lɪŋˈgwɪstɪks - 2012-02-07

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4:12 AM

Stack Overflow Blog: Farewell

Posted by Joel Spolsky on February 6th, 2012

Stack Exchange co-founder Jeff Atwood announced that he is leaving the company to spend more time with his family, including his twin daughters Maisie Jane (5lb2oz) and June Adeline (5lb 7oz) who celebrated their 0th birthday (and joined Twitter) last Friday, to the great joy of their parents.

It has been a great honor for all of us to have worked with Jeff over the last four years as Stack Exchange grew from absolutely nothing to a world-changing resource with over 30 million monthly visitors.

When I first met Jeff, I told him that when Stack Overflow was built, it would become a standard part …

2 hours later…

5:57 AM

0

Q: Computational models of language acquisition

What are currently used computational models/frameworks of language acquisition? Desired features: models that are biologically plausible (such as neural networks). Personally, I have used cascade correlation neural nets to model pronoun acquisition in children, but in hindsight, I conside...

language-acquisition theoretical-linguistics computational-linguistics reference-request

4 hours later…

10:23 AM

@OtavioMacedo hey

buongiorno

What's up?

Jeff Atwood left SE

What?

Where?

How?

:|

I'm two months from my vacation :D

In April, I'll be in England!

10:37 AM

What will you do there?

walk through the countryside, drink a lot of beer

ahah

you mean drink?

being pedantic

auhauha

:D

Oh! I have to tell you something mod-related, come to the other room

I'm on the phone right now

10:39 AM

I don't care! :D lol ok

hehe

5 hours later…

3:51 PM

0

Q: textual Committment

I am working on question answering problem.with major task to understand text and convert complex sentences to simpler sentences i.e Textual Commitments using Conventional implicature and conversational implicature and Supplemental Expressions ,Relation Extraction: Example of textual Commitment ...

computational-linguistics nlp english

4:13 PM

When you hear NLP do you think of Neuro Linguistic Programming or Natural Language Processing? Cog Sci.SE is trying to settle a dispute and I thought you guys might have some insight

1

Q: NLP tag "dispute" resolution

Recently, two questions were tagged nlp for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Today, there was a question asked about natural language processing, and the user assigned the nlp tag as well. In a brief exchange in the comments of today's question, zergylord (to credit him, not to single him out) bro...

discussion tags

Coming from cog sci I always heard NLP as Natural Lang Processing

4:23 PM

Hi, @BenBrocka!

we also have a nlp tag

it stands for natural language processing and, AFAIK, it never caused any ambiguity

Yeah, I has never heard of neuro linguistic programming

I've heard of that

apparently our first nlp tags were for the programming one, not sure if it's a fluke or what. We created a neuro-linguistic-prog tag so maybe people will use that instead

but most scientists consider it a kind of pseudoscience

Well I'm no linguist :)

NLP's first google result is the programming one though so I wasn't sure

4:39 PM

I once heard that a thief could rob a bank using neurolinguistic programming

just asking the bank teller to give him the money (using nlp tricks)

but I think this is just urban legend

Yeah, after skimming the wikipedia artical NL prog sounds highly suspect

Nikhil Bellarykar

4:56 PM

hi guys

@NikhilBellarykar Hi!

what's up?

Nikhil Bellarykar

wassup @OtavioMacedo

I am fine man

recently reading about Sanskrit knowledge systems

great project those guys have done

what is that?

Nikhil Bellarykar

columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pollock/sks

it is basically concerned with the analysis of Sanskrit literature produced betn 1550 to 1750 AD

cool!

I don't know anything about Indian science or philosophy

Nikhil Bellarykar

5:01 PM

you can try reading papers posted on above link or use some wiki if interested

btw you are from Brazil right?

Hello everyone!

Nikhil Bellarykar

hello signore

@NikhilBellarykar yes, I am

Nikhil Bellarykar

@OtavioMacedo I recently read that king Dom Pedro of Brazil knew Sanskrit

hey @NikhilBellarykar

5:03 PM

@NikhilBellarykar Dom Pedro II?

Nikhil Bellarykar

@Alenanno wassup

@OtavioMacedo maybe I am not sure abt I or II

@NikhilBellarykar All good, there?

Nikhil Bellarykar

but the name is sure

@Alenanno here too ola kala

it was probably the second

he was a learned man

@NikhilBellarykar ola kala?

Nikhil Bellarykar

5:04 PM

indeed

@Alenanno Greek, most likely I messed up sumthn

Uhm I know kala, but not "ola" :D

Nikhil Bellarykar

:D

so my good sirs, can you please tell me where can i get the photograph of Jules Bloch the French linguist?

Jules Bloch?

I don't know...

Nikhil Bellarykar

yeah, he may not be a very famous name..he was a Dravidologist as well as Indo Europeanist who wrote the seminal work "Formation of Marathi language".

Actually I don't know many linguists... Just someone :D

Nikhil Bellarykar

5:12 PM

fine, as I said- he may not be very well known

I guess I will post this as a question

I'm not sure that would be on topic

I mean

looking for a photograph is not our job here

Nikhil Bellarykar

hmm fine but then what better place than this to ask such questions? this can be classified as reference request, this is a common practice for other SE like math.

what do u think? photo or text, reference requirement is same, isnt it?

Asking for papers, articles is fine, but a photograph is different...

@Alenanno Agreed

Nikhil Bellarykar

Well, it doesnt have to be solely a photograph, but biographical info maybe

5:17 PM

Can you ask the biography of a mathematician on Math SE? I doubt that... Sorry to sound like the bad parent who says no, but I'd have to close it anyway.

Nikhil Bellarykar

no thats fine, just that non-availability of material prompts me..

@OtavioMacedo There is no prize for our Challenge Week. I think we need to give something else (symbol) or nothing.

why not?

Nikhil Bellarykar

wat abt awarding reputation?

Because they don't sponsor every Challenge Week and there isn't any for us.

I'd like to ask you guys to think about it, I'll do the same and see if we come up with something

5:21 PM

@NikhilBellarykar could be a good idea

Nikhil Bellarykar

@OtavioMacedo like 'featured' questions perhaps

btw following link contains some good intro to South Asian linguistics

ciil-ebooks.net/html/kelkar/html1/content.htm

@Alenanno, have you been to Naples?

@OtavioMacedo Nope... why?

I'll spend 2 or 3 days there in April :D

By the way, on Judaism SE they don't put any prize.

@OtavioMacedo Cool!

:P

Guys I have to go AFK for a while, be back later :)

5:37 PM

@Alenanno was there any kind of reward?

5:58 PM

@OtavioMacedo It seems not...

and it worked?

They do one every week

so I'd say yes

:D

I think that in the end, if it doesn't work without it, we don't deserve to come out of Beta. I don't want only users interested in something like a prize :D

hmm, I think it's more complicated than that...

Explain yourself, sir. :P

because even if some users are only interested in prizes, they may ask good questions that attract other users

not to mention search engines

6:05 PM

I don't get your point from that

we need high quality content

So you think we should get a prize?

yes, it's the economy heheh

human beings are moved by incentives

Ok, but if Judaism can, why can't we?

:D

but

if you have ideas for a prize, let me know

@Cerberus What do you think?

I'll try to think of something

but I had taken it for granted that there was already budget for the challenge

6:11 PM

Me too, but it was our mistake, not theirs. We should have asked...

but

yeah, I know

I'm not that worried

I think we should try and see what happens

6:23 PM

@OtavioMacedo check the Judaism chat

6:54 PM

@OtavioMacedo I modified the "What do I win" section.

Hmm I don't know...

A book sounds nice?

@Cerberus We have no budget...

:P

Oh, so no prize.

@Cerberus Exactly... :P Just THE GLORY!

And some reps?

7:00 PM

how?

:P

That's the problem...

Yes, reps is the second best option

They won't even allow you to award reps?

The problem is I don't think the rep can be created from nothing... I suppose?

Why not?

@Alenanno Perhaps: Find the highest-voted question from the topic, or whatever you choose to award rep to, and assign its asker a bounty (on some other question that he's answered).

Of course, someone has to volunteer to give up the bounty rep. :-)

7:04 PM

@msh210 That's the problem! :D

@Cerberus I never heard of it, honestly...

@Alenanno Well, get some high-rep users together and rotate weeks. Altruism, you know. :-)

@msh210 sounds reasonable

but I think we should, at least, ask CHAOS if it's possible to award rep

@msh210 Oh, I just realized that you are picking a winner each week. In that case, ignore my "Find the highest-voted question from the topic, or whatever you choose to award rep to" floundering.

@OtavioMacedo I'm asking

Well, it seems not. I think we should point to pick a winner, but without a prize.

and like @isaacmoses says, pick a winner for each category

most viewed

most upvoted

most answered

etc...

So we'd have many winners and that would compensate the lack of a prize

@OtavioMacedo I'm pretty sure SE wouldn't be cool with that. There's a purist philosophy about rep that it, in particular, should only come from votes on primary content.

7:13 PM

A CHAOS member is coming to help us

@Alenanno Careful. You don't know how many entries you're going to get. If they're all winners, then none of them are.

@IsaacMoses They were just examples. :P

Welcome @Aarthi!

Heyo!

Everyone: Aarthi is the CHAOS member.

Ok, @Aarthi I/we am/are listening :D

Hi, @Aarthi!

7:15 PM

Hello everyone!

Actually, I...wasn't able to follow @Alenanno's thread of convo in the main mod room because there was another convo happening there

A little summary:

since there is no prize

Yes, that would be awesome

we were thinking of setting 2 or 3 categories to assign winners to

Oh so you agree?

nono

i was agreeing that a summary would be handy!

laughs

ah xD

7:18 PM

hmm.

:D

well, isaac has done this most regularly, what do you think, @IsaacMoses?

@Aarthi Since you seem worried, what would be the problems of not using the draw at all?

@Aarthi We don't recognize any winners in our challenge currently, but thanks to today's conversations, we're seriously considering it. I'd advocate for just picking one, to keep things simple.

... there will be another opportunity to compete in just a few days anyway

How about this, @Alenanno (and other linguistics mods :D) run it for a week or two (if this becomes a regular thing) with one winner. Gauge interest. If you've got the participation, make more prizes. The winners can, I dunno, claim to be the Unicorn of the Week for the site. :D

7:21 PM

@Aarthi Winner gets to coin a word, and everyone else has to use it at least once in the following week?

You think one winner will gauge more interest than 2 or 3?

Will people be motivated to compete if there is no reward at all?

@Alenanno I do.

@Alenanno I think it's hard to gauge interest at all when we have no data yet. make the first run a test run, and keep it simple to make it easy to track and follow.

@IsaacMoses :D be a memegenerator? I like it.

@IsaacMoses Fair enough. :) @Aarthi Ok! :) and are we going to use the draw at all?

7:23 PM

@Alenanno I think it will generate as much, anyway.

@Alenanno sure, a little randomness never hurt anyone.

@Cerberus (Copying from what I said in the J.SE room): The basic assumption behind ours is that we have community members who are interested in contributing, but they don't have questions in mind, or when they do, they don't necessarily think of posting them here. So, we try to get a particular topic into everyone's heads each week, to hopefully jog their memory about questions on that topic that they've thought of in the past, and to attune them to noticing question-worthy things on the ...

... topic over the course of the week. If the assumption is correct, people will post questions thus inspired for the usual motivations, without additional, extrinsic motivations.

Oh, okay.

So does it work?

Does the total number of questions increase during challenge weeks?

@Aarthi Then we need to know how to select people. We're sure of using "page views" but how does the draw work? For example, if the page view is 100, then I ask one question with 100 views, and you ask one question with 1000 views, who has more chances?

@Cerberus So-so. We're seriously considering adding a nontangible prize (based on today's discussions).

7:25 PM

@Cerberus We have a challenge every week. They each tend to get a handful of questions, these days. It's possible that adding picking a winner could help increase that.

@Alenanno scale of then. you get one "lot" and I get 10 "lots" into the draw. lots = tickets = slips of paper with my name on them

@Alenanno One possibility is a random draw weighted by (whatever measure you're using); e.g., a ransom draw where the question with 1000 views gets 1000 entries into the draw.

@msh210 Yeah. We'll do the scaling like Aarthi said. :)

What benefit does a draw provide that justifies the overhead?

@IsaacMoses good question

7:27 PM

a randomness element that prevents overt system gaming

aka: a failsafe to prevent explicitly rewarding a cheater

@Aarthi If you're not offering a prize, there's little risk of gaming/cheating

@Aarthi what kind of gaming?

... and little cost if there is

@IsaacMoses But are those questions on top of the usual number, or instead of some other questions that you would otherwise get?

Oh, well, I suppose you have to try something.

Hey, I don't make up the rules, I just enforce them. CHAOS went back and forth with the Community team over and over and over about cheating or rigging a contest and this was the best solution we came up with

7:28 PM

@Cerberus Hard to say. I'd like to think that people ask whatever questions they think of, so getting them to think of more gets them to ask more.

@Cerberus We haven't done an analysis. It'd be hard to, anyway, with so many covariates.

@Aarthi :D Thanks for helping... as always!

Aw, shucks, my pleasure. Do y'all need anything else?

Also, @OtavioMacedo it was nice to meet you, as well. :D

I like new faces. :D I spend a lot of time in the mod rooms, so the blue people know where to find me.

If y'all need me, just ask one of them to grab me, and I'll be happy to swing by.

I think not :D (referring to "need anything else") lol

@Aarthi blue, adj. Depressed, melancholic, sad.

7:31 PM

@msh210 :P

@msh210 hahaha, well-played!

nice talking to you, too, @Aarthi!

gotta go now

@Aarthi Since questions usually get ~60 views, what would you suggest as a good limit to encourage people to share (so new visitors come)? I was thinking of 100.

see you later!

@OtavioMacedo see you!

7:33 PM

@Aarthi Mods' names are blue in chat? I had no idea.

@IsaacMoses Yes they are... :D

We are blue.

@IsaacMoses Look to the left. If @Cerberus would be kind enough as to say something, then said user should appear in black

@Aarthi @Alenanno Nice. You learn something new every day.

:D it's okay, it took me ages, too

@IsaacMoses I discovered that fairly recently too... :D

@Aarthi waits :D

7:35 PM

@Aarthi Hey!

:D

What would you like me to say?

you're doing great already

I suddenly feel very special here.

@Cerberus "I teach Ferdinand the calm cat to fetch cold cups of coffee."

7:36 PM

@Cerberus She's using you. :D

I teach Ferdinand the calm cat to fetch...to fetch...argg!

Too hard.

@Cerberus "The mods never pay any attention to me."

@Alenanno I don't mind.

@IsaacMoses The who?

@Cerberus :D

Oh, I wasn't paying attention to you guys.

7:37 PM

@Cerberus "Could someone please merge these two questions?"

Could someone please merge these mods?

2

laughs Looks like y'all have this under control :P Like I said, if y'all need me, you should know where to find me. :) Summon me! I am totally summonable, I swear.

You all look more or less the same anyway, except that Aarthi has sunglasses on.

@Aarthi I asked you a question! :D

OK bye!

7:38 PM

@Cerberus transitions lenses actually and okay adios!

@Alenanno oh! looks for it

She's ignoring me on purpose?

:D

Wait no!

I'm not!

....what question?

6 mins ago, by Alenanno

@Aarthi Since questions usually get ~60 views, what would you suggest as a good limit to encourage people to share (so new visitors come)? I was thinking of 100.

@Aarthi Don't worry... :D

Same here. If you want to get J.SE's perspective on this stuff again, feel free to ping us in our chat room.

@IsaacMoses Thanks!

You too!

7:40 PM

@Alenanno 100 sounds reasonable to me. Encourage users to use those sharing links, which get them badges!

@Aarthi Great!

@Alenanno Thanks.

\o/ Cool, then...I'm out. Hasta luego~!

Bye!

Guys I was making the scaling...

for the page views

@Cerberus What do you think of "Every +50 is a +1 lot in the draw, so 300 views = 100/1-150/2-200/3-250/4-300/5"?

If 100 is 1 lot, and every +50 is an additional +1 lot

or maybe, considering probable multiple questions

1 lot for each 100 views, on any question

so it's simpler

7:57 PM

Umm so would you still want to have a draw even if there is no prize?

The draw is useful for the cheater's prevention. And this way we encourage people to share = more visits. If it fails, well, we tried. :)

Hmm OK.

@Cerberus You don't sound convinced... :D

Well, I guess it's just not my thing.

@Cerberus You won't ask? :(

8:10 PM

I'm just not into contests and such. I will certainly ask a question if I think of something!

Such as eh...

thinking

Don't give spoilers!

Hehe don't worry.

I just rarely ask questions.

I've only ever asked two questions on ELU.

I NOTICED.

user image

Haha yes.

lmao... I saw it earlier and thought "what a great occasion to use it!"

8:12 PM

Hehe.

Why two fingers?

I thought they were just one when pointing the person and 2 when pointing the eyes, I mean, in the "movement"... right?

Huh? I have no idea what you mean.

When you're making that "I'm watching you" thing with the hand

you usually point first the eyes with index and medium finger

and then point the person

in order to say

"I'm watching/observing you"

You mean you point at your own eyes?

Yes.

8:16 PM

Perhaps I am not familiar enough with this gesture.

:)

Ah OK.

I see.

Something like this

:D

This is better.

De Niro FTW!

Oh, aha!

You don't use it in Dutchland? :D

8:17 PM

I guess it is something they often do in films: I've never seen people actually do this for real.

I've done it XD

but as a joke.

Well, thanks for your ideas, Linguistics.se folks. Hope to see you around again. Have a good day.

See you @msh210!

I gotta go too...

8:34 PM

Bye!

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