#Universal Grammar

[unpickled-olive]

a lot of people think linguists hate stories about apes learning sign language because it's "unscientific," "low quality data with non-rigorous research methods," "anthropomorphizing non-human behaviors," "just operant conditioning and association with no grasp of grammar or pragmatics."

false—linguists actually just fucking hate chimpanzees and gorillas. Charles Hockett actually wrote the design features of language immediately after his first (and only) meeting with a chimpanzee that he really hated.

[omegaphilosophia]

The Philosophy of Natural Language

The philosophy of natural language is a branch of philosophy that explores the nature, origins, and use of language as it is naturally spoken and understood by human beings. It involves the study of how language functions in communication, the relationship between language and thought, the structure and meaning of linguistic expressions, and the role of context in understanding meaning. This field intersects with linguistics, cognitive science, logic, and semiotics, aiming to understand both the abstract properties of language and its practical use in everyday life.

Key Concepts in the Philosophy of Natural Language:

Meaning and Reference:

Semantics: One of the central concerns of the philosophy of natural language is the study of meaning, known as semantics. Philosophers explore how words and sentences convey meaning, how meaning is structured, and how language relates to the world.

Reference: Reference is the relationship between linguistic expressions and the objects or entities they refer to in the world. Philosophers like Saul Kripke and Hilary Putnam have contributed to understanding how names, descriptions, and other expressions refer to things in the world.

Pragmatics:

Context and Meaning: Pragmatics deals with how context influences the interpretation of language. It examines how speakers use language in different contexts and how listeners infer meaning based on context, intentions, and social norms.

Speech Acts: Philosophers such as J.L. Austin and John Searle have explored how utterances can do more than convey information—they can perform actions, such as making promises, giving orders, or asking questions.

Syntax and Grammar:

Structure of Language: Syntax is the study of the rules and principles that govern the structure of sentences in natural languages. Philosophers and linguists investigate how words are combined to form meaningful sentences and how these structures relate to meaning.

Universal Grammar: The concept of universal grammar, proposed by Noam Chomsky, suggests that the ability to acquire language is innate to humans and that there are underlying grammatical principles common to all languages.

Language and Thought:

Linguistic Relativity: The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis suggests that the structure of a language influences how its speakers perceive and think about the world. Philosophers debate the extent to which language shapes thought and whether different languages lead to different cognitive processes.

Conceptual Frameworks: Language is often seen as providing the conceptual framework through which we interpret the world. Philosophers examine how language structures our understanding of reality and whether it limits or expands our cognitive abilities.

Philosophy of Meaning:

Theories of Meaning: Various theories of meaning have been proposed in the philosophy of language, including:

Descriptivist Theories: These suggest that the meaning of a word or phrase is equivalent to a description associated with it.

Causal Theories: These argue that meaning is determined by a causal relationship between words and the things they refer to.

Use Theories: Inspired by Ludwig Wittgenstein, these theories claim that the meaning of a word is determined by its use in the language.

Language and Reality:

Metaphysical Implications: Philosophers explore how language relates to reality, including how linguistic structures might reflect or distort our understanding of the world. This involves questions about whether language mirrors reality or if it plays a role in constructing our experience of reality.

Ontology of Language: This concerns the nature of the entities that linguistic expressions refer to, such as whether abstract objects (like numbers or properties) exist independently of language.

Communication and Interpretation:

Hermeneutics: Hermeneutics is the study of interpretation, particularly of texts. Philosophers in this tradition, such as Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur, explore how understanding is achieved in communication and how meaning is negotiated between speakers and listeners.

Ambiguity and Vagueness: Natural language often contains ambiguity and vagueness, where words or sentences can have multiple interpretations. Philosophers study how these features affect communication and understanding.

Language and Social Interaction:

Language as a Social Phenomenon: Language is inherently social, and its use is governed by social norms and conventions. Philosophers study how language functions in social contexts, how power dynamics influence language, and how language can both reflect and shape social structures.

Language Games: Wittgenstein introduced the concept of "language games" to describe how the meaning of words is tied to their use in specific forms of life or social practices. This concept emphasizes the diversity of language use and the idea that meaning is context-dependent.

Evolution of Language:

Origins of Language: Philosophers and cognitive scientists explore how language evolved in humans, the relationship between language and other forms of communication in animals, and the cognitive capacities required for language.

Language Change: Natural languages are dynamic and constantly evolving. Philosophers study how languages change over time and what this reveals about the nature of meaning and communication.

Critique of Language:

Deconstruction: Philosophers like Jacques Derrida have critiqued traditional notions of language and meaning, arguing that language is inherently unstable and that meaning is always deferred, never fully present or fixed.

Critical Theory: In the tradition of critical theory, philosophers analyze how language can perpetuate power structures, ideologies, and social inequalities, and how it can be used to resist and challenge these forces.

The philosophy of natural language offers a rich and complex exploration of how language functions, how it relates to thought and reality, and how it shapes human interaction and understanding. By examining the nature of meaning, reference, context, and the social dimensions of language, philosophers aim to uncover the fundamental principles that govern linguistic communication and the role of language in human life.

[tardis--dreams]

I am once again forced to hear so much about universal grammar and it makes me wanna cry because it's so dumb

[ravxnstudies]

noam chomsky's dead. how we feeling, linguistics tumblr ?

[john-keels-sinister-goatee]

Generative grammar is the contemporary equivalent of Lullism. I can only kind of explain what I mean.

[vivianthepigeon]

Tim: “I need to tell you something”

Bruce: “What did you do??”

Tim: “when Alfred was doing our taxes he noticed a missing check”

Bruce: “what did you do???”

Tim: “Before I answer do you trust me enough to understand that it was for a good reason and just leave it at that?”

Bruce: “What. Did. You. Do.”

Tim: “it’s all Jason’s fault! He is a BAD person, I’ve been telling you for years!”

—————

Bruce to Jason: “WHAT DID YOU DO?”

Jason: “okay now before I answer that-“

Bruce: “just tell me whatcha did”

Jason: “I got a DUI”

Bruce: “Jason!”

Jason: “it’s not as bad as it sounds”

Bruce: “How is driving drunk not bad???”

Jason: “I wasn’t exactly driving”

Bruce: “I don’t follow.”

Jason: “I was at the bar with Damian and I had a few”

Bruce: “DAMIAN?!”

—————

Damian: “With God as my witness I’ve never been to that bar in my life.”

Jason: “He knows.”

Damian: “Oh I’ve been there a bunch”

[a-scary-lack-of-common-sense]

Part 2/2

By the time Stanley had realized he wasn't as alone as he believed himself to be entrapped in this ravenous abyss; he had honestly begun to suspect that he was finally starting to properly lose his mind.

In all the ceaseless miles that Stanley had journeyed during his apparent permanent residence within the dark devouring void, not once had he encountered another conscious, walking, talking being similar to himself. Every other formerly living creature that he had crossed paths with had been so... silent. Empty. Dead, in every sense of the word. It was as though the very essence of life itself had been sucked out of their bodies with a straw, their forms slowly falling apart piece by piece under the vicious gluttony of the darkness that surrounded them. They looked like they actually were supposed to be there, unmoving and comatose, unlike him.

So, when Stanley first began to encounter the twins, all of a sudden, he wasn't the only one in the dark.

When meeting the first pair of them, he found himself standing in a lake.

He hadn't even noticed the changes at first. It felt as though he had been walking for weeks on end, his body moving purely on autopilot and his aching legs leading him towards a destination only it knew. A thick fog of forgetfulness and flickering memories had descended upon his brain like a heavy blanket of numbing static as he had traveled. In this absentminded state, he hadn't even realized that the ever-present undulating, buzzing darkness surrounding him had begun to gradually shift and morph to form a horizon line; stretching into tall looming cliffsides that almost seemed to close in on him. Once the nonexistent floor beneath his soles abruptly began to ripple and warp, like the disturbed surface of a shallow puddle; only then did he finally notice his transformed environment.

The transition was seamless, almost dream-like. One moment, he was still surrounded by that filthy, overwhelming abyss; and the next, his boots were suddenly plunged deep into the cold, dark lake water.

The silence didn't leave, however. It still choked and stuffed its way into Stanley's ears to clog up his mind with thick cotton; the eerie quiet not quite matching the calm, almost serene scenery the void seemed to have abruptly transformed itself into. Like a movie with its sound cut off; leaving only the unsettling hum of the projector to fill the empty air.

It was odd. The lake was surely incredibly deep. He could obviously tell from how thin and pathetically small the shores appeared all the way from where he now unceremoniously stood in the middle of the lake. Stan could look down and see the darkness below his feet swallow what meager light that managed to break through the murky waters. The overwhelming black almost seemed to beckon him, gaping and haunting; a bottomless underwater pit of pitch black that never seemed to end.

And yet, he didn't sink. Stanley remained perfectly level, the almost ink like waters stopping just at ankle level, as though he were held up just above the surface by some invisible force. Even the writhing waves seemed small and low, as though the waters were shy to climb up his legs further than that. It was odd, so very odd.

However, it wasn't nowhere near as odd as the sight that greeted him when he finally lifted his eyes from the waters.

Stanley had crossed paths with truly unbelievable sights in this strange somewhere; from bursting, collapsing stars; to the imploding heat death of entire universes, but none of them seemed to hold the candle to what he saw then when he lifted his eyes:

Children.

Two, to be exact. Two, nearly identical looking children stood motionless before him; completely soaked through to the bone as though they had taken a plunge into the frigid water that pooled around their ankles. It was a girl and a boy, both adorned with twin expressions utterly devoid of emotion, their wide eyed stare seeming to burn holes into his thin jacket. Their drenched clothes sagged off of their scrawny frames; thin rivulets of water dirpping off of them and disturbing the glassy surface of the water at their feet. The little girl's hair had messily stuck to her face in thin sodden strands, her cheeks still full and round with youth just like the boy's. They looked young. Too young to be in a place such as this.

Oh, but their eyes; their eyes.

They burned with such anger; such injustice, brighter than any dying star or galaxies he had ever seen. Anger towards the world, to fate, to whatever cruel deity that had deemed them fit to be sent to this wretched place so prematurely. They were too young to be here; to be entrapped like he was amongst this hungry darkness. And yet, here they were, sheer denial against their own untimely deaths being the only thing keeping them awake and conscious amongst the dead and rotting. A show of juvenile defiance to nature itself so vehement even the all-consumign darkness seemed hesitant to devour them whole just yet.

It saddened him. It saddened him to know that they belonged there, that they were supposed to be there. He could see it, he could feel it; they were dead. No amount of determination could deny that universal fact.

When they spoke, Stanley could hear anger:

Stan chuckled in a futile attempt to lighten the suddenly heavy atmosphere that threatened to crush him whole. "A lake monster? You kids and your imagination," he teased, hoping to somehow rid the poor kids of the haunted look that seemed to whirl in their glares. No child should have been burdened with such a knowing look; such eyes that looked like they had seen everything there was to see about the world, the horrid and the good.

Clearly, it had been the wrong thing to say, and Stanley's faux pas was rewarded with a scowl from the little boy. A world's worth of sour contempt etched into every contorted groove that his grimace seemed to dig into his much too young face. Stan suddenly felt guilt squeeze at his weary bones for having caused that.

"That's what they all said," the boy spat out, eyes shining with a sheen of wetness Stan wasn't sure he was prepared to deal with.

Stan left that first interaction with the twins with the feeling of guilt and sorrow still clining to him.

He couldn't have known, at the time. He couldn't have known that this wouldn't be anywhere near the last time that he would meet the pair. He hadn't realised just how many of them there were. After that first pair, his endless journeying within the Abyss was hardly be spent alone anymore. Countless more times, he came face to face with the exact same two young and impossibly worn faces; forced to meet one pair of beaten and bruised kids after another.

Not one pair had died the same death as another. Some had gotten lost, prey to whatever threat that had snatched them up out in the open; some had fallen from high up; some had been crushed under an incredible weight; some had burned; some eaten alive; some zombified. Some didn't even seem physically harmed at all, body perfectly intact, and yet that same faraway, distrubed look in their eyes remained.

He thought the worst ones were the ones he found alone. A little girl or a little boy, left all lonesome without their other half there. Twins, he remembered a pair of them telling him once.

Once, he had come across a town full of silent, stone statues. It was a rustic, shabby, almost nostalgic looking town- odd and strangely familiar. The sight of it had tugged at an aged memory that had long since wasted away in the back of his mind. It was serene, almost deceptively so. The sun shone; the air smelled crisp and fresh; numerous waterfalls continued to crash down from the tall cliffsides; and a soft nonexistent breeze whistled through the thicket of pine trees that blanketed the outskirts of the town. None of it seemed to match the gruesome scene of the hundred wailing statues that littered every inch of the town.

He had found the boy's statue on the other side of town, deep within the green forest and toppled over the gnarled roots of a towering tree. Like the rest of the townsfolk, he too, was frozen mid-shriek; his stone face twisted and contorted into a mock impression of a silent scream as his body lay paused in a writhing struggle. He made sure to be gentle when he carried the boy's statue over to place it beside the girl's, whose statue stood far deeper into the forest, sporting the same rictus grimace of terror as her brother's. It somehow felt wrong for them to have been so far apart from one another, even in death.

He had come to dread meeting of the twins. He hated every second he had to confront yet another pair of dead children that did not belong here, but fate had decided they did. He despised having to listen to their tales of woe as they wept about the injustice of the world, of having died young; he despised himself for being unable to do more than weep with them.

"We don't belong here, Grunkle Stan," he would listen to the little girl weep, calling him a title he didn't recognize. He never remembered if they had ever told him their name, but they all seem to know his, without a fail. "If we're dead, then what about you? What about Grunkle Ford? Mom? Dad? What about them? We can't be dead, we can't be," they would say, confusion and frustration written all over their faces. They didn't understand. They didn't understand why they had come to the darkness so early, so unfairly.

He never knew what to say, he'd never been good with words.

All he could do was kneel down to their levels and engulf them in his arms, hoping he could somehow squeeze the pain straight out of their bodies in his embrace. He hugged them, because what else could he do?

[bobelhosary]

Hello my dears

I am Bahaa, a Palestinian-Ghazawi photographer

My life consisted of my beautiful, wonderful work with international companies and agencies. In addition, I was working on developing myself and my photography equipment.

Suddenly it was gone and all my dreams, ambitions and equipment in the family’s 5-storey house were destroyed

I was trying to create a project of a lifetime after hard years of continuous work, but before starting it, it was destroyed as well

Now I will tell you about my brother. He is a visual artist and a calligraphy artist, and everything he owned was destroyed

Now I will talk about my mother, the beautiful, generous woman. We owned a kindergarten and she ran it despite her illnesses with diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis. They also burned and destroyed the kindergarten to the point that they did not leave us anything to earn a living from, and now, after the difficulty of the road out of Gaza, we do not know how to travel to treat my mother.

I am asking you to please save the life of an entire family and I hope that you will help me so that we can all travel 🙏🏽

I don't want anything else but to survive the war, death and annihilation that haunt us every second

[todays-xkcd]

The distinctive 'UCLA comma' and 'Michigan comma' are a long string of commas at the start and end of the sentence respectively.

University Commas [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut

[A sentence is written in greyed-out text, with the commas in black and each labeled with an arrow.] Please, buy, apples, mac, and, cheese, milk, and, bread,.

[The labels are as follows, in order from left to right:] Harvard comma Yale comma Stanford comma Columbia comma Cambridge comma Cornell comma Oxford comma Princeton comma MIT comma

[Caption below the panel:] The Oxford one is the most famous, but many major universities have their own comma.

[chaberkowepole]

Reblogging this again and this time not just about linguistics but politics as well

Chomsky (derogatory)

[omegaphilosophia]

The Philosophy of Syntax

The philosophy of syntax is a branch of philosophy that examines the fundamental principles and structures underlying the organization of language at the level of syntax. Syntax is concerned with the rules and principles governing the arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences to convey meaning and communicate effectively.

Key aspects of the philosophy of syntax include:

Universal Grammar: The philosophy of syntax often engages with the concept of universal grammar, which posits that humans are innately predisposed to acquire language and that there are underlying structural principles shared by all languages. Philosophers explore questions about the nature and source of universal grammar and its implications for linguistic theory.

Grammar and Rules: Philosophers analyze the nature of grammatical rules and constraints that govern sentence formation in natural languages. They examine questions such as whether there are innate syntactic rules, how syntactic structures are generated and interpreted, and the relationship between syntax and semantics.

Syntactic Categories and Structures: The philosophy of syntax investigates the categorization and hierarchical structure of linguistic elements such as words, phrases, and clauses. Philosophers explore the principles underlying the classification of syntactic categories (e.g., nouns, verbs, adjectives) and the hierarchical organization of syntactic structures (e.g., phrase structure trees, constituency relations).

Syntactic Variation and Change: Philosophers study syntactic variation and change across languages and over time. They investigate the factors that influence syntactic variation, such as social factors, contact between languages, and language acquisition processes. Philosophers also explore theories of syntactic change and the mechanisms by which syntactic structures evolve.

Syntactic Interfaces: The philosophy of syntax examines the interfaces between syntax and other components of grammar, such as semantics, phonology, and morphology. Philosophers investigate how syntactic structures interface with these other components to generate meaning and produce speech sounds.

Syntactic Universals and Typology: Philosophers explore the existence of syntactic universals—patterns and principles that are found across languages—and their implications for linguistic theory. They also investigate language typology, which involves the classification and comparison of syntactic structures across languages to identify cross-linguistic patterns and regularities.

Computational Syntax: The philosophy of syntax engages with computational approaches to syntax, which use formal and computational models to describe and analyze syntactic structures. Philosophers examine the role of computational methods and theories in understanding syntactic phenomena and modeling language processing.

Overall, the philosophy of syntax offers insights into the fundamental principles governing the structure of language and provides a theoretical framework for understanding syntactic phenomena across different languages and linguistic contexts.

[bellymoonlight]

If Wild is part of the adult timeline, there would be a reason why it was so difficult for him to obtain the master sword.

It's because his hero spirit is weaker compared to the others.

It's because his spirit was forged by Wind, so as not to leave his timeline without a hero.

When Wind learned of this, he blamed himself severely for not passing on a strong enough spirit to his successors as Sky did.

[reader-from-another-dimension]

Despite everything, it's still you.

_________________________________

Thinking about them, about how Shockwave lost himself loving Orion, about how absolutely doomed they were from the very beginning. They wouldn't have lasted, neither of them could've kept each other. Not in this line of work.

But still, if one word can be used to describe the two of them, it would be selfish.

Shockwave is selfish in which he refused to let Orion rest, dragging him through hell and back, into the pit of insanity with him. Orion is selfish in which despite everything his partner had done, he still wants Shockwave next to him, close to him. They cling onto one another, hold themselves so close that when they get separated, their claws ripped each other apart.

It changed them, scarred them beyond what they used to be.

Orion, now Optimus, in a body that is not his, with a mind with millions of years worth of memories - Shockwave, with a broken and mind and a shattered heart.

Their past is long dead. But their future, is still very much alive.

And by Primus, Optimus is GOING to drag his dumbaft of a partner kicking and screaming back next to him no matter what. And, hopefully, into a better life.

This new Shockwave caused this big of a mess, might as well help him clean it up. Damn it, Shock', Optimus is suppose to be the troublesome one.

________________________________

This is so self-indulgent sob 😭😭 you can't give me ShockOp and not expect me to go bonkers over them. They are so tragic I HAD to give them a hopeful ending, Primus knows they've suffered enough. Tell me Optimus, the guy who has attachment issues SO BAD that it dragged a war on for millions of years, wouldn't absolutely find any and all excuses to not hand Shockwave over once the shenanigans are over even after what Shock' did to him.

"Erm actually once I told him he can try to revive me if I die during a drinking game as a joke so TECHNICALLY it's fine.☝️☝️ " "He killed hundreds of our men." "I plead insanity."

Also, we kind of need Shockwave if we gonna do the whole 'Jazz gets robot'ed' thingy, so this is an easy fix for any potential plot hole. (and totally not me trying to keep pookie alive) Let Optimus bring Shockwave to Cybertron ‼️‼️

Mecha au by @keferon (sorry for tagging you sm i just love making content for this au 😭😭😭)

[wayfayrr]

I absolutely adore your link self awake AU and cant stop thinking about reader having adhd and get distracted all the time.. that is a big mood for me

I got curious of how would the links react to reader if they boot up the game just to use them like a white noise for reader to sleep?(i do that alot),,,

Or with the rage quit one, but instead of reader just rage quitting and turn off the game completely, they just go non verbal, lay and took a power nap(maybe if i take this nap im miraculously better kinda way) and doesnt turn the game off either

Im sorry if my grammar is bad awuu,, English is not my first language,, and i wanna tell you agaon that i really love your writing!!!

You think that wouldn't be their most favourite thing? not only are you letting them stay while you're at your most vulnerable but you're giving them more time to try and find a way out - and to get out without causing you as much panic. if it's something that you do often then there is a very high chance that one morning you'll wake up with a link laying on top of you with the proudest look on his face, he did such a good job didn't he? Won't you simply give him some praise for it?

and if you stepping back from the game like that doesn't just give them the final push to do something about their situation :3c

*tap tap tap* "[name]? [name], I'm going to get out now if that's okay." They're really asleep then, well. No point in wasting the chance I have is there? who knows when I'll get another one. "Okay just, gotta get through this barrier, it's solid so if I just" Focus so that you can move how the 'camera' to above you then just. Ascend should work, it's never failed me before. And then I'm through, I - it worked. it worked and I'm finally out? "ouch- should've thought about the landing..."

[starppleb]

I need more Danny ‘No more hero’ Phantom, so here I will be reasoning why he’s an Anti-Hero (in Dp x Dc prompt)

Danny doesn't see Death as the worst thing. He's too familiar with it (He is Death).

Sometimes it's better than 'living'. It's like a 'new beginning', a chance to let go like he tried to he did.

He left hero things with everything in his hometown. Where no matter what, he's been The Villain, The ghost, the menace. 

People Humans only see in him what he did while being mind-controlled or forced to. Not that he saves them every day. They are afraid of him, of his power. 

Just how are people still like Superman and other heroes who are more powerful than regular humans? They get mind-controlled and forced to be evil sometimes too.

That isn't fair. 

And while They chose to save other people's asses because they wanted to, Danny didn't have a choice, if he didn't step in, the town would be destroyed in days. 

He hoped that his parents Fentons would finally realize why ghosts were coming into town, but they just blamed Ghost Boy for all of the wrongdoings and never considered they were wrong. 

So after 2 and a half years of hope, he burned out and just destroyed the portal, cleared out all of the ectoplasm, and left.

Now if ghosts wanted to 'visit' living they needed to go to Danny and personally ask.

This means no more Technus 'I will take over the world' and Emder 'I will make everyone love my music by mind-control', and just Technus 'I'll only check new tech stuff' and Ember 'I'll hang out with Kitty in the park and play some guitar', of course in more human form.

Danny himself decided to stick around Gotham because one - Bats are interesting, and two - ectoplasm (which he tries to clear out, at least a little bit). 

So now he messes with Bats and humans while he's Anti-Hero - Phantom.

And gets yelled at by people at Batburger while he's a regular worker - Danny Nightingale. 

But what will the Justice League do when Phantom will save the world from some big bad ghost with impressive ease, and just leave…

That powerful being is not just some generic troublemaker in the streets of Gotham.

He's the end and sawing of the world (and Infinite Realms). 

[vivianthepigeon]

Bruce and his batbrats

Edit: fanon Bruce