Joie de vivre

Z Eats Blackberries

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 17:19:02 GMT

Ew

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:05:16 GMT

If there was one place I thought I might be safe from Michael Jackson music, surely it was a swing dance. But no. Tonight I swing danced to "Billie Jean." I feel dirty. :P

Happy Birthday!

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:16:41 GMT

Happy birthday to my wonderful, sweet, funny, brilliant, delightful husband. I love you!

Another Survey - For SCIENCE (Fiction)!

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:28:50 GMT

I have permission from my historical linguistics professor to do my final paper on science fiction vocabulary. I'd appreciate it if you'd take the time to complete my survey. It's both simpler and a bit harder than the last one--there are fewer questions, but they're probably harder to answer. There are no "right" and "wrong" answers; I'm looking for your common semantic knowledge about certain terms. If you don't know a term, that's still data. :)

Click Here to Take Survey

As always, feel free to re-post this to your personal blogs, other communities, Facebook, etc.

Hot Jam

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:32:07 GMT

It was almost exactly three years ago that I attended my first Hot Jam dance in Buckhead and saw my first jam circle. This wasn't the kind of jam circle I talked about recently, a birthday or celebration circle. No, this was the other kind, with the fast music and amazing-awesome dancers. And I saw a couple named Bobby and Kate swing into the circle. The danced like this. And they danced like this. And my jaw dropped, and my eyes lit up, and I exclaimed, "I want to dance with him!"

As it turns out, Bobby White and Kate Hedin are internationally acclaimed, award-winning dance instructors. They used to live in Atlanta, but moved to DC the year I started dancing. They still show up from time to time to teach a class, and tonight's Hot Jam drew the lucky number. Bobby showed up to teach a class on creative dance technique, and stayed for the open dancing afterwards.

The class was great; we did a lot of experimentation with styling and creativity. The dance afterward was *fantastic*. Bobby's a big name in the lindy hop world, and I'm sure tonight's crowded dance floor was at least in part due to his presence. I danced with a lot of my favorite partners, and round about the middle of the evening, I screwed up my courage and asked Bobby to dance. And you know? I did pretty well. Actually, I think I did really well. I was creative, I was stylish, I followed everything he led. It felt good. It felt great. And I think he had a good time, too.

I think I'll always feel like I still have a long way to go before my dancing is as good as I want it to be. But tonight felt like a milestone. I asked Bobby White to dance. And I didn't suck. Life is good.

This is kind of cool

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:56:08 GMT

And possibly of interest to costumers

July 4, 2009
Strands of American History

It’s a kind of calligraphy, these ringlets and waves, hair combed, twisted and pinned. A first lady’s coiffure is a pattern, chosen as deliberately as the White House china, but prey to wind and rain, especially on cold Inauguration Days. It’s also prey to public opinion, should she dare to make quixotic changes in her ’do — a sign of flippancy and flip-flopping. Notice there are no flips. In the beginning, we see a newborn empire in those Josephine curls. The mid-20th century is marcelled. And in recent decades, increasingly liberated first ladies sport more leonine locks. Interestingly, there are no bangs. Perhaps this has less to do with hair and more to do with campaign promises of marital harmony and world peace.

—LAURA JACOBS, the author, most recently, of “The Bird Catcher”

Hair-Portraits of First Ladies. From left to right: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Martha Randolph,* Dolley Madison, Elizabeth Monroe, Louisa Adams, Rachel Jackson,** Hannah Van Buren,** Anna Harrison, Letitia Tyler, Julia Tyler, Sarah Polk, Margaret Taylor, Abigail Fillmore, Jane Pierce, Harriet Lane,*** Mary Lincoln, Eliza Johnson, Julia Grant, Lucy Hayes, Lucretia Garfield, Ellen Arthur,** Frances Cleveland, Caroline Harrison, Frances Cleveland, Ida McKinley, Edith Roosevelt, Helen Taft, Ellen Wilson, Edith Wilson, Florence Harding, Grace Coolidge, Lou Hoover, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bess Truman, Mamie Eisenhower, Jacqueline Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama.

* Served as hostess for her father, Thomas Jefferson. **Died before her husband became president. *** Served as hostess for her uncle, James Buchanan. ** Served as hostess in the White House for her uncle, James Buchanan.

Christina Christoforou is an artist and an illustrator.

Need Clever Idea

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:06:20 GMT

I had this wonderful idea: I want to get a kiddie pool to set up on the deck, so I can let Z splash around in there, and not have to worry about sunblock, since it's under the roof. I had the deck reinforced to support that much weight when it was remodeled, without thinking of the other clever idea I'd need:

How would I drain the pool??

We Should Have Named Him Hercules

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:51:11 GMT

Follow the link to see Z wrestle a giant serpent

Feux d'artifice

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 03:54:43 GMT

Just got back from fireworks in Decatur Square. The weather was unusually pleasant for Atlanta in July--this past week, it's cooled off from insanely hot to merely very hot, and tonight was almost cool.

There's something very nostalgic about going to see fireworks on the 4th of July. Many things have changed about the world--and about me!--since I was a little girl, but this isn't one of them. We still congregate with hundreds of people in some public outdoor venue to watch the lights in the sky. Someday Z will be old enough not to be scared by the noise, and we'll take him along. And someday he'll take his kids.

Happy Independence Day!

15 Months

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:42:40 GMT

Z is 31 inches long and weighs 21 lbs, 128 oz. I am sure he's heavier, though. As one of the moms at our sign language class said, that's not the wiggle-weight.

He checks out healthy and fit. He has a little bit of eczema on his legs, which we've been treating with hydrocortisone, and ptosis of the right eyelid--which just means his eyelid droops a little bit. We took him to a pediatric ophthalmologist (and boy, is that a mouthful), who said it's nothing to be concerned about as long as it doesn't obscure his vision. It doesn't so far, and we have a follow-up appointment in six months.

The pediatrician who did his 15-month checkup was slightly concerned that he wasn't walking yet, and, ironically, is concerned about his language development. Apparently, he's supposed to be following simple commands (come here, bring mommy the ball), and indicating when he wants something. Honestly, sometimes he does come when I call him, but if he doesn't, how could I tell if that's because he didn't understand me or because he had something better to do? But the doctor said if he's not doing some of this, walking, and using about 6-8 words, by 18 months, we should consider having him "evaluated."

I'm not terribly worried about it myself. He took a long time to work his way up to crawling; he'll sort out walking when he's ready. And he's got the one word, mama and dada seem to be happening, and occasionally we get "chee" for cheese, and "app" for apple. I didn't dare tell her I'd been speaking French to him, for fear I'd get that hoary old chestnut of a speech about how raising children bilingually is detrimental to speech development. :P

Z wishes you all a safe and happy Fourth of July! (Actually, he said "ss sshhh ag a ba guk!" but I'm sure that's what it means.)

Birthday Greetings

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:14:12 GMT

Happy birthday to the lovely eponasr! I hope you're having fun!

A Load of Bull (Costume Progress)

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:27:21 GMT

Hooves:

...

Cutting out the mask:

Does it seem ironic to be making a bull out of leather?

Z Makes Art

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:44:16 GMT

Our cutting-edge post-modernist sculptor makes his debut.

First, the cucumbers

Now it needs some cheerios.

More cheerios!

...

Almost done!

...

It certainly speaks to the innermost psyche, doesn't it? I think it represents the Jungian archetype of man's fear of Jungian archetypes.

Blueberry Nose Boy

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:10:30 GMT

Something you thought you'd never see

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:04:45 GMT

Yes, I like to hold babies now. This is Eli Allan Williamson, 1 month old:

Baby's First Wiring Project

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:02:28 GMT

zudaru gives Z a lesson in practical electronics:

The Baby Whisperer

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:27:46 GMT

We had dinner tonight with a friend I used to work with. She and her husband have just had a baby. I had forgotten how tiny newborns are! So teeny! Yes, I held the baby. I even got him to quiet down and stop fussing by applying some of Dr. Karp's 5 Ss, thus earning gratified and impressed looks from the hostess. Yeah, that's me, expert baby soother. Heh.

Dance Goal Met!

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:10:19 GMT

When I started taking private lindy lessons, I decided I'd better set a more specific goal than "get better at dancing." So one of my dance goals this year was to be confident enough to dance in a jam circle.

There are two kinds of jam circles. The kind I aspired to is the easier one--everyone circles up on the floor around someone celebrating a birthday, or someone visiting the dance from out of town, or someone celebrating something special, and while the DJ plays one or two songs, the lucky person gets to dance with all comers, trading partners as they swap themselves into the dance. You don't have to be a spectacular dancer to dance in this kind of circle, but you have to be good enough that dancing with you is going to be a nice experience for the celebrant, and you have to be confident enough to step in in the first place.

Last week, I did that. It was for a guy going away to seminary school in California. I sidled into the circle, watched my chance, and held out my hand. He grabbed it, and away we went, until the next follow sidled in for her turn.

And tonight at Hot Jam, I did it again, for a guy who was visiting from--I never did get where he was from, but his name was Meade, and he was a great dancer. I'm not a *great* dancer--but good enough that I think I gave him a good couple of measures.

(The other kind of jam circle is the kind where the music is dauntingly fast, and you get out there to show off how utterly cool and amazing you are. I'm not there yet.)

Phonetic Transcription

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:11:03 GMT

Phonetic Transcription

Examples of a foreign word are given in italics: gratte-ciel

English glosses are given in single quotes: 'skyscraper'

Phonemic representations -- sans allophones -- are given bw slashes. / /

More phonetically precise representations -- with allophones -- are bw square brackets, using IPA symbols. [ ]

Original spellings are given in angled brackets. < >

Hyphen or plus sign indicates boundary bw syllables: mer-ci, mer+ci

Asterisk * indicates reconstructed form

X represents ungrammatical/non-conventional form

Procedural Transcription

> means “changed into” or “became”

< means “derived from”

# is a word boundary: #______ or _____#

/____ shows where an event appears, “in the environment of“: /_____#

Latin: S > R / V_____V - s became r in the environment of between two vowels

Reconstructing Historical Languages

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:59:24 GMT

The Comparative Method

Compare related languages to try and recover proto-language
Genetically related languages descend from a single original proto-language, eg Proto-Romance (Vulgar Latin)

Proto-language is either the ancestral language or the language reconstructed that represents this ancestral language—these should coincide, though how would you know?
Sister languages are descended from same common ancestor
Cognate sets – set of words or morphemes that are related across sister languages because they descend from same word in proto-language
Correspondence set – set of cognate sounds that are related across sister languages.
Reflex – a proto-language sound’s descendant in a daughter language—it reflects the original sound

Assemble cognates - use basic vocab - close kinship, body parts, low #s, etc
Establish sound correspondences - note which sounds correspond in which positions:

Ital k-: Sp k-: Port k-: Fr sh-

Make sure correspondences are systematic - not just one example due to coincidence.

Reconstruct proto-sound

Directionality - which direction changes are common
Majority - whichever sound shows up the most in cognate set.

Common features - voicing, point of articulation, sound type, etc
- Eg, if all daughter language sounds are labial, and several are stops, proto-sound is likely to have been a labial stop.
Economy - fewest independent changes

Look at overlapping sets of cognates. -- ex in Ch 5 shows k- in Ital, Sp, Port, but sh- in French for first set, but all k- in second set. Condition: k->sh> before a, e, i, y but not before o and u

Similar sets may reflect two separate proto-sounds or only one that later split in certain specific environments

Look at resulting sound inventory for whole proto lang. Are there any gaps?

Eg, voiceless stops are usually matched by voiced counterparts. If your sound system is missing a voiced counterpart, it’s probably a gap.

Compare results with what you know about linguistics in general.

All languages have vowels
All languages with glottalized consonants also have plain counterparts
All languages with nasalized vowels also have non-nasalized counterparts.
Most languages have nasal consonants

Put reconstructed sounds together into morphemes.

Limitations

Can’t reconstruct anything that isn’t reflected in daughter langs, thus possible we are only reconstructing nominative case.

Impossible to reconstruct inflections, dialect, registers, social variation, etc.

No way to go farther back than written records.

Doesn’t allow for gradual changes, assumes all change is sudden and universal.

Does not deal w/ borrowings, loan words, further contact, etc.

Assumes sound change is regular, but this is not always the case.

Grimm’s Law

Regular series of changes that happened from PIE to Proto-Germ, but not in other branches of PIE.

Voiceless stops > voiceless fricatives

Voiced stops > voiceless stops

Voiced aspirated stops > plain voiced stops

Why doesn’t it affect stops in some consonant clusters? Turns out law is a conditioned change--didn’t happen after fricatives or stops.

Other Seeming Inconsistencies covered by Grassman’s and Verner’s Laws:

Grassman’s Law

Greek and Sanskrit show a subset of sound change where words w/ two aspirated stops would de-aspirate the first one. Explains why first voiced stop in these Sanskrit words didn’t change into voiceless stops--they had already changed from aspirated stops.

Verner’s Law

Voiceless stops and fricatives became voiced only when occurring before a stressed syllable. When occurring after a stressed syllable, or word-initially, Grimm’s Law didn’t apply.

Language Change Through Analogy

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:55:19 GMT

Analogy us a generalization of relationship from one set of conditions to another, modeled on examples of other words or forms. One form becomes like another with which it is associated. Often called "Internal Borrowing."

Sound change is regular and leads to irregularity
Analogy is irregular but causes regularity - smooths things out

Proportional Analogy

a:b::c:x

Change is made bc of influence of other items that aren't in same environment but look similar.

ring/rang/rung, thus think/thank/thunk??

Analogical Levelling

Make paradigms more uniform - eg, change strong verb forms into weak ones

These are random, irregular changes--analogical leveling can only be descriptive.

Strike/struck/stricken -- patients have been stricken w/ disease, but house has been struck by lightning. Linguistic split?

Threw or throwed? Drug or dragged? (What is drug an analogy with? No other verbs w/ -a- in present tense go to -u- in past.)

Analogical Extension

eg, brother/brethren changed to conform by analogy to other -s plurals. Undid irregularity created by umlaut sound change (bro -->bre)

Analogical Models

Immediate - set of things often repeated together change to conform: months, days, male/female
Non-immediate

Other Kinds of Analogical Changes

Hypercorrection - not sure about something, so change ordinary speech bec you think your version is wrong, so you over correct it by analogy w/ something unrelated. (x and I in Obj position, dropped h in Brit English)
Folk Etymology - reanalysis (parsing out the morphemes) for seeming greater clarity. Eg jerky, contra dance, posh
Back Formation - take a word that has come into lang and reduce it to have it conform in shape (morphology) w/ other words in lang. eg, opinion/opine, Fr cherise reanalyzed as plural --> cherries/cherry
- Doesn't explain *why* this happened--in many cases we don't differfentiate btw sing and pl (deer, fish)--so why are we so desperate to reanalyze words as plural?
Meta-analysis - Tendency in Eng to transer final syllables to start of following word, eg a napron --> an apron; an apkin --> a napkin
- Fr argent-ier reanalyzed to argen-tier, extended to bijoutier, cafetier
Blending - portmanteau words
- Syntactic blends - Two syntactic choices, blended into something not entirely grammaticaly but still understanble. I'm a friend w/ him + We are friends = I'm friends with him.

Language Change Through Borrowing

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:49:39 GMT

Why do langs borrow?

Need - new thing needs name
Prestige - word sounds better in foreign lang - cachet of sophistication
Neologisms - new inventions/discoveries named in greek or latin: telephone, antibiotic (now, often use English terms or acronyms: quark, DVD, wysiwyg
Euphemism, eg, derriere. Problem: euphemisms eventually take on the vulgar connotations of original, and a new euphemism is necessary.
Derogatory terms - to make term more negative, even if it has no neg connotations in original lang.

Borrowing usually requires some modification to make new term to fit lang. Accomodation makes words easier to say in borrowing lang. But sometimes the lang changes instead, eg, words like "rouge" brought French /zh/ sound into English. Then other Eng words palatalized, eg vision, pleasure (though these words are not palatalized in French--possibly due to syllable stress?)

How Do You Identify Loan Words?

Identifying loan words is important in determining how langs are connected. Loans can provide clues to past linguistic changes - older borrowed forms that survive show when changes happened in original lang

Phonological clues - sound in an unusal position, eg, not many words in Eng end in -o
Morphological clues - more syllables than morphemes = probably a loan word
Clues from cognates - phonological history
Geography, ecology - names of exotic species
Semantic differentiation - parallel terms, one is obviously English, the other is prob. a loan word
Calques - literal translations of foreign terms, eg Schwartzmarkt, gratte-ciel
Combining forms: acetylsalicylic acid, lit. vinegary-willowy-sour stuff
Emphatic Foreignization - making a word more foreign that it really is, to make it sound more "sophisticated," eg turbot, coupe, coup de grace (gras)

What Can Be Borrowed?

Words - Lexis
Phonemes can be added or lost, eg Finns lost eth bc Swedish alphabet didn't have it, so changed to d
Phonotactic rules, eg stress rules

Evil Eye Strikes Again

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:08 GMT

You may recall last December, when I popped a stitch in my corneal graft, and had to have it removed. Well, it seems I've got a lot more stitches to go--even now that I've had two *more* removed the hard way.

Yes, that's right, I woke last week to that oh-so-fun "something in my eye!" feeling, and knew right away what it must be. I spent most of Wednesday at the ophthalmologist's office. The doctor said that the stitches are sort of buried in the corneal tissue, and hard to get at unless they break of their own accord. So I get to go through this several more times! Yay!

Is it just me, or does this seem a highly inefficient process?

Busy Days Followed by Vegging

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:28:51 GMT

I have not much interest in doing much of anything today. I'm content to sit and read while Z plays with his toys, and occasionally flings himself into my lap. This is probably because the last few days were full full full of stuff!

Yesterday was a DCTV taping for a project of sargent's, followed by a three-hour speed lindy workshop. This wasn't quite as strenuous as it sounds, since we were short a couple of leads, which meant that the follows got a rest ever couple of rotations, but it was still pretty intense. (The leads, of course, danced every rotation, and really got a workout.) After that, it was Parents' Night Out at the Y, which meant dropping Z off and going out for a really lovely dinner with Aaron. We tried a new French restaurant (new to us, it's been here a while) called "Au Pied du Cochon." This sounds much better in French, since it translates to "at the foot of the pig." The food was fantastic, but the service was glacially slow. By the time dessert came, I was starting to worry about making it back on time to pick Z up, but it all worked out.

Friday I had lunch with spambrian at Tacha tea house, then that night went contra dancing at the new location in Clarkston for the first time. One of my classmates from last semester was in town for the weekend, and was interested in trying contra, so we went early for the beginner lesson, and later I introduced her to vatavian and ahhhnahhh. She had a really good time, but it seems unlikely she'll get to do much more of it, since she's going to China next year to teach English. :)

So yeah, it's been a busy few days, and maybe it's no wonder I feel like doing nothing but veg out today. But I do need to get cracking on the studying--we're up the midterm in my historical linguistics class already!

Z bits

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:28:30 GMT

Z has started snuggling us back! This development is about a month or so old, but I'm late getting it into the blog. His version of snuggling is a full contact sport--I sit on the floor, and he comes over and flings himself bodily at me, climbing up my legs and clinging to my shirt. There is often a lot of headbutting and thrashing. It's very sweet, though, in a rugby sort of way.

In other news, he sort of has another "word." In addition to "book," he's been saying something that sounds like "each" or "itch." We can't figure out what this means, but it's definitely meaningful to him. He often says it while pointing to pictures in a book, though not always the same pictures.

The separation anxiety has settled in in earnest. Last night was another Parents' Night Out at the Y, and he not only fussed when we dropped him off in the nursery, he fussed when Aaron started *walking down the hall* to go to the nursery. We feel guilty leaving him, not so much at his distress, but at leaving the nice nursery workers with a fussy baby! But they always tell us he calms down after we leave, so I guess it's ok.