Et in Arcadia, Aggro

Anathema: proof that evolution is real. Anathema are an...

Tue, 29 May 2012 12:49:27 -1000

Anathema: proof that evolution is real.

Anathema are an excellent, excellent band, always have been. But to listen to old albums like Serenades next to new ones like Weather Systems, it’s hard to imagine they have been the same band in any sense through it all. But they are equally good at the super heavy stuff like Lovelorn Rhapsody and the soft stuff like The Gathering of the Clouds. Don’t fear change; change can be totally awesome.

These guys.

Tue, 29 May 2012 04:47:28 -1000

These guys.

How South Sudan is exercising its linguistic right

Tue, 15 May 2012 08:26:22 -1000

How South Sudan is exercising its linguistic right:

The people of South Sudan are pushing English over Arabic as their new preferred language at a national level. I’m sure linguists all over who follow the fear-English-encroachment philosophy are cringing at the thought. But, it also highlights an important distinction: A (fairly) large nation with a number of different regional indigenous languages choosing between two non-indigenous possible national languages is not the same as when a small nation/subnational group opts to replace their particular indigenous tongue with some larger foreign language with more political cache.

Of course, to support self-determination is to accept either of these decisions, but when a group like the Toda attempt to assimilate to a larger linguistic community, it certainly feels a lot worse than when the South Sudanese as a nation do so.

Ulver - Magic Hollow I love Ulver. I love how they just do...

Thu, 10 May 2012 02:46:20 -1000

Ulver - Magic Hollow

I love Ulver. I love how they just do whatever they want musically and aesthetically and are kind of nuts.

The worst article you'll ever read about Pirahã

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:45:00 -1000

The worst article you'll ever read about Pirahã:

People really have been dicks to Dan Everett, and that’s not cool. So I’ll focus here on the lazy, misinformed nonsense that is this particular article. Particularly, this paragraph:

For another thing, it shows how getting out into the field to live among speakers of human language makes a difference. This is no Chomsky-esque armchair theorizing; it’s immersive anthropology at work. Another fine example of this approach comes from Nicholas Evans and Stephen Levinson in their article on the “myth” of human linguistic universals.

Because, of course, no field linguist has ever been a generativist, and no formal linguist ever relies on any sort of primary empirical data.

And then there’s this:

The Pirahã language has what’s called “an evidence requirement.” Each utterance is marked, by means of a suffix on certain words, as how the information contained in that statement came to be known. … If you’re familiar with Noam Chomsky’s theorizing on language, you by now will have intuited that Everett’s data directly challenge it.

Because of course, evidentials could not possibly fit into any formalist or nativist model of language. No, never, preposterous.

Everett’s data must be dealt with by nativists, and preferably must be dealt with in a rational, reasonable way, as opposed to an attack on Everett personally. But the common functionalist arguments about this (and really, just about everything) are so facile, so smug, as to really be no more productive (though in fairness, more dignified than a lot of people on our side).

Long answer short: boo on you, Barbara King, for your smarmy, one-sided approach this issue.

Edit - Ms. King responded (albeit indirectly) to this post by pointing out the irony of a personal attack on her when I was criticizing personal attacks against Dan Everett. I concede this point and apologize if the tone here is a bit more heated than necessary.

I do not, however, retract any of the substance of the above. The imposed division between “armchair theorizing” by nativists and “immersive anthropology” by functionalists like Evans and Everett is unfair to the entire linguistic enterprise, per the links I provided above; and the taking of Everett’s views as the only (cited) word on what theory may say about his data is poor journalism.

I do not mean to drag Ms. King’s name through the mud. I know only this article by her, and my criticisms were meant to refer to it and nothing more. This debate needs better reporting, but it also needs more civility.

Vintersorg - Spegelsfären. Possibly the best song.

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:33:05 -1000

Vintersorg - Spegelsfären.

Possibly the best song.

awesomepeoplehangingouttogether: Lauren Bacall and Harry S....

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 01:55:51 -1000

awesomepeoplehangingouttogether:

Lauren Bacall and Harry S. Truman

America.

Hard n Phirm - Pi Lest we forget.

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:43:05 -1000

Hard n Phirm - Pi

Lest we forget.

Kiribati considers relocating entire nation

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 12:31:23 -1000

Kiribati considers relocating entire nation:

The small Micronesian republic of Kiribati ([kiɾibas], something like “kitty bus”), noticing the fact that global climate change (which is of course not real) is causing the ocean to rise, potentially swallowing the entirety of their low-lying land, is contemplating how they could go about buying a new location for their nation.

This is a serious thing for a lot of people. Primarily, it is obviously a concern for the people who live in these low island/atoll nations like Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and the Maldives (who have previously made news pondering buying land from Australia). But it’s also a concern for linguists. Diasporas are not conducive to language maintenance, and there is a world of underdocumented linguistic diversity that could easily be swallowed up by the sea in the next few years, and left to dwindle away immersed in foreign lands and cultures.

It’s worth reinforcing again that the desires of linguists are a secondary (or lower) concern here, but being a linguist my own self it is worth noting to me. But further than that, these languages are of value to the speakers themselves more than to us. The Kiribati people would survive, I’m sure, if they were relocated to Fiji, but in a generation or two the language might be drowned out by a much louder local sound.

Different cultures value their native tongues to different extents, and it’s not my place nor any other linguist’s to impose a standard by which this value must be measured. And the fact is, language change and language death are parts of language life. But when these events are foreseeable, it’s worth thinking about, can we do something about this? Can we fix this in advance? A stitch in time and all that? Maybe we can’t cool the world any time soon, maybe we can’t push the tides back down. But we can at least think about some of the things we might lose, and think about what’s to be done.

"Tonight during The Daily Show, Jon Stewart had two women on a bed French kissing, once again giving..."

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:32:12 -1000

“Tonight during The Daily Show, Jon Stewart had two women on a bed French kissing, once again giving support to the agenda of the homosexual population. Now, I have had 1 cousin who died ofAIDS, 3 friendS who died of AIDS, a female roommate who was a lesbian, and a nephew would is gay. So, I am definitely not homophobic. However, this incessant focus on the gay lifestyle tends to lead youngsters who do stay up to watch this program that it is OK to experiment with gay/lesbian activities. And, if you don’t believe that, just watch “Will and Grace” which is on a main stream channel (ABC, CBS, or NBC, I think), as well as many of the shows in the so called mainstream media. It’s time for TV programming to get back to focusing on the vast majority of our population, the heterosexuals,and stop making it seem like the country is primarily homosexual…plus, the proliferation of these shows lead youngsters to believe that homosexuality is prevalent in our society, whereas it makes up a small portion of our population”

- All this and more from a huge list of complaints to the FCC compiled here.

AMERICA.

paulftompkins: If you haven’t yet listened to my visit to The...

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 06:51:33 -1000

paulftompkins:

If you haven’t yet listened to my visit to The Todd Glass Show, here is a little bitlet from it. I am posting it because.

Paul Tompkins is one of the funniest people on earth, and Todd Glass is another of the funniest people on earth, and this is one of the best bits in the history of podcasting.

Conservatives yearn for the good old days of beating queers

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:04:17 -1000

Conservatives yearn for the good old days of beating queers:

Seriously. That is not an exaggeration of the content of this dialogue. The speakers say that once upon a time, the normal male response to seeing a (biological) man in a dress, or being hit-on by a man, was to beat him. And they fear that “political correctness” has turned this into a hate crime. And this is a bad thing, that the “normal” response should still be acceptable.

But “We’re not promoting, advocating violence here.” Really.

Milt Jackson - Tahiti The 50s were a hell of a time for jazz.

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:05:06 -1000

Milt Jackson - Tahiti

The 50s were a hell of a time for jazz.

Tennessee State Sen., sponsor of the Don't-Say-Gay Bill, is the real victim

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:54:00 -1000

Tennessee State Sen., sponsor of the Don't-Say-Gay Bill, is the real victim:

This story is actually kind of a beautiful illustration of what irony looks like. Sen. Stacey Campfield is the champion of a bill to restrict the discussion of sexuality in Tennessee schools. He recently made comments that AIDS was caused by a gay flight attendant having sex with a monkey. An opponent of sex education making such an idiotically uninformed claim is about the equivalent of an opponent of anti-litter laws slipping on his own banana peal.

Now, for his crusade and commentary, Campfield has been banned from a Knoxville restaurant. But of course the is the real victim because liberals hate everyone that disagrees with them and they are the real bigots. The opponent of civil rights is the real one to have his civil rights violated. Also, the villains in Fiddler on the Roof were clearly the Jews, who shouldn’t have been living there in the first place.

The Algorithm - Access Denied The kids love dubstep and the kids...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:12:29 -1000

The Algorithm - Access Denied

The kids love dubstep and the kids love djent, so what this song presupposes is, maybe they love both?

It turns out that right now, all the best metal is French. Alcest and Lantlôs, The Algorithm, HORD, and even though there hasn’t been an album out in a couple, Gojira. All the best at the things they do, all very modern. Good job, France!

Novembre - Tales from a Winter to Come. Every time it snows I...

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:39:16 -1000

Novembre - Tales from a Winter to Come.

Every time it snows I just want to listen to this on a loop.

paulftompkins: Well, here you go.

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:34:35 -1000

paulftompkins:

Well, here you go.

Craigslist opposes SOPA

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:17:43 -1000

Craigslist opposes SOPA:

And you should too! Fight for a free internet.

Creating multicellular organisms in a lab

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:04:09 -1000

Creating multicellular organisms in a lab:

Well, I guess we win.

Zun Zun Egui - Fandango Fresh Listen to it. Now it’s...

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:21:49 -1000

Zun Zun Egui - Fandango Fresh

Listen to it. Now it’s inside your brain.