[ ] rplatz

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?

Stern with Tarantino on Django & ... everything

Howard Stern interviews Quentin Tarantino on Dec 5 about, well, everything, but his new movie Django (trailer) in particular. Stern's voice is nostalgic for me and I've never heard an interview with Tarantino, so I was intrigued; but the first thing that caught my attention was when O globo tweeted that Quentin talked about how much hasheesh he smoked with Brad Pitt when filming Inglorious Bastards (and I learned this word in Portuguese via that tweet: haxixe, pronounced 'a-shee-shee'). As a hookah freak, I had to hear him say it, which happens at about 18:20. And they didn't smoke sheesha, they smoked hash... oh well, still funny, and an interesting interview in general.

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 :-)

Spring Semester 2012

Camel, Ostrich & Horse Races at Turf Paradise

A day trip to Sedona, Arizona

Graduating from ASU. My family, friends & professors!

my carry-on held...

12 pairs of socks
4 pairs boxers
26 shirts & sweaters
8 shorts & pants
a beach towel
2 beanies
3 belts
a merry christmas & casino receipt from mama
a happy holidays card from dad
a button
and a passport.

Enough to save $25 and NOT check a bag!

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!

Teaching Spanish Pragmatics & Spanish Dialectology, my two portfolio papers

I have submitted my two portfolio papers to my committee, which means I'm a presentation and another paper away from graduating! They are both written in Spanish, but I will be translating at least the phonetic one very soon. The first is on teaching Spanish pragmatics, including a role play with a L1-L2 speakers, a comparison across the mundo hispano and a lesson plan. It is an expanded and revised version of the first paper I wrote at ASU. The second is on the evolution & variation of the liquid phonemes in the dialect of Jarabacoa, a mountain town in the Dominican Republic where I interviewed some locals last Spring Break. It includes statistical analyses with GOLDVARB, as well as a cross-Romance perspective and historical references. Here are the abstracts and links to view!

"La pragmática hispánica: estudios, variación y su enseñanza"

[ LINK TO VIEW ]

Lee (2000) sostiene que el objetivo del uso de la lengua es lograr una tarea más que simplemente practicar ciertas estructuras lingüísticas (p. 9). La transmisión de palabras entre las personas tiene una meta, así que pensamos en las palabras, formamos frases, y hablamos... ¿pero es tan fácil? Si la meta de aprender otras lenguas es comunicarnos, sería necesario conocer las maneras más apropiadas, aceptables y eficientes de interacción personal. Los estudios en la enseñanza de la pragmática de Olshtain y Cohen (1991), García (1996, 2002), Judd (1999), e Ishihara y Cohen (2010) enfatizan la importancia del conocimiento de las diferencias socioculturales. Entre similitudes sociopragmáticas y pragmalingüísticas, se destaca cada comunidad de habla. El mundo hispano es muy rico en historia y cultura, variando en sus diferencias sociales y variantes de lengua, por consiguiente, el desarrollo de la competencia sociolingüística vale mucho. Este trabajo incluye un breve resumen de la variación pragmática (California, Venezuela, Ecuador, España, Perú y Uruguay) que existe en el mundo hispano. Además, analiza algunos estudios y métodos de la enseñanza de la pragmática. Luego, compara el comportamiento de hablantes nativos y no nativos en la realización de hacer una solicitud. Al tomar estos datos en cuenta, se formará un currículo pragmático para estudiantes del español.

La evolución de las líquidas del Cibao
[ LINK TO VIEW ]

Las líquidas del español dominicano varían bastante en su realización. Por toda la isla, la pronunciación de las líquidas en posición de coda se correlacionan con diferentes jerarquías de estilo y de clase social (Alba, 1979). Esta variación se define por estigmatizaciones sociales (Lipski, 2009), estilísticos (Hualde, 2005) y de edad (Alba, 2003). Las normas de cada dialecto son distintas, especialmente en el Cibao, donde las poblaciones más rurales y aisladas hablan de manera muy diferenciada, como se demuestra por el título del estudio de Alba (1985): Los cibaeños hablan con la i. Los pueblos en el Cibao se distinguen de las demás regiones dialectales por la sobrevivencia de la vocalización. Entre la lateralización, la geminación, la aspiración, y la elisión, los cibaeños también eligen sustituir una vocal o semivocal por sus líquidas en ciertos contextos. Este fenómeno ya no se produce en el español de Cuba y Puerto Rico, pero existe solamente en algunas regiones rurales de Colombia, las Islas Canarias y Andalucía. Este estudio analiza el habla de tres hombres mayores, entre 60-70 años, para ver qué cambios siguen afectando a sus líquidas. Se tomarán en cuenta algunos de los primeros estudios importantes de la región del Cibao en los años 70 y 80, una época cuando dichos participantes tenían entre 20-30 años. Los datos serán analizados estadísticamente por el programa GOLDVARB. El análisis nos permitirá determinar qué realizaciones fonéticos prefieren los infinitivos, la conjunción porque, y todas las formas del articulo el. Se compararán los procesos fonéticos a algunos dialectos románicos del idioma sardo (el campinadese y el logudorese), algunos variantes que poseen realizaciones fonéticas muy parecidas a las cibaeñas. El estudio hará hincapié en estos procesos fonéticos y sociolingüísticos desde el punto de visto sincrónico y diacrónico para proveer un análisis holístico del comportamiento de las líquidas de la región.

Europe: languages & regional dialects

The linguistic situation in Europe is a tricky one, as regional languages and dialects cross national and cultural borders without regret. This map is great, giving priority to regional/indigenous languages as well as coloring by family. The Romance languages are green and quite diverse!