Oh, and by the way
I have discovered the perfect antidote to having to discuss with extended family who are only being polite anyway what your thesis is about: bring a cute baby to the party!
Add comment December 23rd, 2008
Argument structure and winter reading
I’m re-reading A Separate Peace by John Knowles. We read it in junior high, and I spotted it on the shelf at the library and thought I would revisit it over the winter break. This morning I was considering that and was about to say: I’m re-reading A Separate Peace from junior high. Sure did seem like there should be space for an argument or an adjunt there, one that refers to the original reading event and is licensed by the ‘re’. But there’s not. So there you go. Language is goofy.
Add comment December 23rd, 2008
For researchers working on pidgins and creoles
The APiCS (Atlas of Pidgin And Creole Language Structures) project has put out a questionnaire. The project gathers information on 120 grammatical features plus phonological segments from experts on pidgin and creole languages, and the editors say the questionnaire was specifically designed to answer questions of particular relevance to pidgin and creole languages, but it can in principle be applied to any language.
Add comment December 18th, 2008
H.M., amnesiac dies
From the NYTimes:
He knew that his father’s family came from Thibodaux, La., and his mother was from Ireland, and he knew about the 1929 stock market crash and World War II and life in the 1940s.
But he could remember almost nothing after that.
In 1953, he underwent an experimental brain operation in Hartford to correct a seizure disorder, only to emerge from it fundamentally and irreparably changed. He developed a syndrome neurologists call profound amnesia. He had lost the ability to form new memories.
Add comment December 5th, 2008