Search found 3047 matches
- Sat Feb 10, 2018 5:18 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Good syntax books
- Replies: 32
- Views: 16745
Re: Good syntax books
Rory: thanks for the recs. More to add to the book pile!
- Thu Feb 08, 2018 4:16 pm
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
- Replies: 1058
- Views: 228435
Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
The [item] is as visible as required by regulations I may be missing something... this seems awkward but not difficult. I take it as meaning that regulations require [item] to be visible, and there are minimums for 'visibility', and the product has met the minimum. It'd sound better to me with an e...
- Thu Feb 08, 2018 12:32 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Good syntax books
- Replies: 32
- Views: 16745
Re: Good syntax books
Ordered the Carnie... I've already read Payne, and it's not what I am after anyway, which is generative syntax. Thanks for the recs!
Zaarin, I promise my book will have plenty of great stuff you can use. Plus web toys to play with!
Zaarin, I promise my book will have plenty of great stuff you can use. Plus web toys to play with!
- Tue Feb 06, 2018 11:59 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Good syntax books
- Replies: 32
- Views: 16745
Good syntax books
If you don't follow my blog: my next book is on syntax, a topic dear to my heart.
Also, it turns out, a topic I'm way out of date on. So: what are some good, post-1995 books on syntax? Or even mediocre books, if you used them in class?
Is everyone Chomskyan these days? Or post-Chomskyan, or what?
Also, it turns out, a topic I'm way out of date on. So: what are some good, post-1995 books on syntax? Or even mediocre books, if you used them in class?
Is everyone Chomskyan these days? Or post-Chomskyan, or what?
- Sat Jan 27, 2018 9:31 pm
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: CCC - keeping track of
- Replies: 46
- Views: 42621
Re: CCC - keeping track of
ZEEBWIKI GOING AWAY!!! I don't think anyone's using zeebwiki.org, so I'd rather save the hosting fees and server space. The domain expires in about a month, so I'll probably take it down before then. If you have stuff there, please copy it! Clawgrip in particular has some lovely maps there. I have ...
- Sat Jan 27, 2018 6:24 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Minor Semitic Deities
- Replies: 25
- Views: 7898
Re: Minor Semitic Deities
There are also rakshasis and yakshis. Despite what Wikipedia says, my understanding is that yakshis are supposed to be evil and like black widow spiders: seducing their male victims and then eating them, although the eating part is perhaps more like vultures, sucking the bone marrow and leaving not...
- Sat Jan 27, 2018 5:22 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Will singular "they" be as acceptable as "you" in formal Eng
- Replies: 44
- Views: 18924
Re: Will singular "they" be as acceptable as "you" in formal
What you won't find outside fringe dialects spoken by the ostentatiously woke is "they" being used to refer to one specific person. Maybe instead of indulging your political paranoia, you should remember your linguistics, which requires actual evidence, and some diffidence when making universal cla...
- Tue Jan 23, 2018 11:26 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Minor Semitic Deities
- Replies: 25
- Views: 7898
Re: Minor Semitic Deities
Is India too far afield? Because there's plenty there: gandharvas, yakshas, vidyadharas, nagas, and on the mostly evil side, rakshasas.
- Fri Jan 19, 2018 8:06 am
- Forum: Almea
- Topic: Cadhinorian Religion
- Replies: 20
- Views: 15409
Re: Cadhinorian Religion
Good news: while moving, I found the pre-web versions of the Cadhinorian paganism pages.
Bad news: they're pretty terrible. They consist of a bunch of bombastic faux-Chestertonian descriptions, plus descriptions of the gods that aren't nearly as humorous as I remembered.
Bad news: they're pretty terrible. They consist of a bunch of bombastic faux-Chestertonian descriptions, plus descriptions of the gods that aren't nearly as humorous as I remembered.
- Fri Jan 12, 2018 5:38 pm
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: climate change
- Replies: 60
- Views: 25317
Re: climate change
Basically, instead of having a God at the origins of the universe, this only retains a non-superstitious hope of redemption at the end of history. What I don't understand is why liberalism is so hostile towards my religion. I cannot imagine left-liberals responding to smart Christians with, "Your r...
- Sun Jan 07, 2018 5:32 pm
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: climate change
- Replies: 60
- Views: 25317
Re: climate change
zompist: But these are completely different from Sal's objections. Everyone agrees that I'm wrong. Everyone disagrees on why I'm wrong. I agree with Sal that your AI-government is undemocratic. I wouldn't put things the way he did, but the idea that "the AI just implements what the people want!" is...
- Sat Jan 06, 2018 7:53 pm
- Forum: Almea
- Topic: New Almeopedia
- Replies: 29
- Views: 20548
Re: New Almeopedia
The Arcel maps had trouble because of a capitalization problem. Fixed now.
Probably any images not loading are the same problem, but they're hard to look for... if you see any, make a note here or send me mail, if possible.
I'll look at the big maps.
Probably any images not loading are the same problem, but they're hard to look for... if you see any, make a note here or send me mail, if possible.
I'll look at the big maps.
- Mon Jan 01, 2018 5:44 pm
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: Non-Biblical religious/spiritual literature
- Replies: 21
- Views: 10016
Re: Non-Biblical religious/spiritual literature
My books are a mile away right now, but from memory I have the Quran, a Passover Haggadah, the Dao De Jing, and (abridged versions of) the Rigveda and the Mahabharata.
- Mon Jan 01, 2018 2:27 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Quick question about French
- Replies: 7
- Views: 3100
Re: Quick question about French
You can see a list of words with <uille> here.
Most can be eliminated by eye, but I had to check a few. There are a few words like cuiller and juilllet where <uille> becomes [ɥijɛ], and I'm guessing that's what happened to any possible /yj/.
Most can be eliminated by eye, but I had to check a few. There are a few words like cuiller and juilllet where <uille> becomes [ɥijɛ], and I'm guessing that's what happened to any possible /yj/.
- Mon Jan 01, 2018 1:44 pm
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: climate change
- Replies: 60
- Views: 25317
Re: climate change
Point taken about AlphaZero. Neural nets can do some amazing and baffling things. However, they're susceptible to the same argument: give me the program and let me increase the number of neurons, and a huge amount of time, and I can beat it. (This is of course exactly what DeepMind is doing as it cr...
- Mon Jan 01, 2018 2:33 am
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: climate change
- Replies: 60
- Views: 25317
Re: Venting thread
nothing will ever be done ... towards definitively preventing irreversible climate change. I don't see how anyone could challenge this. You're changing the goalposts; your original comments were about "allowing global warming to continue". It's likely that the 1.4C or so global warming we already h...
- Mon Jan 01, 2018 12:58 am
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: climate change
- Replies: 60
- Views: 25317
Re: climate change
PS. You would have to specify which aspect of the AI you think is barmy from a CS perspective. I can't tell. Since you ask, well, all of it. -- AI researchers are particularly prone to overestimating what has been done and underestimating what remains to be done. -- Programs are almost never bug-fr...
- Sun Dec 31, 2017 10:30 pm
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: climate change
- Replies: 60
- Views: 25317
Re: climate change
FWIW, I have studied computer science, and I think rotting's AI-god is barmy. I don't think it's very good science fiction, but even if it were... it's a chimera. We don't have an AI god, and we won't have one in time to address climate change.
- Sun Dec 31, 2017 10:26 pm
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: climate change
- Replies: 60
- Views: 25317
Re: Venting thread
Again, I never said that climate change would not be expensive. Just that it will not represent a serious threat to the survival of civilisation, as rotting puts it. And indeed that it will largely be business as normal. There's a huge range of outcomes between "serious threat to the survival of ci...
- Sun Dec 31, 2017 4:58 pm
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: climate change
- Replies: 60
- Views: 25317
Re: Venting thread
Second, nobody is seriously suggesting that, *blam* in 2100 there will be 40 million displaced people suddenly. We're talking 40 million people over the next 80 years. Or around 500,000 a year on average. And... that's not many! To pick a country, there have been around 2,000,000 displaced in south...
- Sun Dec 31, 2017 4:38 pm
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: India Construction Kit
- Replies: 2
- Views: 3881
Re: India Construction Kit
You are, probably because not that many have bought it yet. I'm sure this will be rectified shortly. But, it's the #69 bestseller in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Asia > India! Which, well, shows that you can sell in the double digits to get that particular honor. Anyway, glad you liked it!
- Sat Dec 30, 2017 10:54 am
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: climate change
- Replies: 60
- Views: 25317
Re: climate change
Moved. And rotting, please don't use the venting thread for stuff like this; it just creates extra work for the mods. Nothing wrong with starting threads.
- Fri Dec 29, 2017 11:59 pm
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: climate change
- Replies: 60
- Views: 25317
Re: Venting thread
Sea level rises are a very minor issue, for the simple reason that such rises - a couple of metres - are tiny, and slow. There are a number of major population centres that will need additional flood protections, but we're really good at that (c.f. the Netherlands). Maybe a "minor issue" for the UK...
- Fri Dec 29, 2017 3:45 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Something interesting about West Coast American English
- Replies: 44
- Views: 11243
Re: Something interesting about West Coast American English
in my variety of American English, I have father/bother/cot/caught all with the same vowel, and talk/walk/stalk are pronounced with the same /a/ as father (tock/wok/stock), with no remnants of the /l/ present in the spelling. My father was horrified to learn that I did not pronounce the /l/ in talk...
- Tue Dec 26, 2017 3:19 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: "You can't eat your cake and have it too".
- Replies: 5
- Views: 2289
Re: "You can't eat your cake and have it too".
The modern phrasing isn't illogical. "And" does not always imply chronological order— if I eat fish and chips, it doesn't mean I eat the fish, then the chips. It is a weird expression, because cakes aren't normally something you keep without ever eating. It might make more sense as something like "Y...