home stretch update

morphology presentation, april 15
discourse presentation, april 16
philosophy paper, due something like april 30
discourse paper, due may 2
philosophy final, some time during the week of may 5
morphology final, some time during the week of may 5
history of english final, may 8

you're reading that right: two papers and three finals. naturally, this is therefore a good time to go out of town for the weekend.

is this post non-binary, or anti-binary?

so my last morphology assignment involved a set of data that were either marked singular, marked plural, or unmarked -- in some situations, the language uses the same form of the word for both singular and plural, so those forms are essentially "numberless," or zero-number.

i recall once having a discussion in which i argued for a distinction between irrational -- being what we usually think of when we say "irrational", i.e. actually opposed to reason -- and non-rational, which i thought of as just not necessarily in line with reason.

here's 3jane describing her co-worker as being "as anti-feminist as any woman I've ever met". the co-worker may indeed be anti-feminist -- i certainly don't know -- but surely there's a difference between someone (male or female) who happens not to be a proactive feminist, and someone who is anti-feminist. (maybe that depends on the definition of feminist ... but maybe not.)

it's not always the case that you're either for something or against it, i mean to say. is it? sometimes, really, you just don't take a position either way. zero-number. right?

hold it --

west wing is a rerun?

then why the hell did i bother setting up the vcr? [grumble]

ego-boost

phone rang half an hour ago.

it was M, a fourth-year student from my typology class last semester (which was cross-listed for undergraduate and graduate credit, which is how we were both in it). nice kid. studying spanish linguistics. she was calling because she's writing a senior thesis; she's had a first draft back from her advisor, and she hopes to hand in a final draft tomorrow, and she's a little stumped by something in one of the articles she's reading ("by the sixteenth century, estar had completely ousted ser from aspectually compound tenses"), and she was hoping i could help her out. see, she's decided i Know Things about linguistics, and will therefore be able to explain what that means and why it matters.

now, i don't speak spanish, and i haven't read the article in question, so i don't have the context -- so all i could do was give my best guess, based on what i think i'd mean if i used the phrase "aspectually compound tenses". but, dude! baby undergrad ran into a concept she didn't understand, and decided, i know! i'll call my friend fox the smart grad student. she can help me!

[falls down]

things i hate:

when i haven't eaten, drunk, or taken any food, beverage or medication that varies from the usual --

-- or been under unusual amounts or types of stress --

-- or been having trouble sleeping --

-- and i nevertheless have this weird turbulent indigest-y stomach thing happening.

:-( (think i should blame lucius?)