tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2423483613129126051.post6971359268270396716..comments2023-10-19T09:57:32.592-07:00Comments on Sing your own lullaby: LanguageMariana Sofferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13351209522681966230noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2423483613129126051.post-64489237984005366002009-04-09T04:28:00.000-07:002009-04-09T04:28:00.000-07:00Yeah, grammar is kind of ugly, but the concept is ...Yeah, grammar is kind of ugly, but the concept is clear if you do not dig much: It is a model of the language. The worst word of all is semantics, it means so many things, either in linguistics and in computer science, that indeed it means nothing, I think it is a kind of wild card they use when they do not have a proper word.<BR/><BR/>Messages is nothing listen to what might happen:The future may belong to "Simplified Technical English," an artificial dialect with a "reverse thesaurus" you use to restrict vocabulary and grammatical complexity. It's a descendant of Ogden's "BASIC English," an 800-word subset that can be used to express any English thought. (BASIC, btw, stands for the five empires of Ogden's day -- British, American, Scientific, Industrial, and Commercial!)<BR/><BR/>Regarding the disappearing of languages I haven't read anything but my hunch is that they disappear gradually (maybe not exactly one world at a time), and they are replaced by the language of the dominating culture (like English). Or they disappear cause the small group of people who used it become extinct.Mariana Sofferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13351209522681966230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2423483613129126051.post-30048376896506194152009-04-09T04:04:00.000-07:002009-04-09T04:04:00.000-07:00Going back to what you said above, Mariana, that l...Going back to what you said above, Mariana, that language is alive and not static, how is it then that a particular language has the ability to disappear from the face of the earth? Does it go one word at a time?<BR/><BR/>I don't text message, but I wonder if we need to be concerned about the shortened transformation of the English language. <BR/><BR/>Grammar is a funny sounding word, <BR/>and I think it's made out of plastic. Teachers hate that.Uncle Treehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08469693535302107288noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2423483613129126051.post-35951853961729524502009-04-08T17:22:00.000-07:002009-04-08T17:22:00.000-07:00Curiously pride is one of those psychological conc...Curiously pride is one of those psychological concepts we discuss on a day-to-day basis but which has been largely neglect by research psychologists.<BR/><BR/>Intresting that you brought that up.<BR/><BR/>I love the phrase "We feel proud to be called humbl"<BR/><BR/>txsMariana Sofferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13351209522681966230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2423483613129126051.post-37126216454209139932009-04-08T17:08:00.000-07:002009-04-08T17:08:00.000-07:00Born to save number one, are we not? We feel as th...Born to save number one, are we not? We feel as though we have to have something to rise above, as if our tribal ways didn't get us this far for no good reason.<BR/><BR/>So we invented humility, lest our pride get in the way. Pride, along with all of it's illogical thought processing devices.<BR/><BR/>We feel proud to be called humble.<BR/>Do the math. We can't really win this particular battle, but we can have our words squabble over it.Uncle Treehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08469693535302107288noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2423483613129126051.post-65119015015258451592009-04-08T12:18:00.000-07:002009-04-08T12:18:00.000-07:00Txs for your comment. Wierd coincidence. Loved you...Txs for your comment. Wierd coincidence. Loved your poem.Mariana Sofferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13351209522681966230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2423483613129126051.post-7169081954580679312009-04-08T12:00:00.000-07:002009-04-08T12:00:00.000-07:00Does language save us from ourselves, in effect, i...Does language save us from ourselves, in effect, in our instinctual ways?<BR/><BR/>Yes, and also language actually creates a self that wouldn't exist otherwise. Saying something can sometimes make it true. <BR/><BR/>Our posts were a coincidence. :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2423483613129126051.post-5900675632842691512009-04-08T11:46:00.001-07:002009-04-08T11:46:00.001-07:00from the "in-stinks", specially the social ones If...from the "in-stinks", specially the social ones If you wan't me to I can send you a text that might clarify it more.Mariana Sofferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13351209522681966230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2423483613129126051.post-84290224978842846282009-04-08T10:39:00.000-07:002009-04-08T10:39:00.000-07:00yes, I understood that. What I don´t understand is...yes, I understood that. What I don´t understand is why would us have to be saved from our instincts.cutihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14697036165978282329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2423483613129126051.post-23649236401046827852009-04-08T10:02:00.000-07:002009-04-08T10:02:00.000-07:00Sorry for not being clear what i ask is if languag...Sorry for not being clear what i ask is if language saves us from our basic instinctsMariana Sofferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13351209522681966230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2423483613129126051.post-63021456328911779112009-04-08T05:25:00.000-07:002009-04-08T05:25:00.000-07:00"does language save us from ourselves, in effect, ..."does language save us from ourselves, in effect, in our instinctual ways?"<BR/><BR/>why that question in the first place?cutihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14697036165978282329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2423483613129126051.post-33898292291027626582009-04-07T03:03:00.000-07:002009-04-07T03:03:00.000-07:00My guess is that the instinks are placed in a smal...My guess is that the instinks are placed in a small safebox, right in the middle of the brain. I belive that several groups of neurons (like the ones in charge of speech) try to open it almost every day, but so far nobody could do it. <BR/>The guy is S.P. (some person)Mariana Sofferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13351209522681966230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2423483613129126051.post-6218335677538682372009-04-07T02:40:00.000-07:002009-04-07T02:40:00.000-07:00Who is the guy in the picture?.See Dick run. See J...Who is the guy in the picture?<BR/>.<BR/>See Dick run. See Jane chase Dick.<BR/>Gee, Spot, I see you run away, too.<BR/>.<BR/>First grade English, as I remember it. Up till then, it was words from The Bible. Then along came Dr. Seuss.<BR/>It's no wonder then, if I ended up screwed, and stuck on the classics.<BR/>.<BR/>Has anyone been able to pinpoint exactly where the brain stores those so-called instinks? Maybe,<BR/>the very first word was not Dad, after all, nor Mom, but men.Uncle Treehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08469693535302107288noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2423483613129126051.post-50716721678959929282009-04-07T01:45:00.000-07:002009-04-07T01:45:00.000-07:00Exactly!!!! that is one of my main points, it is a...Exactly!!!! that is one of my main points, it is alive, not static, and people are trying to do static collection of words along with their classification for processing the language, which I think are projects doomed to failure.Mariana Sofferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13351209522681966230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2423483613129126051.post-20598040526952864042009-04-07T01:39:00.000-07:002009-04-07T01:39:00.000-07:00Superbly put and I could not disagree. There is re...Superbly put and I could not disagree. There is real magic in language in that it contains all the things we have learned since we began grunting. Prayers in simple ullulates and so forth. It is in constant evolution too so that writing about it, one can never quite catch up to it. Your blog is one of the most fascinating places on the internet.Paulhttp://gingatao.com/2009/04/07/walt-whitman-genius/noreply@blogger.com