ghoti

Let it be – words are meant to be “lost”

Charles Darwin would have made a great linguist. In his thinking of life and evolution it is not someone who decides on what survives and what dies. It the larger mechanism of existence that “decides” so. Similarly, words should survive if there is a need for it to do so, not to be forced so…
One

1. There is something to be said about linguistic determinism, and in particular relativity. Linguistic relativity says that the form or structure of a language influences the way people think, or world-view. The often quoted example is the Inuit people and the words for “snow”. Whereas in English we have snow (and perhaps sleet and slush) the…
Grammar or experience?

What is wrong with the idea of “universal” in the Universal Grammar of Chomsky? It is that what is taken as being universal is wrong. It is not the grammar in the brain that is universal, but rather it is the human experience that is universal. We all have the same set of senses and…
heaviness of rain

more than white noise the drone continues through the night in dark sleep the overflow gutters my one exposed ear until light reveals the heaviness of the rain frogs frolic wetly green suits shining and birds shelter in the eaves leaving reluctantly at my presence as warnings come over the air waves
midnight

peak of darkness the largest hour the sun is at its lowest hidden beneath the earth seemingly under ground the stars pinhole the sky wall the half-moon noticeably crawls across the black and the air falls upon me – my ominous blanket that keeps me cold
Why syntax over morphology

Over the years of teaching and writing I have noticed how much more emphasis had been given to words (morphology) over sentences (syntax). Perhaps it is because sentences are mistakenly thought of as so much harder to pin down. When people see a sentence of twenty words they think of twenty things. Rarely do they…
Beyond dialogue

With post-Periscope here we now have what can be considered not dialogue but what I shall call plura-logue. Conversations no longer static or deferred but dynamic and immediate. It is also dialogue with one and many simultaneously.
How to set up and use iPhone VoiceOver for Periscope

Do you want to drive and Periscope at the same time but feel it is unsafe (let alone it being illegal in some places)? Well, there is a solution. It is called VoiceOver. 1. Set up VoiceOver Firstly, go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut and check VoiceOver 2. Start a broadcast Now…
Ben Crystal lectures in Japan

I heard Shakespearean actor, Ben Crystal, talk today. My interest in Shakespeare – which had wained with my miscomprehension or un-comprehension of it in my youth – had returned with the revelation that what I had been watching until now had been inauthentic. Ben had pointed out that modern performances had tended towards Received Pronunciation (RP)…
Published international research low by Japanese

Compared to the world growth in publishing at eighty-percent Japan is falling behind at just 14%. Figures given this morning showed exchange to America has fallen from the peak of over 47,000 students to under 19,000. Furthermore, money put into research has dropped dramatically. If Japan is to compete academically it will need to increase…