#honourifics

[radiomogai]

Also impulse deciding slight change in how tagging for honourifics. Am not going try to tag 'honorific' spelling as well, am not going try tag without the period as well. Gets to point where is just too overwhelming for selfves, especially on posts with lots of them, and get mixed up confused frazzled what have already and have not already tagged.

[string-of-broken-hearts]

“Don’t you just look stunning, my pretty little Christmas present?” Master asked, hands running up and down their chest in ravenging lust.

Master had no intention other than to drag a knife down their beautiful body and scar it. They were wrapped head to toe with sparkling string lights, tinsel, and a neat little frilly bow to top it all off with a gift tag that read, “for Atlas”.

Alistair couldn’t read, so they just assumed it was for their Master. They, after all, had been under the tree for two weeks prior among the other presents.

It was the one time of the year Alistair got to be near the warmth of the fireplace. Of course, they did happen to catch fire in the middle of the night. They knew that when ten more presents were added the next day, they’d be punished when he unwrapped the newest additions. The anticipation in itself was enough to scare them. And Master very much knew that.

Alistair whined softly, wanting to be given attention that they so desperately craved.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

fellas is it gay to address your homie by a prefix of 'dear-' in the victorian era? (serious question genuinely curious)

Hi Nonny!

AHHH, well, I personally like to read it that way, but honestly, I’m not sure. I think it was used as pet name for a close friend. It’s kind of like how an old lady will call everyone “dear”. But of course, I have NO idea, my history knowledge is shit. 

If anyone knows for sure, please let us know!

[allthingslinguistic]

Many grammatical systems can cause translation mismatches

The theme of this year’s NAACL, which ended last week, was data bias and privacy, topics of great social consequence. On the former, many…

A very good overview by Adina Williams of why machine translation is hard and why it’s useful to have humans (and especially linguists) in the loop to know which things require more context. Excerpt: 

So, now we’ve seen three new examples of where translations fail. They are very well controlled: in each example of a translation mismatch, we’re translating only a single sentence with only one grammatical system. In reality, pairs of languages may differ across numerous grammatical systems, even within the same sentence. We could have wanted to translate Turkish sentences with both “genderless” pronouns and evidentiality into English, and then we would multiple the potential translation alternatives. 

These three examples are just the three I could think up off the top of my head post-NAACL (as I write this, I’m reminded of others to try: we could look at translation mismatches in case, determiners and definites, question particles, clusivity, numeral classifiers, and this list could definitely go on and on).

Read the whole thing. 

[rattusrattus3]

What would you consider the they/them version of ma'am/sir.?

ah! i love this question cause i ended up finding about so many new pronouns i didnt know about from this wiki article heh but!!! It totally depends on the person and the context, in my opinion, i usually try to avoid honorifics cause it enforces this hierarchy between people :/ but i feel working in customer service for instance and feeling like we need to add a title, usually i try to avoid the gendered term, so instead of “yes, ma’am/sir” something like “yes, no problem!” or “yes, absolutely!”, or “excuse me, sorry” “excuse me, pardon” whatever if youre trying to move around someone or get their attention! however i found about some cool gender nooch alternatives to mr and mrs, like 

mre (this one is my fav, its pronounced “mystery/mistree”,), 

m (this one removes the “r” or “rs” from mr and mrs, its pronounced Em,) 

ind. (short for individual)

per (short for person!)

i wouldnt use these for someone if you don’t know their preference, but i think its possible to ask if someone has a pref, and otherwise just avoid the title maybe? or use M, i think thats the most “neutral” ... i just listed them cause i thought they were good to know and interesting :) 

on the article i linked theres many more titles, and some explanations for their meaning and what they refer to! my advice honestly is avoid gendered lang. when possible, but good luck and ilysm and thank u for asking! 

[caboshone]

I've been watching Cheer Danshi!! recently and I noticed something i thought was pretty funny. Two of the members are breakdancers and brothers. They introduce themself together and the intro card calls them the 'Nabe Brothers', but after that for the rest of the series, everyone just calls the older brother 'Nii-chan', like it's his actual name. I think it's really cute because his younger brother just calls him that and clearly it just caught on. So now everyone just calls him Nii-chan-san. I just found that really adorable.

[string-of-broken-hearts]

Pet sitting- part one

Oakland is gone. No one is there for Alistair now...

Alistair awoke to a sharp, stinging pain tearing its way through their leg. They tried to scream but the noise was muffled by the muzzle sharply pressing into their cheeks. The pet whined softly, a shrill gargling sound escaped their mouth.

“Shhh. Shhh.” Master said, pulling the restricted pet close. They struggled before softly pressing against the man’s legs, knowing there was no other option.

“There’s a good little puppy.” He said, knowing that would calm the panicked Alistair. As it did. They nuzzled against the man and sighed softly. They knew something had happened while they were passed out, but it was fuzzy, quite like a dream. Oakland felt distant, felt unreal. Too good to be true.

They blinked a bit, wanting to rub the haziness out of their eyes, but the restraints on their hands made their movements restricted. They called out, vision too murky and dazed. Alistair felt the ruffle of fabric before falling onto the concrete ground. Master had moved away from them.

Alistair called out for the warmth they so desperately craved, the warmth Master so willingly revoked. He just snickered and turned on his heel, leaving them alone again. For how long, they hadn’t the faintest idea.

Fear coursed through their veins as the walls pressed close against their mind. Alistair felt their mind chill suddenly, realizing just how alone they were. Their lip started to tremble, with the rest of their body.

The pet’s side was sharply pressed against the floor, freezing in place. They didn’t even realize just how much their body was locked against itself. Alistair started clawing at the floor, mouth clenched, agonizing wheezes trying to escape their lungs from air that refused to come. Silent echoes of whimpers and pleas tried to break free of the muzzle.

Drenched in sweat, the pet writhed around in white hot agony shooting through their injured leg. Their face contorted and twisted with horrible spasms of pain.

[string-of-broken-hearts]

The party- part three

(Trigger warning: pet whump, honourifics, whump, whumpee, whumper, caretaker, aftermath of whump, cussing)

Alistair was left breathing shallowly, eyes glazed over and trembling. Master hummed and bandaged the wounds so the blood wouldn’t show on their shirt. He gave little flicks of the knife just to get them to whine. The pain in their chest exploded and the stinging started to make their mind all empty. 

“There we are.” Master said, planting a kiss on their forehead. He scooped them up and cuddled them. All the while, he drew swirling patterns on the wounds on their chest. 

They curled up against Master, thankful for the reminder and lesson. They wouldn’t be bad again. Maybe sir wanted Master to teach them so they would be good. 

“T-t-t-thank y-y-you…” Alistair mumbled out, going limp in his arms. 

“You’re quite welcome. You just needed a reminder to be good, is all. I’m still horribly mad darling. You ran away. You’re a worthless little bitch.” Alistair grew silent, the words stabbing their heart. 

…

“Thanks so much, Atlas, for watching them. They look so much more peaceful and calm. What’s your secret?” Oakland said, taking the leash back from Atlas. 

“Oh nothing! I just gave them a reminder of who they were!” Atlas responded, smiling wide. 

“They look like they’re really attached to you. Perhaps you would consider pet sitting them?”

“Please! They’re such a sweetheart.” Atlas said, crouching down and running his fingers through their hair. Alistair purred and pressed against his touch. 

“Perhaps you want to look after them for this weekend? I have a conference for work and was looking for a pet sitter.” Oakland offered. 

“I’d be delighted to.” 

“Alrighty!” Oakland said before crouching down. “I have to go to a conference out of town for a bit and uncle Atlas is gonna watch you!” Alistair whined and looked up with pleading eyes. 

Oakland turned and waved, starting his trip home. After a while, guest after guest started to leave. After the house was emptied, Master cleared his throat.

“Well well well… Looks like little Oakland can’t save you now… let’s get started…” He said, dragging them and throwing them down the stairs before harshly slamming the door. 

Alistair tumbled down the stairs and their vision grew dark.