#Academic Dissertation

[official-linguistics-post]

on reconstruction and historical linguistics

to follow up on today's reblog, i want to comment briefly on the apparent misapprehension that linguistic reconstruction is just guesswork with a fancy name, because that's not accurate!

reconstruction is based on specific, well-attested constraints of linguistic development. we know from centuries of investigation that languages tend to change in predictable ways. we also have a decent understanding of the complexities introduced by phenomena like language contact, which can result in borrowing on multiple structural levels. our methods are well established and borne out by evidence.

comparative reconstruction involves applying these known constraints ("rules") in reverse on a collected body of words in related descendant languages. when possible, we also incorporate historical written evidence, which often provides midpoint references for changes in progress. it is always recognized by historical linguists that reconstruction can be imperfect; we cannot know what information has been lost.

the results of reconstruction can be mixed, but i'll let campbell (2013:144) explain:

How Realistic are Reconstructed Proto-languages? The success of any given reconstruction depends on the material at hand to work with and the ability of the comparative linguist to figure out what happened in the history of the languages being compared. In cases where the daughter languages preserve clear evidence of what the parent language had, a reconstruction can be very successful, matching closely the actual spoken ancestral language from which the compared daughters descend. However, there are many cases in which all the daughters lose or merge formerly contrasting sounds or eliminate earlier alternations through analogy, or lose morphological categories due to changes of various sorts. We cannot recover things about the proto-language via the comparative method if the daughters simply do not preserve evidence of them. In cases where the evidence is severely limited or unclear, we often make mistakes. We make the best inferences we can based on the evidence available and on everything we know about the nature of human languages and linguistic change. We do the best we can with what we have to work with. Often the results are very good; sometimes they are less complete. In general, the longer in the past the proto-language split up, the more linguistic changes will have accumulated and the more difficult it becomes to reconstruct with full success. (emphasis mine)

or, to quote labov's (1982:20) pithier if less optimistic approach:

Historical linguistics may be characterized as the art of making the best use of bad data, in the sense that the fragments of the literary record that remain are the results of historical accidents beyond the control of the investigator.

in sum, historical linguists are very realistic about what we can achieve, but the confidence we do have is genuinely well earned, because linguistics is a scientific field and we treat our investigations with rigor.

---

Campbell, Lyle. 2013. Historical Linguistics: An Introduction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Labov, William. 1982. "Building on Empirical Foundations." In Perspectives on Historical Linguistics. Winifred P. Lehmann and Yakov Malkiel, eds. Pp. 17-92. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

[facts-i-just-made-up]

How to get a PhD?

In five easy steps, you can earn a real PhD! Here's how:

Choose a subject in which you can get a PhD, such as Caviar Debrining, Musical Glassware Demolition, or Cunnilingus.

Enroll in a graduate school that offers a PhD course in your topic, such as CU Boulder, the Academy of Raya Lucaria, or the Royal Institute for the Study and Performance of Cunnilingus.

Achieve 80-140 hours of class credits in relevant coursework, such as Advanced Bullshitting, Making Up MLA Format Citations That Sound Real, and Warping Irrelevant Quotations So They Will Appear To Fit Your Points (Cunning Linguistics).

Compose a dissertation in the medium demanded by your field, such as an Essay, Scientific Treatise, or Oral Presentation.

Defend your dissertation. This is nothing to be afraid of and is merely titled a "defense" in an antiquated sense of the word. You can defend your dissertation in many academic ways, such as a sword duel, outlasting a professor in the pain induction box, or of course, besting them in Competitive Cunnilingus. This last one is naturally the most reliable way to graduate Cum Laude.

[enlitment]

bad case of SMA right now [supervisor meeting anxiety]

[paintedpigeon1]

Are you an adult with ADHD and/or autism?

I’m currently doing a Master's dissertation about how to improve access to public library services for adults with ADHD and/or autism, and I need your input!

If you are over 18, have ADHD and/or autism (edit for clarity: no matter where you live), and would like to help with this, please fill in the survey below by midnight on 8 August 2024.

For more information please contact me on ruth.collard-stayte@city.ac.uk

Even if you're not eligible, please share this post so I can receive as many responses as possible!

(Also you don't want to disappoint the cute brain on the flyer do you?)

[cosmichorrorlesbians]

what's your dissertation about? you mentioned it in the siltcord and i'm really interested

oh my god hey I'm so happy you're interested! broad strokes because I've only been working on it for a few weeks but: the current theme is 'resistant landscapes' (both man-made and natural) in the later writing of Shirley Jackson!

Essentially, my main thread is that Jackson had two parallel strands to her work, which as far as I can tell began kind of interrelated but then diverged quite significantly? She's probably best known now for The Haunting of Hill House and to a lesser extent We Have Always Lived In The Castle, which are these. weird surreal psychological horror novels, engaging explicitly or implicitly with the supernatural, and centred around introspective, strange and sometimes deeply misanthropic female characters from isolated social units with dysfunctional, possessive relationships to each other.

Aaaaand then on the other hand she was known for being a 'happy housewife' who wrote these whimsical, quasi-autobiographical stories about all her children and how hopeless her husband was. These were popular too. Betty Friedan called her out in landmark 1963 feminist manifesto The Feminine Mystique for essentially spreading patriarchal propaganda.

The interrelation between the two is really jarring, because in one family is a source of horror and tragedy and in the other it's a source of, like... laundry. And Jackson's home life wasn't everything those stories made it out to be-- her marriage was unfaithful, her mother could probably be fairly called emotionally abusive, and as I talked about on the siltcord, she developed severe agoraphobia which often left her housebound.

So, yeah. My plan is to explore the depiction of families as constructed social units in dialogue with the environments they are constructed in in that work. Obviously a lot of that is relation of house to family, in the context of which Hill House is especially rewarding to consider, but I also want to look at relationships with nature and urban environments (especially in the context of settler colonialism and how that has had an enduring legacy in Jackson's particular part of New England), xenophobia (largely in regard to class, though racism and anti-Semitism are presences in her writing), domesticity and the idea of the housewife, and how horror relates to All Of This. The ideal of making a home within a hostile environment and of that environment turning on you, essentially.

I don't yet have particular areas of focus within that broad umbrella, but I might update with bits and pieces about it as I work? I don't really talk about academic stuff on here but I am very much Critical Literary Analysis Guy and I do also post relentlessly about haunted houses as a concept so if people would be interested in it maybe I will

anyway if you've read this far I recommend Horror in Architecture: The Reanimated Edition (2024) by Joshua Comaroff and Ong Ker-Shing which is a book about how horror movie tropes can be mirrored in built environments! I'm reading it right now and it's conceptually fascinating plus fairlyyy comprehensible by academic standards (if a little dense) if you, like me, are a Fool who knows nothing of architecture. very good also for getting to look at pictures of some of the most Fucked Up Buildings (affectionate) you've ever seen.

[shitacademicswrite]

[elumish]

Working on my dissertation reminds me that I spend such an inordinate amount of time thinking about the cultural memorialization of 9/11.

[llyfrenfys]

Project Update

Bore da! Coming to you today with a little update

As explained in my September Update, I have been focusing on my mental health these past few months due to various life events I've been dealing with, namely;

In mid-March my long-term relationship came to an end and I had to make an emergency move into a new flat due to no longer being able to afford the rent. I was then in hospital due to ketoacidosis (a buildup of ketones in the body which causes the body to be too acidic, which can be life threatening). In April I lost my job due to whistleblowing health and safety concerns (and also experienced direct disability discrimination. I will be taking my former boss to tribunal over this). In July I briefly had a new job, however, due to poor mental health I could not carry on in the role. And in July I was informed that a family member has been diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Despite all these major life changes, I'm still determined to keep on doing what I love (my research) and sharing it with you all. These events have taken their toll, however, and I'm struggling to make ends meet without a job (I have enough in savings for three months of rent, excluding bills and food). I have applied to many jobs in and around Aberystwyth and I hope to hear from one soon.

August was exhausting, after the events of the past few months. But I'm finally feeling well enough to write and create again. I had struggled for months to format my undergraduate dissertation but as of last week I was finally able to finish making edits. I'm happy to announce that I have made it available on a pay-as-you feel basis (you can pay as little as £1!) to help support me in the interim. The link to get a copy is here:

Researchers are welcome to email me at lub57@aber.ac.uk for a free copy.

In addition to this, I'm going to be launching some Welsh-language/Welsh themed LGBTQ+ prints! If you enjoyed my queer Welsh county pride flags, my Welsh Gilbert Baker flag design or my Cardiff pride flag mashups, I will be making these into physical prints (UK, EU and US shipping available) very soon, so do please keep an eye out for that!

Hwyl a diolch yn fawr am darllen,

Luke

[lovesodeepandwideandwell]

AM I going through the important things in my dissertation way too fast? Or am I saying them so simply and clearly that your snob brain is ignoring them? Advisor?????

[thematicparallel]

[someone still in the middle of watching the wire] i need to rewatch the wire

[margindoodles2407]

you are yet to tell us your fandom-controversial takes on the corrie guard and their poor marshal commander

I require this to be rectified posthaste (take your time lol)

Ask and ye shall recieve, friend-o (I spent three days on this)

(@whyoneartheven Hola. You'll also probably want to see this)

DISCLAIMER. Hello there. I urge you, if you are currently reading this dissertation, to perhaps- either now or later- step aside to read this glorious fic, which not only changed my brain chemistry in indescribable ways but also shaped at least 90% of my perception of Fox as a person. I am contractually obligated to warn you, though. That it's a T- rated fic. And it's a hard T. There is some dark subject matter here. However. If you are okay with that. PLEASE READ IT PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE OH MY FORCE GO READ IT GO READ IT NOW I AM LOSING MY MIND IT'S SO GOOD IT'S SO GOOD IT'S SO GOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDD:

https://archiveofourown.org/series/3653110 (you're going to have to copy and paste the link but i swear it works)

And Now, Your Scheduled Programming.

---------------------------------------------------

Commander Fox

By MarginDoodles2047

What I see in Commander Fox is a man who is, fundamentally, deeply kind.

I see a man who was once a little boy, the youngest of his batch of brothers, and with a red giant for a heart. I see a little boy whose heart was huge and warm and beautifully bright, who loved like it was breathing, who gave and gave and gave without a thought to himself. I see a boy whose heart's deepest darkest desire was to be a medic, whose hands ached to heal and not to hurt, who wanted to fix what was broken and stitch back together what was ravaged and ragged and ruined.

I see a boy who could not ever see that dream become more, because he was created to lead armies to victory, no matter how high the blood-price.

I see a youth who worked like a madman to prove himself, and whose efforts were finally rewarded with the promise that he'd never have to see the battlefield he hated so much. I see a youth ecstatic at the thought that he'd spend his days protecting, for Coruscant, the beating heart of the Republic, was his to guard and to defend. I see a youth who spent his last night on Kamino with bright, excited eyes and a giddy racing in his huge, warm, bright heart, because he, of all his brothers, the youngest, little Fox'ika, had been deemed fit to spill his blood for the Supreme Chancellor himself.

I see a man who stepped off the transport, who took his first steps onto the planet-city, hand locked in his best friend and co-Commander's, with eyes still shining and a smile that could put the ecumenopolis's own glittering brightness to shame.

I see… that smile start to fade, as the days and weeks go by.

Because I see what Fox could not, not at first: I see the decadence, the degeneracy, the decay that lay just beneath that shimmering facade. I see the minds of people from all corners of the galaxy, some noble but most twisted and corrupted, as they go about their petty lives squabbling and backrooms-dealing in the name of Democracy but really for their own gain. I see the inflated, fragile egos of countless humans and aliens who are more than willing to treat their fellow beings as objects to use and discard when they're done with them.

Most horribly, I see at the center of it all the deceptively gentle smile and cruel beady eyes of a man in blood-red robes, who spins this web of corruption and abuse around him like a very patient spider that finds himself delighted to have caught a very earnest and very naive white-and-crimson-armored beetle right in the center of it.

I see a man who finds his entire world ripped out from under his feet, yet still a man who tries to make the best out of a bad situation for weeks. I see a man who fights back against every snide comment, every attempted backhanded slap, every derogatory sneer of Clone, with the fire from his red-giant heart flaring in his eyes and burning in his voice, yet who- increasingly exhaustedly- turns nothing but his innate kindness and warmth and empathy on his terrified younger brothers, despite being terrified himself. I see a man who is so determined to be cheerfully rebellious, even to the face of the most powerful man in the Galaxy---

But when he holds the broken, badly-concussed body of his best friend and right-hand man, the body of a brother beaten and battered and barely-alive as a punishment for his defiance, I see a man who resolves then and there that as long as he is Marshal Commander of the Coruscant Guard, no one but he will take the blows and the bruises and the fractures and the insults and the absolute hell that is the Senate.

I see a man whose heart is huge and warm and whose beautifully bright light is flickering and sputtering like a dying candle, who loves like it's breathing, who gives and gives and gives without a thought to himself.

I see him give his body to the blows and the slaps and the throwing and the names. I see him give his gentleness, his comfort, his protection to his brothers. I see him give everything he has to make sure the politicians' attentions are on him and never on his Guardsmen.

I see the sweet little boy get buried under layers of callouses, to be dug out only for the suffering men he's sworn himself to protect. I see him cut himself off from his batch-brothers, firstly because he feels they'd never understand or believe him and secondly, because he doesn't want that spider of a man to have any more leverage over him than he already does-- because I see a beskar will that only one person can bend and twist like taffy, I see a man hewn from marble that only one person can toy with like a marionette on a string.

I see once-dark curls shock themselves full of silver and once-bright eyes go dim and dull and sunken. I see too-sharp cheekbones and a once-smooth young face get violently gashed in half from eyebrow to mouth-corner, just because. I see black eyes and deep hematomas expertly hidden under layers of drugstore concealer and violent electric burns expertly hidden under the layers of his armor. I see the scars that are tokens of thoughtless cruelty and deliberate torture alike.

I see a man who spends his nights on Coruscant with exhausted, weepy eyes and a panicked racing in his shrinking, cooling, flickering heart, because he, of all his brothers, the oldest, Commander Fox, has been deemed fit to spill his blood for the Supreme Chancellor himself.

(I see, one particularly bad night, a glass of something dark and burning. Over time, I see that glass turn into two glasses. Then a bottle. Then three bottles. Then five bottles and a sobbing, heartbroken man slumped over his cluttered desk- a man who dried to drown his terror and his grief but instead finds himself drowning in them and a sea of cheap Correllian alcohol.)

I see it all, and I see it… go unnoticed, because what the Senate, the Media, the Public, sees is a perfect, polished Marshal Commander whose black-brown and silver curls have never a hair out of place, whose bleak eyes can hold perfect and even intense contact with those of their focus, whose sharp split face is nonetheless clean-shaven and unblemished and even- in its own macabre way- handsome when it's not hidden under his helmet, whose bruises and scars are rendered invisible and whose hands never shake and whose never-raised voice is measured and even and soft and always, always, polite.

Fox is not the only one I see, though. I see Command Batch, increasingly concerned regarding little Foxy's clipped, too-polite monosyllables and terse responses. I especially see Wolffe and Cody, angrily sad and deeply worried, respectively, about the change that has come over their vod'ika. I see Rex's relationship with Fox grow cold and distant and strained for reasons he's not entirely able to fathom. I see Thorn, worrier that he is, the only one able to really get through to his superior, his best friend, his brother, the only one who knows the extent of the wreck that Fox has become. I see the Guardsmen, from the oldest surviving veteran to the freshest most innocent shiny, ready to die for their Marshal Commander because he's the only one who makes them not want to die from the torture that is their job.

I see the Chancellor, who really doesn't care about him, because, in the grand scheme of things, he's nigh-inconsequential to his master plan, yet who keeps him around because isn't it fun to have one person on whom he can inflict all the mental and physical and spiritual torture he likes, because he has no safe space or confidante that could protect him? One person he can tell that plan to because he has no one to tell and stop the coming darkness? One person who can know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, who the Dark Lord of the Sith is, because even if he did have someone to tell, who would believe that the kind, soft-spoken, grandfatherly Chancellor, who's so respectful of all his troops and fights so hard for the rights of the GAR, could possibly be the great evil behind the entire war?

I see Commander Fox.

I see a man who was once a little boy, the youngest of his batch of brothers, and with a red giant for a heart. I see a little boy whose heart was huge and warm and beautifully bright, who loved like it was breathing, who gave and gave and gave without a thought to himself. I see a boy whose heart's deepest darkest desire was to be a medic, whose hands ached to heal and not to hurt, who wanted to fix what was broken and stitch back together what was ravaged and ragged and ruined.

I see a man whose red giant heart is breaking, bursting at the seams. I see a man who still loves like it's breathing, who still gives and gives and gives without a thought to himself, but whose breathing is turning asthmatic and whose well to give from is by no means infinite. I see a man who still, in his heart of hearts, is trying to be a medic, trying to play doctor to a division that is horribly broken and fumbling with his own mangled hands to stitch back together a division that is ravaged and rugged and ruined almost beyond repair.

I see Commander Fox, and he's running out of time.

[saintcirce]

Please do a whole post about phd applications, funding applications, fellowships, TAships etc. Would love your take on it. Thanks

I'm chronically horrible at responding to asks, so this is coming later than you probably expected!

For context, I'm now a second year PhD art history student about to take her doctoral (comprehensive) exams in April. I applied for PhD programs during the last semester of my master's program, which was a terminal degree through a different university than the one I currently attend.

I applied to two PhD programs in the United States and two in the United Kingdom: the processes are different, particularly when it comes to funding. The former will automatically consider you for funding and it's expected, at least in the humanities, that they will grant you tuition remission and a stipend for at least four years (potentially more, depending on your particular program). It's also possible to win additional fellowships, either through your university or a third party. For example, I have departmental funding (ie. a stipend that I receive for being a Graduate Assistant) and an outside fellowship from my university's Graduate School. My department applied for that fellowship on my behalf before I even enrolled. The other American university to which I applied also offered me tuition remission and a stipend, but it was less than the university I currently attend.

Two general notes about funding in the United States: (1) it often changes to account for rising cost of living but that does not necessarily mean you will be making a living wage, and (2) it often changes depending on whether your school has a Union. Graduate workers at my university are currently working to unionize, which would not only guarantee a living wage for union members but also offer protections for international students and student parents. There are a lot of benefits but the TLDR for funding is that unionizing often means the difference between $28,000 and $45,000 yearly stipend (see this article from the Boston Herald about BU's graduate student union). Graduate Assistants are often not allowed to hold a second job outside of the university and it's also difficult to do so when you are (a) working, (b) completing coursework, and (c) independently researching. My museum fellowship, which I'm due to begin in a couple days, jeopardized my funding status and I had to fight my university for them not to take away my fellowship. It ultimately worked out because I had my department chair's support but not all students are similarly supported—and not all departments are willing to advocate for their students.

Pivoting to UK schools: the TLDR is that they offer very little funding for international students and the funding that is available, either through the institutions themselves or outside organizations, is often not enough to cover the cost of living. Tuition is largely cheaper than in America but the difference was not significant enough for it to factor into my decision. If you're interested in more detail, I'd recommend reaching out to @therepublicofletters who actually attends a UK institution. She can also tell you more about how their programs are structured. Unlike American PhD programs—which involve at least two years of coursework, doctoral exams, and graduate assistantships before defending your prospectus and beginning dissertation research—UK programs ask you to apply with a prospectus that you will use as the basis for dissertation research that you begin immediately upon entry. The difference is that American programs typically take 5-7 years to complete whereas UK ones are only 3-4 years. While this may seem convenient in the short term, I was advised that American institutions (museums, universities, etc) often prefer PhDs from American institutions because of the extra work completed.

Setting aside this technical information, I chose the four programs to which I applied based on vibes. I had a master list of schools and advisors and I contacted each one to see if we fit in terms of academic interests and personalities. I did not want to work with an advisor I didn't like and who didn't like me—or who had so many students that they had no time for me. Aside from speaking with them personally, I also reached out to their current advisees: students will often give you a more honest perspective on faculty and the department as a whole. I would almost lend more weight to what the students say than any of the professors because they are and/or will be your peers. They are also the people who will give you the most honest information about how professors and the department view students of color, women, queer students, etc. Art history and the humanities are fairly white, straight, and male dominated, so it's important to get a read on how non-normative (for lack of a better collective term) individuals are treated. I used this information to narrow down my master list to four schools, each of which I would be happy to attend. Whether I was admitted to one or to all four, I would have a place to go where I would be content and able to find community.

This is a personal note but something to consider when it comes to advisors is gender. That should not be a determining factor but I realized after committing to my current school that this is the first time I've worked with a male advisor. I love him dearly and he is one of the most encouraging scholars I have met but there have been occasions where there is a disconnect based on life experience. That said, I know many people who have had no issues at all!

Throughout this whole process, the name value of the schools was functionally irrelevant. In my experience—and that of the numerous individuals who advised me during the application process—your advisor is far more important than your school. While this will necessarily vary by discipline, you want to work with someone who has connections and/or knows how to network. For example, an older scholar will likely know everyone and their mother whereas a younger scholar will know fewer people but likely be more present at conferences, etc.

In the end, what matters most is your happiness and stability. Will you like working with your chosen advisor? Will you like taking classes in other disciplines within your department? Will you be able to make friends and/or have civil relationships with other graduate students (ie. will people steal books you need because they know you need them, like at Columbia)? Can you afford to live in whatever city in which you school is located? Are they paying you a living wage and/or offering you alternate opportunities to apply for funding?

I chose my school based on the graduate community, my advisors (I now have two), and the funding package. There have been incidental issues that I could not have anticipated, but on the whole, I do not regret my decision because I prioritized my happiness when I was applying and did not make decisions based on what I thought other people would want. This is a huge commitment and you need to be self-motivated, to rely on your love of the subject, to make it through the hard times.

My last bit of advice, which I received from my undergraduate advisor: don't go into debt for art history! If a program isn't paying you and/or isn't paying you enough, then they're not worth your time. Know your worth and ask for what you deserve, never be afraid to negotiate funding.

Let me know if y'all have any other questions! This was a long one but I hope it was helpful.

[sentientsky]

(oh newspaper archives my beloved)

[cybershock24601]

Don’t think Rook annoys Solas enough. I think they should be popping into the fade at random like a reverse Johnny Silverhand to ask him annoying questions or critique him about his design choices in the lighthouse or grill him about his many, many fuck ups. That man will not know peace so long as Rook is around.

[ensigntilly]

culmets officially confirmed to be married in star trek discovery s5 i just collapsed onto the floor

[shitacademicswrite]