Linguistic Security

•June 6, 2009 • Leave a Comment

As I was passing through the security check at Stansted the other day, I over-heard the following conversation at customs:

Police Officer: Excuse me sir. May I see your passport and boarding pass?
Customer/Smartly dressed business man: Of course [gives the officer his documents]
Police Officer: Swedish. Are you Swedish sir?
Smartly dressed business man: Yes, I’m Swedish.
Police Officer: What is the purpose of your visit?
Smartly dressed business man: Business.
Police Officer: Do you speak Swedish, sir?

Interesting linguistic security check-point at Stansted.

Onomastic Structures

•April 16, 2009 • Leave a Comment

 

1742989-lg1
Names and Structure of names. Europe and Africa. Linguistic Archaeology.

Read On.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© ”Foot Map” by Ben Couvillion.

The Interesting Thing about च in Sanskrit

•February 11, 2009 • 1 Comment

kashmir_sharada_msSanskrit coordination (i.e. conjoining)  is asymmetrical. Its syntax is very peculiar.

Read On.

Blasphemous Syntax: Nominal Case Synthesis & Maximalist Program

•January 17, 2009 • Leave a Comment

5898889-lgThe distinction between Synthetic and Analytic Case does not really reflect the Slavonic linguistic behaviour as it does refract into a blasphemous Maxmalist Program.

Read on.

Blasphemous Semantics: Movement into Argument Position

•December 23, 2008 • Leave a Comment

6201295-lgNominalised APs seem to λ-skip a step when it comes to functional application (FA) . Normal Adjuncts – that APs are esentially identified with – encounter a paradigmatic functional application. However, I am not not confident in distinguishing the FA mode with (i) specifiers, (ii) adjuncts, and (iii) complements. Walking to from University into town, I usually pass a shop with a big sign, saying, “Your Local Needs you.” It made think for a while, and this is what I came up with.  Read On.

Finding a Bin in London Town: A Global Challenge

•September 23, 2008 • Leave a Comment

It a know fact there is only one bin in London Town and even the one has probably been removed in the last few moment, naturally, due to security reasons. I have just been chasing a kind man with the official bin liner across St Pancras to put the Lion chocolate bar remainders into its rightful place. I also had tea to take-away and was immediately sorry for taking it away as no-one would take the cup away from me afterwards.

… talk to the world with a concise anthropological theory explaining this (Darwinian!) phenomenon as soon as I get rid of this tea cup, legally.

Airport Syntax:

•September 5, 2008 • Leave a Comment

Dare Existence
Be Trapped in an Experience?

One lies sitting in a strange but not uncomfortable position when defined by experience, at an airport.

The resolute danger of the freakish part of self is still and in awe. The X-bar schemata has nothing to say to this gargantuan feel of eternity. And yet sublimity. True vastness is always sublime. Every sunset, every single sunset, is sublime and subtle.

Today, it decided to rain. And teem with evening. Other people resume with picking up the expensive Diors and staring at me through their expensive and Italian pair of glasses. Some go on to give impression of their texting Short messages. Some abandon veneer and prefer to pick their nose, in an elegantly airportly manner. Some smile with royal consonance. Those exploring their noses have elegant bags, full of shortbread, naturally Scottish, pastries. Others simply cannot escape their being bored. And exhausted.

But what is so exhausting? Perchance the cosmic pressure of flying. Perchance doing Inflectional Phrases, like I do. Perhaps it is a mix of both. Perchance neither. One never knows, until discovering the meaning. And meaning is what I study. What I read. And write about.

God bless meaning. Now I see how meaningful it is to realise the meaninglessness. Meaningfulness? Beyond Frege!

By now, people have begun to stare at me. With awe. And surprise. Some are simply surprised by the shining apple logo I have on the back. I dare even wear one on the front. And even on the side

Oh, I see now, why their persevere to stare at My Own Self. They stare because I have no shoes on. No, I have only stripped, well-striped, socks off my feet that lay crossed below my lap. But no, I am not The Dane. Some no longer stare. But it is no comfortable here, shoes constrain me. Severly. Well, not severely, but to an extent. Blessed be meaningful constraints.

Last call to Gaul. Is that what she said.? Gaul? I doubt there is still such a place as Gaul. And I further doubt that Gauls would be the ones being the City keepers. It should (have) be(en) a city, with proper City Walls, as Yorke has them. They should role-model City Walls across the world as we know it.

But now, I must go back whence I am from. Go back and seek. Not a better tomorrow. I have that. (I have an intricately ecstatic tomorrow.) I must—want to—go and seek a better today (or at least that dim part of the to-day). A new diachronic definition of My Own Self. I am not so sure about the resultant, I am not so sure about the determinant herself, you see (I do not!). Still, I will not attempt to read Finnegans Wake. Ulysses has awaited long enough. Finnegans may do so even longer my further ages.

People have cleared up by now. Rarely anyone stares at me now. I just might put on my shoes and see the time of my flight. Perhaps not yet. No, not just yet.

I have just changed the position of my feet. Which is cool. And pain-less.

I may stop writing now and go work on my Beyond Axiom Hypothesis. I find myself thinking about the magnitude of some of the ideas I have. I find myself believing in their being great and uncompromising. And fierce. They are so hard to implement. Who would believe me? Most people I know would laugh and be sceptic. Well, skepticism is a start, isn’t it? Yes, I think it’s a lovely start.

A Letter Concerning Elliding Economy & Functionality: Evidence From Slovene

•April 2, 2008 • 1 Comment

Inducing Hypothesis

I propose some evidence in favour of economical ellipsis and syntactic functionality that is reflected in Slovene greeting phrases—presupposing other languages share the feature.

The “headed-gradation” in Slovene for “hello,” or “good day” can be said to be as represented in (1):

(1) a dan → b dober dan → c želim dober dan → d želim Vam dober dan

aday (n; msc, sg)b good (adj; msc, sg) day (n; msc, sg)c wish (v; 1st prs, sg) good (adj, msc, sg) day (n; msc, sg)d wish (v; 1st prs, sg) you (pro; 3rd prs, emphatic-polite, sg, dative case) good (adj, msc, sg) day (n; msc, sg)

Applying constituency tests, an interesting observation is in place after seeing (1a—d). Theoretical assumption for (1d) constituents would be:

(2) Želim Vam dober dan
wish (verb;1st sg) you (pro; 3rd prs, emphatic-polite, sg, dative case)) good (adj;msc sg) day (n;msc sg)
“I wish you a good day”

(3) ♣(IP) /…/♣(VP) Želim ♣(NP) ♣(N’) Vam♣ ♣(NP) ♣(N’)♣(AP) dober ♣(NP) dan ♣♣♣♣

The Syntax of a “Hello”

In case of headed-gradation shown in (1), we can see that (1c) grading into (1d) allows pro-drop. The latter, then, can be regarded as a pro-emphatic form as personal properties in Slovene language are embedded within verbal features. Let us now see the structural parse of (1) shown in (4)

(4)
tree-final2.png

The number of red brackets show the probability of the constituent being elided (more the brackets, greater the probability).

As seen in (4), the constituent heading the entire phrase is the lowest N. Herefrom follows (or may follow!) the generalisation that the local head of a phrase, heading the “supraphrase,” may project its headedness from minimal to maximal projection. The principle is generalised in (5).

(5)

X (local) ♣local phrase X (global) ♣supra-local phrase

A counterargument could be the spec-fronting, only denoting an emphatic form of (1d), for instance. (6) shows the structural movement of spec-fronting.

(6)
tree-fronting.png

A Darwinian N-climbing

The generality of this evidence from Slovene greetings is the formality language performs in an economical and thoroughly functional way, diminishing the unnecessary, herein proven as periphery, constituents and solely projecting its local head onto a maximal level.

Res Celtica: A “Fort” Onomastic Account, Vol. I

•February 21, 2008 • Leave a Comment
  • Dùn Èideann
  • London
  • Dresden
  • Donegal < Dùn na nGall
  • Dunaj (?<? Vienna < Vindobona < “white”)
  • Dunav / Donava / Danube
  • Amsterdam (?)
  • Denmark (??)
  • et multa cetera
Join us next week when we look at the amazingly scary distribution of Celtic root stem √*drn across a hydronymic Europe!

Bukowski: Poetry & Motion

•February 8, 2008 • Leave a Comment