Showing posts with label thoughts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thoughts. Show all posts

subtle yet deep

In the quest to narrow down my speciality in linguistics, I find myself fascinated by the very top and very bottom of this diagram. Is this too ambitious? Unguided? Disconnected from the reality of the field?

No, au contraire, for the arrows that connect these intriguing linguistic disciplines are my guide to all the subtleties and complexities that are language. It's beautiful!



Perspective

"Does the universe have a purpose?"

Some simple & rational perspective on the purpose of the universe from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on @minutephysics. These are the simple, blunt & frankly obvious reasons why I don't find religion... worth it. I'd rather hold out for some real empirical answers. I mean, we've come this far, and at the same time, have barely scratched the surface in so many disciplines.



For now, why not just live, love, laugh and learn everyone?




the last 5 months...

wow, so much has happened since my last post in june. i always think about my blog but never seem to get to it. i have a goal to commit more time to it now, as i really seem to gain insight on my life path and the people in my life when i write. here's what's happened and some big things i didn't mention since my last post:

  • graduated with my MA (Spanish - Sociolinguistics)
  • accepted to Penn State's MA/PhD program (dual-title: Hispanic Linguistics & Language Science)
  • moved across the country and now living with 4 other students in Pennsylvania
  • my best friend got married! congrats joe & caitlin :-) my best man speech was pretty good, too
  • supporting my sister through her divorce. she & her kids deserve better!
  • my 2 year old nephew can talk!
  • broke up with my girlfriend... now i'm single and ok with that
  • joined NFL and NBA fantasy leagues... go james harden & cam newton!
  • presented at my first professional academic conference: "1st International Pragmatics Conference of the Americas & 5th International Conference on Intercultural Pragmatics"
  • met up with an internet friend in real life that i met 13 YEARS AGO on aol instant messenger... now i'm going to see her again in december! thank you, internet
  • visited my friend in NYC who also started grad school on the east coast
  • i voted. and he won! also proud of my home state Washington for going gay & green :-)
  • made contacts from the UK while in Charlotte and might present at a conference in East Anglia this summer!
my academic plans for the near future include preliminary research on the Spanish spoken in Belize, predictability of a language's default vowel, the English of the rural Pacific Inland Northwest, as well as progressing my Portuguese to a fluent level, possibly teaching English in the Dominican Republic this summer, performing pragmatics research in the UK, and, of course, doing something cool for spring break... TBD ;-)

there you go blog. im sure im missing something, but posting this still feels good :-)

resolutions

i get pissed every year at how bad i am with my resolutions. this will short and sweet bc i know what i have to do and don't want to waste any time dwelling, procrastinating, yearning, etc... here they are:

-posture!
-get more music!!!
-eat out only once a week
-save 15% of paycheck
-1hr/day exercise with weekly time trial (1 mile on track)
-1hr/day reading news/current events
-1hr/day french & portuguese
-4hrs/day thesis

come on ryan, i know you can!

PhD choices...

There a lot of factors going into this & I feel like I've been on over 100 university of websites, especially doing it for the conference we're putting on in February. They're somewhat clustered in groups, based on difficulty of admission & academic ranking.

1. U of Washington, U of Michigan, Ohio State
2. Northwestern, U of Illinois, NYU, U of Toronto
3. Berkeley, Penn



View schools in a larger map

i defriended you because...

you're annoying.
you've answered a question about me; fuck you, i'm me.
eres una puta.
you've harvested an acre of digital farmland.
you "like" something that sucks.
you're in a relationship; becoming single is cool, tho.
your phone is back on.
you're my ex, & you shouldn't care anymore.
you're a family member that won't approve of me.

but always tell me if you have a sweet pic, go somewhere new, give a fuck, or complain about something that matters.

Never neglect self-reflection.

"And remember, no matter where you go, there you are."
 -Confucious

So much of my life is spent assuming I am what I am and that's that. It's not fair that I look out so much when looking in is the only way to true satisfaction.

The only constant in my life is myself; consistent evaluation, reflection & construction of who, what & why I am are the only things that can bring me fulfillment.

I'm all about efficiency. Self-reflection is the only path to true metaphysical tranquility & maintaining one's core moral system. As far as maximizing life experiences & relationships with others, this is the most efficient thing a human being can do; I will.

Pour mon amie Anna :-)

FRE 202 - 12:55pm, Hopman, Composition 2, Draft 2

Mon amie Anna m’a beaucoup influencée, en particulier pendant 2005 jusqu’à 2008 quand j’était à mon autre université. Je fait sa connaissance d’elle parce que ma camarade de chambre allait au lycée avec elle. Anna était, et elle est encore, la personne la plus ouverte, franche et agréable que je connais, mais au même temps, elle maintient une personalité très enthousiaste, drôle et intelligente. Quand nous parlons, c'est comme tout le monde cesse d’exister ; il y a tant de références, sentiments et information partagés que je ne pense pas qu'il soit possible pour les autres à comprendre complètement, ou au moins, à comprendre à notre niveau. D’habitude au passé, elle me fait penser de voyager, des autres cultures, d’apprendre les autres langues et, surtout, de maintenir une personnalité très agréable, ouverte et sociable. J’ai pris ces traits d’elle il y a quelques années et, encore, j’essaie souvent vivre de ceux.

Anna ne m’a jamais donné des conseils directement, ce que je admirais et j’ai appris d’elle. Je m’ai rendu compte qu’il faut qu’on soit très optimiste pour avoir la capacité d'avancer socialement. Mais, parallèlement, il est nécessaire qu’on ne prétende jamais d'être quelqu’un qu’on n’est pas. Aussi, bien qu’on puisse faire des décisions qui ne sont pas bonnes du tout, il continue d'être indispensable qu’on entretienne les mêmes objectifs dans la vie. Plus que tout mes autres amis, Anna reste en contact avec la plupart de ses amis. J’admire ça et je veux être comme elle à cet égard. En fait, je suis très désolé que je ne lui ai pas téléphoner depuis plusieurs mois... donc je le fait tout de suite!

Go(s)(es), Mimicking and Tastes

On pluralizing the nominalized form of "go"...
"Have a go at goal."
"Have a few go(s)(es) at goal".
I feel like most people would write "go's", which would be incorrect because the apostrophe is not possessive or indicating a contraction.
So... gos (which I would intuitively pronounce /gaws/)?
Not goes, it is already a word.

---

When we mimic a non-native speaker in our native tongue, we apply their language's phonological rules to our native language (e.g. "We we-rr theenkeeng a leetel beet", my impersonation of a Mexican speaking English). Just the same, I mimic beginners in Spanish (having their American English accent, e.g. "Mei llamoh Carly, coh-moh estaws?"), applying my native language's phonological rules to a foreign language... What could we learn from this? Would it only highlight the phonetic subtleties that non-native speakers are 'known for' producing in a foreign language, or more?

--

All of the tastes (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, savory) have been made into adjectives (except salty, which I'm not really sure about...) that don't necessarily pertain to taste and others a few have been verbalized, yet in different ways.

"That was sweet."
"I wish we could sweeten it up a little."

"What a bitter bitch, she is."
("Bitter" verb form?)

("Salty" as a non-food adjective?) "She's so salty today." (?) Seems contextual, but could work
("Salty" verb form?)

"Please don't have that sour attitude."
("Sour" verb form?)

"Wow, what a savory moment."
"A win to savor_ for Blackpool." ... but was this because umami (most often translated to 'savory') was only first described in 1908? 'Savory' is related to French 'savoir' (to know), so 'to savor' was around for a lot longer than the adjective form 'savory'.

I guess one could always say "salt __ up", "bitter __ up", but it is interesting to see that some tastes have penetrated our minds to the point that the sensations we get when enjoying them can be applied to other situations outside of the food realm.

Wolves chomp ManU

When the Wolverhampton Wanderers took down Manchester United today, the context of the situation in the league (Wolves being dead last in the Premiereship & Man U on a 10 month, 29-game unbeaten streak) instantly converted that city into the coolest place in the world to be, at that moment. It's incredible how badly I want to be there right now!

Wolverhampton up on Man U in the 70'???? I must tune in...
27 minutes ago

#ThePlaceToBe : Wolverhampton, England. Their last place Wolves just took down an undefeated Manchester United, a streak of over 10 months!!
3 minutes ago

#WolvesWin! #WolvesWin!
2 minutes ago

A reason I love sports.

i REALLY must know....

I must know: What is the relationship between being empathetic & being polite?

tweet

This really does raise some serious questions...

down the rabbit hole

The (in)sane notes I took while watching "What the bleep do we know?", an intense documentary that puts everything about existence into question while posing many scientific and philosophical questions of its own. We are only on the brink...

My tweet:
"What the bleep do we know?" http://ow.ly/2CUST fall down the rabbit hole :-pp quantum mechanics blows it all up ::: gracias Ileana :-)
__________

My notes:

If I perceive a cliff instead of the floor next to my bed, and I can't determine the order of probabilities of which one is real, I'm paralized, in the most literal sense of the world.

or I'm a (on) drugzzz.
:
Entanglement is the property of Quantam mechanics.
:
Space-time geometry. Plank scale.
:
The Observer's Paradox: 2 sets of laws - those that exist when you're in it, & those that apply when you're looking at it. That's crazy! Particles of existence.
:
Grammatical tense for that which you've seen, & that which you haven't ([which] native american language?)
:
If we actually affect what happens to others, or other things, why do we not just "wish well" to everything? This makes me want to pray, bless everything.
|
|
|
(the Latin world)
|
|
D
O
O
(new page)
O
O
O
W
N the rabbit hole
:
"Some spook, action in the distance."
-Einstein, on entanglement
:
...bc my head, and your head, are co-located.
:
need to observe more. We will create what occurs.
:
I feel like we only observe language, stationary things, just bc they're slowed down enough for us to observe.
:
Quantum physics does not take into account consciousness.
:
Cosmic sentences of everlasting punishment.
[ RELIGION ]
:
...but that's how society works.
Fuck.
:
system of thought
unity
we are one. (2 particles, wait 3000 co-located)
:
what is an orgasm, quantum-particle wise?
:
quantum measurement produces memory.
___
cuz they're connected
to all those other nerve cells,
called identity, ... [ HA! ]
:
change in itself means we have to abandoned indentity.
(the) drink(ing)s scene...
:
each cell has a consciousness. neuropeptides
:
if you can't control your emotional state, you're addicted. (to it).
:
we become addicted to the stress
|
|--> we must do what we like.
:
& bc we've made an imprint in the mind, & in the brain, ur perception will never be the same.
:
actually sex is an invention to make us see into the future.
:
u think about sex, then u get an erection. i did it. i made it happen.
:
:
We are (literally) the same.
We are one.
Unity.
:
I can change anything, which is this, us, the one.
:
I shall make myself more sure of what I know.
:
(I shall) observe.
:
Consciousness allows identity,
we mediate and dictate identity
through language. By communicating,
we become & grow conscious
of ourselves. We are one, but unknown.
:
the fact that anything said an mean different things in different contexts, but things are only said once (there, then, w/in that context), it does mean anything when it is said. That correct matching of meaning by the hearer RIGHT THEN to what was literally said is the element that pragmatics brings to language study.
:
is there always not (necessarily) one moment you can go back & change to make thingsdifferent?
...1 play in the World Cup, different champions.
...and you can picky nearly any significant play from different game throughout the tournament! penalty here, save there, red card here, expulsion there, so anything that you say that is significant to what you're goig to say can change how & why you say what you do.
:
{ and everything you said changes what u can, should, and will (ultimately?) say? }
:
And their becomes a different World Cup champ, and a different interpreted mening that wins out.
:
I can deliver a message unclearly.
If I choose to send it clearly, I can just do it, r present ir more "presentable" to the hearer, sociolinguistically.
Or maybe,
team = speakers
games = conversations
victories = conversation "wins" (-->"I understood it the way you intended and am storing it así")

trailer park / aliens / world cup 400AD

What's Ricky doin? Convincing
& Julian? Mitigating (the convincing)
Bubbles? Trying to stop it.
You can always 'sum up' what someone's statements try to do with an utterance (clause, sentence, paragraph...) What was the purpose/meaning of that piece of speech?

_____

remnants of aliens in language? (how far back can the) "UFO's" existence can be supported? when did the word(s) for "UFO" enter each language?

_____

WORLD CUP 400AD: Roman Empire, Celts, Native Americans, Aboriginals, Africans, Arabs Japanese, East Asian ...

_____

Doesn't every word (and clause) have a first person that has said it?
who are these people?
why does it stick?
who repeats it?
when in our lifetimes does that happen (and w/ what frequency per time period of a human's life)?

_____

***Difference btwn derivational (English) + synthetic (Spanish) languages?

_____

y do we assume we talk for a reason? are we just trying to improve a social condition (or variable: D, S and R (Brown & Levinson) sometimes? we're not always delivery an invitation, request, apology, etc... Sometimes the society, the hearer or the speaker talks due to obligation, to a reason.

Me & God

This trivial situation parallels completely my feelings towards God.

my facebook update:
Wearing earplugs, I don't if my breathing or movements is annoying my roommate. I can never know, so why should I worry? I just have to be civil. This is also how I feel about God.


my tweet:
Wearing earplugs, dunno if my breathing/movements annoy roommate. I can never know, so y should I worry? I just have to be civil.... Atheism

"Michio Kaku on God" on the side

if we can only ask what god is, what more do we really want to know? what type of questions can we even ask, and therefore what answers can we even get? what dimension of "question-asking" are we at, or how much/what can one infer another is asking through a particular question? will advancement in human communication create a different dimension of asking questions? will natural language play a part in this? can we breed a language, or languages (naturally, of course), to be able to ask the RIGHT questions? is this where simply intrigue (or perhaps intelligence) plays a part in the types of question we ask? beyond the realm of culture/society, why do speakers of certain languages, talking about the same topic, ask different questions and (hence?) arrive at different conclusions regarding the same questions?

if we found Him (that's the only time i'm ever capitalizing this), would there be a need, desire, interest (, obligation?) for the guy who created us to talk to us? from how blindly human i am, i wouldn't give a shit about those things i made that one day in my m u l t i v e r s e (the megaverse of universes).

do humans even know what questions we are to be asking? but isn't that always the question: questioning our methods(?)... how can we enhance the whole questioning process? does our 'creator' or reason for way of living have anything to do with what we should do, how we should live, what we should want to know?

LET ME KNOW !


Michio Kaku on God - YouTube

this, that & how they interact

Syntax, semantics and pragmatics: There's order, there's meaning, and there's meaning to order.

tweet

Equal Subjectivity - Religion and Language

After being swormed with (what I felt like was) religious propaganda on my social networks, I had to say something...

"Will any realist agree w/ me that religion is JUST as subjective as language? i.e. If u live in Iran, u'll prob speak Persian & be Muslim, OR if ur from the USA, u'll prob speak English & be Christian. If u agree, shouldnt this subjectivity put ur belief into some perspective? If u take it as a "sign" u were born in USA & Christianity "found" u, than no need to comment, for u've already turned a blind eye to my logic"

My Facebook Status Update, 10:16am, 06/29/2010

------

***UPDATE: 11 hours later - 23 comments, 5 'likes'

thank you, twitter

I really just want to say thank you to Twitter. Every time anything feels worthy, be it an event, picturesque moment, score, information exchange, thought or feeling, I approach my documentation of that (a tweet) in different ways. Orthography corresponds to tone, which in English corresponds to difference in meaning. Punctuation (? ! :-) :-( ;-), or what have you), and actually also orthography, in frequency and placement, corresponds to many things. For a lot of tweeters: amount of emotion, exclamation, and irony, among others.


In the process of these decisions I must make during the creation of each tweet, I spend a lot of time thinking about how I'm setting the context of what I am saying. This process takes from no time to a whole lot of it. Sometimes, it is instantaneous, to the point that I have tweeted three times, only due to my urgency resulting in spelling mistakes (again, sorry for all y'all getting all 3 of those texts @elewaniii). On the other hand, I 've at times spent several minutes thinking of the manner in which I want to express something that is incredibly big news. I have even thought how I will (not would, will) tweet when I have a child, get engaged, move around the world and even about the deaths of others. I sometimes try to create the mental representation of the ideal arrangement of characters that would result in the best tweet for that situation. I take in reference the frame of the others that this would affect & how much it would affect them.

That hopefully not sounding like a ridiculous case of social paranoia, I find it very mentally stimulating from a linguistic standpoint. Questions that start with and involve, for instance, if --> then, what if, how would & would it really do provoke one to (most of the time subliminally) reference syntax, semantics, pragmatics (and I guess therefore semiotics), morphology, and even phonology if the tweet literally becomes vocal (like mine do especially with other languages). Bringing these mental processes to the conscious or perceptable levels rather than just doing them from the subliminal is, for me, at least, very undoubtedly fun, interesting, hypothetically intriguing and like i said, stimulating.

La lingua twittera is something that could not have a particular grammar due to it's great application to ALL languages, but offers its users an incredible amount of variance in ability to tweet what one desires to communicate. Is there a book on this? No no... should there be a book on that? Um, DEFinitely.


Thank you Twitter,


@rplatz