"Language is magic: it makes things appear and disappear." – Nicole Brossard
I spent part of the day neglecting my commitment to avoid the internet on Sundays, because I became obsessed with surfing random linguistics and political blogs and websites. I'm not sure why I did this, but I did find a number of interesting tidbits which, rather than trying to preserve and convert into multiple blog-posts here, I will just spew out all at once for your untimely elucitainment.
From a linguistics blogger (satirist?) called Speculative Grammarian, I discovered articles about imaginary languages and, more interestingly, imaginary linguistic theoretical constructs. For example:
The first oddness among the Oboioboioboiwikantsitstil is non-distinctive reduplication. Many speakers repeat elements of words without apparent change in meaning. Consider the following example. (Note that Oboioboioboiwikantsitstil is polysynthetic.)
(1) bin-bin-bin-bin-aistu-aistu-bin-bin-aistu- mipl-mipl-mipl- aistu-bin-aistu-aistu- mipl-mipl-iz-iz-iz- mipl-iz-iz
Imperative-Imp-Imp-Imp-1sg-1sg-Imp-Imp-1sg- use-use-use- 1sg-Imp-1sg-1sg- use-use-toilet-toilet-toilet- use-toilet-toilet.
"I need to use the restroom"
The same author subtly satirizes the current state of syntactic theory by comparing it with a non-existant theory based on the belief that the gods make us talk. He also has a manifesto that I would like to sign.
Finally, if you've ever taken a formal semantics (i.e. linguistics-meets-mathematical-logic) course at the graduate level, you might appreciate this:
λP[λQ[∼∃x[P(x)∧Q(x)]]]
<e,t>,<<e,t>,t>
What part of ‘No’ don’t you understand?
Amid the weeds of politics (or is it political theory?), I found this:
"You’ve been taught to worship democracy. This is because you are ruled by democracy. If you were ruled by the Slime Beast of Vega, you would worship the Slime Beast of Vega." – Mencius Moldbug (evidently a pseudonym of some political blogger)
[daily log: walking across the room]