Monday, January 31, 2011
Unusual Words Defined: A - Z (Part U)
Unexpurgated -
Unedited; without deletions.
I prefer the unexpurgated edition of the movie; it's longer but more exciting.
Definition from Wayne State University's Word Warriors.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Alpine Equipment Epithets
According to Johnson, skiers call a snowboard a parapet (windowsill) and snowboarders call skis boazeria (wainscots), thus the title of the post, "Windowsill v Wainscots".
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In addition to the brief article, what I found interesting were a couple of comments from readers included this one from AcrossTheStreet:
"Colorado has lighthearted names for its alpine battle of rafters and fly-fishers: Row v Wade."
And this one from Jeremie1:
"In Spain snowboarders are just known as "surferos", as far as I know, but the surferos do use a malicious nickname for skiers, who distinguish themselves by using ski sticks: they are known as "palilleros" - from "palillos", or little sticks, such as toothsticks."
My son, a snowboarder, calls skiers "two-plankers".
So how about you: are you a windowsiller or a wainscotter, a rafter or a fly-fisher, a surfer or a palilleros?
What other labels are out there?
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Actors and Theta Roles
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Jack Donner in The Instrument
• argument who performs the action or brings about the state of affairs
• an agent is conscious, sentient, animate
• volition or purpose involved in the action being done
• the agent is the prototypical subject (but does not need to appear as a subject!)
The cake was baked by my mother.
The cat peed all over the house.
• argument involved in the action (but not the agent)
• can be used by an agent
• non-purposeful, non-volitional by itself
The thieves used a pick-axe to get inside.
Robin ate the cereal with a spoon.
• argument involved in the action/in bringing about the state of affairs (but not the agent)
• cannot be used by an agent
• non-purposeful, non-volitional by itself
e.g. An epidemic killed most of the villagers.
London was devastated by the fire of 1666.
The Great Depression put thousands of Americans in poverty.
• argument that undergoes a sensory, cognitive, or emotional experience
• must be animate/sentient
e.g. Teresa had never seen the ocean before.
Many people fear snakes.
His singing struck her as singularly terrible.
• arguments that receive something (good or bad) in a situation
e.g. They gave all the employees a raise.
I paid my landlord the rent.
He spared me his usual sob story.
• thing acted upon, moved, or otherwise affected by a situation, OR
• an argument which has a property being referred to
• prototypical direct object (but doesn’t have to be a direct object!)
• the “catch-all” (trashcan) of theta-roles
e.g. Napoleon conquered much of Europe.
Pat is very polite.
We put the books on the shelf.
London was devastated by the fire of 1666.
• the starting point for a movement
• may also indicate where a change (etc.) starts from
e.g. The package arrived from Moscow this morning.
I biked from Carrboro to Durham last night.
Robin frightened me.
• the end point for a physical movement
• may also indicate the end result of a change in possession or identity
e.g. Many actors move to New York.
The magician changed the rabbit into a penguin.
John gave the cake to Mary.
• the place where an action occurred
e.g. We put the books on the shelf.
Maria sent a package to France.
Lots of good bands always come to Cat’s Cradle.
Picture credits to IMDb
Monday, January 24, 2011
Unusual Words Defined: A - Z (Part T)
: to address familiarly
Origin of TUTOYER
French, to address with the familiar pronoun tu thou, from Middle French, from tu thou (from Latin) + toi thee, from Latin te (accusative of tu)
First Known Use: 1697
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Friday, January 21, 2011
A Ventriloquist's Phonetics Pitch
Articulatory phonetics: production point of view (rate of vocal fold vibration of the speaker).
Acousitc phonetics: transmission point of view (fundamental frequency of sounds as they travel from speaker to listener).
Auditory phonetics: reception point of view (pitch as perceived by listener).
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Correction: Washington Post's Mensa Invitational
According to the American Mensa website, "Since 2005 or earlier, the "Mensa Invitational" has been suspected to be a hoax but no confirmation has ever been made prior to this. So we're here to debunk this urban legend."
"American Mensa, nor any other Mensa entity, has ever been affiliated with The Washington Post's "Style Invitational" column and/or its contests, to the best of our knowledge. It wouldn't surprise us if many of our members have entered the contests — and perhaps even have won — but that would be the limit of the interaction."
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For those of you who have not yet seen the annual "contest" results, here they are:
1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone ( n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
12. Decafalon (n.): The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
13. Glibido: All talk and no action.
14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
17. Caterpallor ( n.): The colour you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.
18. Vowel movement: The inevitable verbal diarrhea that spews from ones' mouth when they have nothing significant to say.
Supply an alternate meanings for common words
1. coffee (n.): The person upon whom one coughs.
2. flabbergasted (adj.): Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.
3. abdicate (v.): To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. esplanade (v.): To attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. willy-nilly (adj.): Impotent.
6. negligent(adj.): Absent-mindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
7. lymph (v.): To walk with a lisp.
8. gargoyle (n.): Olive-flavoured mouthwash.
9. flatulence (n.): Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.
10. balderdash (n.): A rapidly receding hairline.
11. testicle (n.) A humorous question on an exam.
12. rectitude (n.): The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. pokemon (n.): A Rastafarian proctologist.
14. oyster (n.) A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism (n.): The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. circumvent (n.): An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.
And here is a link to "The Style Invitational" humor column at the Washington Post.
Update: Linguistics in the News and on Jeopardy
Well I just learned that a practice match was held last Thursday, January 13th and here is a clip from said match.
According to an article about the match on POPSCI, "Watson has a certain self-awareness; it knows it won't get every answer right, and has to pass a certain level of confidence before it will answer. Watson's logo will change color to indicate its confidence: The lines that are part of its "avatar" will glow blue if Watson is confident, and orange if it's not."
And here is some information from the POPSCI article about how Watson handles the difficulties of language.
"The vagaries of language mean that the questions can be interpreted in all kinds of different ways, so merely figuring out what the question is trying to ask provides the majority of the struggle for Watson. To that end, the computer actually comes up with thousands of different possible answers, and ranks them by the possibility of correctness. When we watched the quick match, the top three answers were displayed on screen, as well as the confidence percentage, and the second- and third-ranked answers were usually dramatically incorrect. It's not likely that Watson will confuse, say, the author of one children's book with the author of another. It's more likely that Watson will completely misread what the question is even asking, and come up with an answer like "What is children?"
Certain elements of human language are tricky, too--the stuff that seems like it might be the most difficult (like puns and wordplay) are felt out by "trigger" words in the category name, such as "sounds like." But synonyms are often a bigger problem. In the answer "This liquid cushions the brain from injury," Watson has to determine that "liquid" is in this one case interchangeable with "fluid," and that "cushions" is interchangeable with "surrounds." Humans know what the question is asking instinctively, but Watson has to analyze it from every angle."
Watson ended up winning the practice match with $4,400. Ken Jennings placed second with $3,400 and Brad Rutter took third with $1,200.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
A New Linguistics Publication
I want to call your attention to a new online linguistics resource that I have added to the recommended language links.
Popular Linguistics Magazine
DS Bigham, Editor, introduces his magazine as "a monthly online publication where we aim to bring linguistics and language research to anyone who’s interested, regardless of whether they’re a linguist or not. Our goal here at Popular Linguistics is to present to you, dear readers, all aspects of linguistics, from breaking news in language technologies to stories from intrepid documentary fieldworkers, from research detailing how language works in the brain to stories showing how language works in society. Linguistics for everyone, finally."
As "linguistics for everyone" has always been one of my main goals in writing this blog, I am very excited about this new resource. Please check it out and share the link with other language lovers you may know.
Contraction Retraction - A Phono-Morpho-Syntactic Phenomenon
?
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I have recently noticed a phenomenon that seems to play out in the phonetics, phonology, morphology, and syntax of certain contractions.
If I start to say "don't" and change midway to "do not" what comes out of my mouth sounds an awful lot like "dough not".
Transcribed phonetically below.
don't = /dont/
do not = /du nat/
dough not = /do nat/
The same phenomenon occurs with "won't" and "shan't".
won't = /wont/
will not = /wIl nat/
woe not = /wo nat/
shan't = /ʃænt/
shall not = /ʃɛl nat/
sh(y)eah not = /ʃæ nat/
I have been unable to locate an official name for this linguistic phenomenon so if anyone has further information please submit via comments below.
Also, comments are open for additional data (other contractions that are capable of undergoing this type of metamorphosis). Does this "contraction retraction" occur in other languages as well?
Image credits here.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Unusual Words Defined: A - Z (Part S)
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A hollow made in the snow by a skier who has fallen backward.
[Partial translation of German Sitzmarke : Sitz, act of sitting; see sitz bath + Marke, mark.]
Friday, January 14, 2011
The Dude's Friend's Apostrophe
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The Naming of Convenience Stores
.
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![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX96nD5e8BXS_HAPcxgixmv9gG49vyBVc5WvS74atHT9G6os9WeGZAbLaL_4VOCAYTnTq6a5jNxlaS-iX4_gNlee6XFPRZwe3JSfXds8CiaejOGxDs1h04kyMTFt20CnVNYPQ6qCQeHEVD/s400/burger.bmp)
"In an age where catchy company names and unique marketing phrases were a representation of the times – and also the difference between success and failure – the two gentlemen used the first letters of their last names to create a unique moniker to showcase the ease and convenience they instilled in a shopping experience. Thus Kum & Go was born."
According to the website, the age was 1959 and the founders were W.A. Krause and T.S. Gentle.
I won't even mention the sexual innuendo that can be associated with the names of both the convenience stores and the burger store.
FYI -
innuendo
connotation
2. a. An idea or meaning suggested by or associated with a word or thing: Hollywood holds connotations of romance and glittering success.
b. The set of associations implied by a word in addition to its literal meaning.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Comparing Annual Word Lists (Michigan Edition)
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"This should be on the list of words that don't need to exist because a perfectly good word has been used for years. In this case, the word is 'history,' or, for those who must be weaned, 'story.'" Jeff Williams, Sherwood, Ariz.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Unusual Words Defined A - Z (Part R)
n. An icicle-like rust structure formed underwater on rusting iron. [Blend of rust and icicle.]
Dr. Robert Ballard, head of a research team currently photographing the sunken luxury liner, said yesterday the vessel's exquisite woodwork has all but disappeared....The ship, inside and out, is covered with stalactite-like icicles of rust or 'rusticles,' he said.—Barbara Yaffe, "Rust 'icicles' drape hull of Titanic," The Globe and Mail, July 17, 1986
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Friday, January 7, 2011
Linguistics on Jeopardy - January 2011
The $2000 clue: This Japanese-American professor of linguistics was a California senator from 1977 to 1983.
The answer: S.I. Hayakawa
Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa (July 18, 1906 – February 27, 1992) was an important figure in the field of semantics. His 1949 book Language in Thought and Action helped popularize the study of semantics.
Clue from Jeopardy episode #5448, aired 2008-04-23
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Can Randomly Placed Letters Form an Intelligible Word?
According to an e-mail that has been around for several years (and is supposedly based on Cambridge University research), as long as the first and last letters of a word are positioned accurately, the order of the internal letters should not interfere with a reader's ability to interpret the word.
This past December, a new video debunking this claim made the rounds.
In case you missed it on The Spelling Blog, Language Hat, Mighty Red Pen or anywhere else it may have appeared, here it is:
Excellent analysis from What You Ought to Know.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Unusual Words Defined: A - Z (Part Q)
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