Search found 142 matches

by Matt
Sat Nov 17, 2012 10:27 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Most beautiful/ugliest languages
Replies: 119
Views: 26745

Re: Most beautiful/ugliest languages

Tieđđá wrote:You can't speak German without sounding angry!
Just like you can't speak Russian without sounding drunk!
by Matt
Fri Nov 09, 2012 9:54 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Phonological features* you dislike...
Replies: 79
Views: 13914

Re: Phonological features* you dislike...

Personally, I don't much care for very vowelly languages. CV syllables are boring. I suppose that might have something to do with me being a budding Slavicist.
by Matt
Sat Dec 17, 2011 3:29 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Agglutination and Compound Words
Replies: 37
Views: 5710

Re: Agglutination and Compound Words

Obviously though this is a really extreme example, most words are nowhere near that long (and yes, in spite of the hyphens of the standard orthography, that's all one word, since it begins with a person-marking proclitic and ends with an inflectional suffix) Oh man, I was all set to post a long Sen...
by Matt
Fri Dec 16, 2011 5:26 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Verbs that indicate which level of formality should be used
Replies: 27
Views: 5136

Re: Verbs that indicate which level of formality should be u

Huh, Russian seems kind of boring in this regard. Давай перейдём на «ты» "Let's cross/switch to "ты".
by Matt
Fri Dec 16, 2011 5:21 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Agglutination and Compound Words
Replies: 37
Views: 5710

Re: Agglutination and Compound Words

Obviously though this is a really extreme example, most words are nowhere near that long (and yes, in spite of the hyphens of the standard orthography, that's all one word, since it begins with a person-marking proclitic and ends with an inflectional suffix) Oh man, I was all set to post a long Sen...
by Matt
Tue Nov 15, 2011 10:07 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: How would you diagram this English sentence?
Replies: 46
Views: 7009

Re: How would you diagram this English sentence?

A fancier explanation is that the subordinator turns the clause into a modifier ("the fact that she was crazy", "the idea that we left") and that the head noun is omitted. But I'm not sure that actually gains us anything. That was my first thought but I wasn't sure how to fit that into a syntax tre...
by Matt
Tue Nov 15, 2011 10:04 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Rain (n) Rain (vb) ~ Different Languages...?
Replies: 71
Views: 11541

Re: Rain (n) Rain (vb) ~ Different Languages...?

In Russian, 'rain' (the noun) is дождь dozhd' and 'it's raining' is идёт дождь idjot dozhd' (lit. 'rain walks' or 'rain goes').

Also, 'food' is еда jeda and 'to eat' is есть jest'. Я ем ja jem 'I eat', ты ешь ty jesh' 'you (sg.) eat', etc.
by Matt
Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:34 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: How would you diagram this English sentence?
Replies: 46
Views: 7009

How would you diagram this English sentence?

That we left should impress Phoebe.

A friend asked me how I would draw a syntax tree for this sentence and I'm stumped. Is that we left behaving as an NP here?
by Matt
Wed Oct 19, 2011 1:36 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Lingustic Relativity / Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Replies: 46
Views: 8458

Re: Lingustic Relativity / Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

So apparently English speakers see "up" as being yesterday. I, being a Swedish speaker, see "up" as tomorrow. :? "Up" in a temporal sense seems to be very ambiguous in English. My semantics professor surveyed our class about the meaning of "The exam is scheduled for October 27, but I now have a con...
by Matt
Tue Oct 18, 2011 4:32 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: The Official ZBB Quote Thread
Replies: 2878
Views: 637014

Re: The Official ZBB Quote Thread

Bob Johnson wrote:
finlay wrote:
Skomakar'n wrote:comma comma comma comma comma comma comma comma comma comma comma
comma chameleon
by Matt
Tue Oct 18, 2011 2:55 pm
Forum: L&L Museum
Topic: resources
Replies: 722
Views: 306692

Re: resources

I promised in another thread that I'd post some information on agreement in the Ndu language Manambu. It's here as part of a blog post, now that I've got my blog working: http://chrisdb.dyndns-at-home.com/blog/page/role-insensitive-agreement The formatting of the side bar is slightly stuffed up for...
by Matt
Tue Oct 18, 2011 9:49 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: If I had a time machine...
Replies: 22
Views: 3569

Re: If I had a time machine...

Hear, hear. I'm studying Native American linguistics in the Southwest US, and every time I think there are under-documented languages around here, I try to remember how good we have it compared to Australia. There are so many interesting linguistic features in Australia; it's a real shame we know so...
by Matt
Fri Oct 14, 2011 8:24 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Lingustic Relativity / Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Replies: 46
Views: 8458

Re: Lingustic Relativity / Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Once again I've had to listen to someone spread the lie of "Eskimos have over 9000 words for snow.", and what I see as very dubious claims about linguistic relativism. Every time I hear someone put forth the claim that "Eskimos have X number of words for snow" I like to respond that English probabl...
by Matt
Sun Oct 02, 2011 2:38 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Mayan ordinals
Replies: 3
Views: 1213

Re: Mayan ordinals

At first that seems like that should mean two stars but that would require ek' to be in the plural. At least in K'iche, plural marking on a noun isn't necessary if there's a numeral. Most K'iche nouns don't have plural forms anyway; unless the noun refers to a human or (some) higher animals, you ju...
by Matt
Sun Oct 02, 2011 2:36 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Mayan ordinals
Replies: 3
Views: 1213

Re: Mayan ordinals

I'm taking a K'iche' class this semester. I have no idea what other Mayan languages do, but in K'iche' "second star" is ukaab' lee ch'imil second CLF star Actually, that'd translate better as "the star is second", I think. lee ukaab'a ch'imil (or lu'kaab'a ch'imil with the elision) might be better. ...
by Matt
Thu Sep 29, 2011 6:41 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Words you love because of their sounds
Replies: 285
Views: 36391

Re: Words you love because of their sounds

ostensibly
by Matt
Wed Sep 21, 2011 7:07 pm
Forum: C&C Archive
Topic: City layouts
Replies: 49
Views: 20369

Re: City layouts

I like living in Albuquerque because it's so easy to find my way around. http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff509/mmenzens/ScreenShot2011-09-21at54819PM.png At the eastern (right) side of the photo are the Sandia mountains. The mountains make it really easy to navigate because you can always see th...
by Matt
Fri Sep 16, 2011 1:18 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Words you hate because of their sounds
Replies: 251
Views: 31183

Re: Words you hate because of their sounds

No one's mentioned moist yet? I don't have a problem with it, personally, but I hear people complain about it fairly often.
by Matt
Sat Sep 10, 2011 5:17 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: What are you listening to? -- Non-English Edition
Replies: 1735
Views: 352155

Re: What are you listening to? -- Non-English Edition

Найк Борзов - Три Слова

I just love this song. The falsetto that he does cracks me up.
by Matt
Fri Sep 09, 2011 9:28 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: What are you reading, watching and listening to?
Replies: 469
Views: 135600

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

I'm finally getting around to reading Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. This might take a while.
by Matt
Tue Sep 06, 2011 9:17 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Linguistic resources you wish actually existed
Replies: 100
Views: 13742

Re: Linguistic resources you wish actually existed

A modern, thorough reference grammar of Cayuga.

There's information out there, but most of it is fifty years old and not much of it deals satisfactorily with the phonology.
by Matt
Wed Aug 31, 2011 11:05 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Accents
Replies: 76
Views: 10888

Re: Accents

There's a linguistics professor here who I assumed was a native speaker of English. I was very surprised to learn that his first language is German. He is a phonetician, though; maybe that gives him an advantage.
by Matt
Tue May 17, 2011 6:07 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Words that are their own opposites
Replies: 107
Views: 14054

Re: Words that are their own opposites

What about inflammable?
by Matt
Sun May 15, 2011 7:50 pm
Forum: C&C Archive
Topic: Transitive vs. Intransitive
Replies: 36
Views: 9597

Re: Transitive vs. Intransitive

Is this the difference between say "looking" and "seeing" (passive)? I was actually about to ask about this. That's more of a distinction on the semantic role of the subject. "Looking (at)" implies more of a conscious and volitional action; the subject is more agent-like. "Seeing" implies more of a...