#langauge

[lingthusiasm]

Kat: Yeah. Computers are super, super good at counting. They’re super, super good at finding and identifying these strings. But they’re not very good at the analysis bit. We don’t want our computer to do the analysis for us. We want to be very aware of the kind of software and the kind of programming that goes into it that give us the results. Because we as humans are fantastically sensitive to language. That’s where the human element comes in. It’s why we don’t just leave it all to the computers to just do as they will with it.

Gretchen: It’s really a lot more of a partnership between the computer showing you some things and the human making meaning out of that.

Kat: Exactly. It’s meant to be a partnership where you play to each other’s strengths. You let the computer do the bit it’s good at, and then you do the bit you’re good at. Excerpt from Lingthusiasm episode: Corpus linguistics and consent - Interview with Kat Gupta

Listen to the episode, read the full transcript, or check out more links about language and technology, and the history of language

#langauge #linguistics #lingthusiasm #episode 61 #quotes #podcasts #corpus linguistics #kat gupta #language and technology

[nihilistens-luftslott]

 「○○するも ～だった」 = "even if I did ○○, I couldn't ～"

＝　「○○したけど できなかった」

アタックを繰り出すも、決定打にならなかった。Even if he repeatedly attacked, he couldn't land a decisive blow.

#japanese #grammar #polyglot #japanese studyblr #study japanese #studyblr #langauge #langblr #language studying #language study #language learning #japanese language

[dk-thrive]

A fisherman told me: “Writing poetry must be like digging for earthworms: you grab the critter by the end and pull. Pull too hard, and it’ll break; not hard enough, it’ll get away.”

— Vera Pavlova, "Heaven Is Not Verbose: A Notebook." Translated by Steven Seymour. (via Poetry Foundation)

#Vera pavlova #fishing #poetry #poet #write #writing #story #words #langauge #prose

[noosphe-re]

discourse (n.)

late 14c., "process of understanding, reasoning, thought," from French discours, from Latin discursus "a running about," in Late Latin "conversation," in Medieval Latin "reasoning," noun use of past participle of discurrere "to run about, run to and fro, hasten," in Late Latin "to go over a subject, speak at length of, discourse of," from dis- "apart" (see dis-) + currere "to run" (from PIE root *kers- "to run").

Meaning "a running over a subject in speech, communication of thought in words" is from 1550s; sense of "discussion or treatment of a subject in formal speech or writing," is from 1580s.

—Etymonline

#word #etymology #discourse #thinking #running #communication #langauge #linguistics

[tmmyhug]

biblical angels texting the ^^ emoticon: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

#vees train of thought #not mcyt #vee makes posts #langauge

[void-of-nonsense]

I ran into a post that was a bit confusing at first until I realised that op might have been using an accesibility tool to make the post in the first place. So I re-read the post focusing on the whole concept a word might convey rather than just the standard dictionary definition. It did take some effort but the post did make sense and not only that it was a post I agreed with and had experienced similar if not the same things.

Reminded me how difficult it can be to advocate for yourself if you're being dismissed because someone else doesnt understand you.

I took a linguistics class once and got into an argument because there was an example of a person who 'never developed langauge' and they were saying that person was only as intelligent as a todler if I remember right. But thats not something you can prove. They might not have the langauge skills you expect but you cant prove someone is stupid. It feels like pointing at someone who only speaks Mandarin and saying 'that person can't speak english therefore they are an idiot'. The only thing you can really measure is what you understand. So if you can't understand someone who are you to judge them?

When someone's grammar is 'bad' and its hard for you to understand. It was probably hard for them to write too. They're making an effort to comunicate something so the effort you put in to understanding it balances out. And even then the effort you put in to undersranding is in a lot of cases probably still easier than it was for that person to write in the first place.

I think it's important that for those who find it easier to comunicate make sure they are helping someone advocate for themselves and not advocating for them.

#disability #acessibility #comunication #langauge #linguistics #advocacy #void words #voidwords #void posting #text post #autism

[thechekhov]

Is there any reason sign language wouldn't work as a universal language? Like I can understand so many different types of sign language as you've talked about before but if it's something as simple as asking about food or directions, something just in the sense of travelling places and getting around, I would think that that could be manageable to teach people.

I've had a couple of people send me thoughts along these lines, and I wanna address it - because I understand the line of thinking and where you're coming from!

But I want to point out that the original question wasn't 'could something work as a universal language or not' - pretty much any language, in THEORY, could work as a universal language! Sign languages included!

So yes, if we decide to make, say, Japanese Sign Language the lingua franca of the world, COULD everyone learn it?

With limitless resources and a lot of effort, sure!

But the original inquiry (if I understood it correctly) was never about whether or not something COULD be a universal auxiliary language.

It was about which language, if any, would be the BEST one for it - the 'most practical', the one with the 'easiest' or 'most common' grammar, etc.

And the answer, unfortunately, remains largely the same.

Signed languages are... languages! And they're diverse and grammatically distinct, so the problems don't go away. There is no single sign language that is more 'standard' than any of the others!

The modality is different, so perhaps you're thinking about whether the difficulty hurdle would be more average for any non-signing people attempting to learn it. And perhaps it may facilitate a more equal ground for those people, sure. But what about people who speak a completely grammatically different signed language?

And that still wouldn't really fix any of the aforementioned issues. Sign languages also have grammar and syntax, and fingerspelling, and all those things will inevitably favor one group of language learners over another! It's a different gradient circle, but it's still a gradient circle with no middle.

So to make it clear:

Could a signed language work as a universal language?

Sure! Any given language could.

Would a signed language be inherently more 'universal' than a spoken language?

No.

You mentioned that you believe it might be more manageable to teach people, but learning a signed language is just as complicated and frustrating as learning any given spoken language. :) And even if we made one for 'universal' use, it would inevitably fall into the same folly as Esperanto and the rest of them did. The only thing that changes is modality. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#linguistics #langauge #sign language #lingua franca

[sillycathorrors]

sometimes i want to write poetry in my native language then i remember i dont know my native language. then i remember my mum knows it. then i consider asking her to teach me. then i remember she refuses to speak it unless its to her father, who still lives there, in her native country. then i wonder why she refuses to connect to her culture and would rather lose a whole language. then i remember her dad abandoned her at a baby hospital when her mum got sick cause he didnt want to take care of them both. then i think about how my mum wants to disconnect from her culture due to family trauma and i want to connect to my culture also due to family trauma. then i try duolingo. its not on duolingo.

#my thoughts #sorrens rambles #duolingo #poetry? #its sorta poetic #poetic #langauge #culture #family trauma #poetry #my poetry

[trickarrows-bishop]

mary: i apologize for saying 'fuck' in front of ava beatrice: beatrice: you just said it again. ava: mary: i am not a role model, beatrice.

#shotgun mary #sister beatrice #ava silva #LANGAUGE #warrior nun #save warrior nun #warrior nun incorrect quotes #incorrect quotes #quotes for warrior nun #quotes

[wise-lizard-wizard]

How am I meant to live a good and happy life when there are still over 7000 langauges I neither speak nor am fluent in :(

Tragic. The world is conspiring against me.

(I say this, but there is a warm cat sleeping on my arm, thus the universe loves me)

#Langauge

[adhd-languages]

This video applies to any language and is full of good language learning attitude :)

#video #link #youtube #langauge #langblr #immersion #Youtube

[lingthusiasm]

Bonus 78: How we make Lingthusiasm transcripts - Interview with Sarah Dopierala

All of the Lingthusiasm main episodes and bonus episodes have transcripts, which involves some interesting technical challenges, including writing words in lots of languages, choosing between writing examples in their conventional spelling versus according to their phonetic value, and translating pauses and intonation into punctuation and paragraph breaks.   

In this behind the scenes bonus episode, Gretchen gets enthusiastic about the linguistic process of transcribing podcast episodes with Sarah Dopierala, whose name you may recognize from the credits at the end of the show! We talk about how Sarah's background in linguistics helps her with the technical words and phonetic transcriptions in Lingthusiasm episodes, her own research into converbs as a linguistics graduate student at Goethe University Frankfurt, and the linguistic tendencies that she's noticed from years of transcribing Lauren and Gretchen (guess which of us uses more quotative speech!). We also talk about how Sarah has found it more fun and efficient to use less automated/AI tools in her transcribing workflow over time (hint: it's related to "link Suzy as in"), and the process she goes through to edit the spoken version so that it reads well on the page. 

All of which to say: Sarah's job is not going away anytime soon, and it's thanks to your support as patrons that we can keep paying her to make these beautifully edited transcripts. As a reminder, all the main episode transcripts can be found at lingthusiasm.com/transcripts (and on each episode's shownotes page), the bonus episode transcripts are each linked to from each bonus episode's shownotes. Listen to this interview with our transcriptionist Sarah Dopierala, and get access to many more bonus episodes by supporting Lingthusiasm on Patreon.

#linguistics #lingthusiasm #langauge #bonus episodes #bonus #bonus 78 #interview #transcription #morphology #syntax #converbs #caucasian languages #abkhaz

[i-cant-think-up-a-good-name]

I just though everyone should know that in Indonesian:

"day" = "hari"

"want" = "mau"

"tiger" = "harimau"

and i think that's weird and cool. Daywants are one of my fav animals too.

#indonesian #langauge #bahasa indonesia #tigers #tiger #also btw I'm just learning Indonesian at school #i dont know that much

[noosphe-re]

The geographic and climatic environment of the Japanese archipelago is unique on Earth. The climate is temperate and subtropical, with four distinct seasons. And it is surrounded by sea. No other country in the world has an environment like this. Nearby china is largely a desert climate, and South America is mostly tropical forest. In short, no other country has seasons with so many subtle nuances, or the same balance between sea, mountains and rivers. When you go to the sea, you can see all sorts of fish. And when you go to the mountains, there are lots of acorns and nuts. civilizations generally arise in order to combat hostile natural conditions. Take the culture of the Nile delta for example: civilization developed by working to counteract nature in order to domesticate it. The Japanese, on the other hand, have never needed to domesticate nature in order to survive: they simply had to show gratitude for its generosity, by dedicating prayers to nature. On the intellectual level, the Japanese evolved sufficiently. But since they never needed to move from hunting to agriculture, the Neolithic period lasted much longer here than elsewhere. Life in this peculiar environment shaped the Japanese sensibility. Our language has many more words that express many more nuances of colors and different aspects of nature than other languages. The fine precision of the Japanese sensibility comes from this History.

Hiroshi Sugimoto, Hiroshi Sugimoto on the end of the world, by Crash redaction

#quote #Hiroshi Sugimoto #Sugimoto #Japan #photography #civilization #Japanese #langauge #history #climate #landscape

[arabriddler]

Fun language fact!!!!!!!

There are a handful, a lot actually, of words in Spanish that were derived from Arabic!!!!!!

From sugar to neighborhood!

Anyways I thought you’d like to know that our languages are connected in a cool way! :3

yes!! It’s pretty cool I’ve been wanting to learn Spanish actually but things are a little hectic

Thank you for sharing !!

#Started learning a bit #Ask #langauge

[thepursuitofunderstanding]

The full meaning of a language is never translatable into another. We may speak several languages but one of them always remains the one in which we live. In order completely to assimilate a language it would be necessary to make the world which it expresses one’s own and one never does belong to two worlds at once.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

#maurice merleau-ponty #the phenomenonology of perception #phenomonology #quotes #life #wisdom #langauge #philosophy #existentalism