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#ielts #toefl #gre #english_vocabulary #english
Word of the Day
cathexis
Definition: (noun) Concentration of emotional energy on an object or idea.
Synonyms: charge.
Usage: Freud thought of cathexis as a psychic analog of an electrical charge.
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Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
talk down to
If you talk down to someone, you speak to them as if they are inferior to you or less important than you.
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Language Log
Menu worms
Frazz for 6/17/2024:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/FrazzSummerReading.png
Philosophers and linguists have explored the implications (or presuppositions, or implicatures) of "everything" in such sentences — I'll leave it to commenters to fill out an annotated bibliography…
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Funny Or Die (Youtube)
and also cats. I love cats. I love cats #shorts #cats #catlover
Dylan Adler loves cats.
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Word of the Day
degage
Definition: (adjective) Showing lack of emotional involvement.
Synonyms: detached, uninvolved.
Usage: Mrs. Smith was not easily impressed by excuses, and she adopted a degage pose on the arm of the easy chair as her son tried to explain why he missed dinner.
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Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
bend down
to move the upper part of your body forwards and downwards
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Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
help out
If you help someone out, you do something to help them.
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Language Log
mg.
imgur, "On forms of address for non-binaries", by apolloendymion:
since mrs, ms, and mr are all descended from the latin word magister, i propose the gender neutral version should be mg, short for "mage"
some people think this is a shitpost so i want to clarify that i am dead fucking serious. make mage the official gender neutral honorific NOW. i want it on my passport. i want it on my bank account. i want doctors and judges to use it for me. i don't care if it sounds a little silly. people thought "missus" sounded crass at first. call me mg.
benefits of mg:
• easy to pronounce, even for children (though kids 4 & younger may pronounce it more like "mayd" or "maygh")
• ONE SYLLABLE!!! ("individual" is too goddamn LONG.) you have to be able to say it quickly and casually
• ends in a soft consonant sound, so it'll flow right into the next word ("ind" halts the whole sentence)
• fits neatly into the existing structure as a relative of master/mistress that can be abbreviated down to an m and one other letter
• distinct enough that it can't be mistaken for either gendered term (if you call me mix I'll kill you. it sounds like miss with extra steps)
• wizard.
drawbacks:
• there aren't any
• yes, i know about milligrams and magnesium. i don't give a shit. ms can also mean microsoft. who cares.
The thing I (and many others) detested most about ms. when it first came out was that nobody was sure how to pronounce it — or even what it meant. I feel the same problems may plague "mg.", though I kinda like it, and I'm not even a nonbinary.
Selected reading
* "The first proposal for 'Ms.' (1901)" (6/23/09)
* "Miss" (7/3/18)
* "Impolite politeness?" (5/16/10)
* "How to address your professor" (1/6/19)
* "Mr. and Ms. in Chinese" (8/25/13)
* "Horses, soma, riddles, magi, and animal style art in southern China" (11/11/19)
* Victor H. Mair, “Old Sinitic *Myag, Old Persian Maguš, and English Magician,” Early China, 15 (1990), 27–47.
[Thanks to Tim Leonard and Ben Zimmer]
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Word of the Day
Word of the Day: gregarious
This word has appeared in 66 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
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Idiom of the Day
be (someone's) call
To be ultimately left up to someone to decide. Watch the video
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Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
ute
a pickup truck
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Language Log
Comparative scriptural interpretation of the midrashim and the Analects
Sino-Platonic Papers is pleased to announce the publication of its three-hundred-and-forty-ninth issue:
"Reading Genesis 22 and Analects 18 in Late Antiquity," by Benjamin Porteous.
https://sino-platonic.org/complete/spp349_genesis_confucian_analects.pdf
ABSTRACT
This paper compares modes of scriptural interpretation from two ends of the Eurasian landmass in the late antique period (400–600 CE). Juxtaposing midrashim on Genesis with the Lunyi yishu 論語義疏, a famous expository commentary on the Confucian Analects, the paper argues that the difference between late-antique Confucian and Jewish commentarial practice lies in differing senses of responsibility for the sacred text. The Lunyu yishu curates the full Analects text, while midrashim presuppose a reader who turns elsewhere for the full version of the Hebrew Bible. The paper provides full typologies of commentarial technique in the midrashim and the Lunyu yishu; this is designed to assist comparison and further understanding of the practice of medieval Chinese commentary.
Keywords: Commentary, shu 疏, Analects, Lunyu yishu, midrash
—–
All issues of Sino-Platonic Papers are available in full for no charge.
To view our catalog, visit http://www.sino-platonic.org/
Selected readings
* "Latin oration at Harvard" (5/9/24)
* "Oldest manuscript of the Confucian Analects discovered in Japan" (10/2/20)
* "'(Political) party' in the Analects" (1/28/21)
* "Confucius didn't mean that" (10/23/21)
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Word of the Day
Word of the Day: interminable
This word has appeared in 41 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
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Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
airhead
a silly, stupid person
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on. There just isn’t enough stone left, nor are there any other examples out in the world for cross-referencing. So, the team needs to feed the AI model other known languages from the geographic areas it may be from, such as Kawi and Pali, which may or may not be related to the script of the Singapore Stone but can be used as reference points. It’s a lot of data points.
Read-y Grammarian, the AI tool at the heart of this project, is a “prediction machine” developed by Colin Loh, a former engineer and mathematician. The algorithm has been further refined by Dr. Perono Cacciafoco’s colleagues. To simplify the science here, it analyzes various parameters, including the shape, size, and width of the extant characters, the degree of erosion on the stone’s surface, and the length and position of repeated symbol clusters. By comparing these features with well-known writing systems, the AI tool generates possible lines of missing text, which can then be further analyzed for frequency and pattern recognition.
“This process is what Philologists do ‘by hand’ with ancient manuscripts, trying to fill the gaps in text based on the contents of a work and on the lines and writing,” Dr. Perono Cacciafoco said. “The ‘machine’ can produce a mountain of mistakes and negative results, and no text is ‘final’, but its ‘products’ are unbiased and based only on data. This is fundamental in an exercise in Crypto-linguistics like the one we are performing. We cannot allow our own ideas and postulations on the script of the Stone to compromise our analysis.”
Using high-definition 3D scans of the fragments and the drawn images of the stone, they built a digital model that the AI will use to “learn.” As it moves through the process of deciphering, each read of the stone’s text will hopefully improve its ability to make predictions as to what fits where. With a reasonable reconstruction in hand, the team can begin to try to decipher what the symbols mean.
…
Under such circumstances, in order for a decipherment to be successful, researchers must have at least some clue linking it to a known language.
One of the most significant hurdles in deciphering the Singapore Stone is the “unknown writing system” and “unknown language” dichotomy. This combination is a nightmare for crypto linguists, as it provides no phonetic or linguistic clues. However, history has shown that human ingenuity can prevail in such situations. The decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs by Jean-François Champollion and Linear B by Michael Ventris are prime examples of breakthroughs achieved through a combination of genius and fortunate discoveries.
Dr. Perono Cacciafoco’s team hopes for a similar “lucky match”—a recognizable name or phrase that could provide a key to unlocking the script. This could be the name of a king, a deity, or a place, which, once identified, could help decode other parts of the text. This creates a sort of rainfall moment, and suddenly, that one match leads to other matches, and a cascade occurs. This assumes the symbols on the stone aren’t completely unique.
…
AI is under scrutiny. Does it have any sense of values or of what's good and bad? Or does it simply attempt to solve problems with the data it has mastered? In the case of deciphering an unknown language like that on the Singapore Stone, will it cheat and claim it has done so when it really has not? Will it admit defeat and say, "This is beyond me. I cannot read this unless you give me more information." Selected readings
* "Unknown language #18" (6/3/24)
* "(Linear) A/B testing" (5/18/19)
[Thanks to Don Keyser]
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Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
uptight
tense, anxious
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Funny Or Die (Youtube)
Whatever it takes for a big speech. @deadeyebrakeman. #shorts #podcast #interview #comedy
"I wish I were Jewish so I could do a big speech in front of everybody" - middle school @deadeyebrakeman.
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Learn English Through Football
Euro 24 Football Language Phrase (Day 5): Snatch a last-gasp win
In this football language post we look at the phrase, 'Snatch a last-gasp win' from the Portugal v Czech Republic game on day 5 of the Euros
The post Euro 24 Football Language Phrase (Day 5): Snatch a last-gasp win appeared first on Learn English Through Football.
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Idiom of the Day
it's all good
A phrase used to express general approval, unconcern, or disinterest. Watch the video
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Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
yakuza
a Japanese criminal organisation, or a member of such an organisation
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Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
deadbeat dad
a father who doesn't pay child support regularly
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Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
old bat
an unpleasant old woman
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Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
run on (2)
to continue for longer than expected
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Learn English Through Football
Euro 2024 FootballLanguage Phrase Day 4: Screamer
Day four's Euro 2024 phrase is 'screamer' which was used to describe a special type of goal scored in the Yugoslavia v Ukraine match.
The post Euro 2024 FootballLanguage Phrase Day 4: Screamer appeared first on Learn English Through Football.
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Word of the Day
craven
Definition: (adjective) Characterized by abject fear; cowardly.
Synonyms: recreant.
Usage: The cowardly shopkeeper angered the revolutionaries with his craven proposal to raise the white flag and surrender.
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Learn English Through Football
Euro 24 Football Language Phrase (Day 3): Power Home a Header
In this football language post we look at the phrase, 'Power home a header' from the England versus Serbia match at the 2024 Euros.
The post Euro 24 Football Language Phrase (Day 3): Power Home a Header appeared first on Learn English Through Football.
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Language Log
Rome Pride
The LLOG post on "Frociaggine" (6/8/2024) quoted the two glosses for frocio in Wiktionary:
1. (vulgar, derogatory, outgroup) gay man, poof, faggot
2. (friendly, ingroup) homosexual person, especially a gay man
The "friendly, ingroup" version may be reinforced by last weekend's Il Roma Pride http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/RomePride1.png — Emma Bubola, "Italians Respond to Pope’s Slur by Taking Francis to Pride", NYT 6/16/2024:
At Saturday’s celebration in Rome, Pope Francis’ image was on cardboard cutouts adorned with flower necklaces. People came dressed as the pope, wore papal hats and said that there was never too much “gayness.”
At Rome’s Pride celebration, bare-chested men in pink angel wings danced to Abba songs, women wrapped in rainbow flags kissed, and shimmering drag queens waved from parade floats. And then there was Pope Francis.
The pontiff’s image was everywhere. On cardboard cutouts adorned with flower necklaces, on glittery banners, on stickers. Romans came to the Pride parade on Saturday dressed like Francis, wearing papal hats and T-shirts that read, “There is never too much frociaggine,” a reference to an offensive slur against gay men that the pope has been accused of using twice in recent weeks.
The slur “is the slogan of the 2024 Pride,” said Martina Lorina, 28, an actress who was holding up a banner bearing the word.
Clearly Ms. Lorina was not the only one:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/RomePride2.jpeg
Will parading the linguistic reappropriation of frociaggine spread some positive valence to the root word frocio, maybe even promoting it to first place, as has happened with the Wiktionary entry for English gay? It's hard to predict the lexicographical future, but that direction seems plausible, whatever happens in the Vatican…
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Word of the Day
apportionment
Definition: (noun) The act of distributing by allotting or apportioning; distribution according to a plan.
Synonyms: parceling, assignation, allocation, allotment.
Usage: The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives is based on the relative population of each state.
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Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
keep to
If you keep to something like a limit, a budget or a schedule, you don't go over it or outside it.
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Language Log
Unknown language #19
Inscribed sandstone known as the "Singapore Stone", Singapore, 10th–14th century: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/~bgzimmer/singaporestone.jpg Collection of the National Museum of Singapore
(Source; also includes an animated photo that can be rotated 360º in any direction and enlarged or reduced to any size)
"The Language On This 1,000 Year Old Stone is a “Glyph Breaker’s Nightmare.” Scientists Want to Use AI to Crack It", MJ Banias, The Debrief (6/14/24)
For centuries, the Singapore Stone has stood as one of Southeast Asia’s most enigmatic artifacts. Discovered in 1819 at the mouth of the Singapore River, this sandstone slab, inscribed with an unknown script, has baffled historians and linguists alike. Dubbed a “glyph breaker’s nightmare,” researchers are turning to artificial intelligence to unlock the secrets of this ancient relic. The Singapore Stone, originally a large boulder, was partially destroyed by the British in 1843 for use in building a stone fort. The remaining fragment, now housed in the National Museum of Singapore, bears an inscription in a script that has yet to be deciphered. Scholars have speculated that the stone dates back to between the 10th and 14th centuries, possibly linked to the Majapahit empire or a South Indian rajah. Despite various efforts, the script remains a mystery, with no known parallels in other historical records.
…
“To decipher an undeciphered writing system (as well as to crack a cipher we do not have the key for), the essential requirement is to have enough text available. The Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs were deciphered because Champollion was a genius, but also because they were everywhere in Egypt. Same for the Cuneiform writing system and Henry Rawlinson and Edward Hincks,” Dr Francesco Perono Cacciafoco, the lead researcher on this project told The Debrief.
“With the Singapore Stone, we have just a small fragment, plus the reproductions of two other (for now) lost fragments, plus some reproductions of the whole slab, before it was blown up, with not very clear characters and entire sections missing because of erosion. Therefore, the amount we have is very little. Moreover, its text/script is unique and never found anywhere else in the world.”
In 1837, several years before the British blew the stone up, it was hand-drawn by the politician William Bland and philologist James Prinsep. Later, Sir Stamford Raffles, the British East India Company’s administrator and the “founder” of Singapore, attempted to decode it. However, when it was blown up, only three recovered fragments were graphically reproduced before being sent to India.
After the stone and its fragments languished for several centuries in a museum collection, Cacciafoco and his team are now trying to leverage the power of AI to unravel the mysterious script.
“Our work is mainly aimed, for now, at a digital restitution and/or recovery of the full text of the Stone (a possibly reasonable version of it), to have a consistent starting point for frequency analyses, comparisons, and pattern recognitions,” Perono Cacciafoco explained. Their project, based at Nanyang Technological University and now continuing at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in China, employs an AI tool named Read-y Grammarian. This tool is designed to analyze the stone’s text using advanced computational methods, including computer vision, artificial neural networks, and deep learning.
Perono Cacciafoco’s team knows, however, that this is not a simple task. You can’t just ask AI to decode the text. The sheer volume of data that needs to be processed is immense. The original stone, when intact, measured approximately 3 meters by 3 meters and contained 50 to 52 lines of text. However, the fragments and reproductions of the stone are insufficient for comprehensive frequency analyses and pattern recogniti[...]
