Productivity (linguistics) Puns

Series: MIT Press

Hardcover: 280 pages

Publisher: The MIT Press (October 14, 2016)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0262035324

ISBN-13: 978-0262035323

I have a friend who works on early childhood nutrition and breastfeeding. She's observed that the use of the word "chestfeeding" is on the rise in the field (at conferences, in publications, etc). The idea, I guess, is that trans men who breastfeed might be offended or triggered by the term breastfeeding?

To me, this seems thoroughly absurd. If you're feeding a baby breastmilk...from your breast...why would it be problematic to call that breastfeeding?

It also strikes me as insultingly infantilizing of the trans community. It seems to reveal a belief that trans people are extremely sensitive and that you need to walk on eggshells around them lest the slightest unintentional offense be given through use of a word like "breastfeeding."

But then again, I'm not trans, so maybe I'm failing to appreciate the importance to individuals among the trans community. It's not like changing language use is a huge deal, so I'd be open to it if it's actually important to people, but that's what I'd like to find out. Is using "chestfeeding" instead of "breastfeeding" helpful for individuals within the trans community? Or is it just nonsense?

Long ago I read one of William Gibson's novels in which he describes a series of characters that mask their voices by generating word-like sounds from non-linguistic sources. In particular, his description of a character who spoke using words generated from the sounds of glass breaking has really stuck with me for many years.

With the advent of accessible machine learning and voice emulation software, I recently realized this might be possible, but I'm not sure where to start.

Most systems I've found, particularly deep fake voice mimicry, generally require a reference corpus of voice recordings/similar. As such, I currently believe the right first step would be finding a way to algorithmically modify sounds from a (yet-to-be-compiled) database of glass sounds in order to approach an intelligible level of word generation. I don't currently have a preference regarding voice modulation vs text-to-speech, though I'm sure they each have their specific benefits and weaknesses.

Some surface-level googling lead me to this article from 2019 which feels likely to point me in the right direction, though I am too woefully undertrained to know for sure without a significant amount of time invested. Though I am willing to commit an unreasonable amount of work to this (as it is a passion project with no specific timeframe), it just feels prudent to check with folks who know better than I do before I spend months learning a system that may or may not be appropriate for what I'm trying to generate.

Does anyone have any advice, specific or general, regarding this kind of project? Additionally, if there is a more appropriate place to ask these questions, please don't hesitate to tell me to get lost (preferably with directions to where to go to stop being lost). Don't worry if recommendations are likely to go over my head, I am more than willing to do the foundational research if the process looks promising.

tl;dr I want to train a program to generate speech using the sounds of broken glass as a reference, how do?

I'm pretty chill so ama. Even controversial ones lol

Edit 1: I'll answer the rest tomorrow cause it's 3am here

Hi all! In a separate discussion, I saw some people discussing why some features are commonly coded in languages (such as plurality) while other hypothetically possible distinctions don't seem to ever be coded/lexicalized in natural languages (such as a distinction between drinking from a round container vs drinking from a square container). Theoretically, you can make up any distinction you want, and ask "why isn't this random distinction coded in natural languages?" But usually this won't be an interesting question, since we don't have a reason to expect such a distinction. However, I'm curious about whether you can think of any distinctions which you might expect to be coded (in natural languages), but aren't. (I thought this topic is interesting enough to deserve its own post, rather than being buried deep within the original post, hope that's okay!)

Hi everyone! My team is a group of phD students at Hunan University, China. Our project is about how to promote English speech perception and production of Chinese learners of English**.**

The ideal candidate should be US English native speakers with no knowledge of Mandarin (Chinese) and any other languages of Eastern countries, such as Japanese, Korean, etc. The age should be from 18 to 27 years old. Last but not least, he or she should have normal hearing and not any speech impairments.

The experiment material including instructions will be sent to the participants by email, and conducted as required of the instructions in a quiet environment (your home or any other place you like). The experiment will last about 1.5 hours (besides the preparation work, such as software installment and instruction reading, etc.) and be paid 30 dollars in total through PayPal. It will be remitted in advance upon your agreement. It is hoped to be completed before February 25, 2021.

If you would like to join the experiment, please fill in the following table and send it back to the mailbox hmmachael@hnu.edu.cn with subject line “Linguistics experiment + name.” The material is only for the experiment use and will be sealed after that. Thank you!

Any questions can be directed to Michael at hmmachael@hnu.edu.cn.

Thank you in advance for your time!

Hear me out.

I don't scarcely read books, I'm fairly a fond of them although I wouldn't be able to hold a candle to a great number of teenage enthusiasts of fictional novels as I tend to prefer textbooks and problem-filled books that seek to expand understanding in a different way. Thus, I expect that I read marginally less than them. But I reckon that this does not rule out my amazement in the semantic acrobatics that Christopher Tolkien performs even before the book actually begins. This leads me to stall in my progress in reading the texts in a manner a reader would typically approach such a book - by siphoning every paragraph into their comprehension flowingly. However, I cannot hope to be undistracted by the potential verbal tools that I could be missing if I were not to indulge myself in searching for the definitions of novel words that I come by. Thus lengthening the time it takes for me to finish even a few pages. I understand that in order to absorb certain words easily, you could simply analyze it in the context given by the writer, however I rarely find myself in the situation where that falls perfectly into place. Doubts whether I interpreted a word correctly comes across my mind and I am immediately stimulated to instead ascertain it through stalling my reading and searching for the word's meaning.

I therefore humbly ask for the advice of more seasoned readers and literature enthusiasts in this community in enhancing my productivity in reading. Should I continue treading this long road in the manner aforementioned, or should I perhaps consider changing my curious habit of overthinking (if you would think of it like that).

This is a massive deal for me, because not only do I get to compete in the international round, but I also don't have to do entrance exams for linguistics at the university where I want to study anymore - they'll accept me based just on my performance! Wanted to share this with someone and this sub came to mind :)

What's something that brought you joy recently?

Hello again everyone! I have decided to compile and work on this list as I was asked a few times, and do believe this would be of interest. It was certainly interesting to work on. As most of you know, there has been a growing presence of Sue Walker (a noted psychic/medium from New Mexico) who believes to have been able to channel contact with a group of ET’s which reside in underground bases throughout Northern America, specifically with one primary location being in New Mexico. She runes a website (officialfirstcontact.com) and a twitter account (https://twitter.com/SandiaWisdom?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor) where nearly all of this information comes from. She has made extraordinary claims such as bigfoot being in contact with ET’s, large underground ET bases as well as telepathic communication. It’s quite interesting to someone in these communities, and so I understand the interest! I have decided to spend a while trying to dig through what I could and present it to you.

A quick note: My academic interest is in linguistics generally and historical evolution, as well as some personal interest in syntax. I am not a forensic linguist, and as such I did not try to analyze any of the written english documents available on the website. I have only taken into account the verbal and written language which is supposed to be of Foreign origin. My goal here was to analyze the supposed extra-terrestrial language utilized on both the website and the twitter account to try to understand more about the supposed Foreign Entities who would speak it, and see if we can come to any conclusions about what they may sound like and if they may resemble other prominent stories (such as that of TAA). I will present my analysis in the following steps: Audio Analysis, Lexicon and Orthography, Phonetics, Morphology, Syntax and finally a conclusion in which I will summarize my findings and give my personal opinion. Let’s begin:

Audio Analysis

First, let's talk about the audio evidence that was presented. There are only two very short clips listed on the website that do not clearly show anything, are of few supposed words and with zero context. If we are assuming they are legitimately of foreign origin we can assume that they speak in what may be presumed as a General American Accent, with higher pitched voices and a hissy/raspy voice. This could be due to a la

Hello, for reference I am an anarcho communist. I am new to Chomsky and his philosophy, so I am wondering why Chomsky would study linguistics as he was famously a philosopher.

Hi Reddit! I’m John McWhorter, professor of linguistics, American studies, and music history at Columbia University and host of the Lexicon Valley podcast on Slate. I’ve written multiple books that examine the way we speak, write, and read.

In my new book, NINE NASTY WORDS, I investigate nine of our favorite curse words from every angle – historical, sociological, political, and linguistic – to show how, as language evolves, so, too, does what we consider profane or unspeakable. I share where our urge to curse comes from(hint: it’s not the same part of the brain that processes speech), why “hell” is the most confoundingly illogical swear word, and why you do, in fact, need all of those different slang words for “phallus,” among other topics, with the goal of helping readers understand what makes these (mostly) 4-letter words so much more than words.

If you have questions about the origin of the word “f*ck,” today’s most taboo swear words, George Carlin’s infamous comedy routine, or just want to share your favorite piece of profanity, I am here for it. AMA!

Proof: https://twitter.com/JohnHMcWhorter/status/1389282983278960643

This may be a long post, sorry for that, a TLDR is that most archeological and genetic evidence goes against this theory, while linguistic evidence (might) be in favor of it.
I also included a summary of this post towards the end. The word list occupies a lot of space in this post, so don't worry, it's not as long as it looks; you can simply read the compared words without the explanations.

I'll list the evidence against and in favor of this theory.

EVIDENCE AGAINST THE THEORY

The 2 main theories about the origin of the Etruscans propose that:

1. they were either autochthonous to Italy (possibly a continuation of the Proto-Villanovan culture);
2. hey had migrated from the Aegean sea, as claimed by two Greek historians: Herodotus, who described them as a group of immigrants from Lydia in Anatolia, and Hellanicus of Lesbos who claimed that the Tyrrhenians were the Pelasgians (pre-greeks, considered the speakers of the Pre-Greek substrate language) originally from Thessaly, Greece, who entered Italy at the head of the Adriatic sea.

Archeological and genetic research seems to point towards the first theory. I quote from Wikipedia:

>According to modern scholars, and specifically etruscologists, all the evidence gathered so far points to an indigenous origin of the Etruscans. Moreover, there is no archeological evidence for a migration of the Lydians or the Pelasgians into Etruria. The earliest evidence of a culture that is identifiably Etruscan dates from about 900 BC: this is the period of the Iron Age Villanovan culture, considered to be the earliest phase of Etruscan civilization, which itself developed from the previous late Bronze Age Proto-Villanovan culture in the same region.

I feel that the Italian article is more complete, and offers more sources (especially regarding genetic research). Genetic analysis on Etruscan samples shows that there is very little genetic difference between Etruscans and Latins (or, more generally, Indo-Europeans), but for some reason, the Etruscans maintained a Pre-Indo-European language. The same situation is found with the Basque: they are genetically close to the 'Steppe peoples', but at the same time they're one of the few non-Indo-European speakers of Europe. This probably means that (in both cases) the IndoEuropean immigrating population mixed with the previous pre-IE popul

When a group of animals has a name distinct from the name of the animal, that name is called a collective noun. What are some fun collective nouns you’ve seen in fantasy, or ones that you’ve come up with? I had the idea of calling a group of golems a “swamp” or a “field” (as in scree field), which got me wondering…

Hello, guys

I am rewatching Archer because, long story short, I used to watch every season as soon as it came out but I never got into "the coma seasons." I am basically trying to come in start to finish with a fresh perspective. Similar to how Halo 5 disappointed many at least in part because of the "we waited THIS LONG for THIS?" dynamic, I think it's possible the coma seasons are more entertaining than I gave them credit. Anyway, that's my story but not the point of the post.

In season 4, episode 8 "Coyote Lovely" there is a line I never appreciated before.

Archer: Mexico's most notorious coyote, which is español for "people smuggler."

Lana: Thanks. That's-

Archer: And also for... coyote, it turns out.

Lana: Archer-

Archer: It's a loanword. Or is it a calque?

So, a loanword is something that is straight borrowed from another language and used for the same meaning. A good example of a loanword would be "quesadilla."

A calque is something that is borrowed from another language but translated. So, for example if you know something "by heart" you know it "par cœur" which, literally translates from French is "by heart."

In this case, it's hard to determine whether coyote is a loanword or a calque because it's sort of both. My money is more on loanword than calque, but still - technically, you're taking the Spanish meaning of people-smuggler and assigning it to the word coyote which is translated from the Spanish coyote. Since the word is originally from Nahuatl, I suppose it's a Nahuatl loanword to Spanish and an English calque?

Something that interested me right off the bat with the post was the use of language between TAA and Jack/Gina. Linguistics is the primary area of my own studies, so obviously I wanted to see what I could determine from the post from a linguistic standpoint. This is intended to be a brief, and thought provoking look at the topic and not a comprehensive research aspect. I have broken it down into 2 areas: Modes of communication and dialectology. This may be a long post, so I apologize in advance.

Starting with the latter, the first thing that stuck out to me was the clear difficulty with vowels being presented. This is a fairly common phenomenon for people speaking a foreign language, as unlike consonants vowels are fluid. Vowels contain consistency and quality, which fluctuate not only by dialect but also by the individual. Vowels are notoriously difficult for learners of a language, so it actually makes sense that another being not accustomed to speaking English natively would struggle with said vowels. Where it becomes interesting is the manner in which the differences in vowel quality show through in the transcription provided by TAA in the word “aaiitee”.

In linguistics, we usually transcribe audible sounds used within language using what is known as the [International Phonetic Alphabet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet). This is in order to attempt to preserve accuracy of the original phonetics used by individual speakers. Obviously, these were not provided by TAA in explaining how the sounds of the foreign speakers seemed to him, but from the single word transcription he gave us I believe I can at least make an attempted IPA transcription from the word given in his approximation: “aaitee”. Keep in mind, this is my subjective interpretation of the intended transcription.

Note: I recommend taking a look at [this chart for vowel references](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA_vowel_chart_with_audio)

I am working with the assumption that TAA is from North America, and probably speaks some variant of a General American Dialect. From this assumption he probably pronounces “eight” and “eighteen” as “/eɪt/” and “/ˈeɪ(t).tin/” respectively, with the occasional diphthongization of the first syllabized vowel group. From this, we can possibly understand from what starting point TAA would expect to h

https://preview.redd.it/8omxreyd4g471.png?width=487&format=png&auto=webp&s=dd362f6c61ab51f98ec45b0c5d6e6edc049b985e

Registration for the Linguistics Bowl Summer Tournament of Fun is now open! (click here)

Welcome to the Linguistics League’s Summer /ˈtʊɹnəmənt/ of /fʌn/! The Tournament is a month-long opportunity for middle and high school students (including graduated 12th-graders) to participate in linguistics-themed events and activities in July! Registrants may participate in and register for as many or few activities as they would like but some activities have limited space, so sign up soon!!

We’re planning a Linguistics Bowl competition, a language-learning challenge, a speedlanging (conlanging) challenge, linguistics-themed scavenger hunts, research presentations and workshops, and more! Also, we’re honored to be hosting David J. Peterson u/dedalvs as a guest speaker and possibly Mark Okrand as well!

To learn more about what events we have planned and when, see our event descriptions and calendar. Once you’ve registered at the link above, you should receive a confirmation email with more information about the events you’ve registered for and a link to join our tournament discord server.

If you have any questions, feel free to dm us or comment here – otherwise, see you in July!!

– The LingLeague Team

Hi everyone! My team is a group of phD students at Hunan University, China. Our project is about how to promote English speech perception and production of Chinese learners of English**.**

The ideal candidate should be US English native speakers with no knowledge of Mandarin (Chinese) and any other languages of Eastern countries, such as Japanese, Korean, etc. The age should be from 18 to 27 years old. Last but not least, he or she should have normal hearing and not any speech impairments.

The experiment material including instructions will be sent to the participants by email, and conducted as required of the instructions in a quiet environment (your home or any other place you like). The experiment will last about 1.5 hours (besides the preparation work, such as software installment and instruction reading, etc.) and be paid 30 dollars in total through PayPal. It will be remitted in advance upon your agreement. It is hoped to be completed before February 25, 2021.

If you would like to join the experiment, please fill in the following table and send it back to the mailbox hmmachael@hnu.edu.cn with subject line “Linguistics experiment + name.” The material is only for the experiment use and will be sealed after that. Thank you!

1.Name

2.Sex

3.Age

4.Mother tongue

5.Right-handed / left-handed?

6.Educational level

7.School

8.Major

9.Any music training? And how long (months)?

10.Any hearing problems?

11. Contact (Tel)

12. Valid PayPal email

Any questions can be directed to Michael at hmmachael@hnu.edu.cn.

Thank you in advance for your time!

Hello again everyone! I have decided to compile and work on this list as I was asked a few times, and do believe this would be of interest. It was certainly interesting to work on. As most of you know, there has been a growing presence of Sue Walker (a noted psychic/medium from New Mexico) who believes to have been able to channel contact with a group of ET’s which reside in underground bases throughout Northern America, specifically with one primary location being in New Mexico. She runs a website (officialfirstcontact.com) and a twitter account (https://twitter.com/SandiaWisdom?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor) where nearly all of this information comes from. She has made extraordinary claims such as bigfoot being in contact with ET’s, large underground ET bases as well as telepathic communication. It’s quite interesting to someone in these communities, and so I understand the interest! I have decided to spend a while trying to dig through what I could and present it to you.

A quick note: My academic interest is in linguistics generally and historical evolution, as well as some personal interest in syntax. I am not a forensic linguist, and as such I did not try to analyze any of the written English documents available on the website. I have only taken into account the verbal and written language which is supposed to be of Foreign origin. My goal here was to analyze the supposed extra-terrestrial language utilized on both the website and the twitter account to try to understand more about the supposed Foreign Entities who would speak it, and see if we can come to any conclusions about what they may sound like and if they may resemble other prominent stories (such as that of TAA). I will present my analysis in the following steps: Audio Analysis, Lexicon and Orthography, Phonetics, Morphology, Syntax and finally a conclusion in which I will summarize my findings and give my personal opinion. Let’s begin:

Audio Analysis

First, let's talk about the audio evidence that was presented. There are only two very short clips listed on the website that do not clearly show anything, are of few supposed words and with zero context. If we are assuming they are legitimately of foreign origin we can assume that they speak in what may be presumed as a General American Accent, with higher pitched voices and a hissy/raspy voice. This could be due to a lack