1,199 Matching Annotations
  1. Apr 2020
    1. While Web site is still doing well in the U.S., it is all but dead in the U.K. Current Google News searches limited to U.K. publications find only about one instance of Web site (or web site) for every thousand instances of website. The ratio is similar in Australian and New Zealand publications. In Canada, the ratio is somewhere in the middle—about 20 to one in favor of the one-word form.
    1. English tends to build new compound nouns by simply writing them as separate words with a blank. Once the compound is established (and the original parts somewhat "forgotten"), it's often written as one word or hyphenated. (Examples: shoelaces, aircraft...)
    2. Web site / website seems to be somewhat in a transitional stage, being seen as an "entity" that web page hasn't reached yet. Depending on which dictionary you check you will find web site and website, but only web page, not webpage.
    3. Other languages, German for example, are notorious for very long compunds like this and this, that are made up and written as one word directly. Perhaps the way your native language deals with compounds explains your (or other authors') personal preference and sense of "right"?
    1. In mainstream press, the word "hacker" is often used to refer to a malicious security cracker. There is a classic definition of the term "hacker", arising from its first documented uses related to information technologies at MIT, that is at odds with the way the term is usually used by journalists. The inheritors of the technical tradition of the word "hacker" as it was used at MIT sometimes take offense at the sloppy use of the term by journalists and others who are influenced by journalistic inaccuracy.
    2. there's no reasonable way to communicate effectively with the less technically minded without acquiescing to the nontechnical misuse of the term "hacker"
    3. terms like "malicious security cracker" are sufficiently evocative and clear that their use actually helps make communication more effective than the common journalistic misuse of "hacker".
    4. The more easily relabeled of the two uses of the term "hacker" is the malicious security cracker: it is not only the more recent phenomenon to acquire that label, but also the one whose meaning is most easily evoked by an alternative term. This is why, when you read an article of mine that talks about malicious security crackers, I use the term "malicious security cracker"
    5. Some claim that the term has been unrecoverably corrupted, and acquired a new meaning that we should simply accept.
    1. revised the Oxford Junior Dictionary, removing words from nature such as clover, lark, pasture, and blackberry to make room for computer-related words including blog, voice-mail, chatroom, and BlackBerry (Flood, 2015; see Kesebir & Kesebir, 2017). A recent study of language in fiction, film, and popular songs has identified a cultural shift away from words related to nature beginning in the 1950s and escalating to the present day.
    2. I am increasingly concerned when I hear my colleagues refer to themselves with computer metaphors—“I don’t have the bandwidth,” “I have to boot up,” or “I need to recharge.”
    3. Our language reveals our deep underlying beliefs, our perceptions of ourselves and one another.
    1. Now, if we think of the tasks that we perform throughout the day as consuming separate "bands" of time, then the term makes perfect sense. Being "out of bandwidth" would indicate that you do not have enough unallocated "bands of time" in your day to complete the task. Using the term bandwidth to describe time maps more closely (in my opinion) to the original definition, than the current definition describing data capacity does.
    2. The question of whether or not it is "proper" is meaningless, unless you define the particular arbiter of manners who you want to defer to. There is no authority for the English language.
    3. I may be living in a bubble, but my impression is that don't understand that figurative use of bandwidth are way out of the loop.
    1. Just as with wine-tasting, having a bigger vocabulary for colours allows specific colours to be perceived more readily and remembered more easily, even if not done consciously.
  2. Mar 2020
    1. In an article on Pinyin around this time, the Chicago Tribune said that while it would be adopting the system for most Chinese words, some names had "become so ingrained in our usage that we can't get used to new ones."
    1. This will of course depend on your perspective, but: beware Finnish and other highly inflected languages. As a grammar nerd, I actually love this stuff. But judging by my colleagues, you won’t.
  3. Feb 2020
    1. data is collected

      data that is collected, or data collected

    2. and applications to forecasting and estimation of dynamic causal effects.

      and its applications to forecasting and estimation of dynamic causal effects.

      The word "its" is necessary since it refers to the noun econometric techniques.

  4. Jan 2020
    1. Fundamental to any science or engineering discipline is a common vocabulary for expressing its concepts, and a language for relating them together. The goal of patterns within the software community is to create a body of literature to help software developers resolve recurring problems encountered throughout all of software development. Patterns help create a shared language for communicating insight and experience about these problems and their solutions. Formally codifying these solutions and their relationships lets us successfully capture the body of knowledge which defines our understanding of good architectures that meet the needs of their users. Forming a common pattern language for conveying the structures and mechanisms of our architectures allows us to intelligibly reason about them. The primary focus is not so much on technology as it is on creating a culture to document and support sound engineering architecture and design.

      Without reference to software development, this reads as:

      Fundamental to any science or engineering discipline is a common vocabulary for expressing its concepts, and a language for relating them together. [...] Patterns help create a shared language for communicating insight and experience about these problems and their solutions. [...] Forming a common pattern language for conveying the structures and mechanisms of our architectures allows us to intelligibly reason about them. The primary focus is not so much on technology as it is on creating a culture to document and support sound engineering architecture and design.

  5. Dec 2019
    1. True writing

      This feels significant enough to have its own WP entry. Without true writing you cannot precisely convey knowledge to people who aren't within earshot.

    1. Mahometan

      This word is an archaic term for Muslim, derived from Mahomet, a version of "Muhummad."

    2. protectors

      That is, they spoke German, rather than the French of De Lacey and his family.

    3. Clerval was no natural philosopher. His imagination was too vivid for the minutiae of science. Languages were his principal study;

      Clerval's love of languages, as opposed to the "minutiae of science," will later resonate with the Creature's perception that "language is a Godlike science" in Volume 2, Chapter IV.

    4. We learned Latin and English

      In addition to French, it stands to reason that Victor and Elizabeth would have also known German, since it was still the predominant language in Switzerland at the time. English and Latin bear mentioning since they were less common in Switzerland, at least for daily use. Latin also draws a connection to Victor's studies, since much of his course instruction would have been in Latin.

    1. in his native language which is French,

      Since Swiss speakers may learn either German or French as their first language, this reminder in the Thomas Copy that Victor's native language is French is important. We have to assume that he speaks in French to his Creature too, and we know from Book II that the Creature learns French as his own first language by hearing the DeLacey family read aloud in the forest.

    1. Since Uncle Arthur fired a bullet into him, he hadn't said a word. He kept his own counsel on his white, frozen lake, the marble-topped table. His breast was deep and white, cold and caressable; his eyes were red glass, much to be desired.

      In the second stanza, the child refers and focuses on the stuffed loon. The speaker, being a child, animates the loon, hoping that it had something to say. But it doesn't so he tells himself that he is merely keeping his thoughts to himself. The child likens the marble topped table to its original environment. Then talks about the features of the stuffed animal. It's breast being cold and caressable referring the fact that it's stuffed. Cold because it was lifeless but still caressable because the body is still there, almost frozen in time.

      She also mentions that its red glass eye is much to be desired. I'm not sure what this means but with reference to Arthur's dead body and the last line in the poem as well as both the picture of the royalty and the loon having open eyes - what's desirable is the despite not being there at all, these things seem immortalized because their eyes are open while Arthur had his eyes closed clearly signifying the harsh reality that he is dead.

    2. In the cold, cold parlor my mother laid out Arthur beneath the chromographs: Edward, Prince of Wales, with Princess Alexandra, and King George with Queen Mary. Below them on the table stood a stuffed loon shot and stuffed by Uncle Arthur, Arthur's father.

      Paraphrase

      Arthur has recently passed away. In the opening scene, we see him being laid out by the speaker's mother in the parlor under what are essentially pictures or photographic prints of British royalty. And then under those pictures is a stuffed loon (aquatic bird). Bishop then follows this with the detail of the loon being shot and stuffed with the dead boy's dad of the same name - Arthur.

      I find it interesting that the speaker would notice that he is placed under static objects which don't even embody life. The prints of royalty and the loon - including Arthur, all of them seem so still and dead. Like mere shells left behind of what they once were.

    1. keys

      Becomes an extended metaphor for the loss of other things the poet loves such as past homes and relationships

    2. Write it!

      The poet’s internal command ("Write it!") alerts us to a couple of things: first of all, this is a very self-aware nod to the fact that the poet is writing a poem; secondly, it shows us that she has difficulty admitting the pain of her loss, even to herself.

    1. A natural language provides its user with a ready-made structure of concepts that establishes a basic mental structure, and that allows relatively flexible, general-purpose concept structuring. Our concept of language as one of the basic means for augmenting the human intellect embraces all of the concept structuring which the human may make use of.
  6. Nov 2019
    1. Reason is not a new language; it's a new syntax and toolchain powered by the battle-tested language, OCaml.
    2. Reason compiles to JavaScript thanks to our partner project, BuckleScript, which compiles OCaml/Reason into readable JavaScript with smooth interop. Reason also compiles to fast, barebone assembly, thanks to OCaml itself.
    3. Many backing languages would satisfy the previous section's points; the points below, however, have been deal-breakers in our considerations.
    4. The ability to render to native code. OCaml's native (assembly) startup time is in single digit milliseconds. We have big plans to use Reason on native one day; meanwhile, we're focusing on adoption through great JavaScript compatibility.
  7. Oct 2019
  8. s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com
    1. 10nothavebeen,butfortheconfidentempectationthatweshouldhavebeensustainedbymorelabourers.Weought,atleastsomeofus,tohavebeensofreefromotherengagements,thatwecouldhavemadeitourfirst,andalmostexclusiveobjecttoacquiretheOjibwalan—guageasperfectlyaspossible.Butinsteadoffindingtimeforthisweallfoundourselvesinvolvedincaresandlaboursofvariouskinds,whichforbadourgivingourundividedattentiontothisobject.Henceourmeansofintercoursewiththepeeplehasbeenlimited.Wehaveneverbeenabletoprocureefficientinterpreters.Wehavebeenwork—ingh

      Hall feels like the missionaries jumped into everything too soon, or bit off more than they could ever chew

    1. turn the stomach of a goat

      Turn the stomach of a goat is a interesting expression. Based on what a friend's explanation, this is a metaphor meaning "throwing up". Gould is trying to say listening to the radio makes him feel very uncomfortable.

      Note: He is a native English speaker.

    2. gets on your nerves

      To "get on someone's nerves" is an informal way to say "irritate or annoy someone".

      Gould's stubbornness on reading his own poems annoys people from the peotry group.

    3. HOT-SHOT

      Hotshot is a slang word that describes a person who is impressively successful. Understand this by imagining that you are shooting with the gun.

    4. loony bin

      This is an offensive word for a hospital for mentally ill people.

    5. forlorn rakishness

      Forlorn means pitifully sad. Rakishness means disreputable appearance.

    6. pertinacity

      Pertinaciry literally means sticking with one thing without giving up. It requires courage, conviction and determination. It has a positive connotation.

    7. rum-dumb

      rum-dumb usually means the one who is addicted to alcohol and being out of control of one's life.

    8. cackles

      "cackle" is often used to express the sound of a bird crying, for example, "he was cackling." In this sense, his cackling shows how he much he is excited.

    9. spree

      Being on a spree means having a time of amusing activities much more than is usual, for example, a person can go on a shopping spree, spending spree.

    10. babble

      Babble can be traced from Old English "wæflian" which means "to talk foolishly". Now the main meaning is "to speak quickly, in a confused, excited, or foolish way".

    11. prowls around

      like wandering around

    12. take a load off his mind

      A load off mind means a relief felt after sharing one's thoughts annd feelings. A big relief from a mental burden.

      Source from https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/a+load+off+mind.

    13. floozy

      Floozy is an informal word, meaning a woman who has many casual sexual encounters or wears obviously sexual clothes.

      Source from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/floozy.

    14. basking in the sun

      Basking in the sun simply means to lie in or be exposed to a pleasant warmth. In Chinese, it would be translated into a cute phrase as "晒太阳".

      Since Gould has been working in the police office for a year, this scene reveals his boredom of this job.

    15. noggins

      Noggins is a U.S. slang. It refers to a kind of a container that can refresh people's heads. The modern meaning is somebody's head. Source from http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-nog1.htm.

    16. prosaic

      Prosaic here means ordinary and not especially interesting or unusual according to Cambridge Dictionary.

      So those people in highly inbred communities are uninteresting to Gould as he himself was not a "normal" person most his acquaintance thought.

    1. He did not understand when a CBP officer accused him of not being the girl’s biological father and forging her birth certificate — then took away his little girl.

      Many of the families that being separated are assumed to be smuggling the children and so justified to separate them. In this parent situation there was a language barrier and he had no idea what was even said to him.

  9. Sep 2019
    1. Det är ju så dumt, det är naturligtvis uttalet som han hakar upp sig på. Om man lyssnar på hennes svenska, hennes grammatik, hennes ordförråd, så är det så gott som perfekt, säger Abelin.
    2. Men kungen är min favorit. Av det man har sett och hört så verkar han vara en riktigt go gubbe
    1. This phrase book is aimed to help newcomers to the U.S understand what some popular local idioms really mean.

      A nice little phrase guide to US English.

  10. Aug 2019
    1. Language plays a crucial role in how and what we code. Most fundamentally, the empirical world does not appear to us in some natural state apart from human experience. Rather we know the empirical world through language and the actions we take toward it.

      importance of recognising language when analysing texts

    2. we look for their implicit meanings and attend to how they construct and act upon these meanings. In doing so, we can ask, what analytic category(ies) does this code suggest?

      an example is how Molyneux describes the characters of his narrative, most interestingly in his framing of Muslims. he never alludes that these are an ethnographically and religiously diverse group with a rich history, which is either something he genuinely, or something he does not think the audience needs to do, perhaps somewhere between the two. the quotes he uses and descriptions he gives them provides us with some insight, but for the coding process, it's safer to use the term he does before drawing conclusions

    3. Those general terms everyone 'knows' that flag condensed but significant meanings o A participant's innovative term that captures meanings or experience • Insider shorthand terms specific to a particular group that reflect their perspective.

      the tips on when to include in vivo codes are also important when creating a lexicon for an emerging subculture

    4. Coding impels us to make our participants' language problematic to render an analysis of it. Coding should inspire us to examine hidden assumptions in our own use of language as well as that of our participants.

      the phrasing we use in codes brings to light the type of themes we may be subconsciously looking for. in this case, i found i was repeatedly trying to describe what the creators were saying without really saying it, evidenced through their tone and word choice, where they chose to make overt statements, and when meanings were implied.

    1. ostundividedattentiontothelanguage

      the learning of the Ojibwe language should be paramount to at least one of the present missionaries

    Tags

    Annotators

    1. The parentheses ( ... ) around the assignment statement are required when using object literal destructuring assignment without a declaration. {a, b} = {a: 1, b: 2} is not valid stand-alone syntax, as the {a, b} on the left-hand side is considered a block and not an object literal.
    2. Your ( ... ) expression needs to be preceded by a semicolon or it may be used to execute a function on the previous line.
    1. cigni,ieelittl01

      Malian = Little Wolf

    Tags

    Annotators

    1. the quasi-anonymous comment space of YouTube enabling viewers to respond to video content has become notorious for online trolling, flaming and abuse, often expressed via forms of racist, homophobic and misogynistic language

      the nature of the commenting system enables the hate speech which is becoming characteristic of the site.

    1. various classification methods to categorise misogyny

      race to develop ai categorisation tools, which may not always work

    2. political as it is personal and cultural

      language is natural but guided

    3. summary of a wide range of theories and models of onlinemisogyny from the feminist literature, as well as an analy-sis of the works that have targeted the problem of onlinemisogyny from a computational perspective.•The translation of different categories of misogyny, identifiedin feminist theory, into lexicons of hate terms to study theevolution of language within the manosphere.•An in-depth analysis of different manifestations and evolu-tion of misogyny across the Reddit manosphere.•We corroborated existing feminist theories and models aroundthe phenomenon of the manosphere by conducting a large-scale observational analysis.

      need to build a lexicon and refine knowledge of behaviour

  11. Jul 2019
    1. This movement, with its focus on classroom-basedevidence, provided key tools and language for the Visible Knowledge Project. I

      unique languages form from guided movements - an effort must be made to put it together

    1. Hanauer (2012) contends that “language learning within these settings is defined overwhelmingly in linguistic, structural, and cognitive terms. Thus the language learner at the center of this system becomes nothing more than an intellectual entity involved in an assessable cognitive process” (p. 105). In this assessable cognitive instruction, students are not afforded the opportunity to use English as a social semiotic tool for expressing their own personal feelings (emotions), opinions, and stories as lived experience as well as for enacting social practices.

  12. May 2019
    1. Go Programming Language publicly in 2009 they were also looking to solve certain challenges of the existing Computer languages. Of the many features that it demonstrated (we will get to those soon enough) it was also helpful in addressing the strange dilemma of hardware and software that was emerging.

      Golang is a modern computing language, designed especially for modern computing needs.

    1. Why Speak If You Don't Need to? The-Case for a Listening Approach to Beginning Foreign Language Learning.

    1. homebrewing

      Very grass roots/home brew friendly organization; appeals to sense of independence and optimism; "home grown"

    1. If we’re speaking of garden-variety errors, the most common error I’ve observed that manages to get past any number of sets of expert eyes and wind up printed in books is the use of “lead” where “led” is meant—that is, the past tense of the verb “to lead.”
    2. They mistake the apostrophe for a piece of punctuation when it is a spelling issue. 
    3. I still firmly believe that copy editors need only enough grammar to get them through the demands of their particular manuscripts; being a grammarian is entirely beside the point. Or to put it another way, grammar is part of what you do as a copy editor, but only a part. That said, it’s fun to know about the subjunctive, so I’ll concede that particular pleasure.

      Copyediting vs grammar knowledge. Or, and grammar knowledge.

  13. Apr 2019
    1. “But beyond the pleasure of Dreyer’s prose and authorial tone, I think there is something else at play with the popularity of his book,” he explained. “To put it as simply as possible, the man cares, and we need people who care right now.”

      I believe that the main reason why Benjamin Dreyer's Dreyer's English: an Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style is so well-read, is that he's funny.

      The humor is dry as a paper board, for example:

      The NSA may be reading your emails and texts, but I’m not. If you prefer “Hi John” to “Hi, John,” you go right ahead.

      and:

      For the sake of clarity, we use hyphens to helpfully link up a pair or passel of words preceding and modifying a noun, as in: first-rate movie fifth-floor apartment middle-class morality nasty-looking restaurant all-you-can-eat buffet However, convention (a.k.a. tradition, a.k.a. consensus, a.k.a. it’s simply how it’s done, so don’t argue with it) allows for exceptions in some cases in which a misreading is unlikely, as in, say: real estate agent high school students And though you may, now that you’re staring at these constructions, wonder worryingly about the reality of that estate agent or the sobriety of those school students, I’d urge you to stop staring and move on. (Staring at words is always a bad idea. Stare at the word “the” for more than ten seconds and reality begins to recede.)

      Another thing, Dreyer is both funny and witty. Here's a bonus example of this:

      As a lexicographer friend once confided over sushi, the dictionary takes its cues from use: If writers don’t change things, the dictionary doesn’t change things. If you want your best-seller to be a bestseller, you have to help make that happen. If you want to play videogames rather than video games, go for it. I hope that makes you feel powerful. It should.

    1. LOL - Laughing Out Loud

      This is, according to linguist Ben Zimmer, the first known citation for LOL. Quoted from Gretchen McCulloch's "Because Internet" here.

  14. Mar 2019
    1. what is plain language This government site describes the rationale for plain language and more importantly provides some tools for using it. Plain language can be useful when writing text for e-learning products, among other things; this is a useful site to review. There is a list of resources as well. rating 4/5

    1. BESIDESthe neutral expression that she wore when she was alone, Mrs. Freeman had two others, forward and reverse, that she used for all her human dealings. Her forward expression was steady and driving like the advance of a heavy truck. Her eyes never swerved to left or right but turned as the story turned as if they followed a yellow line down the center of it. She seldom used the other expression because it was not often necessary for her to retract a statement, but when she did, her face came to a complete stop, there was an almost imperceptible movement of her black eyes, during which they seemed to be receding, and then the observer would see that Mrs. Freeman, though she might stand there as real as several grain sacks thrown on top of each other, was no longer there in spirit.

      Right from the beginning of the story, the audience is made well aware of what kind of person Mrs. Freeman is. This passage focuses on her face being a reflection of her being a somewhat strong willed person when it comes to her words. It's made clear to the audience that Mrs. Freeman has strong opinions in a story along with not being hesitant in sharing those opinions as well as the facts, and that she rarely backpedals when telling a story.

  15. Feb 2019
    1. The English language since Shakespeare has undergone no alteration comparable to the alteration in the cultural environment; if it had, Shakespeare would no longer be accessible to us.

      Is this true? Gardner, as a literary scholar, do you agree?

    2. language

      The means we use to encode affect language. Why doesn't it affect the message or the concept as well?

      Do people feel they need to use an emoji as part of their message or is its use triggered by the medium?

    3. concepts in their raw, unverbalized form

      There is a way to use symbols to evoke an original message in a natural language. Unlike shorthand, which are symbols that have a direct reference to words or syllables, Rozan's notetaking method for interpreters focuses on concepts. Originally published in French in 1956, it was probably not well known at the time Engelbart wrote this report. Interpreters do not work finding word equivalence, but concepts recreated in another language. An example here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpreting_notes

    4. language also affects the evolution of the new concepts

      Language as an evolution enabler.

    5. the evolution of language was affected by the concepts the people developed and used

      Language evolution

    6. symbolic portrayal

      Language as a symbol. Relationship to memory.

    7. Already the system language shows the effect of this process—i.e., a concept and its name.

      Language "technology" at work: reference function and synthesis to make the concept maneagable like a tool.

    8. Language—the way in which the individual parcels out the picture of his world into the concepts that his mind uses to model that world, and the symbols that he attaches to those concepts and uses in consciously manipulating the concepts ("thinking").

      Language is here introduced as a key concept of the framework. At this point, Engelbart refers to language in use, particularly used for thinking. Does he mean that improving the language system you also get to develop higher order thinking skills? Would he be pointing to augmenting the language system itself, getting better or evolving by using it to think about the world? A meta-learning?

      I need to read more....

    9. Every person who does his thinking with symbolized concepts (whether in the form of the English language, pictographs, formal logic, or mathematics) should be able to benefit significantly.

      Language as "technology".

    1. The language used to compose these process-description statements for the computer is considerably more compact and precise than is a natural language, such as English, and there is correspondingly less advantage to be gained by appending special links and tags for giving us humans a better grasp of their meaning

      Language characteristics.

    1. Learned vanity, which exceeds that of every other kind, still takes up arms against any thing that is offered as new

      Thinking we know everything also makes us think there's nothing left to learn.

      This has really important consequences in terms of post-humanist thinking! If we presume that there is a true definition of anything, we are allowing experience, culture, language to limit us. It is better to presume an every shifting definition of the human that responds to the situation at hand. Starting a discussion of the human with the idea that we all obviously know what a human is, is extremely limiting.

    2. only those who are in a state of warfare

      I applaud Sheridan's attempt to enlighten our understanding of language in this way. He paints himself into a corner, but rather than stopping, he just keeps painting.

    3. red so thro' custom. I shall now proceed to shew, that when by custo

      whoa, wait a minute. Is this some sleight of hand, or did I miss something?

      This seems like an amplification of his previous thought, a stronger claim than what has come before. Up to this point, I understood Sheridan as saying "not all language is spoken words." Fair enough, but now his claim that "words are only a part of language because of custom, and language could exist just as well without words at all" is a considerable raising of the stakes.

      Did I miss something?

    4. it is in itself, a manner of communication entirely diflercnt, and utterly independent of the other

      Complete opposite of Astell's claim on the lack of "material" difference between speaking and writing

    5. among the natives, to make him+ self fully master of it.

      I think that this is also a form of protection against an enemy.

    6. there is no tone which the ear can distinguish

      Is he reasoning that we can understand another species language but we can always understand tone?

    7. that have no commerce with each other;

      No interchange of language

    8. sweetest music to the ears

      This is interesting too. That our own speech and sounds provides us with a level of comfort.

    9. The organs of hearing in each species, are tuned only to the sounds of their own

      This is a very interesting idea that we can only hear the sounds of our own speech

    1. communicating

      See Locke's second function of language: "for the communicating of our thoughts to others" (817). Although Locke is skeptical as to language's ability to accurately communicate these thoughts, apart from civic discourse. But Astell is referring here to meaning related to "those Truths."

    1. Complex ideas are not universal, as .. we can see by the difficulties of translating from one language to another.

      Language shapes the way we think and therefore it has the potential to limit what we are capable of thinking.

    2. hey have their union and combination only from the understanding which unites them under one name

      so basically language is very powerful in how we classify the world? I don't know why but this reminds me of how Eskimos have 50 words for snow, and all we have is "snow." Maybe sleet. not really sure if this is the same kind of thing but ¯_(ツ)_/¯

    3. here the ideas they stand for have no certain connection in nature;

      is it possible that any idea can have no connection to nature or the natural world?

    4. for in that regard they are all equally per-fect

      our mental representations of our ideas and what falls into which category is where the system is faulty, not the physical sounds we use to describe our ideas, because those are assigned arbitrarily

    5. If we consider, in the fallacies men put upon themselves, as well as others, and the mistakes in men's disputes and notions, how great a part is owing to words, and their uncertain or mistaken significations, we shall have reason lo think this no small obstacle in the way to knowledge

      I'm really glad to see Locke say here that people can trick themselves with language. That whole bit at the beginning where one doesn't need "the right" words to communicate to oneself as long as the words are consistent seemed completely untenable to me.

      Language shapes thought, even (especially?) one's own thought. As a member of a society, the language of others places all sorts of limits on our thoughts, and shapes them accordingly.

    6. heir ideas,

      I'm screaming "Beetle" at the screen at this point.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x86hLtOkou8

    7. ince sounds have no natural connection with our ideas,
    8. one task of philosophy is to improve language

      HU clap MA clap NI clap SM clap

      "this shit sucks. There is certainly some ideal way it ought to work, so lets make it better and better because we can and we know how things work and how they ought to and we're smart and in control!!!"

      What's the posthuman approach to language, in short? Maybe we can substitute words to come up with a different way of seeing it, like "one task of rhetoric is to invigorate language."

    9. he fault of the man,

      And now back to flaws in comprehension (instead of language), so what is the implication of that 'man's' failing? There's the caveat "yet" leaving open the possibility that the 'man' has simply not encountered the name or devoted time to learning it, but what of the 'man' who has attempted both and still fails?

    10. an imperfection rather upon our words than understandings

      Hm, okay. So what I took (above) as comments on humanity, Locke is saying are comments on language. (Or is it both?)

    11. real constitution, or (as it is apt to be called) essence, being utterly unknown to us, any sound that is put to stand for it must be very un· certain in its application;

      Basically, be careful about naming anything that has an essence that's unknown to us, and it seems that most everything has an uncertain essence, so...

    12. moral words

      What does he mean by "moral words"? Are there ethical implications here?

    13. The chief end of language in communication r-o~ being to be understood, words serve not well for ""0.°'-4 that end, neither in civil nor philosophical dis-e4."'L~ course, when any word does not excite in the l,,J/ hearer the same idea which it stands for in the mind of the speaker.

      sender-receiver model of communication.

    14. Language is imperfect,

      When would it ever be perfect? In the following sentence, it seems as though the author is claiming that philosophy is a curative method for language.

    15. Knowledge itself is independent of language.

      Is this entirely true? Knowlege of things precedes speech about things, as the things themselves precede language to define them, but isn't our knowlege shaped by our language (or languages), making them instrinsically linked? I suppose for a "feral child" knowledge would be entirely independent from language, but that child's brain would develop differently - would they be capable of the same kinds of knowledge as a person with language?

    1. including the universal language from which all languages spring

      Following lhm8's Fenollosa comment earlier, this was an idea that survived into the early 20th C., as writers like Fenollos and Ezra Pound looked to the Chinese character as a more "natural" state of language, something closer to a universal meaning.

    2. correctness in pronunciation. as in diction and usage. is not an absolute. Language standards arc the property of the ruling class; thus the diction, usage. and pronuncia• lion of the power centers of capital cities tend to be the standards for a national Ian· guagc.

      This division of pronunciation and usage is particularly visible in terms of class. Mispronounced words are often frowned upon, but all this means is that the person learned this word by reading, rather than having the opportunity of hearing someone say it first.

    3. Chinese, says Bacon, is written "in Character� Real, which express neither letters nor words ... but things or notions;

      This notion of Chinese language is one that carries into the 20th century and has pretty far influence; Ernest Fenollosa's notes on Chinese characters and translations of Chinese poetry hugely influenced Ezra Pound and (by extension) 20th C poetry at large.

      In terms of this class, Chinese characters pose an interesting alternative to the subject-object grammar of English.

  16. Jan 2019
    1. power of words to represent preexistingthings

      Sign vs. Symbol distinction -- crucial in understanding language.

    2. anguage come to be more trustworthy than matter?

      People seem to trust in themselves more than what's outside themselves. Even though language is constructed, it's our construct, something we made, and therefore (?) something we can place our faith in more so than in matter, something we had less of a hand in making. When we place our faith in things outside ourselves, we become more vulnerable--we open ourselves to other things as well as to the possibility of being wrong.

    3. grammar too seriousl

      Have we become a victim of grammar?

    4. How did language come to be more trustworthy than matter?

      I have never thought of the idea of trusting language. What would walter ong think?

    5. when materiality itself is always alreadyfigured within a linguistic domain as its condition of possibility?

      Is this what Rickert was doing with his discussion of the cave paintings?

    6. power

      This claim is articulated pretty strongly in Gorgias's Encomium of Helen. The piece is a kind of thought experiment where Gorgias attempts to defend Helen. He points out that language (or speech) is "a powerful lord, which by means of the finest and most invisible body effects the divinest works: it can stop fear and banish grief and create joy and nature pity" (sec. 8). Part of his defense, then, is that Helen almost didn't have a choice; the speech was too powerful, god-like even. I found a .pdf copy of it here: http://myweb.fsu.edu/jjm09f/RhetoricSpring2012/Gorgias%20Encomium%20of%20Helen.pdf

    7. symmetrical faith in our access to representationsover things

      "Language has been given too much power."

      I'm finding it helpful to repeat that phrase when I don't understand what she means.

    1. power

      This claim is articulated pretty strongly in Gorgias's Encomium of Helen. The piece is a kind of thought experiment where Gorgias attempts to defend Helen. He points out that language (or speech) is "a powerful lord, which by means of the finest and most invisible body effects the divinest works: it can stop fear and banish grief and create joy and nature pity" (sec. 8). Part of his defense, then, is that Helen almost didn't have a choice; the speech was too powerful, god-like even. I found a .pdf copy of it here: http://myweb.fsu.edu/jjm09f/RhetoricSpring2012/Gorgias%20Encomium%20of%20Helen.pdf

    2. hen materiality itself is always alreadyfigured within a linguistic domain as its condition of possibility?

      Is this what Rickert was doing with his discussion of the cave paintings?

    1. Turned language, man's best friend, into a potential enemy?

      What might language look like if it is indeed an enemy? Would it be different for each individual or uniformly evil?

    1. We found that a plain language summary gives readers an instant overview of an article, making it easier to understand and also easier to find.

      Here is an example Plain Language Summary created for one of David Sommer's own articles.

      Maximize publication impact by all stakeholders coordinating their efforts

      What is it about?

      In this paper I explore the idea that in order to maximize a publication's impact, everybody needs to play their part - authors, co-authors, publishers, institutions, societies and funders. The author is the common factor that links all of these organizations and groups, so their thinking must shift towards creating a culture of discoverability, encouraging the organizations they work with to help generate impact. The author becomes the conductor, leading the orchestra of players. Why is it important?

      The case for authors taking responsibility for maximizing the impact of their research has never been stronger. With over $1 trillion invested in research every year it is surprising to find some studies showing that 50% of articles are never read, and a much higher percentage are never cited. With researchers under increasing pressure from institutions and funders to demonstrate that their research will have impact and be applied, it is critical that researchers do all they can to make sure the right people find, understand and use their work.

      See it on Kudos.

    1. The Chaos, Gerard Nolst Trenité (1922) - a poem that highlights about 800 irregularities in English spelling and pronunciation.

  17. Dec 2018
    1. I think contextualizing the applications of a tool like Unpaywall in the OA movement could be useful in the 5.3 section, as an added paragraph. Unpaywall helps researchers find papers that are available freely on the web. Often these papers are held in university repositories or author websites. The author may have transferred copyright to the publisher at the time of publication for a window of time that has expired, or the author may have retained copyright of their publication. I think that the idea of a scientific language decoder for the public is an excellent educational tool and potential public service.

  18. Nov 2018
    1. He believed that the reason why non-Arabs were accepted as part of Arab society was due to their mastery of the Arabic language.
    1. English Teachers' Barriers to the Use of Computer-assisted Language Learning

      This article discusses the use of Computer-assisted Language Learning (CALL) technologies to teach English. Each stage of learning aligns with a level of computer technology. There are also many barriers that impede the process of integrating the CALL into the classroom, which include financial, access to hardware and software, teacher training, technical knowledge, and acceptance of technology.

      RATING: 8/10