+01:00One use of 'ask' that I am tired of hearing is the...One use of 'ask' that I am tired of hearing is the template <I>to ask\be asking questions of something</I>, as in 'to challenge'. It's especially prolific in sport journalism as in <I>the Wallabies asked questions of the All Blacks defence</I>.<BR/><BR/>While we're on the subject of sport, here's an interesting past-time: when watching the sport section of the news, see how many unique ways the presenter can say <I>team A beat team B</I>. It's easy for smaller sports with only 4 or so games in a given weekend, but for larger sports the poor presenter has to find perhaps 10 synonyms.<BR/><BR/><I>The big wet</I> refers to the tropical wet season in northern Australia and also to a particularly devastating flood in 1974. <I>The big dry</I> has 40,000 or so results on google, 15,000 of those within Australia, almost all (of those I scanned) refer specifically to the current drought.<BR/><BR/>Also, I think whoever it was that said it is right; 'ask' can only be nominalised in this way if it is preceded by an adjective.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-48168579865481593002007-04-14T01:24:00.000+01:002007-04-14T01:24:00.000+01:00Oops, that got truncated, sorry...http://tinyurl.c...Oops, that got truncated, sorry...<BR/><BR/>http://tinyurl.com/22as64<BR/><BR/>(tinyurl link)Interfacehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10270650386605534373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-42711011594672279132007-04-14T01:17:00.000+01:002007-04-14T01:17:00.000+01:00An example of "big ask" in sports:http://www.rugby...An example of "big ask" in sports:<BR/><BR/>http://www.rugbyheaven.smh.com.au/articles/2006/01/26/1138066913234.htmlInterfacehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10270650386605534373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-38273079889444940752007-04-13T18:06:00.000+01:002007-04-13T18:06:00.000+01:00Canadian - now you've come accross it once, you'll...Canadian - now you've come accross it once, you'll probably hear it at least three times in the next 24 hours...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-53508147032516946732007-04-13T18:03:00.000+01:002007-04-13T18:03:00.000+01:00I hear "big ask" all the time in the grant-writing...I hear "big ask" all the time in the grant-writing department of the (American) non-profit I work for.<BR/><BR/>My grandfather grew up on the Big Dry in Montana in the early 1900s; the creek was named in the 1870s or 80s. There's a Little Dry nearby, so called because it had water in it MORE, not less as you might expect.Fnarfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15022243603033471232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-47440366036250037302007-04-13T17:53:00.000+01:002007-04-13T17:53:00.000+01:00Nominal get goes back to the middle ages, at least...Nominal <I>get</I> goes back to the middle ages, at least. There's an Aus/NZ and AmE slang use that equals 'getaway' and a coal-mining use where <I>good gets</I> = an easily worked seam. (From OED, except the AmE, which is from <I>Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang</I>.lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-14083164395215787522007-04-13T16:37:00.000+01:002007-04-13T16:37:00.000+01:00I've never heard "ask" as a noun before. I will be...I've never heard "ask" as a noun before. I will be on the lookout for it now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-52631522676718270632007-04-13T16:27:00.000+01:002007-04-13T16:27:00.000+01:00Is a similar meaning of "get" as in "a good get" m...Is a similar meaning of "get" as in "a good get" mainly or originally AmE? (Nevermind it being a variant of BrE "git".) It seems to also appear some in Australian sportswriting.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-45313683013298379352007-04-13T15:50:00.000+01:002007-04-13T15:50:00.000+01:00AusE also has 'the big hot (or maybe it's 'the big...AusE also has 'the big hot (or maybe it's 'the big dry,' or something similar [or quite different]) for the drought it's currently experiencing.jhmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15024302748759726815noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-7401584747500550972007-04-13T15:44:00.000+01:002007-04-13T15:44:00.000+01:00The phenomenon you describe with Majorica apparent...The phenomenon you describe with Majorica apparently has a name, although it seems to be little used.<BR/>The term is the Baader Meinhof Phenomenon. See this article for more info:<BR/>http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=417Robhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17185789004517181817noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-15538623348441076532007-04-13T15:40:00.000+01:002007-04-13T15:40:00.000+01:00Ginger Yellow, who often comments here, sent me a ...<B>Ginger Yellow</B>, who often comments here, sent me a comment by e-mail because Blogger wasn't cooperating. GY says:<BR/><BR/>"It's a fairly common usage in Britain now, at least among young people, even if it was originally Australian. I also think you might be misreading the THES piece, although without context it's hard to tell. I suspect the Australian/British phrase is being used in the first instance (quite possibly punningly). It doesn't literally mean a "solicitation" in that sense. Instead it means something more like "a considerable challenge", as in "You're asking a lot if you expect me to do that". <A HREF="http://education.guardian.co.uk/universityfunding/story/0,,1319536,00.html" REL="nofollow">This Guardian article on the subject</A> uses (what I consider to be) the same pun.<BR/> <BR/>Language Log had a <A HREF="http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001331.html" REL="nofollow"> post</A> on this a few years back, which seems to support the idea that the Australian and US usages are different."<BR/><BR/>(back to Lynneguist)<BR/>I think you're right that the AmE 'solicitation' meaning is different from the AusE meaning...as can be told partly by the fact that the AusE use really needs an adjective before it. (So, a bit sloppy on my part there.) The <I>big ask</I> in the title seems to be playing a bit on the AusE meaning. Now that I'm in the office, I can give you the exact quotations. The title says:<BR/><BR/><B>How to get ready for the big ask</B><BR/><BR/>In the article (the non-adjectived version of nominal <I>ask</I>), it says:<BR/><BR/><I>Before making the "solicitation" or "ask" in US fundraising parlance, officials lay the groundwork meticulously.</I><BR/><BR/>Using <I>ask</I> as a noun to mean 'request' is not an Americanism, really. There are examples in the OED going back a millennium. But it may have acquired a jargon-y flavo(u)r in the fundraising field that is more Amero-specific.lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-42818810067013681882007-04-13T15:36:00.000+01:002007-04-13T15:36:00.000+01:00The phrase "big ask" has also become very popular ...The phrase "big ask" has also become very popular as a business buzzword, or so say my office-bound informants. They all seem to think of it as a sport/sports metaphor (no shortage of those in the business buzzword portfolio). <BR/><BR/>Someone who faces a "big ask" will soon be required to step up to the plate (even by some BrE speakers who presumably have some non-baseball interpretation of the latter).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-24206361855465021372007-04-13T13:28:00.000+01:002007-04-13T13:28:00.000+01:00Scott Adams (the Dilbert guy) has a nice section o...Scott Adams (the Dilbert guy) has a nice section on heightened attention (he calls it "mental tuning") in his book <I>God's Debris</I>, in the Chapter "Affirmations". It is an excellent quick read and is available free on-line (just give it a google).<BR/><BR/>I'm having trouble thinking of how "a big ask" is used in sport(s). Could an Aus give an example?Hodgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02288259527410351909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-32559155148276587022007-04-13T10:20:00.000+01:002007-04-13T10:20:00.000+01:00Thanks for the catch, bingley. Have corrected it!...Thanks for the catch, bingley. Have corrected it! (I think I was having a crisis about whether to put BrE or AmE first.)lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-87102179839359092762007-04-13T09:30:00.000+01:002007-04-13T09:30:00.000+01:00Of course Australian ownership of the UK media can...Of course Australian ownership of the UK media can only ease the introduction of these colonial phrases.Paul Gipsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13564960646170455536noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-56919223714338085342007-04-13T05:44:00.000+01:002007-04-13T05:44:00.000+01:00Yes, you'll hear "a big ask" and its variants all ...Yes, you'll hear "a big ask" and its variants all the time here in Oz, in both its original sporting context (it remains annoyingly popular with Aussie Rules/rugby league TV commentators) and figuratively as well. It's funny: unlike a lot of AusE words/phrases whose provenance isn't immediately obvious even to us Aussies, "big ask" always had a real Australian ring to it (to me anyway) - so much so that I would have doubted anyone could be confused about its origins. But plainly, its identity hasn't travelled as well as the phrase itself has.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-28267691669372737222007-04-13T04:46:00.000+01:002007-04-13T04:46:00.000+01:00Cors it is Australian. We could have told you that...Cors it is Australian. We could have told you that. All you had to do was ask.<BR/><BR/>:-)Interfacehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10270650386605534373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-46131354170450431542007-04-13T03:21:00.000+01:002007-04-13T03:21:00.000+01:00Is it purely a coincidence that in a post on misat...Is it purely a coincidence that in a post on misattribution to American English or British English you have this? <BR/><BR/>she related that she'd been on (BrE) vacation/(AmE) holiday in MajorcaRWMGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04271851970303022440noreply@blogger.com