#Linguistics is descriptive

[crwbannwen]

Linguistics is descriptive, not prescriptive.

There is no ‘correct’ language or dialect. They all developed as part of the history of the people who speak them and should all be celebrated.

And phrases that are grammatically ‘incorrect’ are fine as long as they are able to be understood. And after a while they become part of the language and should be considered grammatical.

But I will still never accept ‘hence why’, it just makes me die inside. It’s just ‘hence’ or ‘that’s why’. You don’t need to ‘suffocation, no breathing’ your connectives.

I say ‘whose mug is that cup’, ‘there’s lovely’, and ‘now in a minute’ unironically. But I have a physically painful reaction to ‘hence why’.

Please tell me other people have common non-grammatical phrases that physically hurt them too.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

weird and only stp post but "the blade is your implement" fucks so hard as a sentence, the quasi-alliteration makes it both memorable and very pleasing to the ear and it's really good

[danandfuckingjonlmao]

idk how many of you have taken a linguistics class but this is literally what it is. teacher goes “make this sound” and for the next hour it’s just a bunch of people having existential crises about their own mouth sounds.

simply put, linguistics 101 is making the most unattractive noises humanly possible for extended period of times and then being amazed and surprised by it.

[indilaras]

Exam tomorrow so I drew this for myself instead of studying (don't worry i did the bulk of my studying yesterday but also send help i am having trouble concentrating on doing more)

ID: a sketch of Alhaitham from Genshin Impact, genderbent; her hair is done in a bun. She is looking down at the viewer, frowning and saying "Can you stop fucking around." End ID.

[max1461]

catch me working smarter not harder, sucker

Jokes on you, I learned 80% of the linguistics I know from reading grammars/random papers for the purpose of conlanging.

[ihasafandom]

Problem as a Venom writer that might be applicable to other people and other types of fic and ofic:

too few words for a symbiote's biomass and other structures.

I've got:

flesh/tissue/matter = biomass, biomatter (the one I have the most trouble with in writing)

blood & internal fluids = xenoplasm, protoplasm, plasmatic matrix, biofluid

body = soma, being

skin = membrane, dermis, dermal tissue

head = pseudohead, pseudocranial protrustion

limbs = pseudopods, tendrils, tentacles, extrusions

sensory systems = chemo/photo/thermo/mechano/electro/nocic/etc receptors/sensors

teeth = dentition (fangs and teeth seem fine to me still too)

and ones that are specific to my HCs:

bit that connects to host's brain = holdfast

bit that connects out of material world = threshhold

bit that connects threshhold to pocket dimension = gullet maybe?

Anyone else have any others?

[soneaselene]

My gf and I were talking about escalators and started wondering about the word "escalator" - why is it called that and why is there no opposite? Like, "to escalate" means to go up. So just going by the word, and "escalator" should not go down. Is there a matching word or has the English language just stuck with this one form?

[mishkakagehishka]

I'm still pissed off at the fact that so many responses to that post were "um ackshually the dictionary definition☝️🤓" and now that i'm actually a linguistics student i have the vocabulary necessary to explain why it pissed me off so i want a round two.

[alto-tenure]

a fun fact about me is that I know a lot of the US/UK variants, so I've developed some very specific opinions. especially on this one subject where I tend to be more specific than either variety.

this is a truck:

this is also a truck, but usually I call it a tractor-trailer:

...and this is a lorry:

it's because the squished-face ones are more commonly used in Singapore, where they speak UK English.

[kinnbig]

I just started learning Thai so I’m interested. What is the difference between jing and jingjing? On your tags about favorite Thai words

oh! so in Thai, repeating an adjective turns it into an adverb.

in this case, jing is an adjective that means true or real or honest, and jingjing is an adverb that means really, trully, honestly. they're just my favourite Thai words because I like the way they sound lol.

my other favourite is ning, which doesn't have a perfect English translation but that you might recognise from My Engineer. it means cool as in (a person who is) cold, distant, or aloof, or alternatively calm and self-controlled. it's often used sarcastically when describing other people. ningning is an adverb that means something like carefully or calmly - you hear people saying "ningning!" to tell someone to calm down or take more care. kind of like "chill out!" in English lol. I like these because their English translations are so interesting! and because of RamKing and ai'Ning, obviously.

[azhdarchidae]

re:kink discourse why r so many ppl going to bat over the sanctity of the definition of a concept invented by psychiatry to pathologize human sexuality....huh???

[waitineedaname]

genuine language question: I know because of syllable rules, single character/syllable names aren't used by themselves (Wei Ying, Lan Zhan), but two character/syllable names (Wangji, Huaisang, Yanli, etc) can be used on their own. Why then is it that Wei Wuxian is never called just Wuxian? It's two characters and two syllables, but people always either call him his full name or a nickname (a-Xian, Xian-gege, etc), never just Wuxian

[mariocki]

"We should stop thinking in terms of 'compensatory education' but consider, instead, most seriously and systematically the conditions and contexts of the educational environment.

The very form our research takes tends to confirm the beliefs underlying the organization, transmission and evaluation of knowledge by the school. Research proceeds by assessing the criteria of attainment that schools hold, and then measures the competence of different social groups in reaching these criteria. We take one group of children, whom we know beforehand possess attributes favourable to school achievement; and a second group of children, whom we know beforehand lack these attributes. Then we evaluate one group in terms of what it lacks when compared with another. In this way research unwittingly underscores the notion of deficit and confirms the status quo of a given organization, transmission and, in particular, evaluation of knowledge. Research very rarely challenges or exposes the social assumptions underlying what counts as valid knowledge, or what counts as a valid realization of that knowledge."

- Basil Bernstein, Education Cannot Compensate for Society, in Education for Democracy (2nd ed., 1972)

[helianskies]

since i cant seem to speak spanish these days without the odd italian word slipping in ive taken to saying i speak espagbol

[ty-bayonet-betteridge]

i know this is just a boldfaced lie but THAT'S! NOT! HOW! THAT! WORKS!