lɪŋˈgwɪstɪks

Robusto

16:00

Which could be a dialogue in reverse.

RegDwigнt

I think we're onto something.

Is there MovieExecutives.SE yet?

We could try to pitch it.

A whole movie spoken in anagrams.

Robusto

"By what name do you wish to be called?" "Ink, sire!" [Dubs the hero with his kingly sword.] "Rise, Ink!"

RegDwigнt

Yes yes. Very good. Very good.

Robusto

I guess that's better than "Sir Kine" . . .

RegDwigнt

Just make sure not to cast Kevin Costner.

Robusto

16:01

But he bought the rights to it.

Anagrams With Wolves

RegDwigнt

Technically, he bought the rights to driving it right into the ground.

So that still leaves room for success.

I'll be getting more tea. AFK.

Robusto

It's funny how when he got creative control and could do anything he wanted, he made movies that were almost shot-for-shot remakes of The Road Warrior.

RegDwigнt

in English Language & Usage, Feb 10 '11 at 12:50, by RegDwight

I still remember that scene from the Simpsons, where Lisa's watching a DVD commentary for the Postman and it just goes like "I'm... I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I really am."

Robusto

@snailboat is an anagram of nail boast and blast, no ai! and also sail baton.

You could conduct a sail with your baton.

@snailboat I have two apps on my smartphone that help. JLPT Kanji and WWW JDIC.

The latter lets you actually draw the kanji and either HKR it or (if you aren't sure of the stroke order), use OCR.

Anonymous

Neat!

Robusto

16:10

play.google.com/store/apps/…

Anonymous

It looks like a nice interface!

Robusto

Best of all, it's free.

Anonymous

I have four monolingual dictionaries I tend to use, as well as the 新和英大辞典

Anonymous

I do use EDICT sometimes. It's really convenient for some purposes

Anonymous

On my phone I have スーパー大辞林

Robusto

16:13

How long have you been studying Japanese?

Anonymous

About sixteen years

Anonymous

I actually have a bunch of dictionaries besides those. I kind of like collecting them :-)

Anonymous

But most of them just sit around unused.

Anonymous

I do use a 漢和辞典 I have from 学研

Anonymous

No matter how many kanji you can read across how many words or compounds, there are always more . . .

Robusto

16:15

I've been doing it longer, but my enthusiasm peaked about 15 years ago, when I realized that the only to improve beyond a certain point was to go and live in Japan, and probably actually work there.

Anonymous

Well, you have to use the language every day.

Anonymous

It feels like it's been a pretty long time.

Anonymous

I should probably be a lot better than I am by now. ;-)

Robusto

@snailboat Yes. The 常用漢字 are really just the tip of the iceberg.

Anonymous

Until 2010, the list was missing a lot of ridiculously common kanji, like 誰

Anonymous

16:18

I do think 〜3000 is a good number of kanji, though

Robusto

@snailboat I'm amazed I still remember as much as I do. But I doubt if I remember 1,000 kanji now.

Anonymous

There's also kanji on the 常用漢字表 which are only there for political reasons

Anonymous

Like the emperor's seal, 璽

Robusto

If I see them in context they come right back, but isolated it can be hard to recall all the various readings.

Anonymous

Or 虞, an obsolete way of writing 恐れ included because it's part of the Constitution

Robusto

16:20

Yeah. I think the hardest thing is to either read people's names or write them if you only know them by sound. Some are easy, but some are damn near impossible.

Anonymous

Well, being able to rattle off a list of readings out of context isn't necessarily, um, necessary

Anonymous

Japanese native speakers who haven't studied kanji in a while typically can read a lot of kanji in context, but may not recognize them at all in isolation, let alone be able to give you a list of the 音訓

Robusto

No. But one likes to be able to recall stuff one spent many hours studying.

Anonymous

I can understand that

Robusto

I had the kanji flash cards and spent years carrying packs around with me, memorizing them during idle moments.

Anonymous

16:22

Oh, sure, me too. I've gone through thousands of paper flashcards, all made by hand. Maybe 4,000-ish

Anonymous

I haven't been doing that for a while.

Robusto

See what you think of this question:

32

Q: Does the quirky spelling in English actually make it easier to read?

I just finished reading the question asked by Bobnix, in which RegDwight referred to another question with an interesting answer by Kosmonaut. Kosmonaut refers to the great number of pictograms (Kanji or Hanzi) available in Japanese and Chinese, and mentions that the task of memorizing our weirdo...

orthography

Anonymous

It's an interesting parallel

Anonymous

On the one hand, both systems have disadvantages even for literate speakers,

Anonymous

But both systems work quite well once you've put enough time in

Anonymous

16:25

(where "quite well" comes with a different set of qualifications for each)

Anonymous

I definitely like kanji.

Anonymous

But it's a huge burden for people to learn and remember how to read and write them.

Robusto

Yeah. I do find myself understanding sentences even if I don't remember the readings of all the kanji.

Anonymous

English spelling, at least, I've never had to work at. I've made mnemonics for a small handful, maybe a dozen or two dozen words

Anonymous

Besides that, I've always been an extremely good speller and I've never put any work into it

Robusto

16:26

Same here.

Anonymous

Some people have a significantly harder time learning.

Anonymous

Which is unfortunate.

Anonymous

Our orthography does not serve them as well as it serves us.

Robusto

Whenever I have a doubt whether I'm spelling a word right, it turns out that there are variants, one of which was what I thought.

@snailboat Some folks would like to see everything written in IPA. But that would be another kind of torture.

Anonymous

One weird side-effect of putting my brain in "Japanese mode" is that I start making more spelling errors of various types when I go back to English. Still not a lot, but . . .

Robusto

16:29

I find it (relatively) easy to understand what I hear and read in Japanese, but quite difficult to render the meaning in English sometimes. It's easier to "think" in a language than it is to convert what you understand into another language.

Anonymous

@Robusto Oh, you reminded me of a blog post

Anonymous

linguism.co.uk/language/ipa-versus-respelling

Anonymous

> Also, IPA transcriptions tend to become as fixed as any traditional orthography, even when the phonetic detail changes: Danish, for instance, is still written with symbols that may have been appropriate in the 1940s, but are not so today.

Anonymous

> When I visited Denmark in 1982, an eminent professor of phonetics, now deceased, told me that had he spoken Danish as a child like the current (i.e. in 1982) television newsreaders, his father would have beaten him to within an inch of his life, and yet this 1982 version of Danish had become the norm. It may be argued that the introductory material can deal with this, but how many people actually read the introduction?

Robusto

Interesting.

I've felt the same way about IPA for some time. There are so many different phonemes in the world, it is impossible to reduce them to a few dozen symbols.

Anonymous

16:38

I like discussing Japanese phonemically. You can do it all without firing up an IPA keyboard :-)

Robusto

Yeah, well, they have their own syllabary. Makes it easier. Though it doesn't really cover all the sounds.

Anonymous

Well, I meant with aiueo, kgsztdnphbmyrwN, and sometimes Q and ?, between slashes

Anonymous

The syllabary isn't quite perfect for everything--particularly talking about morphology

Anonymous

(I spent at least ten years hating ローマ字 until I realized it was occasionally useful! ;-)

Robusto

Yeah.

I find, too, that most Americans, at least, can't hear the syllable beats in an isochronous language like Japanese. They can't hear the difference between 地図 and チーズ, for example.

Anonymous

16:51

Oh, yeah, well, that's hard! It's a phonemic contrast which is not present in most of our L1s

Anonymous

We all start out able to distinguish the sounds of any language, but we quickly lose this ability as our minds begin to specialize for our L1 languages

RegDwigнt

Meanwhile someone on the site bumps this:

2

Q: Basic resource on Japanese phonetics

Could you recommend a good reference for studying Japanese phonetics?

phonetics reference-request japanese resources

Anonymous

Learning to recognize new phonemic contrasts in adulthood takes deliberate effort and practice--our minds automatically filter them out

Anonymous

Because they're not relevant to the languages we as native speakers practice every day.

RegDwigнt

0

A: Basic resource on Japanese phonetics

I recommend a great book, "Грамматика японского языка. Введение. Фонология. Супрафонология. Морфонология" by В. М. Алпатов, И. Ф. Вардуль, С. А. Старостин. I scanned that book myself, that's the best piece I ever read on theoretical phonetics of Japanese. The annotation: Данная книга представля...

in English Language & Usage, Dec 9 at 16:08, by RegDwigнt

Sorry for the interruption.

lurks again

Robusto

16:54

I spent a long time trying to explain to Cerberus how syllables have to be counted even when they're omitted. Like in だったら (dattara), English would pronounce it as three syllables when it's actually four. And the extra syllable (っ) is simply a hiatus.

Anonymous

It wouldn't hurt to add the Vance at least

David Wallace

@Robusto I have neglected to count over 9000 syllables.

Robusto

@snailboat We don't even hear phonemes we didn't hear in childhood. Like we hear a Spanish-speaking person pronounce Havana and we think he's saying Habana.

David Wallace

Well, what are we supposed to hear in that case?

Anonymous

Some linguists make a syllable-mora distinction, and would say that a syllable can consist of one or two morae. So 東京 (/toː kjoː/) would be two syllables but four morae, だったら /dat ta ra/ would be three syllables but four morae...

Robusto

16:57

Supposed to? I don't know. The point is, we translate sounds into the closest approximation we recognize.

David Wallace

Absolutely.

Anonymous

@Robusto Yes, that's what I was saying. Although it's not quite as absolute as all that, it strongly influences perception

David Wallace

Oops, that's an anti-jinx.

Robusto

You owe me an Un-cola.

David Wallace

Why do I owe it to you?

Surely I owe it to snailboat?

Robusto

16:58

Because it's an anti-jinx. It goes against all the normal rules.

Anonymous

It's more important to focus on phonemic contrasts than phonemes. If an L2 phoneme doesn't exist in your L1 but you can easily fit it into an existing mental "bucket" (mapping it to an L1 phoneme), you can learn to recognize it fairly easily

Anonymous

On the other hand, if you need to perceive a contrast between two L2 phonemes that map to the same L1 phoneme, you've got a lot more work ahead of you!

Robusto

Tru dat.

David Wallace

@snailboat My experience differs.

I speak a language (poorly) in which I can form two different phonemes, but not hear the difference in their sounds.

Anonymous

@DavidWallace Well, I'm trying to summarize research, although I need to add several bits to that to make it non-false, I think.

David Wallace

17:00

Non-false is often a good thing.

Anonymous

@DavidWallace Uh-huh?

Anonymous

Yes, I think so. Of course, non-false is also hard.

Anonymous

Just a moment

Anonymous

I wish I could carry everything I want to around in my brain.

Anonymous

@DavidWallace Were you going to elaborate on that?

David Wallace

17:03

Umm, I could, but I'm thinking about how much effort to make, to use the right symbols.

Anonymous

Well, I was trying to speak about perception rather than production

David Wallace

The language of which I speak is Bosnian, in which there are two such pairs.

Exactly. As was I.

Anonymous

Oh, I see

David Wallace

I cannot perceive the difference between one "ch" sound and another.

So when I use the word čevapčić, it feels like I'm making far too much effort.

I have failed to "learn to recognize it fairly easily", as you posit I might have.

But maybe I am just an inferior breed, or maybe you meant something different by "mental "bucket"" than what I would have.

Anonymous

I'm talking about mapping an L2 phoneme to an existing L1 phoneme, without having to learn new contrasts, it's fairly simple. Like for an speaker of English learning to recognize the French R--you can map it to your existing R phoneme, and you don't have to learn any challenging contrasts.

Anonymous

17:10

As opposed to say, a Japanese speaker learning English, who would have trouble with L and R because they both map to the same Japanese R phoneme, so they do have to learn a contrast. That is harder.

Anonymous

That is the distinction I was making

RegDwigнt

Hey I only just realized that's David Wallace right there.

Anonymous

I may have made it poorly.

David Wallace

@RegDwigнt Who did you think I was?

RegDwigнt

It took him to post three lines so the avatar got bigger and there was room for his full name.

@DavidWallace it just said "David" with a gravatar I had not seen.

Anonymous

17:11

So in your case it certainly sounds like you're giving an example of the latter, harder scenario

David Wallace

@snailboat Yes, that accurately describes the č and ć problem for me. They both sound to me to be the same as an English ch.

Anonymous

Having to learn a new phonemic contrast, which is difficult.

Anonymous

So I am certainly not and did not intend to imply that you are an "inferior breed"! I think it is hard for everyone :-)

David Wallace

@RegDwigнt You can always hover on me to get a little yellow pop-up thing.

RegDwigнt

Well yeah of course.

I suppose I just don't hover over random people I don't know.

Counterintuitive, eh.

David Wallace

17:12

Yes, the opposite behaviour would make more sense.

RegDwigнt

Aye.

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt Do you commonly hover over people you do know?

Anonymous

Or do you simply snub everyone when it comes to mouseovers?

David Wallace

I believe the Regd Wight is a subspecies of the Hovering Wight.

Anonymous

(L and R is a classic example of mapping two phonemes to one, but then consider that English has no fewer than five vowels to map to the Japanese /a/...)

RegDwigнt

17:14

I am so confused right now when I hover and when I don't.

Hippos are mostly down-to-earth.

David Wallace

@snailboat Right, I have an ex-wife who can't distinguish "had" from "head", which I think is the same as what you are saying.

Anonymous

This chat room is fun.

11

RegDwigнt

@snailboat well it only got you four hours to get from there to here.

David Wallace

I don't think it was intentionally that way.

Anonymous

Is it supposed to be for serious business only? I followed RegDwight here! He didn't tell me there were rules!

RegDwigнt

17:17

@DavidWallace it took me years to hear it. And it will probably take me forever to reliably reproduce it every single time without thinking.

9

Q: How can I practice pronouncing "Coke" so it is not mistaken for another word?

I always fear my conversation sounds like this: — What would you like to drink, sir? — I will take some cock, thanks. — ROFL. Any tips on how to pronounce Coke so it is not mistaken for anything? :)

pronunciation diphthongs

Very relevant.

David Wallace

@snailboat You'd have to ask @cerberus about the rules. He eats those who get it wrong.

RegDwigнt

@serg555: the problem is that Russian and Ukrainian don't really have diphtongs. So, to explain it in the most simple terms, "cock" is closer to "кок", while coke is closer to "ко́ук", where the "оу" is kind of one connected sound, rather than two separate ones. If you are familiar with musical terms, I would say that "cock" is (mezzo) staccato, while "coke" is legato. — RegDwigнt Sep 19 '10 at 17:10

Whoa, I wrote up all that?

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Or water.

RegDwigнt

I'd much lazier these days.

David Wallace

Just ask for fruit juice.

And I think the O in "coke" is actually a triphthong.

Robusto

17:19

@RegDwigнt Cock vy poshivaiete?

David Wallace

Hey, how DO you spell triphthong?

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt I was about to say "See, here's a situation where knowing the OP's L1s would be really helpful, but they never say what they are"--but of course, I didn't read the comments.

Anonymous

Like that.

David Wallace

Thank you.

Anonymous

You win a prize! Of some sort.

David Wallace

17:19

A phthong?

RegDwigнt

@Robusto yes. There is a rather famous, and rather recent example of a company selling bottled water under the brand "Blue water" expanding into Russia and figuring out that to Russian ears, it's indistinguishable from блювота, "puke, barf".

Robusto

Also, if we were to use IPA, the word pen would be spelled differently in Ohio than across the river in Kentucky.

David Wallace

IPA has always seemed a little silly to me.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Haha. The world abounds with such misunderstandings. I think wars have been fought over them.

Anonymous

@DavidWallace phthongos

David Wallace

17:21

I mean, vowel space is a continuous space. IPA tries to make it into a discrete one.

It does better with consonants though, I feel.

RegDwigнt

@DavidWallace except when it does not.

in English Language & Usage, Apr 23 '12 at 15:46, by RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

But look, if the L in milk is /l/ and the L in Milch is /l/ then the system is fundamentally wrong.

Robusto

I liken it to the Western idea of musical notation. It is at best an approximation, and fails completely to express the pitches of, say, Indian music.

David Wallace

My German is poor. I think I have always pronounced Milch much like milk, but with a ch instead of a k.

RegDwigнt

Or Skryabin.

Who built himself a piano with 42 keys per octave.

David Wallace

I think it would be a mistake to try and express Indian music in Western musical notation.

Robusto

17:23

@DavidWallace Which reminds me: how do the Brits pronounce milch?

David Wallace

I would make a recording, but I am not a Brit. At least, not for several generations.

RegDwigнt

@DavidWallace then I will gladly inform you that you speak German with a Dutch accent!

David Wallace

I'm quite sure I do not.

Robusto

I guess it's mɪltʃ.

But that seems weird.

RegDwigнt

Well as far as milk is concerned, you do.

David Wallace

17:24

I would insert a schwa somewhere, to be sure.

RegDwigнt

Ah, @snailboat we just got a bot post in the ELU room, in case you want to check out what ours look like.

That happens but once per day, though.

I think.

David Wallace

dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81713462/milch.wma

RegDwigнt

And I've no idea who set them up and why, and who writes the haikus in the first place. And I am saying that in my capacity as the only room owner there.

David Wallace

Matt writes them.

But I have no idea how they got botted.

RegDwigнt

Well I suppose I could say I suspected as much.

David Wallace

17:27

Well, do I have a Dutch accent or not?

RegDwigнt

I'm still firing up the damn thing.

Patience.

Haha.

David Wallace

My sister-in-law has a story about a Slavic friend who gave a long soliloquy about how much she loves cock.

RegDwigнt

Your German is Swiss with a Dutch accent.

David Wallace

Oh dear, that can't be good.

RegDwigнt

Chuchichäschtli

Das Wort Chuchichäschtli [] (kleiner Küchenschrank, Hängeschrank) ist das traditionelle Schweizerdeutsche (eigentlich generell hochalemannische) Schibboleth. Dreimal kommt das ch in dichter Folge vor, das südlich der Kind/Chind-Grenze als stimmloser uvularer Frikativ gesprochen wird. Das Wort Chuchichäschtli ist bekannt dafür, dass es von Personen, die des Hochalemannischen nicht mächtig sind, nur schwer ausgesprochen werden kann. Es wird ihnen daher oft zur Belustigung zum Aussprechen empfohlen. Das Phonem „ch“ ist ein stimmloser uvularer Frikativ []. Im Unterschied zum Standarddeutschen ...

There's a sound file. Compare it to yours.

I'd say that's a bingo.

►

David Wallace

17:31

Oh dear, that's sad.

dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81713462/chuchichastchli.wma

RegDwigнt

Yeah I sort of pity her for being exposed like that.

David Wallace

She will never work as an English teacher again.

RegDwigнt

But that's the daily reality of many a classroom around the world.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt The dialogue is informative, but at one hour the lesson goes on too long.

@RegDwigнt Her probable reaction? "What so funny? Why everybody laugh?"

in English Language & Usage, Jan 28 at 22:08, by Robusto

I love it when my Chilean colleague refers to table cell elements as "TDs" ... his pronunciation makes it sound like titties.

RegDwigнt

@DavidWallace it's a shibboleth, and I am not Swiss, so I can only reliably say that your [χ] is close, but what gives away your British heritage is the [ʃ].

That one really blows every cover right out of the water.

David Wallace

17:35

There's more than one way to say [ʃ]?

RegDwigнt

Yes. QED.

Robusto

Yeah, good point. The phonemes in ich (German) and wish (English) are often mixed up by English speakers.

David Wallace

I suppose if there were not, the word "shibboleth" would mean something different.

RegDwigнt

Even the Russian and the German ones are not really identical. And neither is remotely close to the English one.

Robusto

They either say ick or ish.

David Wallace

17:36

Oh, I do have difficulty with ich, but I say neither ick nor ish.

Robusto

YMMV.

RegDwigнt

You should go with ick, then. That's Berlin dialect.

You could pass for a Berliner.

Robusto

An Irish-Catholic Berliner.

RegDwigнt

But the ish would be Mosel-Franconian, where I am from, and trust me, your sh is not the one we're looking for.

David Wallace

Oh, that makes it hard. Doing Berliner and Catholic at the same time. I AM part Irish though.

Robusto

17:38

We forgive you.

RegDwigнt

For once.

David Wallace

I am just sitting here in stunned surprise - Reg finally revealed where he is from.

RegDwigнt

No I did not.

It is still half a lie, and the rest is not true.

But my current location has been up on my GLU profile for everyone to see for like years.

David Wallace

Ah yes, but we now have something to inlink, next time you challenge someone to identify your origin.

RegDwigнt

Well. Was. I replaced it with my hippo promotion recently.

David Wallace

17:40

Oh, I see. I didn't identify your avatar as a hippo, I'm afraid. It reminds me too much of Mater.

Anonymous

It's too small for me to see that it's a hippo, even with my glasses on.

David Wallace

If I blow it up, it becomes clearly a hippo. But still a hippo that reminds me of Mater.

RegDwigнt

Well you could just follow the link. Sheesh, people. lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/39075

BTW I spent the last three minutes furiously hunting down a three-year old ELU comment of mine in which I publicly stated I was posting it from the French border.

But I can't find it.

I blame the KGB.

David Wallace

I am imagining only "needing" five animals, as you suggest on the page you linked to.

By writing "you", I am of course making the obvious assumption.

RegDwigнt

@DavidWallace that'd be 25 bucks. Perhaps only just 20. You can say that when supporting. But I guess you read that part.

Anyway, which five animals would these be?

David Wallace

17:46

The five you suggested I might need.

RegDwigнt

Now I'm confused.

Perhaps I need more tea.

David Wallace

"... if you'd only need five, enter 20 and so on ..."

RegDwigнt

Ah. Well you could also say four or six.

David Wallace

I am not trying to be incomprehensible. There are other rooms for that.

RegDwigнt

You are not trying and yet you are succeeding.

Hat's off to you, sir.

David Wallace

17:49

Some find me very trying.

RegDwigнt

I never looked for you, so can't say with confidence how I'd find you.

Do you want me to come looking for you?

I already was looking at @Rob's backyard.

David Wallace

I doubt whether I'd be there.

RegDwigнt

You never know.

David Wallace

Rob has never invited me to his backyard, nor I him to mine.

RegDwigнt

Looks like you're quits.

I think Rob's backyard was the very first picture ever to be posted in the ELU chat.

David Wallace

17:53

The ELU chat predates my SE presence.

RegDwigнt

The ELU chat predates the big bang, for small values of the big bang.

David Wallace

Those would be small bangs. And they don't happen on a first predate.

RegDwigнt

I wonder what the Japanese chat room looks like.

I bet it would go like, Rob says このドッキドキは, and snailboat says なぜ止まらない, and I go WTF did they just say merikurisumasu?

Well, I wouldn't say that for Hiragana, of course. But you get the point.

David Wallace

444444444444

RegDwigнt

Are you generating random numbers?

David Wallace

17:58

That is the sound of one hand clapping.

In Japanese.

RegDwigнt

444 in Japanese would be hohoho, which is the sound of Santa. Or a Japanese woman laughing.

in English Language & Usage, Aug 22 '12 at 13:58, by RegDwight АΑA

"Ho ho ho", she laughed in a refined feminine way

David Wallace

That would scare the children.

RegDwigнt

in English Language & Usage, Dec 13 at 21:34, by Robusto

@RegDwigнt This is because the syllable for ho shows less of the inside of the mouth than ha. Guys get away with exposing their tongues and palates, but women are expected not to do that. This is also why you'll frequently see Japanese women cover their mouths when they laugh.

David Wallace

For real?

RegDwigнt

Well there's some follow-up discussion with Mitch, if you click through.

Anonymous

18:03

Hahaha

RegDwigнt

Oh and I'll be logging off in a minute to cook and watch TV and eat.

You guys have fun.

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt 8888 is the sound of applause (hachi → pachi, unmarked handakuten)

RegDwigнt

@snailboat I just saw your palate! I am embarrassed! Or rather, you should!

@snailboat ah thanks. I really didn't get it.

Off I go. Lators gators.

David Wallace

@snailboat See, I knew YOU'D understand me!

Bye @Reg

Stack Exchange

18:17

0

Q: What is the most efficient way to store n-grams in a database / data structure?

Let's assume we have Google's 1T n-grams. I want to be able to: Search for n-grams containing all of a set of words (such as finding all n-grams containing the words "dog" and "bone" in any position) The above search but for n-grams of a particular size only Search for n-grams using a template ...

computational-linguistics nlp n-grams

David Wallace

OK, I'm off too. Nice meeting you, @snailboat.

Stack Exchange

20:24

0

Q: Doubt regarding pronouns in highly inflected languages

this is my first post in this forum :D I'm currently studying Icelandic. Right away at one of the first steps I found a bit of difficulty and I wonder if any of you might be able to help me as the question might be answered based on any highly inflected language. The doubt regards the use of p...

inflection pronoun

0

Q: Grammatical Aspects

I am searching for two special types of grammatical aspects. 1) an aspect that has a meaning of 'try or attempt' ex: he made an attempt to ask. 2) an aspect that has a meaning of 'eventual or definitive' ex: he has gone eventually.

aspect

Stack Exchange

21:07

0

Q: Universal "grammar" for mathematics

The Chomsky paradigm states that all languages obey certain laws or conditions which ultimately are a function of the physical properties of the brain. Is there a similar constraint on mathematics? Is it thought that there is universal (the universe being humans) structure of mathematics that is ...

linguistic-universals

KitFox

22:19

Hello! I came here too. I came late to the party, as always.

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