[Proper Names 101] Quonset Hut vs Officer Tent

[yazar8 584]

 

 

I wouldn't go that far. Just just basic English. Not talking high level linguistics here, just basics.

 

Well the title points out it's a lecture.

[Weyland Yutani (DayZ) 1159]

Well the title points out it's a lecture.

Actually it doesn't. 101 is a reference to an academic level of learning. For example, Math 101 is basic math. The most basic collegiate math actually.

 

A lecture is another word for a class with a professor. TA's (Teacher Assistant's) usually follow up with a 'discussion' that reviews a lecture.

[Tatanko 5591]

Therefore, this is a Quonset Hut:

I think it's about time I correct the wiki page...

 

hell everyone pronounces the cities wrong are we gonna have a translator come in and help us learn to pronounce those next.

If you insist, I'll write a guide ;)

[q.S Sachiel 470]

Oh, you mean the cylindrical metal structure?

Yeah i've seen those up in NWAF!

[Weyland Yutani (DayZ) 1159]

If you insist, I'll write a guide ;)

I would totally watch that video. I know I pronounce city names wrong and wouldn't mind learning how to pronounce them properly. Don't ask Chris Torchia though. If you saw his recent presentation you'de know what I'm talking about.

[KenoSkir88 181]

My group refer to the Officer Tents purely as "Officer's", for example the two at the NWAF are "Tent Officer" and "Hanger Officer". If anyone thinks we're being selfish (you can't be serious) feel free to take a swivel on our collective upturned digits one at a time while you have a long hard think about yourself ;)

[Tatanko 5591]

I would totally watch that video. I know I pronounce city names wrong and wouldn't mind learning how to pronounce them properly. Don't ask Chris Torchia though. If you saw his recent presentation you'de know what I'm talking about.

I should hit up dayzru and see if he'll help me make one. Watching his stream has helped me confirm that I'm pronouncing things correctly  :lol:

[Weyland Yutani (DayZ) 1159]

Thanks you muchly Mr. Brian Hicks!

 

[emuthreat 2837]

How dare you!

 

Anyway, this isn't linguistics, it's not even semantics. It's Yankee cultural imperialism, which is why I insist on calling it a Nissen Hut.

Actually a Nissen hut is distinct from a quonset hut, in that Nissen huts are slightly more than half cylindrical, as they curve inward slightly at the base of the long walls;  Quonset huts meet the ground at a 90 degree angle and are ecactly semi-circular in profile.  I hope this has cleared up your prejudices...

 

The rest of this post is for the "It doesn't matter what you call stuff" crowd:

 

My incorrect name for them is "half-domes" because it describes the shape, and only has two syllables.  "Officers Barracks", has five syllables, making it much less desirable term than both "Quonset Huts" and "Halfdomes".

 

For those of you that think it is somehow cool to be willfully ignorant (yes, you here have internet access, and therefore access to all the same information as anyone else), language is a tool that we use for the exchange of information.  The simpler, quicker to learn and use, easier to understand precisely, and more commonly accepted language, or functions of a language, can truly and rightly be held to be superior for serving the primary purpose of language by merit of being the most accurately understood, and with the least amount of effort and time investment by the users.

 

Now, anybody is free to choose to misuse their words, misspell their words, butcher their grammar as they wish, but only with the implicit understanding that they think their time is more important than that of others.  By willfully digressing from the commonly accepted usage of language, or by neglecting to properly learn the elements of their chosen language to a level appropriate to their age and experience, a person communicates that they feel themselves to be superior; in that the others around them are expected to do the extra work of interpolating the actual message being conveyed, despite their own neglect for the commonly accepted conventions of language.

 

Do you know why we have specific names for things?  Because it save us all a lot of time and effort.  It is the reason why we don't call  table chairs "four legged wooden sitting apparatus with back;" the Germans tried this, and they are constantly made fun of for their penchant for long, explicitly descriptive, compound words.  Do you know why the Chinese have ridiculously complicated keyboards?  Because their language has way too many basic units to fit on a standard keyboard.

 

Language efficiency is a real thing whether you accept it or not, and it will waste waste people's time, in favor our your own convenience, if you choose to ignore it.  Of course it is still as effective if everyone in your group is using an incorrect term for something.  But once you try to communicate that term outside the closed group, people will not understand you.  This, above all else, is why many people try to teach their children the standard version of a language; so when they meet other people, those people don't think they are stupid, or weird.  Sure you can indulge you child by calling a toaster a bread-popper, and a refrigerator a  food-keeper, and a dog a fur-barker, but when they use those terms around others, they might be presumed to be mentally deficient, or immature.

[KenoSkir88 181]

Actually a Nissen hut is distinct from a quonset hut, in that Nissen huts are slightly more than half cylindrical, as they curve inward slightly at the base of the long walls;  Quonset huts meet the ground at a 90 degree angle and are ecactly semi-circular in profile.  I hope this has cleared up your prejudices...

 

The rest of this post is for the "It doesn't matter what you call stuff" crowd:

 

My incorrect name for them is "half-domes" because it describes the shape, and only has two syllables.  "Officers Barracks", has five syllables, making it much less desirable term than both "Quonset Huts" and "Halfdomes".

 

For those of you that think it is somehow cool to be willfully ignorant (yes, you here have internet access, and therefore access to all the same information as anyone else), language is a tool that we use for the exchange of information.  The simpler, quicker to learn and use, easier to understand precisely, and more commonly accepted language, or functions of a language, can truly and rightly be held to be superior for serving the primary purpose of language by merit of being the most accurately understood, and with the least amount of effort and time investment by the users.

 

Now, anybody is free to choose to misuse their words, misspell their words, butcher their grammar as they wish, but only with the implicit understanding that they think their time is more important than that of others.  By willfully digressing from the commonly accepted usage of language, or by neglecting to properly learn the elements of their chosen language to a level appropriate to their age and experience, a person communicates that they feel themselves to be superior; in that the others around them are expected to do the extra work of interpolating the actual message being conveyed, despite their own neglect for the commonly accepted conventions of language.

 

Do you know why we have specific names for things?  Because it save us all a lot of time and effort.  It is the reason why we don't call  table chairs "four legged wooden sitting apparatus with back;" the Germans tried this, and they are constantly made fun of for their penchant for long, explicitly descriptive, compound words.  Do you know why the Chinese have ridiculously complicated keyboards?  Because their language has way too many basic units to fit on a standard keyboard.

 

Language efficiency is a real thing whether you accept it or not, and it will waste waste people's time, in favor our your own convenience, if you choose to ignore it.  Of course it is still as effective if everyone in your group is using an incorrect term for something.  But once you try to communicate that term outside the closed group, people will not understand you.  This, above all else, is why many people try to teach their children the standard version of a language; so when they meet other people, those people don't think they are stupid, or weird.  Sure you can indulge you child by calling a toaster a bread-popper, and a refrigerator a  food-keeper, and a dog a fur-barker, but when they use those terms around others, they might be presumed to be mentally deficient, or immature.

 

Pent up need to feel superior released in the form of a knit-picky lecture complete with snide insults, ironically also complete with section about unnecessary wastage of people's time. You actually made me feel better about calling them Officer's since at the very least least I'm not the guy on the other side of the fence talking to people like you do :)

[Mookie (original) 799]

Actually a Nissen hut is distinct from a quonset hut, in that Nissen huts are slightly more than half cylindrical, as they curve inward slightly at the base of the long walls;  Quonset huts meet the ground at a 90 degree angle and are ecactly semi-circular in profile.  I hope this has cleared up your prejudices...

 

 

Not quite, and they are not 'prejudices'. I agree with your little lecture about semantic relativism, if not with the slightly pompous way you've expressed it. But it seems to me that these huts are probably neither Quonsets (sounds Native American to me), nor Nissens. They are in Chernarus after all....

 

I don't want to get all Quinean on you, but you over there are probably quite right to refer to them as Quonsets, while we over here (on our dank little island) are equally right to refer to them as Nissens - because those are the things within our experience that they look like, whatever the angle at which their walls meet the ground.

 

The problem with these huts is that in a way they are named after a proper noun, the 'correct' version of which is probably quite elusive. The attempt to enforce such a 'correct' version doesn't necessarily follow from your lecture about nouns in general.

[emuthreat 2837]

Not quite, and they are not 'prejudices'. I agree with your little lecture about semantic relativism, if not with the slightly pompous way you've expressed it. But it seems to me that these huts are probably neither Quonsets (sounds Native American to me), nor Nissens. They are in Chernarus after all....

You are right; the American name is a place and the English is a person.  Syllabically, Nissen and Quonset are equally brief descriptors of the huts.  Having a half-dozen different names for them doesn't make very much sense.  I like your Chrenarussian name idea, but it would be difficult to get it to take.  In the Pacific, in ww2, American Quonset huts would rust out too quickly, and were replaced by all spruce models, according to the wiki-sci.

[emuthreat 2837]

Pent up need to feel superior released in the form of a knit-picky lecture complete with snide insults, ironically also complete with section about unnecessary wastage of people's time. You actually made me feel better about calling them Officer's since at the very least least I'm not the guy on the other side of the fence talking to people like you do :)

Yeah, mostly just making an argument for agreeing on a standard term, to avoid confusion.  And yeah, I might not be a big fan of the term officer's tents, with all the syllables and other types of tents to confuse terms.  Mookie made a good point, in that I feel Nissen and Quonset are interchangeable.  Didn't mean to come off pompous, I was going for a more egalitarian ideal, with an agreed upon term and wasted my own time in arguing for the importance of conventions..  I never outright called any one name for it correct, I'm just tired of all the different terminologies used, it's confusing.

[KenoSkir88 181]

"z vlnitého plechu" is what i got from an online traslation of "Quonset" into Czech. Can someone Czech confirm this for me?

 

Assuming this is correct we now know what to call them, and i look forward to a thrilling guide on both how to pronounce it as well as why the number of syllables is relevant :)