#(which was not a language thing btw

[uncanny-tranny]

What I think is so important to learning how to truly appreciate life is learning how to appreciate the creatures and things we've categorized as "disgusting" or "gross."

When I learned to appreciate wasps, I realized how much they just... don't really care about anything, and they're not trying to be an asshole because they're uniquely cruel. If they have any wants, it is to live. Why would I punish that when I also want to live?

This isn't to say you need to fall in love with the creepy crawlies that stalk this world or to love what you cannot, but to recognize that in their arrangement of atoms, they are trying to persevere, and in the end... aren't we all?

[mantisgodsdomain]

More notes for Roach conlanging. Roach has grammatical gender, in which only Male, Female, and Object are grammatical genders, whereas Worker uses feminine grammar, Queen and King use a slight variant on feminine grammar, and Drone, and Queen-Alate use masculine grammar. This is because King is derived from Queen, due to their similar positions in a colony, and Queen-Alate is derived from Drone, as both are forms of alate.

Queen is an alteration of feminine grammar that functionally just adds a handful of extra syllables to it, and King is an offsprout of Queen that uses the same grammar with different pronouns. Queen-Alate, despite the name, is derived from Drone, as they are both for referring to different types of alate ant.

Most Roach dialects are intelligible to speakers of Snakemouth Den Cordyceps Roach, but Snakemouth Den Cordyceps Roach is not entirely intelligable to speakers of Roach dialects due to a mix of the excessively specialized vocabulary caused by the specific needs of its speakers, the fact that its speakers do not necessarily have Roach mouthparts and thus may not pronounce syllables in a similar way, and due to the fact that Inanimate Object is a full grammatical gender that does not exist in any other dialect of roach and replaces a decent chunk of terminology for things that previously had Other Words For Them.

[acebytaemin]

GOT COMMENTS ON MY PHD THESIS FROM THE MOST STRICT PROF IN MY COMMITTEE and she said ‘the thesis, and i specifically want to point out the discussion, is very beautifully written, especially considering how broad/detailed the subject studied is’ and she only has a few like technical details, she didn’t even send me the file back she just wrote it as bullet points in an email im literally about to fucking CRY

[hephaestuscrew]

Favourite Fleet & Clara quotes from High Vaultage 

(Page numbers from my Goldsboro special edition, I'm not sure how they line up with page numbers in other versions. Spoilers for all of High Vaultage.)

p27: Clara had met Fleet only weeks before. She had just arrived in London and started work as a crime reporter, and pursued a murder case alongside Fleet despite his repeated objections, until he eventually conceded - as Clara had known he would - that they were making a good team, and furthermore proposed - as she hadn't a clue he would - that they go into business together.

p51: "There you are, Fleet. Where have you been?" / Fleet paused, made some confused looks between Clara and the room he had just left, and finally pointed at the door. "Isn't this the waiting room for detectives whose partners have run off? They were quite a few of us in there. Quite a lot in common." / Clara suppressed a grin into something more disapproving. "You're not as funny as you think you are, Inspector." (More below the cut.)

p70: [After Clara successfully sneaks into the Iron Bridge Club] [Fleet] should have known Clara would make it in. Her tenacity had been clear to him since she had first left the police roping at a crime scene of his. It was one of the things he admired about her, even if she didn't always check whether there was somewhere to land.

p76: [After Clara's business card strategies work on Cosgrove] Fleet glanced at Clara. She grinned back, eyes wild with pride, before tapping her bag and mouthing the word 'Posner'.

p116: [After Professor McCabe says “Top marks, Miss Entwhistle”] Clara beamed, and flashed her eyebrows at Fleet while elbowing him in the ribs.

p132: "Don't think you can shake me off, Inspector. I'll come with you." / " I'm not trying to shake you off. It's just late, Clara.” / "You're always trying to shake me off. Ever since we met. Despite my constant usefulness." / "I'd say occasional usefulness," replied Fleet, maintaining a straight face. / Clara, with some effort, twisted her grin into something approximating outrage. "Frequent usefulness, surely!" / "No, but I'll agree to "regular usefulness"." / "Deal.” / “And I asked you to join me in business, Clara. If I'd wanted to shake you off, that's a poor way to go about it."

p154: [From Fleet's POV] Clara really was the sort of person - indeed the only person he knew - who could find genuine joy and wonder in a building site.

p172: [When Clara fears for her life at the display of the Lanterns] She thought of her brother, her sister, her parents... Her ridiculous detective.

p176-178: Clara without her usual pep was almost unrecognisable. [...] Normally that sort of reply would at least elicit some playful scolding. Fleet grew concerned. [...] "Do you want to talk about it?" [...] " What do you want to talk about?" [...] He tried to think of more options. Not talking about things was Fleet's speciality, but for Clara this signalled a worrying malaise. Things were dire. He was going to have to resort to small talk. "Would you like to hear about my day?" A brief pause. "Yes," she replied, with a note of hope [...] Fleet remembered the mess he was in before he switched to the task of cheering up Clara.

p184: When he saw her, she noticed his eyes were shining with a rare zeal, and he appeared bursting to explain whatever he was thinking.

p187: Fleet had, after all, taken her under his wing, even if she did have to thrust herself there initially. She thought about the door plaque he’d had engraved with both their names on it as his way of inviting her to be his business partner – typical Fleet, refusing to tell her so much as his favourite breakfast food and then to go and do something like that. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her.

p201: [After Fleet sees a magpie get electrocuted] Fleet looked at Clara, who thankfully had been facing the other way.

p214: [After Fleet falls into the frozen river] Clara, removing her cape and placing it over Fleet's shoulders 

p225: [Clara] had read several books on the subject - Surreptitious Sleuthing, Introduction to Ingression, Undetectable Detection, to name a few - but she always seemed to pick up more from her partner, whose years in the police had left him full of [useful tricks].

p235: [While navigating the Brunellian tunnels for the first time] "I still think my way is more fun." / "Escape, Clara. Escape and then fun." / "That's a promise, Fleet. You've promised it now.”

p259: “That's too much topiary,” said Fleet [...] Clara's eyes lit up at this rare revelation of a personal opinion from her colleague. “I didn't know you had such strong views on topiary, Fleet.”

p293: [When Crowe increases how much he'd be willing to pay them to investigate on his behalf] Fleet knew his answer, but felt he had to see whether Clara was still in agreement. He looked to her, only to be met with an expression of astonishment that he had taken even this long to respond.

p337: [After their falling out] Where do you even begin, she thought, let alone end, with someone you've worked with so closely?

p338: [After they squash the scone Fleet brought Clara as part of his apology] "You want me to eat an exploded scone!" cried Clara, stifling laughter.”/ “I think it says a lot if you refuse.” / “Fine,” she said, grabbing the bag, pulling out the crushed scone and taking an enormous bite. / The corners of Fleet's mouth twitched. Clara was sure he almost laughed.

p341: [Before they go into the Church of the Mechanical Man to look for Helena Evans] Clara smiled, and punched him in the shoulder. / "Ow! What was that for?" / Clara realised that in her excitement at Fleet's plan she had landed her friendly thump with rather more power than intended, so she clarified: "You're a good one, Fleet.”

p371: [After Fleet gets shot in the shoulder] Fleet thought he heard Clara scream his name, but he couldn't be sure. Suddenly she was next to him, checking his shoulder.

p371-372: Clara turned to Fleet. “Now I have an idea.” / “What kind of idea?” / “A terrible idea. Just the worst idea I've ever had.” / Fleet looked towards the distant exit, which could barely be seen beyond the fire, and then back to Clara. “I like it.”

p373: [As they anticipate an oncoming wave of molten metal] Fleet felt a sensation he did not recognise. Something like calm. Then Clara took his hand and turned him towards her. For some insufferable reason she was smiling again. He couldn't help but return it. [...] Fleet realised Clara still had his hand firmly in hers, and she seemed to be saying something at him that he couldn't hear. He tried to listen, but she stopped speaking, shook her head, threw her arms around him and hauled him down onto the ground.

p375: [When Clara won't tell Fleet whether she knew they were going to be saved by Helena Evans] “And you don't think this might affect how likely I am to trust your plans in the future?” / “Does it?” asked Clara. [...] “No,” said Fleet. “It doesn't.”

p381: Clara stiffened her posture, as though she might salute. "Archibald Fleet, I challenge you to a battle of business." / "We're partners, Clara. We're on the same side." / "A point for whoever solves a case first! More for trickier ones!" / "But we work together..." / "Let battle commence!" she cried.

[sonicenvy]

one of my favorite library kid encounters this weekend was a with a little Greek three-year-old named Andromeda. She and her mom came up to get her beads for SRP, and, as is pretty common, they start telling me about what they've been reading. Friends, this child and her mother have been reading the Odyssey in Greek together. The mom and the kid chat back and forth in Greek together about the Odyssey while picking beads (and counting them in Greek), translating bits and pieces for me as they go along.

Apparently, Andromeda's favorite character in the Odyssey is Penelope, which, uh, girl I see u!!!!! Obsessed with the vibes of this toddler who read the Odyssey in Greek with her mom FIVE times this summer because that's her favorite book! GOOD! FOR! HER!

Additionally the mom was like, "yeah we also read the Iliad this summer."

no notes. impeccable. there are days when i love our kids so much y'all.

[plumberrypudding]

anyone else feel like “they got that dog in them” is just the most recent appropriation of aa(v)e into ‘internet slang’.

maybe i’m just in more linguistically focused circles than most but this phenomenon seems to me like it’s talked about frequently in the black community online, but it’s completely ignored by people who are otherwise, at least vocally, antiracist.

just take a moment to consider “internet phrases” you use. my brother in christ. got that dog in em. be fucking for real. even just single words. fam. slay. simp. based. bet. blud. bussin. cap. drip. goated. where did these words and phrases come from? do you only use them to be funny, or when you’re obviously not trying to be taken seriously? what does your usage of these words and phrases reflect about (how we view) the sources we take them from?

if you really want to unlearn your racial biases you have to take the time and effort to unpack these kinds of things. just make an effort to be more aware of the language you use and why you use it, day to day.

[b4kuch1n]

took a mock ielts test today

[calciferstims]

live footage of me 0.3 seconds after I start to really like a new person immediately searching for stim gifs related to them so I can make an imaginary gift stimboard in my head (that will never actually exist)

[jitteryjive]

i need to remake my cup bros ref… both cup and human designs… it’s been almost a year(?) and i’ve developed the headcanons and i would like to share with the class!!! (i wrote thirty tags. Please help me)

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

nothing interesting here it's the exact same scene i just like seeing it

[hum--hallelujah]

the duality of my Dr. Benzedrine is that he's incredibly effective and ruthless at what he does (saving lives, need not concern himself with the consequences as long as the subject/victim/patient is still alive by the medical definition of the term) and he's terribly smart and has a great sense of humor, but he's also a rather confused, genuinely brain-damaged individual. like. he's scary when he's in his element, but when he's not, he sometimes can barely string a full sentence together, has panic attacks over loud noises, etc

[darkwood-sleddog]

How is koko the gorilla like those dogs on tiktok at all. I get how there could be clever hansing influencing her behavior but I really don’t see how she could have done that without any understanding of language

Koko the Gorilla has been thought to exhibit Clever Hans Effect since the initial studies on her were published in the late 1970s. This is even present on her Wikipedia page, with other linguists calling Koko's caregiver and trainer's interpretations of her use of sign language as "sentimental nonsence". There has also always been pushback on the Koko experiment from actual primatologists.

One of the reblogs of my original Clever Hans post goes into this briefly and also pulls from THIS youtube video (but tw: ableism & animal abuse if you choose to watch).

What is boils down to is that Koko, and other apes in linguistics studies, were taught sign language the way dogs are taught "talking" buttons, through association. The handler/trainer then sometimes makes the leap to emotional responses much like happens with those with dog buttons. There is an excellent article HERE that describes the Koko situation quite well and touches on an important aspect both with Koko and the button dogs:

"As Koko’s trainer, adopted mum, business manager, and chief caregiver, Patterson wasn’t a neutral observer. If other scientists wanted to verify her claims, they had no access to Koko nor could they scrutinise any data. The only publicly available material is video recordings on YouTube, Facebook and various documentaries. It appears as if a lot of Koko’s signs were open to interpretation."

When scientists brought forward that all of Koko's communication was at the prompting of Patternson she simply refused to engage and was unable to come up with points for her position. You can also read transcripts of Patternson and Koko's communications and WHEW. is there a lot of prompting by Patternson to get the answer SHE wants.

There is a reason that we don't see continued ape to human language studies ever if often anymore. 1.) the ethics of it, Koko and other linguistic studies experiment apes lived in very specific and non ape appropriate environments due to the way the experiment and closeness to human behavior was structured and 2.) it is thought we can learn much more about apes by actually learning their forms of communications (shocker /s).

I cannot even begin to express how this is just the tip of the iceberg with the Koko stuff. But i guess most people would prefer to believe they weren't fooled by the Koko experiment because they feel sentimental/emotional about her, either way the information about this relating to Clever Hans is super easy to find. Literally google it and you'll find pages and pages discussing the shady and interpretive nature of the studies on her.

[plsleafmelon]

so apparently using cn dub and actually listening to what they say does help me understand the story better huh

[vogelmeister]

actually one of us is lying being filmed in new zealand actually makes a shit tonne of sense because it's a common thing wherein when tv shows and movies "fake" a setting they understandably try and show as little of the setting as possible (makes sense) and tbh i realised we didnt really see a lot of the town of bayview.

still find it absolutely hilarious that there was an australian pretending to be an american accused of killing an irishman pretending to be american in new zealand pretending to be america. its actually so weird when you think of media that way. the australian played a very good american bad boy but once i knew, yeah that man knows what triple j is.

[reijnders]

Showing your partner your shitty childhood art is universal i think

[yvenno]

guys what if i re read harry potter in its entirety and wrote that one fic i've always had in mind about a sirius black's daughter oc. what if i actually did it