My professor wore cat ears today. And she dressed in black and orange and passed out candy.
And the class featured my VoiceOver on my Mac, to show how text-to-speech works (computational linguistics). Little awkward cause she definitely gave me a five-minute introduction.
VoiceOver is a screen reader that comes with Apple that is designed for blind and visually impaired people. I told it to read the following things:
I do not have the cot/caught merger.
I do not have the pen/pin merger.
I read the newspaper every day.
I haven't read the newspaper today.
I read the newspaper yesterday. (which it read as "I reed the...")
Happy Halloween, folks.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Meeting Deborah Tannen
I got to talk to one of my all-time favorite linguists today, Deborah Tannen. I've read her books, watched her movies, and today we went to the same lecture. And she came up to me afterwards and told me she was impressed with my follow-up question. Then we talked for about ten minutes.
The lecture was about the use of Spanish and Nahuatl (Mexicano) and how it establishes Indian identity. One of my questions was how they added the Nahuatl infinitive verb suffix onto Spanish verbs. The examples the lecturer, Jacqueline Messing, gave were:
vivir-oah
Sp. "to live" + Na. verb infinitive suffix
and
ti-sufrir-oah
Na. "we" prefix + Sp. "to suffer" + Na. verb infinitive suffix.
Well I asked why they added the Nahuatl infinitive verb suffix if there was already the Spanish infinitive verb suffix -ir. The Spanish verb roots are viv- and sufr-, and I asked if anyone ever said viv-oah or sufr-oah. No, she said, they always attach the Nahuatl infinitive suffix to the already Spanish infinitive verb.
I guess that's the "the hoi poloi" of Nahuatl.
The lecture was about the use of Spanish and Nahuatl (Mexicano) and how it establishes Indian identity. One of my questions was how they added the Nahuatl infinitive verb suffix onto Spanish verbs. The examples the lecturer, Jacqueline Messing, gave were:
vivir-oah
Sp. "to live" + Na. verb infinitive suffix
and
ti-sufrir-oah
Na. "we" prefix + Sp. "to suffer" + Na. verb infinitive suffix.
Well I asked why they added the Nahuatl infinitive verb suffix if there was already the Spanish infinitive verb suffix -ir. The Spanish verb roots are viv- and sufr-, and I asked if anyone ever said viv-oah or sufr-oah. No, she said, they always attach the Nahuatl infinitive suffix to the already Spanish infinitive verb.
I guess that's the "the hoi poloi" of Nahuatl.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Today I spent about half an hour after class talking to my Linguistics professor. We were going over syntax in class. The two major syntax categories are head-first languages and head-last languages. Head-first languages put adjectives in front of nouns, prepositions in front of nouns, etc. So a simplified way of thinking about it is whatever is modifying the thing is put in front of the thing.
Some languages are head-last in that they use postpositions and modify nouns with an adjective afterwards, etc.
So I asked her if American Sign Language is a head-first or head-last language.
English grammar in general goes Subject + Verb + Object. (shorted to SVO.)
I like candy. subject: I + verb: like + object: candy.
ASL grammar has a topic-comment syntax, which can sort of be analyzed as Object + Verb + Subject (OVS.)
CANDY, LIKE, ME. Topic (Candy: object), comment (verb: LIKE, me: subject). But does that make it a head-first or head-last language? It's hard to say.
In ASL, adjectives tend to come after languages, which makes one think it is a head-last language, but it isn't that clear-cut because adjectives follow nouns in Spanish too, which otherwise has very head-first syntax.
(Just for reference there are other languages that have SOV, for example Farsi.
من پلو دوست دارم man polo dust daram (subject: I object: rice verb: like)
I like rice. )
My linguistics professor didn't know the answer to my question but hopefully someone reading this (Shockwave) will know. Is ASL a head-first or head-last language, generally speaking?
A red car (and not a car red)
At home (and not home at).
At home (and not home at).
Some languages are head-last in that they use postpositions and modify nouns with an adjective afterwards, etc.
So I asked her if American Sign Language is a head-first or head-last language.
English grammar in general goes Subject + Verb + Object. (shorted to SVO.)
I like candy. subject: I + verb: like + object: candy.
ASL grammar has a topic-comment syntax, which can sort of be analyzed as Object + Verb + Subject (OVS.)
CANDY, LIKE, ME. Topic (Candy: object), comment (verb: LIKE, me: subject). But does that make it a head-first or head-last language? It's hard to say.
In ASL, adjectives tend to come after languages, which makes one think it is a head-last language, but it isn't that clear-cut because adjectives follow nouns in Spanish too, which otherwise has very head-first syntax.
(Just for reference there are other languages that have SOV, for example Farsi.
من پلو دوست دارم man polo dust daram (subject: I object: rice verb: like)
I like rice. )
My linguistics professor didn't know the answer to my question but hopefully someone reading this (Shockwave) will know. Is ASL a head-first or head-last language, generally speaking?
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Sociolinguistics Research Project
I am taking a Sociolinguistics course at Georgetown University. We are doing a research project and I handed in my research topic today. I couldn't decide between three topics and this is the topic that won the most votes among my friends (and that my professor admitted to finding the most interesting today):
How does perceived blindness affect language of customer service in a restaurant setting?
1) How does an employee use language get the attention of a blind customer?
a) when the blind customer is alone
b) in a group setting (with sighted people)
2) Does the employee use direct pronouns (you) or indirect pronouns (he, she)?
a) when the blind customer is alone
b) in a group setting (with sighted people).
I will be going around as a blind person. (Having been legally blind for years this will be easy--me being in my element.) Then I will observe how people talk to me.
What do you all think?
How does perceived blindness affect language of customer service in a restaurant setting?
1) How does an employee use language get the attention of a blind customer?
a) when the blind customer is alone
b) in a group setting (with sighted people)
2) Does the employee use direct pronouns (you) or indirect pronouns (he, she)?
a) when the blind customer is alone
b) in a group setting (with sighted people).
I will be going around as a blind person. (Having been legally blind for years this will be easy--me being in my element.) Then I will observe how people talk to me.
What do you all think?
Monday, October 6, 2008
Prescriptive vs. Descriptrive
Morning, all! Thanks for the comments!
Some of you mentioned prescriptive vs. descriptive grammar, which was the blog post I planned for today. Linguists often talk about descriptive vs. prescriptive grammar. Prescriptive grammar is what most people think of when they hear the word grammar--the grammar your English teacher taught you in grade school. Don't split an infinitive! Don't end a sentence with a preposition! Don't use object pronouns in a compound subject! Descriptive grammar is the grammar people actually use, what we hear on the streets. That is the refreshing part of language, where "right" and "wrong" is defined by what people do instead of what people "should" do. Descriptive grammar doesn't reflect the way people talk. This is proved in the fact that we have to learn it at all. For example:
Which of these sentences sounds wrong to you?
a) I am in love with.
b) I am in love with you.
Most people will say a). Did anyone ever have to teach you that? Did your English teacher have to say, "the expression 'in love' takes an object, in other words you have to be 'in love with someone.'" No. People just say "I am in love with [someone/something]." No one has to be told that.
How about these two sentences? Which sounds wrong to you?
a) It's me.
b) It's I.
Most people will say b). In second grade when someone in class knew the answer and wanted the teacher to call on them, did they say "I! I!" Probably not. Most people would say "Me! Me!" But descriptive grammar tells us that the verb "to be" takes the object pronoun, giving us "It's I." The fact that rules have to be memorized shows how unnatural prescriptive grammar is.
Why is it so unnatural?
A bunch of elitists men in the 1800's had nothing better to do than to come up with rules based on Latin. The problem is that their rules were based on properties of Latin that don't translate to English.
1) Don't split infinitives. Well, in Latin, infinitives are one word, so they can't be split. So applying that to English, which has two-part infinitive makes no sense.
2) Don't end sentences with prepositions. Latin uses cases to convey the same relationships we use prepositions for. So they change the endings of words, making it impossible to end a sentence with a preposition. Other Germanic languages, like German, end sentences with prepositions all the time.
Etc.
In short all those prescriptive grammar rules you learned in English class are based on an attitude from centuries ago where Latin was thought to somehow be an inherently better language than English, and so a bunch of these educated men (who usually studied classic Latin and Greek) made up rules to have English imitate Latin.
Now I am not the extremist type that doesn't recognize these rules are useful for writing or speaking when you need to impress somebody. Most people do have hang ups about phrases such as "where's he at?" so sometimes it is beneficial to say "where is he?". If you're interviewing for a job or writing an article for The New York Times it's probably best not to write/say "Me and him love kayaking." But that is just what those rules are. They are there to please a certain audience and no more! They do not speak to how language really truly should be. Hopefully with time more people will put those rules in their place instead of equating them with some superior form of language.
Now if you're still not convinced, take a look at the blog title. The title refers to the fact that most prescriptivists will tell you that when forming a question that requires an object as an answer, the form "whom" should be used.
Subject
Q: Who is that person in the blue shirt? A: That's my boss.
Object
Q: With whom are you going to the concert? A: I'm going with him.
Most people in natural conversation say: "Who are you going to the concert with?" which implies the answer should be "I'm going with he."
But let's take this for example:
Subject
Q: What is your name? A: My name is Horatio.
Object
Q: With what do you chop wood? A: I chop wood with an ax.
Here, "what" doesn't change form! It stays as "what." And yet prescriptivists say we should change "who" to "whom" in the case of a question that requires an answer in object form. Did there used to be an object form for "what?" There sure did. That is what that weird word in the title is--"hwam." (The wh- words used to be written hw-, so "who" was "hwo" and "whom" was "hwom" and "what" was "hwaet"--and the object form was "hwam.") Now it is easier to see just how arbitrary the prescriptivist rule requiring us to use "whom" is. Does anyone go around saying "with hwam do you chop wood?" So why should we say "with whom did you go to the concert?" Sure you can say it, but is it really all that important in the end?
Only if you're trying to impress a potential employer or your professor.
Some of you mentioned prescriptive vs. descriptive grammar, which was the blog post I planned for today. Linguists often talk about descriptive vs. prescriptive grammar. Prescriptive grammar is what most people think of when they hear the word grammar--the grammar your English teacher taught you in grade school. Don't split an infinitive! Don't end a sentence with a preposition! Don't use object pronouns in a compound subject! Descriptive grammar is the grammar people actually use, what we hear on the streets. That is the refreshing part of language, where "right" and "wrong" is defined by what people do instead of what people "should" do. Descriptive grammar doesn't reflect the way people talk. This is proved in the fact that we have to learn it at all. For example:
Which of these sentences sounds wrong to you?
a) I am in love with.
b) I am in love with you.
Most people will say a). Did anyone ever have to teach you that? Did your English teacher have to say, "the expression 'in love' takes an object, in other words you have to be 'in love with someone.'" No. People just say "I am in love with [someone/something]." No one has to be told that.
How about these two sentences? Which sounds wrong to you?
a) It's me.
b) It's I.
Most people will say b). In second grade when someone in class knew the answer and wanted the teacher to call on them, did they say "I! I!" Probably not. Most people would say "Me! Me!" But descriptive grammar tells us that the verb "to be" takes the object pronoun, giving us "It's I." The fact that rules have to be memorized shows how unnatural prescriptive grammar is.
Why is it so unnatural?
A bunch of elitists men in the 1800's had nothing better to do than to come up with rules based on Latin. The problem is that their rules were based on properties of Latin that don't translate to English.
1) Don't split infinitives. Well, in Latin, infinitives are one word, so they can't be split. So applying that to English, which has two-part infinitive makes no sense.
2) Don't end sentences with prepositions. Latin uses cases to convey the same relationships we use prepositions for. So they change the endings of words, making it impossible to end a sentence with a preposition. Other Germanic languages, like German, end sentences with prepositions all the time.
Etc.
In short all those prescriptive grammar rules you learned in English class are based on an attitude from centuries ago where Latin was thought to somehow be an inherently better language than English, and so a bunch of these educated men (who usually studied classic Latin and Greek) made up rules to have English imitate Latin.
Now I am not the extremist type that doesn't recognize these rules are useful for writing or speaking when you need to impress somebody. Most people do have hang ups about phrases such as "where's he at?" so sometimes it is beneficial to say "where is he?". If you're interviewing for a job or writing an article for The New York Times it's probably best not to write/say "Me and him love kayaking." But that is just what those rules are. They are there to please a certain audience and no more! They do not speak to how language really truly should be. Hopefully with time more people will put those rules in their place instead of equating them with some superior form of language.
Now if you're still not convinced, take a look at the blog title. The title refers to the fact that most prescriptivists will tell you that when forming a question that requires an object as an answer, the form "whom" should be used.
Subject
Q: Who is that person in the blue shirt? A: That's my boss.
Object
Q: With whom are you going to the concert? A: I'm going with him.
Most people in natural conversation say: "Who are you going to the concert with?" which implies the answer should be "I'm going with he."
But let's take this for example:
Subject
Q: What is your name? A: My name is Horatio.
Object
Q: With what do you chop wood? A: I chop wood with an ax.
Here, "what" doesn't change form! It stays as "what." And yet prescriptivists say we should change "who" to "whom" in the case of a question that requires an answer in object form. Did there used to be an object form for "what?" There sure did. That is what that weird word in the title is--"hwam." (The wh- words used to be written hw-, so "who" was "hwo" and "whom" was "hwom" and "what" was "hwaet"--and the object form was "hwam.") Now it is easier to see just how arbitrary the prescriptivist rule requiring us to use "whom" is. Does anyone go around saying "with hwam do you chop wood?" So why should we say "with whom did you go to the concert?" Sure you can say it, but is it really all that important in the end?
Only if you're trying to impress a potential employer or your professor.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Language Deterioration Cont.
Well folks, I had originally planned on coming home yesterday and continuing on yesterday's post. But some great news!
I was propositioned to join a professional Latin Jazz band! I was doing a gig on the Mall, a one-time thing with a band I used to play in, and then right afterwards three guys come up to talk to me. One starts talking to me in Portuguese because I sang Samba de uma nota só (One Note Samba) in Portuguese, and then these two guys come up to me to ask me if I want to join their band! And then it turns out they speak Spanish and I speak Spanish so we really hit it off! I spent the day with these two other musicians talking about jazz. One of the guys--I'll call him Renaldo--writes songs too. His brother (I'll call him Ignacio) and him are very tight and so I will be looking forward to being part of the group! We have already started trading song ideas.
Next thing I know it's dinner time and I went with my piano teacher to see some Jazz crooning, Grady Tate. It was great but man was I sleepy with his smooth voice. My piano teacher said he's like a glass of cognac. I've never had cognac (or any alcohol for that matter) but hey, it's pretty cool that I can experience drunkenness without drinking through music. When we drove home she said, "I feel like I'm DUI, driving under the influence!" It was great and it was perfect timing 'cause that was the kind of singing I was thinking for this song I'm writing and needed to hear some good crooning so that I could really feel out the style for my song.
So that is why I didn't come back to finish my post.
You can really start to see how ridiculous the claim of language deterioration is when you read complaints from a long time ago. My linguistics professor once told me she came across an essay about how teachers had started to use "you" instead of "thou" with their students, and if even teachers couldn't choose the correct pronoun, what about the students, and if teachers were making such a huge linguistic blunder, what was education coming to? But nowadays we don't even think of using "you" as being incorrect, in fact that is the pronoun we use. So really, all that language deterioration those of you among the older generations are cringing at--that is the language of the future. Just like your grandparents probably cringed at the fact that you used "access" as a verb, and yet now no one even thinks about it, one day no one will even think about if it is more correct to say "between you and me" or "between you and I."
I was propositioned to join a professional Latin Jazz band! I was doing a gig on the Mall, a one-time thing with a band I used to play in, and then right afterwards three guys come up to talk to me. One starts talking to me in Portuguese because I sang Samba de uma nota só (One Note Samba) in Portuguese, and then these two guys come up to me to ask me if I want to join their band! And then it turns out they speak Spanish and I speak Spanish so we really hit it off! I spent the day with these two other musicians talking about jazz. One of the guys--I'll call him Renaldo--writes songs too. His brother (I'll call him Ignacio) and him are very tight and so I will be looking forward to being part of the group! We have already started trading song ideas.
Next thing I know it's dinner time and I went with my piano teacher to see some Jazz crooning, Grady Tate. It was great but man was I sleepy with his smooth voice. My piano teacher said he's like a glass of cognac. I've never had cognac (or any alcohol for that matter) but hey, it's pretty cool that I can experience drunkenness without drinking through music. When we drove home she said, "I feel like I'm DUI, driving under the influence!" It was great and it was perfect timing 'cause that was the kind of singing I was thinking for this song I'm writing and needed to hear some good crooning so that I could really feel out the style for my song.
So that is why I didn't come back to finish my post.
You can really start to see how ridiculous the claim of language deterioration is when you read complaints from a long time ago. My linguistics professor once told me she came across an essay about how teachers had started to use "you" instead of "thou" with their students, and if even teachers couldn't choose the correct pronoun, what about the students, and if teachers were making such a huge linguistic blunder, what was education coming to? But nowadays we don't even think of using "you" as being incorrect, in fact that is the pronoun we use. So really, all that language deterioration those of you among the older generations are cringing at--that is the language of the future. Just like your grandparents probably cringed at the fact that you used "access" as a verb, and yet now no one even thinks about it, one day no one will even think about if it is more correct to say "between you and me" or "between you and I."
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Language Deterioration
For all of you out there that insist that today's youth is completely massacring (does that word have four syllables for you too?) the English Language (or whatever other language), this blog will probably either annoy you to no end or will be just the place for you!
Language deterioration. How many of us haven't heard our parents or grandparents saying that language is deteriorating, and oh boy, if we let it keep going down this path, what will education come to? How will our children learn? Well I'm here to say their parents said the same exact thing about their language. "The word 'access' is not a verb! It is a noun!" Clearly if I let you access something instead of granting you access, my IQ has just dropped ten points and my ability to learn and the ability of all my progeny to learn has been cursed for all eternity.
I have to go but I will be sure to elaborate on why language deterioration is really just language change when I get back.
Language deterioration. How many of us haven't heard our parents or grandparents saying that language is deteriorating, and oh boy, if we let it keep going down this path, what will education come to? How will our children learn? Well I'm here to say their parents said the same exact thing about their language. "The word 'access' is not a verb! It is a noun!" Clearly if I let you access something instead of granting you access, my IQ has just dropped ten points and my ability to learn and the ability of all my progeny to learn has been cursed for all eternity.
I have to go but I will be sure to elaborate on why language deterioration is really just language change when I get back.
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