Posts by FletcherB
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Also, it occurs to me.... as two words that were previously not homophones begin to merge into them.... such as beer/bear...
Perhaps the "local ear" by which I mean, other speakers of the same dialect... can continue to detect minute differences long after non-locals have lost the ability to differentiate between which word is meant by the speaker? ie, you need to be familiar with an accent to detect all its minute details?
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I'm surprised! Do you also pronounce 'bear' and 'bare' differently?
Uh-oh, now I'm confused... I thought bear/bare are long-time old people (like me) homophones, and bear/beer is the new one that gets fuddy-duddies upset?
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Sometimes you have to pretend to be something you're not...
I learnt to speak kiwi real quick after my arrival from Australia...
Starting Form 2 at a new school only days after the "under-arm incident".... while I never actually got beaten up... the harassment was more severe than just the normal Aus/kiwi rivalry... partially just to be understood, but more to not stand out.... I purposely/consciously learnt/imitated the local vernacular... for a year or two I could switch between them at will, but now its completely subconscious and programmed in.... I am taken for a kiwi on both sides of the Tasman, and if I try to sound australian.... it sounds just like any other kiwi trying to sound australian.
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Fletch Goldsworthy....
Am I to assume Fletcher is your first name? Wow... pleased to "meet" you.... that would make you only the second other Fletcher I've met in my life...
Sorry to all others for the thread-jacking...
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I recall being taught at primary school that words groups like hear, hair, and hare were homophones. Spelt differently - like to, two and two - but pronounced the same.
Hmm... I remember being taught homophones.... but not those three
I have no problem with hair and hare sounding identical.... and they rhyme with air.
But hear rhymes with beer. (to my not-quite-40-year-old ears).
Also.... fear/fair/fare..... I know that young people say them all identically.... as an 'older' person I distinguish fear as rhyming with beer, while I do say the other two identically (rhyming with air)...... My question is, does another (older?) generation separate them more than that? Are they supposed to be three different sounds?
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P.S. I'm not suggesting this is what happened in the Ropati case.... its just something that came to mind as we were discussing it...
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I dont think anyone reasonable would argue that if someone is so comatose or out of it, that they are uncomunicative.... then consent cant be assumed. I think we all agree that absence of refusal does not indicate consent.
But some here seem to be arguing that even if consent IS given by an incapacitated person.... that the other person must be able to know that this isnt real consent...
Where is the border? How do you tell the difference between someone who's a bit tipsy and really is keen, and someone who is so drunk that when they say yes they cant possibly mean it?
Bear in mind the person making this decision may also be somewhat incapacitated..
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Not to harp on too much .... but we might want to think about whether, for example, 16 and 17 year olds have rights, including the right to do with their lives what they will (subject to the normal strictures of criminal law), and are not in fact the property of either their parents or the state.
Sure.... and might not the same arguments be applied to 13, 14 and 15 year olds? and then 11/12 etc.?
Age limits are frequently arbitrary, and do involve the removing of rights.... so discussion of what the age should be is definitely worth while.... But you've got to realize that there is going to be 'injustice' in setting them.... especially most apparent near the border-line...
Just because a prevailing age limit has been in use for some time, doesnt change the fact that it is already affecting "rights".... and so changing that age limit doesnt actually introduce new injustice... only who it applies to.
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The question of what to do about the small groups whose failure harms and indicts us all is pervasive: not only in education, but in New Zealand society as a whole.
Can we move on please? Talking about the Rugby World Cup is just so 2007.
:)
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Oh man, thats just not fair....
All you guys n gals get to die horribly unspeakable (but fascinatingly spectacular) deaths and all I get is a stupid book and CD.
I know some would call it a fate worse than death, but still...