User Comments - richwarm2

Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls

"Do the Japanese also use 老鼠 (except in traditional script) as well?"

老鼠 *is* traditional script, because 老 and 鼠 never got simplified post-1949. So it's 老鼠 in both Taiwan and the PRC.

The Japanese normally write "nezumi" phonetically rather than with Chinese characters. On the rare occasions that it's written with characters, "nezumi" is written as simply 鼠, not 老鼠. The 老 prefix in front of animal names is a Chinese thing.

Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls

Hey, zhenlijiang, your profile says you're Japanese. Maybe you can enlighten us on the situation in Japanese. Doesn't "nezumi" refer to both rat and mouse? (The dictionary says "rat" for big nezumi and "mouse" for small nezumi). And it seems hamster is kinuge-nezumi and Norway rat is dobu-nezumi and black rat is kuma-nezumi ("bear" rat). Seems like a similar situation to Chinese (nezumi=laoshu)? Or not?

Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls

Well, I have to admit, I couldn't answer without looking it up, but I don't make any claims to being a Simpsons expert anyway. Urban Dictionary, for example, has it as "A fat, balding, North American ape with no chin. First used in a Scrabble [game] by Bart Simpson" (in reference to Homer, of course).

Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls

Amesburygeorge, I hope you will eventually grow to be able to handle differences of opinion without getting overly emotional, and that you will one day not see yourself as a "douche". In the meantime, I would say that being "over-polite" is preferable to erring in the other direction :-)

Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls

"I will make no attempt to debate or exchange with egocentric posturers and the insecure"

Tal, I can understand you feeling that way, but the problem is that even those you perceive as insecure or posturing can make a valid point, or at least, a point that is seen by others as being genuine and having merit.

An alternative would be to ignore the "posturing" and the "insecurity", and simply respond to the *substance* of what they say. In that spirit, I propose to ignore your sarcasm and taunts and simply get back to the issues.

One thing I take from this discussion is that when dictionaries say that 老鼠 means "mouse; rat", they don't mean that 老鼠 can refer to just house mice and Norway rats (the two species that most readily spring to mind when we read those two words: "rat" and "mouse") but to a continuum of rodent species, including hamsters, voles etc. With this understanding, the word 老鼠 makes more sense. It's not simply a Chinese word which, for some inexplicable reason, does double duty for two completely different animals. Rather, it represents whole category of rodents. And often, there's no reason why (Chinese) people *need* to be more specific. The *context* may make it clear what they are referring to. And if not, they have a range of more specific words they can use, such as 小家鼠.

I think a more helpful dictionary definition of 老鼠 might be "mouse, rat, hamster, or any similar rodent", by analogy with the CC-CEDICT definition of 老鹰: "(coll.) eagle; hawk; any similar bird of prey". Most dictionaries confusingly define 老鹰 as "hawk; eagle" or just "hawk" or "eagle". Several dictionaries, clearly copying each other, give the even more confusing definition "black-eared kite; hawk; eagle", which is like saying that 老鼠 means "Ward's red-backed vole; rat; mouse"!

Anyway, the way I see it, Mr Trendy was making some thoughtful and valid points in this direction, but was dismissed by you -- "forcefully", as you put it -- as totally mistaken. It seems to me, that's because you misinterpreted 老鼠 as a *one* "imprecise" word for just *two* completely different animals (Norway rats and house mice). But it's not -- it's a broader category-word, rather like "rodent", but more colloquial. Or at least, that's my considered view after having spent some time looking into the meaning of 老鼠 and 老鹰.

Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls

Mr Trendy, it seems you didn't recognize rods's reference to a Simpsons episode where Homer becomes a mentor to Pepe, a boy from a deprived background.

Pepe: Tell me more! I want to know *all* the constellations.

Homer: Well, there's... Jerry the Cowboy. And that big dipper looking thing is Alan... the Cowboy.

Pepe: Papa Homer, you are so learn-ed! [1]

Homer: “Learn'd", son. It’s pronounced "learn'd". [2]

[1] learned (or learnèd) [lərnid] having much knowledge; scholarly

[2] learned [lərnd] (past participle of "learn")

Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls

Mr Trendy wrote "[I'm] someone [who] likes to watch the footy with a beer in one hand and a ciggy in the other while yelling abuse at the ref"

Awww ... you've gone and spoiled my idealized image of you! But hey, I can tell that if you *did* want to do a bit of name-calling, Tal would see the difference between that and what we've written so far ;-)

When Tal said that rats and mice are different species and that he could tell them apart, it seems that what he had in mind was 褐鼠 and 小家鼠, which are indeed different species, and are not difficult to tell apart. When Mr Trendy made his point, he was taking a broader view, considering *all* the various kinds of rats and mice, not just 褐鼠 and 小家鼠. And he concluded that there is no clear line between "rat" and "mouse" in that context.

There is a tendency to look down on those who categorize things in a different way from ourselves. From our modern perspective, we chuckle at the idea that whales were once considered to be fish. But it was only a few years ago that we were all quite certain that Pluto was a planet.

Posted on: Difficult Cake Choices

夸张 can be regarded (and used) as a verb, noun, or adjective.

Examples from jukuu.com:

1) Take his words with a grain of salt. He always exaggerates.

对他的话要打折扣听。他总爱夸张。

In this example, it can be seen as either a verb or a noun ("loves to exaggerate" or "loves exaggerating/exaggeration/hyperbole")

2) I can say without exaggeration that she is an angel.

我可以毫不夸张地说她是个天使。

Here, it's part of a verb phrase 不夸张 which is turned into an adverb by the addition of 地.

3) The clown flounced about the circus ring.

那个小丑以夸张的动作在马戏场中走动。

Here, it can be regarded as a verb "to exaggerate" which has been turned into an adjective by the addition of 的.

4) The comic scenes were overdone.

滑稽的场面演得太夸张。

Here, it can be regarded as an adjective.

In addition, 夸张 has a more colloquial adjectival usage, as we see in this lesson's dialog: 太夸张了吧 "It's ridiculous."

This sense is similar to example #4 and can often be expressed as "ridiculous" (in the sense of excessive/extreme).

All this is documented in the CC-CEDICT dictionary entry (which I wrote, by the way :-)) ~

誇張 夸张 [kua1 zhang1] /to exaggerate/overstated/exaggerated/hyperbole/(coll.) excessive/extreme/ridiculous/

Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls

Mr Trendy, you are clearly a gentle, cultured and knowledgeable soul who knows much more biology than me. (I only wrote what I picked up by browsing the Web yesterday, and I'm sure that some of what I wrote is contestable.) But I didn't want to see a person such as you shouted down and dismissed as an ignoramus by someone who "knows for sure" that mice and rats are "entirely different species". Thanks for explaining your position in more detail.

Amesburygeorge, you an exceedingly polite gentleman (maybe a little too polite :-)) and I would be only too happy to consider a differing view from you. But in fact, I find myself in agreement with you :-) Yes, mice and rats *are* different, and those words have different connotations, but you didn't make fun of someone with a nuanced understanding of taxonomy, or act like you *know* you're right, or say that mice and rats are "different species" (without checking first), or fail to read your own references, or suggest that there's something wrong with a language that doesn't have a one-to-one mapping with Western/English concepts.

By the way, was it Homer Simpson who exclaimed "Boy, those Germans have got a word for everything!"? :-)

Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls

Hey, Amesburygeorge -- what you say sounds pretty right to me. No need to worry about a "fight", as far as I'm concerned :-)

By the way, a friend wrote me an email a while back that has some relevance to this lesson's topic:

"People will call a hamster 老鼠; when confronted, they admit that there are striking differences, and that there is probably a specific name; but they are not interested, thank you, the generic 老鼠 will do. On a related note: Chinese consistently call a bunny rabbit 小白兔; they even joke between themselves that this 小白兔 is not white at all, but they still do it."