The TV ad that put Bush over the top
I actually believe that this ad (which I didn't see out here in CA) is what could have made the difference in the election.
Archive for the 'Linguistics' Category
What's a Hmoobian?
Who is George Lakoff and what's he doing with Howard Dean?
As if I weren't already moderately inclined to like Howard Dean, the fact that he's read Lakoff only makes me like him that much more.
This is a pretty awesome article. From moral fashion to heresy to taboos, this article covers a lot of topics that has the cultural anthropologist and the cognitive linguist in my thinking. However, I admit it's a little heavy hypotheses and a little thin on actual conclusions.
Possibly more interesting than the 2004 list is the archive going back all the way to 1976. Also, I would like to point out that the "X" obsession started -- and I bitched about it -- long before 2003. However, I stand by my belief that Apple can legitimately use the X in OS X.
New words in the Oxford Dictionary of English 2003-08-21(Includes the word blog!) (PDF)
Okay, I admit that this is really word-geeky, but this thing is really fascinating. But of particular note, in my opinion, is inclusion of the word "blog." I'm still reading, though, so there may be other cool things in there, too.
Damn generation gap. I made the same joke she did and didn't even realize it.
Mom: Also, how come you were up to early this morning? I was really surprised when you messaged me back so quick.
Me: Roofers.
Mom: Very funny. Caffeine I'd believe.
Me: I said roofers, not RUFFIES. You know, roofers, like the fuckers who come and bang hammers on the roof at god awful hours of the morning? Not the date rape drug.
Saving the Net / Who Owns What?
Admittedly, this link has been all over today, but it was a really good editorial, and it even referenced Lakoff / Moral Politics. Actually, some of what was in this article reminded me of what my Lakoff term paper was supposed to be about, but this article had a much better execution than my term paper. And the brief mention of Howard Dean at the end of the article finally got me to go check him out, which I'm really glad I did.
I mainly post this because it's a cheap link. That is, this is a bit of a meta-link that links to many other (more interesting) things, some of which are better than others, though they're all about swearing.
Anti-war slogan coined, repurposed and Googlewashed... in 42 days
This is a cool story of blogging and its effects on Google. I really like the possibilities of using google as a linguistic tool, and this sort of behavior is actually data if that's your goal.
My speech goes through phases of phrases. For example, lately I've been using the following words way more than is healthy:
- Legitimate/Illegitimate. As in, "Is this a legitimate approach?" or "That was completely illegitimate!"
- Sufficient/Insufficient. As in, "I am sufficiently hungry."
- Ridiculous. As in, "That was completely ridiculous."
- Failure. As in, "I am a."
- 17. As in, "I am 17 tired." When someone asks "Out of what?" my reply of choice has been, "It doesn't matter."
Mainly, I think it'll be interesting for me to document these every few months or so, to chart the progress of my language.
Whew, today's midterm was a killer. I only had 75 minutes to do a test that I think would have taken me about two hours to do well. Needless to say, I felt a little rushed. And on top of it being too long, I just wasn't entirely sure what kind of answers they wanted on a lot of the questions. The problem was I just had too much to say about any given thing they asked, so I wasn't really sure how to reasonably constrain it to what they were looking for.
I've got the feeling that I'll get the test back and for most of the things I got wrong, I'll say "Damnit, I knew that, but didn't think that's what they wanted." If it'd been an interactive test (like an interview), I know I would have been able to show that I knew what I was doing.
Bah, grumble. I'll just have to wait and see.
In other news, tonight finds me working on my Ling 106 midterm. Here's a Lakoff quote about the topic of one of our three midterm questions from yesterday in lecture:
- "Doing a metaphorical analysis of the etymologies of 150 or so words would make a great dissertation, but it would also take some real intellectual courage. Indo-European etymology is a nasty field. It's a cutthroat business. You'd be attacked by pretty much everyone."
-- George Lakoff