Teaching in the Basement of Old Main

I just finished reading "In the Basement of the Ivory Tower: Confessions of an Accidental Academic." Because I teach as an adjunct, I thought it would be interesting to read about Professor X's experiences as an adjunct instructor of English composition and literature.

Some chapters were interesting; however, most of the interesting parts involved general statistics, information and data about college admission policies, tuition rates, class placement procedures and the like (none of which has to do with Professor X's adjunct experiences).

Some chapters I simply skimmed. There were too many details about Professor X's class readings and assignments. I had these classes freshman year and was not reading the book as a refresher.

When Professor X did share experiences that were specific to adjuncting, I felt like I could have been in his shoes, in those classrooms. Too bad there weren't more of these experiences in the book.


From http://xkcd.com/

The Circuitry of a Syntax Tree

22 Words brought this really awesome piece of artwork to my attention not too long ago, so I thought I would share it with my readers and respond with a syntax tree.

Neologisms of Late - Sofalizing

A dear friend recently brought a new word to my attention, on Facebook of all places. Here it is with its MacMillan Dictionary Buzzword definition:

sofalizing also sofalising
noun [uncountable]
the activity of using the Internet or other electronic devices to socialize with people from home, rather than meeting them face to face

sofalize also sofalise
verb [intransitive]
sofalizer also sofaliser
noun [countable]

'Millions of us have given up socialising for "sofalising" – talking to pals via phones and the net instead of going out.'
THE SUN 11TH NOVEMBER 2010

'Researchers claim nearly a quarter of us sofalise every night – rather than go to a pub, club or village hall to meet people face to face, we plop down on the sofa … spending hours updating our profiles on social networking sites, chatting online or Tweeting …'
DAILY MAIL 15TH NOVEMBER 2010

'There is even an army of "extreme sofalisers" – the three per cent who spend a staggering 25 hours or more each week talking to friends via electronic devices.'
TELEGRAPH, UK 30TH NOVEMBER 2010

The word reminded me of this xkcd comic.


I especially love the mouseover on the xkcd site:

I'm waiting for the day when, if you tell someone "I'm from the internet", instead of laughing they just ask "Oh, what part?"

Speaking of xkcd, here are some excerpts from the About Page that I got a kick out of* (out of which I got a kick?)

What does XKCD stand for?

It's not actually an acronym. It's just a word with no phonetic pronunciation -- a treasured and carefully-guarded point in the space of four-character strings.

Is xkcd translated?

Translating humor is often difficult between groups that speak the same language, let alone totally different cultures. So it's inherently a hard problem. However, a reader does translate xkcd strips into Spanish, which can be found at es.xkcd.com.

How do I write "xkcd"? There's nothing in Strunk and White about this.

For those of us pedantic enough to want a rule, here it is: The preferred form is "xkcd", all lower-case. In formal contexts where a lowercase word shouldn't start a sentence, "XKCD" is an okay alternative. "Xkcd" is frowned upon.

Learning English Sounds

I recently came across this chart from bab.La and immediately noticed a very telling theme. I am not surprised by the theme, just fascinated to see it illustrated. (click on image to enlarge)

By my count, 19 of the 100 most listened to English words and expressions contain a th-sound, either word-initially as with "thanks", word-internally as with "mother" or word-finally as with "earth".

The reason I am not surprised by the number of words and expressions that contain the th-sound is that th-sound is notoriously challenging for ESL students to learn. Indeed, even native English speakers struggle to acquire the sound as children.

Phonetically, the th-sound is articulated either as a voiced dental fricative called "eth" and transcribed as /ð/, or a voiceless dental fricative called "theta" and transcribed as /θ/. The eth is heard in the word "though" and the theta is heard in the word "through".

Not only are both phonemes hard to learn, they are also hard to differentiate. Check out this previous post for more about theta and eth.

The bab.La site also has an R-rated version of the the 100 most listened to English words and expressions that includes many thetas and eths.

Word Up Weekly - ♥s and ♠s

If ♥ is pronounced "heart", and defined as a transitive verb meaning "to love" (as mentioned in a previous post), then I guess it makes sense that ♠ would be pronounced "spade" and defined as ."to dig".




Image from 22 Words

The Endangered Native American Languages - Ojibwe

The Spring 2011 edition of the University of Michigan's LSA (College of Literature, Science and the Arts) Magazine shares the following statistic:

Eighty percent of the 10,000 native Ojibwe speakers are over the age of 60.


To learn more about the Ojibwe language (Anishinaabemowin) and how to help preserve it, please visit this University of Michigan link.

Linguistics Cartoon Favorites - Naming Rights

From 22 Words

Language Lovers Rock

Interjections (Hey!) show excitement (Hey!) or emotion (Hey!).

Hey, hurray and wow!!! This blog has been nominated as one of Lexiophiles Top 100 Language Lovers Blogs in the "Language Professionals" category. I couldn't be more thrilled (and honored). Thank you to all who sent nominations. This means that A Walk in the WoRds made it to the official voting phase. Yippee!

Now...if it's not too much to ask and if you feel that this blog reaches my goal of promoting an appreciation and understanding of language through entertaining and educational posts, please enter your official vote for A Walk in the WoRds by clicking on the link below and following the voting instructions.

VOTE HERE

I will now leave you with the complete lyrics to SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK's Interjections!

(Cough! Cough! Cough!)
When Reginald was home with the flu, uh-huh-huh,
The doctor knew just what to do-hoo.
He cured the infection
With one small injection
While Reginald uttered some interjections..

Hey! That smarts!
Ouch! That hurts!
Yow! That's not fair givin' a guy a shot down there!

Interjections (Hey!) show excitement (Yow!) or emotion (Ouch!).
They're generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point,
Or by a comma when the feeling's not as strong.

Though Geraldine played hard to get, uh-huh-huh
Geraldo knew he'd woo her ye-het
He showed his affection
Despite her objections
And Geraldine hollered some interjections...

Well! You've got some nerve!
Oh! I've never been so insulted in all my life!
Hey! You're kinda cute!

Interjections (Well!) show excitement (Oh!) or emotion (Hey!).
They're generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point,
Or by a comma when the feeling's not as strong.

So when you're happy (Hurray!) or sad (Aw!)
Or frightened (Eeeeeek!) or mad (Rats!)
Or excited (Wow!) or glad (Hey!)
An interjection starts a sentence right.

The game was tied at seven all, uh-huh-huh,
When Franklin found he had the ba-hall.
He made a connection
In the other direction,
And the crowd started shouting out interjections...

Aw! You threw the wrong way!
Darn! You just lost the game!
Hurray! I'm for the other team!

Interjections (Aw!) show excitement (Darn!) or emotion (Hurray!).
They're generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point,
Or by a comma when the feeling's not as strong.

So when you're happy (Hurray!) or sad (Aw!)
Or frightened (Eeeeeek!) or mad (Rats!)
Or excited (Wow!) or glad (Hey!)
An interjection starts a sentence right.

Interjections (Hey!) show excitement (Hey!) or emotion (Hey!).
They're generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point,
Or by a comma when the feeling's not as strong.

Interjections show excitement or emotion,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah... YEA!

Darn! That's the end!

Phonemes Count and Phoneme Counts

The English language has 44 phonemes for most speakers*.
.



What, exactly does that mean?

Well, compare that number to the number of phonemes in other languages. For example, some languages in Africa have more than 100 phonemes and the Hawaiian language has only 13 phonemes.

According to some recent phonetic analysis conducted by University of Aukland psychologist Quentin Atkinson, places more recently settled by humans have fewer phonemes.

Very interesting, I thought.

*The number of phonemes for individual speakers in any language varies slightly with different dialects.



Data from an article in The Week.

Word Up Weekly - Axiom

axiom

n.

1. A self-evident or universally recognized truth; a maxim: "It is an economic axiom as old as the hills that goods and services can be paid for only with goods and services" (Albert Jay Nock).
2. An established rule, principle, or law.
3. A self-evident principle or one that is accepted as true without proof as the basis for argument; a postulate.

Image from Found Shit

Flip the Chomsky Switch

On April 14, 2011 the Los Angeles Times published an article about recent research in the field of linguistics titled "Culture trumps biology in language development, study argues." Here is the lede:

"Researchers construct evolutionary trees for four linguistic groups and conclude that cultures, not innate preferences, drive the language rules humans create – contrary to the findings of noted linguists Noam Chomsky and Joseph Greenberg."

On April 19, 2011 Voxy Blog published the following infographic.

Via: Voxy Blog

Coincidence? I think not.

Should We Stay at the Hotel that Provides an American Breakfast an English Breakfast or a Continental Breakfast?

I never realized there were so many choices.

American Breakfast: A hotel breakfast that includes most or all of the following: two eggs (fried or poached), sliced bacon or sausages, sliced bread or toast with jam/jelly/butter, pancakes with syrup, cornflakes or other cereal, coffee/tea, orange/grapefruit juice.

English Breakfast: Traditional breakfast (also called full breakfast, and served in inns or restaurants) may include cereals, porridge or stewed prunes, melon, yogurt, boiled eggs or bacon and eggs, grilled fish, sausages, grilled or fried mushrooms or tomatoes with fried bread, followed by toasted bread and marmalade and tea or coffee. Modern English breakfast (served in hotels or motels) may include cereals, bacon and eggs, toasted bread and marmalade with tea or coffee.

Continental Breakfast: A hotel breakfast that may include sliced bread with butter/jam/honey, cheese, meat, croissants, pastries, rolls, fruit juice and various hot beverages. It is served commonly in the continental Europe, North America, and elsewhere, as opposed to the English breakfast served commonly in the UK.

I vote for the English breakfast.

Definitions from BusinessDictionary.com

Image from flickr

Word Up Weekly - Framming with Zen-mail and then some

As posted on Grammar.net -

Technology has claimed its own corner of English, and it’s not without humor. Here are 10 of the funniest words and terms from the “interwebz”.

1. Cappuccino cowboy/cowgirl
The first of our funny words was coined by attorney Robert Freilich. “Cappuccino cowboys” are people who desire a suburban/rural lifestyle but can’t let go of urban amenities, such as Starbucks or drive-thrus. Picture John Wayne in his 10-gallon hat with a Frappachino in one hand, scrolling through a text message on his cell with the other.

2. Double Geeking
This refers to using two computers at the same time. It is similar to, but not to be confused with, “geeking out”, which is watching t.v. with a computer nearby in order to surf during commercials; it also covers watching an NFL game on t.v. while simultaneously watching it on NFL.com. In both cases, technology is awesome.

3. Eating your own dog food
Sometimes a company that produces a product decides to use its product. Sometimes the employees are not happy about this decision, so these employees devised the term “eating your own dog food”. An example: “I work for a company that makes lousy pencils. I never have anything to write with, because we eat our own dog food.” Software companies often do this.

4. Fat Finger
This is an error in typing due to fingers much larger than the buttons, such as “I accidently texted ‘lets meeeet for dinner’–I fat fingered”.

5. Fram
When a relative/friend sends fifteen emails a day with titles like “The funniest joke”, “Take my survey”, or “Cutest kitties”, this is “fram”. Similar to spam, fram comes from a friendly source, but an inbox fills just as quickly from friendly fire.

6. Plonk
“Plonk” is a Usenet term for adding a poster to one’s kill file so that future posts are ignored; it is considered to be the sound of that blocked person hitting the bottom of the kill file: “plonk”!

The first known use:

>>Please refrain from posting to talk.bizarre until such time as you
>>cease to be an %$&^ and become at least one of: bizarre, creative,
>>or entertaining. You are welcome to dump your rotting ordure in rec.humor
>>or some similar group where your fellow mental defectives congregate.

>Make me.

*plonk*

7. Salmon Day
“Salmon Day” is a day of swimming upstream, only to die on the beach in the end. It can apply to many occupations–from farming to dentistry–though it was probably “spawned” in office settings.

8. Shareware Girl
Everyone’s favorite female at the office–someone who everyone gets along with. “Shareware Girl brought donuts today.”

9. Seagull Manager
This writer’s personal favorite, a “seagull manager” is a boss who flies in, makes a lot of pointless noise, craps all over everything, then flies away.

10. Zen-mail
Email with nothing in the body of the message is “zen-mail”. Much zen-mail is most likely caused by fat fingering the “enter” button

Make No Bones About Linguistics

I just finished watching the May 5 Bones episode titled "The Signs in the Silence" and I was thrilled to see the science of linguistics called upon to help solve a crime (specifically, dialect analysis) (more specifically, sign language dialect analysis).

Bones is one of the better shows on network television (save for a few annoying characters and silly side-stories) and this episode, in particular, is worth the watch. After all, it probably does not occur to many people that sign languages have dialects too.

This link will take you to all of the episodes that are currently available for online viewing.

Google Plays with Words

One of twelve unexpectedly funny Google results from oddee.com -

Which reminds me...

I definitely see the resemblance between this logo and Google's. Check out the recent post over at Fritinancy about the atrocious name and logo for this legal-services business.

Reduplicative Toasting

Let's drink to that...twice.

Everyone grows up with particular words and phrases that are not necessarily common to the masses. I have a dear friend, who uses the expression "chin-chin" as a toast whenever we get together to catch up.

I was not familiar with this phrase and never gave it much though. I attributed it to the wonderful lingo this friend has shared with me that I assumed was part of her idiolect; she often uses unusual words and expressions that she credits to her father.

I just recently learned that it is an interjection from the Chinese language.

Origin: 1785–95; < Chinese qǐng-qǐng please-please

So let's have a toast to Mexico for tomorrow's holiday...Chin-chin.

Happy Cinco de Mayo.

A Note to My Regular Readers

Dearest Readers,

The bab.la language portal and Lexiophiles language blog have run a Top 100 Language Blogs competition since 2008. The list of winners from the past three years can be found here. It includes some outstanding blogs, many of which I read and link to regularly.

Well, the 2011 Top 100 Language Lovers competition has begun.

In the competition, readers are asked to nominate and vote for their personal favorite language blogs in a number of categories. The nomination period is May 3 - May 16, and the voting voting period is May 17 - May 29.

The reason I bring this to your attention is that I would be honored to be nominated in the "Language Learning Blogs" category. If you feel that this blog reaches my goal of promoting an appreciation and understanding of language through entertaining and educational posts, please visit 2011 Top 100 Language Lovers competition to nominate A Walk in the Words.

Click on the "LEAVE A COMMENT" button at the bottom of the page and enter a nomination for URL http://walkinthewords.blogspot.com/ in the "Language Learning Blogs" category.

Alternatively, an e-mail with the above URL can be sent to giulia@bab.la

I greatly appreciate your continued readership and support.

Fondly,

Laura

Word Up Weekly - A Logopandocic Word-Pecker

I do believe I am a a logopandocic word-pecker. Thank you for bringing this to my attention Inky Fool.

logopandocie: a readiness to admit all kinds of words.

"Logos was Greek for word,... and pandokeia was inn-keeping, it was the practice of running a tavern...

So logopandocie is running a word tavern."

word-pecker: one that plays with words.

The Prodigal Son In The Tavern (Rembrandt And Saskia) 1635