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Taka

#343323 Sun, 25 Mar 07 05:21 PM

Some obstacles---over sexism, a lack of role models and peer support---are impediments in most scientific and technical fields.

How do you interpret the 'over' above? What is the meaning of it?

Taka

Joined on Tue, Sep 7 2004

Japan

Senior Member (2,351)

Conchita57

#343337 Sun, 25 Mar 07 06:32 PM

As I understand it, the word 'over' in your sentence is a prefix meaning 'too much'.

Conchita57

Joined on Sat, Mar 10 2007

Madrid, Iberian Peninsula

Full Member (315)

In the beginning was the word.

Bokeh

#343342 Sun, 25 Mar 07 07:01 PM

It's hard to tell because your editing has made the sentence loose its context. It may mean "above".

Bokeh

Joined on Sun, Mar 18 2007

Spain

Regular Member (506)

Taka

#343347 Sun, 25 Mar 07 07:17 PM

Bokeh wrote:
It's hard to tell because your editing has made the sentence loose its context.

I don't think its context would help you much this time, but for your infomation, here is the entire parapraph.

Some obstacles---over sexism, a lack of role models and peer support---are impediments in most scientific and technical fields. But women who enter computer science must overcome an additional set of hurdles as well.

Bokeh wrote:
It may mean "above"

What does 'above sexism' mean??

Taka

Bokeh

#343360 Sun, 25 Mar 07 07:48 PM

The problem for me is the punctuation which is certainly not English and therefore is very confusing to a native English speaker.
Some obstacles, over sexism, a lack of role models and peer support, are impediments in most scientific and technical fields.
or
Some obstacles: over sexism, a lack of role models and peer support, are impediments in most scientific and technical fields.

In that context the enterpretation posted by Concepción57 above would be correct.

Bokeh

Punctuation

Taka

#343364 Sun, 25 Mar 07 07:57 PM

Bokeh wrote:
The problem for me is the punctuation which is certainly not English and therefore is very confusing to a native English speaker.

Surprising!

You native speakers will see such dashes as wrong? How come??

Taka

Punctuation

Bokeh

#343369 Sun, 25 Mar 07 08:06 PM

Any punctuation in a text that does not have a standardized accepted meaning is going to be confusing no matter what language it is in.

Bokeh

Punctuation

Conchita57

#343388 Sun, 25 Mar 07 09:14 PM

Taka wrote:
Bokeh wrote:
The problem for me is the punctuation which is certainly not English and therefore is very confusing to a native English speaker.

Surprising!

You native speakers will see such dashes as wrong? How come??

My reaction exactly! Granted your dashes were a bit long, but what could be more English than the use of these little lines instead of brackets or a colon, for example, which are usually preferred in some other languages?