Search found 2737 matches

by Salmoneus
Sat Jun 09, 2018 2:56 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: What are you reading, watching and listening to?
Replies: 469
Views: 135034

Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Not having read the book, I can't comment on the adaptation. But as a TV series, it was very good. I gather that it made some simplifying changes to the book, but that the adaptation was well-thought-of as respectful and appropriate, and that it captured some key scenes from the book in a satisfying...
by Salmoneus
Sun Jun 03, 2018 5:17 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)
Replies: 2639
Views: 299507

Re: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)

The usual high level of rational argument. Can we maybe just get you to sign a list of protest somewhere, that counts as making a facile "but you smell of poo" one-liner to every post I make? Because it's tiring on the scroll-finger to scroll past the inevitable post every time. But thanks at least,...
by Salmoneus
Sat Jun 02, 2018 11:53 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)
Replies: 2639
Views: 299507

Re: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)

No, I argued the case through reference to generally accepted definitions and through generally accepted analogies. ...OK, maybe I needed paragraphs or something. Let's try again. -------------------- First, I don't think it's helpful to have this extreme dichotomy of "has a mental illness" (not his...
by Salmoneus
Sat Jun 02, 2018 4:44 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)
Replies: 2639
Views: 299507

Re: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)

Vijay wrote:Avoiding an awkward conversation ≠ mental illness
I refer you to my previous post, which addresses that objection in detail.
by Salmoneus
Fri Jun 01, 2018 7:30 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)
Replies: 2639
Views: 299507

Re: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)

Yeah yeah, man up, mental health problems are cured just by "owning your shit and putting in the work", etc. I guess I'm just not macho enough myself, because when I see people who are scared, confused, anxious, I find it hard to summon up the hatred to just write them off as "arseholes". Is it grea...
by Salmoneus
Fri Jun 01, 2018 3:46 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Replies: 1058
Views: 220629

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

But the semantics are the same. In both cases you're talking about the same products being trialed for the same reasons. Semantics cannot clarify which of two structures is intended when the meaning is the same. It's like saying that semantics can clarify whether "pink rose colour" means [pink rose]...
by Salmoneus
Thu May 31, 2018 2:16 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)
Replies: 2639
Views: 299507

Re: Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)

To be fair, it's not uncommon for people - particularly fathers - to avoid awkward conversations with people they don't want to upset or offend. Or to assume that other people don't want to have anything to do with them, and hence make that a self-fulfilling prophecy by 'not imposing' on them. Or he...
by Salmoneus
Thu May 31, 2018 2:08 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Replies: 2225
Views: 446501

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread

Congratulations, you've successfully named languages which are widely agreed to form a proper sub-group of PIE, and hence have only proven a meaning "to plough" for their common ancestor, which is not PIE itself. The only branches that are missing in Howl's list are Indo-Iranian and Anatolian. And ...
by Salmoneus
Thu May 31, 2018 1:41 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Replies: 1058
Views: 220629

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

...oh for fuck's sake, can't at least one thread be free of this bullshit? The thread title is not "I don't understand these words please explain them to me oh great one, because I'm a fucking moron." It's a thread about syntactic ambiguities and confusing sentence structures, not a thread for patro...
by Salmoneus
Thu May 31, 2018 1:38 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Replies: 1058
Views: 220629

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

[sanitary] [product pilot] doesn't even make any sense, so it's obviously [sanitary product] [pilot] A product pilot is where a product is piloted. If it's being done for sanitary reasons, then it's a [sanitary] [product pilot] - in the same way as it might be an IT product pilot or a security prod...
by Salmoneus
Thu May 31, 2018 9:43 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Replies: 1058
Views: 220629

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Robbie Williams continue planning battle I'm not sure where the garden path is. This is about JP (from LZ) and RW, who apparently were in the past, and are still, planning a battle? There. That's where the garden path is. Spoiler: they are not, and have not been, plann...
by Salmoneus
Wed May 30, 2018 11:31 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Replies: 1058
Views: 220629

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

The BBC's "most read" list today has not one but two beauties.

This one genuinely had me perplexed at first:
Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Robbie Williams continue planning battle

This one only briefly mislead me but is worth mentioning:
Aberdeen sanitary product pilot to start across Scotland
by Salmoneus
Tue May 29, 2018 5:48 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Replies: 2225
Views: 446501

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread

On the topic of why there are many branches in the Balkans, several options present themselves: a) it's the primary radiation point for PIE b) it's a secondary radiation point for a PIE that originated elsewhere c) it's a refuge area: there used to be many more PIE branches but most have been steamr...
by Salmoneus
Tue May 29, 2018 5:15 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Replies: 2225
Views: 446501

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread

Hmm, interesting. But there is another major branch of IE dominated by R1a: Balto-Slavic. Of course, Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian share a number of isoglosses, most prominently the satem shift and the ruki rule. Perhaps this "NW IE vs. Greco-Aryan" thing is vastly overrated as the "satem vs. centu...
by Salmoneus
Mon May 28, 2018 6:41 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Replies: 2225
Views: 446501

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread

Hmm, interesting. But there is another major branch of IE dominated by R1a: Balto-Slavic. Of course, Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian share a number of isoglosses, most prominently the satem shift and the ruki rule. Perhaps this "NW IE vs. Greco-Aryan" thing is vastly overrated as the "satem vs. centu...
by Salmoneus
Mon May 28, 2018 6:39 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Grand Phonological Theory of Everything
Replies: 13
Views: 9666

Re: The Grand Phonological Theory of Everything

Well, 'unfalsifiable' is a trickier concept in "sciences" like linguistics, in which almost everything is unfalsifiable in a strict sense. Ultimately, this is because linguistics is a narrative tradition - like botany, political science, history or theology - rather than an experimental process like...
by Salmoneus
Sun May 27, 2018 5:18 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Replies: 2225
Views: 446501

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread

A correction: the only people we can be pretty sure derive from the Corded-Ware Culture are the Indo-Iranians. Indo-Iranians seem culturally and genetically derived from the Sintashta of the Caspian steppe - the people who developed fire cults and chariots. But Sintashta weren't in-situ descendents ...
by Salmoneus
Sat May 26, 2018 9:12 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Replies: 2225
Views: 446501

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread

While I agree with the principle that there's no reason to assume sudden change in the Caucasus without evidence, I think your argument there's a little weak. After all, Mayan and Na-Dene aren't the only families to show considerable typological uniformity after thousands of years of divergence. Ano...
by Salmoneus
Fri May 25, 2018 4:27 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Replies: 2225
Views: 446501

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread

nota bene: there are no Hittite samples. There are a small number of samples from the Hittite polity (some of which iirc have been argued to have steppe influence), but none of them are from clearly ethnically Hittite, high-caste burials; they may therefore be Hattians, who formed the majority of th...
by Salmoneus
Thu May 24, 2018 6:37 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Replies: 2225
Views: 446501

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread

2. I have recently looked around at this site . Looks interesting, but doubtful. This is Carlos Quines, the Spanish guy who brought us "Modern Indo-European" (regularized PIE proposed as a European auxlang), who examines the origin of PIE in context of genetics and archaeology. Some of his ideas ar...
by Salmoneus
Thu May 24, 2018 6:31 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Replies: 2225
Views: 446501

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread

2. I have recently looked around at this site . Looks interesting, but doubtful. This is Carlos Quines, the Spanish guy who brought us "Modern Indo-European" (regularized PIE proposed as a European auxlang), who examines the origin of PIE in context of genetics and archaeology. Some of his ideas ar...
by Salmoneus
Wed May 23, 2018 5:29 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The "How do You Pronounce X" Thread
Replies: 3108
Views: 636758

Re: The "How do You Pronounce X" Thread

Some famous names: Joseph Stalin Wilhelm Röntgen Marie Skłodowska-Curie Niels Bohr Erwin Schrödinger Gerard 't Hooft Stanisław Ulam Nikita Khrushchev Enrico Fermi /dZoUs@f stAlIn/ /vIlhElm r3ntdZ@n/ /m@"ri cjU@ri/ /nilz bO/ /3rwIn Sr3dIN@/ ? ? /nIkit@ krustSEv/ (or /U/) /@nrikoU fE:rmi/ 't Hooft an...
by Salmoneus
Wed May 23, 2018 5:23 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Replies: 1058
Views: 220629

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Sounds like they mashed in some of Juno and the Paycock along the way...
by Salmoneus
Thu May 17, 2018 1:40 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: A Very Brief Explanation of the British Election
Replies: 323
Views: 92891

Re: A Very Brief Explanation of the British Election

How was the Irish border handled before the EU? If the border was unmanned back then, surely there were the exact same problems (a person or goods could get themselves into Ireland and then quite easily get into the UK). Traditionally, the border was handled through the medium of a bloody guerilla ...
by Salmoneus
Thu May 17, 2018 6:50 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: A Very Brief Explanation of the British Election
Replies: 323
Views: 92891

Re: A Very Brief Explanation of the British Election

So, what's going on with Brexit? As we've covered previously, there is a small logical flaw in the idea of Brexit: the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. - all parties have agreed there cannot be a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, for political-military reasons - there ca...