No One Has to Know

Claw Snuff

Claw Snuff

Urban Emo
Hello there!

As you may or may not have known, I am the lead singer/guitarist of the unsigned band No One Has to Know. However, there's a problem. My band members live in Connecticut, so we rarely meet up for band practice. I am planning on ditching them for new band members. (If you're upset about this, you should've cared enough to come to practice.)

Having said that, I'm currently holding auditions for my band.
We're in need of:
- Possibly a back-up singer
- A bass guitarist
- A drummer
-Back-up guitarist?
-Keyboard/synth?

In the meantime, I am currently working with Nick Phillips from Noey to help me practice my band's music for our first album. So, if you know anyone, tell them about this opportunity! Thank you, and have a good day! ^_^

~Clare Phillips, lead singer/guitarist

No One Has to Know on PureVolume.
 
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Ahoy, No One Has to Know members! I am trying to get the band together for a practice soon, don't know when. But hopefully, we can hold bi-weekly practices or so. It'll allow us to practice the songs that we wrote last time we met up. Please respond quickly NickyPhils!
 
pegasus said:
"Bi-weekly" is ambiguous. What do you mean exactly?
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Bi-weekly is only ambiguous because the English language has gone missing. :)

Bi-weekly means every two weeks.

Semi-weekly means twice each week.
 
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tommythejoat said:
Bi-weekly is only ambiguous because the English language has gone missing. :)

Bi-weekly means every two weeks.

Semi-weekly means twice each week.
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Semiweekly does mean twice each week, but biweekly can have either meaning. It is ambiguous.

To avoid the ambiguity, it might be best to refrain from the word biweekly altogether. Use semiweekly to mean twice each week, and fortnightly to mean every two weeks.
 
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By "gone missing" I meant is inconsistent in its meaning.

I am searching for another bi that would be synonymous with semi. All the bi I can thing of mean two. I am sure there must be another 1/2 example, but I cannot think of one.

bi-cameral, bi-pedal, bi-lingual, bi-tonal, bi-partisan, ...

Perhaps you could share another example where bi is often or sometimes taken to mean one half.
 
tommythejoat said:
By "gone missing" I meant is inconsistent in its meaning.

I am searching for another bi that would be synonymous with semi. All the bi I can thing of mean two. I am sure there must be another 1/2 example, but I cannot think of one.

bi-cameral, bi-pedal, bi-lingual, bi-tonal, bi-partisan, ...

Perhaps you could share another example where bi is often or sometimes taken to mean one half.
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Bimonthly would be another example, but that really doesn't help, does it? :rolleyes:

I think the ambiguity is not whether bi- means two or half, but what part of the word bi- is being applied to. Biweek-ly means once every two weeks if we take the word to mean once every "biweek" (two weeks); here, bi- has been applied to week, and -ly has simply been added to that meaning. But if we start with weekly and then prefix bi-, then bi-weekly is twice weekly, or twice a week.

It all has to do with order of operations. The ambiguity comes from not knowing where the parentheses are.
 
Order of precedence

Your analysis presumes that there is no precedence in word formation. Since week starts out as a noun, the modification that leaves it a noun would be biweek. The modification that changes it to another part of speech would be the ly for biweekly. :)

I think biweek is pretty rarely used. The similar sounding bye week means the week that is skipped i.e. having no activity. That bye-week is only one week long. ;)
 
Nick's argument did not assume that there is no precedence in word formation, but rather that we do not know what the "order" of precedence was for the specific case "biweekly". The fact that - "week" was a noun before "weekly" was an adverb - does not necessarily mean that - "biweek" was a noun before "weekly" was an adverb. Additionally, as "bi" is not necessarily an adjective exclusively (it is a prefix), then it is not restricted to only modifying nouns, so either could have been first.

Either way, it doesn't matter which came first - or is the "true" construction - when the definition of a word forms. Language allows a person to express their own thoughts and another person to (attempt to) understand those thoughts. Since expression and understanding are both subjective, the entire system of language is subjective, and really there are no "rules", only guidelines.

A beauty of language in general is that meaning is inherently ambiguous - it requires both an expression and an understanding, neither of which may be the same.
 

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