ONLY, and A NUMBER

[adminman3]

Two thoughts for you: first, the use of 'a number', such as, "...it was revealed today that the U.S. experiences a number of these violations regularly"...

And: the use / misuse of "only", per: ..."you can only access the website between the hours of 10 and 2". I suggest this should be phrased this way, .."you can access the website only between the hours of 10 and 2"...

Does anyone agree?

 

[SantaMufasa]

Tim,

Regardless of the vocal emphases you place on individual words in these sentences, there are specific rules relating to the use of "only": "Only" limits scope to the immediately following clause. If "only" appears at the end of the sentence, then "only" limits scope to the immediately preceding clause.

Placements of "only" in the following sentences produces these unequivocal meanings:

"Only you can access the website between the hours of 10 and 2": "No one else but you can access the website..."

"You only can access the website between the hours of 10 and 2": "You are not able to do anything but access the website..."

"You can access only the website between the hours of 10 and 2": "The website is the only thing you can access..."

"You can access the only website between the hours of 10 and 2": "There exists just one website and you access it between..."

"You can access the website only between the hours of 10 and 2": "Your website availablity is from 10 to 2."

"You can access the website between the hours of 10 and 2 only": "Your website availablity is from 10 to 2." (Same meaning as previous version.)

Although we may wish to change meaning with vocal intonations, the placement of "only" determines the technical meaning of the sentence.


Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[

http://www.dasages.com:

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Click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips if you use Oracle in Utah USA.

 

[craigsboyd]

...a buttload

LOL! When I was growing up, my mother was given to using the term "boatload". I can't recall ever seeing "buttload" before today. As soon as I stopped laughing and cleaned up the buttload of coffee that had sprayed out of my nose as a result of reading your post, I looked it up and it is indeed "buttload". The buttload appears to even come in two flavors, imperial and metric.

SweetPotato Software Website
My Blog

 

[tsdragon]

Tim: I don't disagree with your assertion that "several" is more than "a few". I thought about the order of those two (for all of 10 seconds or so) before I listed them in the order I did, but I think now that I shouldn't have given it a couple more seconds thought.

Craig: Does the derivation show that it comes from "bOAtload"?

Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.

 

[PaulTEG]

I'd be thinking butt as in barrel ???
--Paul

cigless ...

 

[SilentAiche]

Honestly, I thought buttload was just a Southern redneck expression that meant "a large amount not easily quantified by conventional measures." It wouldn't surprise me if it derived from boatload. Similarly, the conventional measure "shipload" probably led to the redneck derivation..., well, you can guess.

1 BtLd = 2StLd

Craig: Sorry about the coffee-through-the-nose thing. I hope you got help before it was too latte.

Tim

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[craigsboyd]

Craig: Does the derivation show that it comes from "bOAtload"?

I couldn't find a source for what buttload is derived from. However, given that the imperial foot (and its measure of length) was originally based on the active monarch's foot, I called off my search for buttload's origin early. <bg>

I hope you got help before it was too latte.

Good one!

SweetPotato Software Website
My Blog

 

[SantaMufasa]

Yes, I believe that I read somewhere:

Imperial "buttload" is the amount of weight or volume that the "active monarch's foot" can kick for a distance of one "Imperial foot".

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[

http://www.dasages.com:

Providing low-cost remote Database Admin services]
Click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips if you use Oracle in Utah USA.

 

[PaulTEG]

In olden times, we called our rain barrels BUTTS, because we like to name everything, however, I had this one barrel I used to call 'butt', and it was a 'shedload' of fun to get him to respond to my call, he'd just sit sit there, and mope (nowhere in general)


AFAIK a BUTT is aka BARREL

--Paul ;-)


cigless ...

 

[BobRodes]

butt (b?t)
n.
1. A large cask.
2. A unit of volume equal to two hogsheads, usually the equivalent of 126 U.S. gallons (about 477 liters).
[Middle English, from Old French boute, from Late Latin *buttia, variant of buttis.]

As for the business about "a number of": by that logic, rather than saying "a lot of", one should print out an inventory of the lot in question.

Bob