#Language and Linguistics Compass

[linguisticillustrations]

Table with the partinioning of the TREE-WOOD-FOREST semantic domain.

Georgakopoulos, Thanasis & Stéphane Polis. 2018. The semantic map model: State of the art and future avenues for linguistic research. Language and Linguistics Compass 12(2). e12270. https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12270.

[sanguineterrain]

Competent things that Jason Todd does that I find extremely hot:

Driving with one hand/putting a hand on the back of the passenger seat when he reverses.

Is able to reload a gun without stopping a conversation or looking away from you.

He's really good at darts. Impeccable aim. I'm all over him.

Has amazing balance. This is especially evident when you're on the train. Jason always stands to leave seats for others. If you stand with him, he not only can balance himself, but if you're wobbly, Jason will very easily hold you in place with a hand on your back or hip.

He's good at fixing things. Knows exactly what to get from Home Depot. He's that Ron Swanson "I know more than you" moment.

Very aware of his surroundings which results in things like tugging you gently so you don't bump into anyone or anything. Does this without breaking conversation, of course.

Good at undressing you or dressing you. Not necessarily in a sexual way, just that Jason is observant enough to know your routine and style. He knows what jewelry or accessories you wear and he'll put them on you. He'll put your shoes on for you. Zip up your dress or pants or button your blouse. Tie the sashes on your clothes. And he's just as good at getting your clothes off, especially when you're too tired.

Is good at navigating. Can read a map easily. Has a sharp sense of direction. Sometimes gives directions like "you'll go three miles west" and you have to give him a look because what the hell is he talking about? You're not a compass...

He remembers faces and names well. Jason has a good memory in general. He needs it for what he does.

Jason is just really smart! The way he lives enables him to meet a lot of different people and be exposed to a lot of different cultures and places. Jason would be good at navigating a foreign country, for example. If you were on vacation he'd know where to eat, what areas to visit, how to talk to the locals, etc.

Jason speaks a lot of languages. He's good at figuring out puzzles or decoding linguistic clues. He's a voracious reader. Knowledge is power for Jason.

If you're eating somewhere that isn't sit-down (e.g., Chipotle) Jason knows your order and will order for you. He urges you to sit and let him bring food to you. It makes him feel wanted.

An obvious one is that Jason's good in the field. He's good in combat. You've only witnessed this a few times because Jason doesn't like fighting in front of you. But the way Jason wields his body or weapons and fluidly disarms or restrains someone is hot as fuck! You're all over him on those nights (Jason doesn't understand why).

Jason is super protective but he does it in a way that's not posturing. He doesn't have an ego about it. But if he sees that you or someone nearby feels unsafe, he'll stand there and put himself between you and the danger. Yelling or fighting isn't his first choice. Jason's confident and competent enough that he knows how to deescalate without raising his voice. I need him so bad.

Strong man lifts stuff teehee! Jason very easily can carry your groceries or assemble furniture or even move you around. Like if Jason's coming to sit on the couch and watch a movie with you, he'll move you so he can sit with you atop him. It always flusters you and it always makes you want to paw at him rather than watch the movie <3

When he gets more comfortable in your relationship, Jason does little touches that, to you, sort of establish dominance without him meaning to. That is, Jason pets you a little and you melt. Usually it's from a hand on your thigh while you're sitting. Or him touching the small of your back or putting an arm around your waist. It makes you giddy how easily Jason touches you.

Sometimes you'll purposely make Jason take a plate or towel from you because he gets so focused when he's trying to get something from you. It makes you feel hunted in a sexy way. Before you can blink, Jason's got the plate. You don't even know how it happens, how he moves so fast and takes things without a struggle. Reminders of Jason's easy strength and agility are also very hot.

NSFW: Jason is really good at making you cum. The thing about Jason is that when he wants to do something well, he won't stop practicing until he hones the skill. So when it comes to pleasing you in bed, Jason puts in the work until it comes very naturally to him. He is particularly dexterous with his fingers and gets annoyingly good at making you squirm and whine.

Somewhat NSFW: Jason's really fucking clever. Sometimes this results in him getting cocky or teasing you a bit. Never in a mean way. But an example is if you're secretly reading a smutty book, Jason will find out no matter how careful you are. And he will be so damn smug about figuring things out. If he sees that you get flustered when he's outwitted you, forget it. Jason will absolutely take advantage. 😏

Above all, the hottest thing by far is that for the majority of these things, Jason isn't even aware of how attractive he is. To him, it's just stuff he knows how to do or behaviors that come naturally to him. He's not trying to show off or be hot and that only makes him hotter 🤌

[rationalclifford8]

Basic Compass Points

[liubovricci]

About Astarion, his trauma, why I relate to him so much, why he has become the most special character I know. But mostly this text is about my own trauma.

Please ensure you are an adult and prepared to engage with sensitive topic of abuse (sexual and otherwise).

I apologize for any linguistic errors — English is not my first language.

If you read my other posts or view my future art here, you will know that Yara (my Tav) also had a traumatic, devastating, crushing past. That's because I partially infused her backstory with events from my own life — adapted to the DnD universe, but the core truth remains. Astarion and Yara's shared story is my way of coping with my own trauma. Every dialog with Astarion in the game, every art I make, every text I write is my way of reliving my own traumatic past. When I started immersing myself in Astarion's story, it knocked the air out of me. My perception of the world and, well, of myself, changed forever. The pain, tears, grief, compassion, relief, love and healing that I feel every time I think about him made me realize that even if I, the victim of violence, am broken and ruined, I am still not a bad person. I am still have value. I am still myself. I'm not to blame for what happened, just as Astarion is not to blame for what happened to him. I saw a lot of opinions that he was a 'bad person', a 'corrupt magistrate', 'power-hungry' even before Cazador. To those people: Go to hell. You have no idea how much such an irreparable trauma changes people. No one is born cruel and cynical. We're molded that way – no, shattered – by those who harm us. I was 10 when it all started. I was a child and I was ruined. Just as Astarion couldn't defy Cazador, I couldn't resist my stepfather. Not because he had power over me, as a creator has power over his spawn, obviously. But because I was a child. And I was terrified of him. Of course, he didn't carve any scars on my body, but I suffered a lot of pain (in every sense) in those three years that I was enslaved. Yes, I call it 'enslavement' because at that time neither my body, nor my life, nor my childhood belonged to me. I still sometimes feel that even my soul does not belong to me, but I know that this is not true. I won't go into details, but you can probably guess what this monster did to me. I can still hear his voice and feel his hands. I still have nightmares about those times, even though almost 18 years have passed since then.

Years of therapy couldn't fix it, but Baldur's Gate 3 did. Astarion did. That's why you won't see Ascended Astarion here (perhaps only as an assumption or comparison). My love for the spawn is boundless and I have many different feelings for him (from myself as well, but mostly it is reflected through Yara's interaction with him). From aching tenderness and the urge to make him happy (and myself through it), to obsessive love and carnal desire. Because a). we are all adults; b). survivors reclaim their sexuality. My art, writing, and thoughts deal with all aspects of relationships, partnerships, and love between two broken, slightly twisted, but sincere souls.

[tennessoui]

Kit, I found out that "flying a kite" means "to masturbate" in Thai. Now I imagine Anakin who learns all the dirty words and phrases in other languages to flirt and then you have Obi-wan who is a linguistic master and can't believe that this guy thinks his bad flirting would work. Thankfully he is super hot and Obi-wan will show him how to flirt. 😏

lmao i love this so im taking this dynamic and applying it to recent experiences and medias i have consumed via reading and watching tv

so fantasy au where obi-wan is an innkeeper at a busy traveling junction and anakin is a young explorer/hero who stops in incredibly frequently given how much of his time he spends off in foreign lands, battling dragons and finding treasure or whatever it is young heroes get up to these days

anakin's been visiting obi-wan's inn since before he could drink there and definitely since before he had enough gold to pay for a bed (it all started actually when obi-wan found a very pathetic baby!anakin out in the rain and let him stay in his room for free for a few nights until a traveling band of knights came through and obi-wan foisted the baby off onto them)

but it's only been recently that anakin's been...well. flirting with obi-wan. like. all the time. every time he stops in, he's picked up a new phrase or line to try on the bartender. obi-wan suffers through it genially, as it's perfectly natural for anakin to want to test out these ridiculous pick-up lines on someone he isn't really interested in before trying them out on a fair maiden or something. obi-wan even helpfully corrects anakin's pronunciation a few times, as before he was an innkeeper, he was a bit of a traveler himself. and to do this job, it's helpful to know a lot of languages. especially the dirty words as that's a bit of currency around this part of town in itself.

meanwhile anakin is going insane trying to get obi-wan, the distant but oh so dear and beautiful and kind innkeeper who rescued him from poverty and showed him compassion when he was just a child, to sleep with him lol he will keep finding new words and ways to flirt with the man until he gets it right and obi-wan falls in love with him back, etc etc

[spinningalbinoturtle]

Social Media headcanons

Aragorn

Has an official Instagram and Facebook accounts as a head of state. He also has a private account that his friends follow him on: strideranger alternatively strangerranger or rangerdanger on tiktok. His insta consists solely of pictures of his horse, Arwen and occasionally videos of cool plants or wildlife. He captions thing like an old man. His Tiktok is tracking tutorials and again nature videos. He hates twitter and isn’t on it.

Legolas

All the social medias his names include princeofmirkwood, andmybow, and legolocks. Has over a million followers in insta, tiktok and twitter. He posts lots of glammy photos of himself in the woods and tutorials of how to keep your hair and makeup intact in the battlefield. He also edits slow mows of himself shooting orcs. Doesn’t have Facebook because he claims its “for old people” despite being the second oldest member of the fellowship Posts his random thoughts in twitter and gets like thousands of retweets every time

Gimli

anmyaxe, lordofglitteringcaves, gimlet, are some of his names. Posts angry rants on twitter and faceboo. Regularly gets into internet fights with trolls. Posts videos on tiktok of his various stone projects and his workout routine (the latter gets a lot of views) Everyone loses it when he and Legolas team up for a “elf braid vs dwarf braid” youtube video. Oh yes he also has a very popular youtube channel where he explains how to of various craft trades.

Pippin

Has made foolofatook his name for everything and also a hashtag. Huge on twitter and twitch, he also has insta and tiktok and a youtube channel with Merry. Said Youtube is very popular and involves pranks, media reviews, and him and Merry doing stupid shit

Merry

Does a lot of work on the channel with Pippin. Also has a twitch and twitter. Insta king people think he’s really cool. He is the kind of person who shares his progress on candy crush and duolingo. Tried to make merrychristmas his username but it was taken and so went with theweedprofessor. His tiktok is more popular than Pippin’s but Pippin’s twitter is more popular

Sam

Not huge on social media mostly got it because his friends peer pressured him into it. Has facebook and always says happy birthday to people on it but gets annoyed by all the politics. His instagram is samnotsowise alternatively gardeningamgee. Its super wholesome, lots of pictures of his plants and pets and him and Frodo. Sometimes he’ll post a poem

Frodo

Frodo would be on tumblr tho. Username is bagginit on insta and frodoninefingers on twitter which he never uses. His tumblr is ringringhello. He also has insta but rarely posts anything except occasionally a picture of Sam. He has a linguistics Youtube channel where he talks about elvish history and language. Actually the most political on social media this is because Frodo has a very strong moral compass and wants to get the word out about important issues.

Boromir

He’s a twitch streamer I’m sorry. He also has twitter at hornofgondor. Likes everyone of Merry and Pippin’s videos and posts and reposts them with captions like “love these guys!!!” Mostly shares memes on twitter and facebook very much dad vibes

Gandalf

Posts weird shit that no one understands on facebook and instagram at thegreywizard

Bilbo

He has facebook and likes to tag his relatives in things that he knows will annoy them. Other than that he just posts memories of Frodo like the proud parent he is Like every birthday he’ll post something really sweet and sappy like “so proud of the young man he’s become”

Elrond

He gets in trouble on twitter sometimes but not nearly as much as Thranduil

Faramir

Insta and tiktok at stewardstew. Mostly posts pics of his cats. Reposts everything Eowyn posts. Likes to uplift his friends. Answers citizen questions on official gondor accounts very warmly. Also shares memes

Eowyn

She has a podcast and everyone has been a guest at some point. She highlights inequalities in middle earth. Lots of reposts of feminist events and programs. Badass pics of her with her sword on her insta and tiktok. She does lots of tiktok challenges. Her username is iamnoman on tiktok and eowinner on instagram

Arwen

Like legolas is all over insta posts lots of glammy photos in the woods as well. But she also shares a lot of Eowyn’s posts. Posts lots of inspirational quotes and stuff. Is really into yoga and posts about that as well. Her name on all social medias is evenstarwen

[synticity]

any chance you have any recommendations for entry point resources for learning about early childhood developmental linguistics?

Sorry, I've been sitting on this ask for aaaaages. Work got busy lol. Anyways, this is far enough outside my field that I'm also going to give some general pointers on places to start finding information in linguistics on any given topic.

Language and Linguistics Compass is a journal that publishes a lot of fantastic review articles, which summarize previous research on a topic. Here's an LLC article on how hearing kids perceive and learn from phonetic input that they hear.

Academic presses like Oxford, Cambridge, and Wiley often publish what they call "handbooks" on topics where each chapter is written by a different expert in the field who reviews the previous research. For example, there's the Wiley Handbook of Child Language, and there's also the Cambridge Handbook of Child Language. I recommend not trying to sit and read a whole handbook, but approaching each chapter as if it was a standalone article.

Sometimes introductory textbooks can be a good place to start! I really like Essentials of Linguistics because it's free, open access, and online. Their chapter on Child Language Acquisition is a great overview of the research, and can help you choose where you want to go next to read more deeply.

If there's an article that's not open access, I recommend asking your nearest college student or grad student friend to see if they can get access through their university library's online sign-on.

You're also asking about a very big field with a lot of research, so don't feel like you have to get through everything I link here - just pick a couple things and start reading slowly. If you can get through an article or two every month, that's awesome! This can be a fun excuse to organize a reading club with friends/classmates/colleagues, and discussing stuff as you read will help you learn and retain stuff, too.

Hope that helps!

[bad4amficideas]

I think my (the) problem with The Jedi Order is the word "attachment", not the concept. Are they being politically correct? Or is it because I'm not English and I'm translating literally and losing a "sub"meaning (not invented exclusively for SW universe, I mean)?

In the movies, in my language, it is said by Anakin, no less, that Jedi are "encouraged to love." Kanan says that you have to connect with others and the world to use the force and be a good jedi. Kindness and compassion are ways to show love to strangers.

Also I'm a nurse, so everytime I think in attachment I think in the Grief Stages. The problem isn't the affection. It's letting it go (a sign of love according to many btw). Is there no other way to say this in English?

Possessiveness? Exclusivity? Patent?

Help me Star Wars fandom, you're my only hope...

I accept linguists too.

[biceratops7]

… let’s talk about “Arrival”

So I was fully intending on making a more general but thorough peruse through the new Good Omens title sequence, because my FUCK aren’t those always a gold mine. But then I thought to myself, “hey wait a minute, I can be even more unhinged and on brand.”

Something I’ve seen nobody talk about yet is that the movie that the procession is marching into is The Arrival, which is a 90’s movie that draws a pretty straightforward parallel. But I think if it doubles as a reference to 2016’s Arrival, THAT has some much more interesting implications. Either way this reference is doing some heavy lifting.

For those who haven’t seen the movie (or that one philosophy tube video about it lol), the basic plot is that a group of aliens later named heptopods arrive on earth scattered across the world, and just kind of invite humanity to check them out. Each country hires a team of linguists who are all tasked with figuring out what the visitors are here for. But the thing is, it’s only about aliens on the surface level. This is really about communicating, cooperation, and how language holds the power to alter your very fabric of reality.

Spoilers for the movie:

Two major revelations occur towards the end of the movie. The first is that an element of fluid time is revealed. Throughout the movie, the main American linguist has been having flashbacks to a daughter that passed away of an illness. But since the heptopod language has no regard for chronological order, we learn that these are actually flash-forwards when she becomes nearly fluent. In other words, learning heptopod, having a genuine curiosity and even compassion for these vastly different beings. has given her the ability to perceive reality in ways thought previously impossible.

Even before noticing the Arrival reference, I’ve been side eyeing these “flashbacks”, but this and the image above confirmed it for me. Any instance of the word “becoming” when talking about the past indicates some sort of fluid time nonsense. The past is fixed unless something ✨happens✨. I don’t think these are simply memories, I think something rather cosmic instead is afoot.

But it’s more than just “there’s probably time travel in this” though. Simply having Aziraphale as a companion has changed Crowley. It’s given him an ability that he’s not meant to be capable of as a demon. He already had it in him to be good and have mutual relationships based in trust and kindness, I’m sure all demons can if given the right nurture… but Crowley is experiencing love. In the show, something tangible to the senses and distinctly angelic. I’m very much hoping that that whole element of things is going to somehow be a driving factor in what’s occurring over all, and possibly involved in time going screwy.

The other element of Arrival’s ending that’s of import, is the heavy emphasis on the importance of cooperation. First of all, we learn at some point that not every country has the same message to decipher, they each have one piece of a whole. Some of the countries begin using games to communicate with their heptopods, and this poses a problem because it causes messages to be more easily interpreted as hostile. For example, the phrase “we brought a tool” can be easily misconstrued as “we have a weapon.” Eventually, the world gets impatient and scared, and a war is imminent. What finally leads to everyone putting down arms and cooperating, is the American linguist sending a message to the Chinese linguist saying “in war, there are no victors, only widows.”

Something noteworthy about this particular march is that the procession never splits like it does at the end of the first season’s. Not only are both angelic and demonic figures marching into the light atop a mountain as a United front, but this actually seems to be a theme this season. Heaven and Hell aren’t working together as far as we know, but they are at least working towards the same goal, which for some reason is getting Gabriel’s ass. There is also a heavy emphasis on mending broken relationships, with Crowley and Azirphale trying to fix a (probably) lesbian couple literally being the B plot.

Now this is where we bring in what’s actually on the movie screen, which is that damn box. So at this point we know basically nothing about it accept for it probably being a Mcguffin. But we DO have the imagery of three feathers, a black one, a white one, and a bluish grey one, falling into it… and it sure as fuck looks like a moving box. So back to arrival, what actually was the message? The heptopods told the linguist that they’re here to help humanity (via giving them a tool or new tech I think?) because in 3,000 years, they will need humanity’s help. So with this and the world eventually being inspired to stand down and share their pieces of the message, it’s this over arching theme of setting aside fear of the other and cooperating indefinitely for the benefit of the whole. The black feather, the white feather… and then something that is somehow both yet entirely unique.

I think… somehow, someway, this season may culminate in Heaven and Hell reconciling. Whether it be against a common enemy, for a shared goal, or in love, there seems to be many clues both symbolic and literal that show them learning to be one again. Learning to understand eachother’s language and see new ways of being neither before could fathom.

[askgildaseniors]

Nikita Privalov reflects on his amazing path of overcoming linguistic and social acceptability barriers as a youngster. He describes his experience in primary school when he was placed in an ESL (English as a Second Language) program with other children who struggled with English. This atmosphere affected Nikita's early connections, as he connected with others who faced similar difficulties learning a new language. His early experiences with being taunted and mocked had an important part in his growth, establishing resilience that has lasted into adulthood and serves as a source of inspiration for him.

Nikita was ridiculed as a youngster, which, while tough, eventually contributed to his character strength. Nikita learned the hard reality of being different after being called "Mr. Toothpick" and "Mr. Sweet Scrambled Eggs" on several occasions. Instead of allowing these events to break him, Nikita turned them into a source of strength and drive. This struggle taught him the value of true relationships in which he was recognized rather than tolerated, and his tale has inspired others who have heard it.

Nikita's story emphasizes the significance of finding and keeping individuals who genuinely respect and encourage you. After being mistreated, Nikita values relationships with those who truly make him feel appreciated. This perspective has instilled in him a strong desire to make people happy, which is most likely a result of his craving for acceptance and compassion throughout his early years. His dedication to sharing joy is inspiring and motivating, reflecting his desire to foster great relationships.

Nikita's tale is one of change and resilience, focusing on how early language and social acceptability challenges influenced his attitude on life. His experiences in the ESL program and the mocking he received increased his determination and instilled in him a drive to convey joy and optimism to others. This narrative emphasizes the importance of early experiences in personal development and the lasting worth of supporting connections, offering inspiration and encouragement to people experiencing similar circumstances.

[tixdixl]

I keep seeing folks talk about what Femme Vil would be like, and it really hammers home to me just how much people are missing out on because of the localization. And honestly, with absolutely 0 shade to the folks who love those headcanons- cause they are FASCINATING headcanons to me- it makes me genuinely heartbroken to see it. It makes me genuinely heartbroken to know how much of Vil's intersectionality is lost because the English localization erased her gender expression.

She... is.... femme. She's canonically trans in the Japanese. Whether she is transfemme or some form of gender neutral is unfortunately not explicitly stated. However, in the Japanese, her self-identifying language and her explicitly feminine mannerisms exemplify how she views herself. The way that other characters speak of her is also extremely telling about how the audience is supposed to see her.

Speaking from a language perspective, Vil uses the female only "I" pronoun あたし [atashi] whenever she speaks, would be approximated to "she/her" in the English.

Vil uses either feminine or strictly gender neutral connotated grammar patterns, which are commonly used in anime/manga to notate levels of formality, rudeness, as well as self identifying information about the character. You can also see these patterns used subtly in real life conversations in Japan, though often difficult to actually catch in conversation. (There is a whole conversation about this and how it is intertwined with formality and gender-roles/expectations but that's not the point of this ramble.)

Vil also uses predominantly feminine connotated intonation patterns, often stereotyped and used to identify alluring femme tropes in anime. Again, while sometimes heard in real conversations, you are more likely to hear the explicit feminitity in certain circumstances and/or in media.

Not to mention, most of the other characters refer to her only by name or strictly with gender neutrality. And because of the behind closed doors mentality that Japanese folks have, along with the sense of 建前 [tatemae] that is displayed between Vil and the other characters, it makes total sense why the other characters say nothing directly, but linguistically acknowledge that there is some form of discrepancy between Vil being at an all boys school, and Vil using the Japanese equivalent of "she/her". Because of their omoiyari [思いやり] - literally "compassion" but culturally is the deliberate action to notice and consider others, it makes sense that at the bare minimum, they would refer to her with that modicum of formality and respect.

We could also have a very real conversation as to why she wears a women's kimono in the New Year's event; why she wears a woman's cut suit in Tapis Rouge; why she deliberately uses makeup and hairstyles that in Japan read as feminine or "female"- especially in a society that accepts post-transitioned Transness as it conforms with the overarching collectivist society; in a society that accepts those changes so long as they are done behind closed doors and without disruption. And this is done in a society that believes heavily that the exterior is a direct reflection of the interior - the house/clothes are a representation of the person who inhabits them. So her choices in her appearance are a direct representation of who she wants to be, who she is becoming, and how she wants others to perceive her.

The audience is left to draw conclusions about Vil's sense of self and her incredibly strong connection to feminity, beyond strictly her connection to the Evil Queen. And as I've mentioned in a previous post, it really adds a layer of intersectionality to the multi-layered tension and cultural conflict between her and Epel.

Idk... I just think the English absolutely ignoring her joseiteki [女性的]- female-like gender expression, her rashii - specifically onnarashii [女らしい], or lady-like mannerisms, and her sociolinguistic choices, as well as how they impact her dynamics with the other characters results in a loss of understanding of her as a character and a loss of depth to the story in my opinion.

For those of you who are genuinely interested in the conversation of Transness in Japanese media, how it's presented, and how its been deliberately and historically erased in Western localizations, this extremely well-informed video essay is a phenomenal place to start:

This is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart as someone who studied Japanese Anthropolgy and taught various courses on Gender and Language in higher education. The cross-cultural divide here is something that I am so so passionate about, and anyone who knows me knows that I could absolutely rabbit hole on the topic for hours with credible resources and citations. It's also something that I first-hand experienced a bit of while I was in Japan. And because of that, as much as I know its a risk to share these thoughts publically, I do feel like it is an important discussion to have.

[yersina]

a linguist plays chants of sennaar (pt 3)

[pt 1] [pt 2] [x] [pt 4] [pt 5]

onwards and upwards!

disclaimer: can't promise that i'll have any insights that a layperson wouldn't have, this is kinda just me thinking through the grammar of the language out loud haha.

this post covers the third language and will contain spoilers! it also assumes that you know what all of the symbols mean already.

have a huge soft spot for this language the most out of all of them haha. again, missed part of the gameplay for the dictionary—i couldn’t find the last fruit to feed the monkey lmao. also, i had the game open while writing this post this time, so more screenshots, yay!

visually, i'd say that this compares to arabic script or devanagari, especially with the line that runs through all of the characters, but it's still a logographic language. culturally/artistically, i think it's meant to represent how flow-y and artistic the bards are haha. i also remember seeing something once about the thai script (which this is not entirely dissimilar to) and how it was originally written on organic matter (eg leaves, bark, etc idk) and needed to have loops in order to work against the grain of the leaves. i haven’t done my due diligence and confirmed that in any historical or anthropological context yet, but it seems plausible to me?? the bards do seem to have a more tropical environment, tho again it’s likely just an artistic decision haha

once again, in terms of visual patterns in the words, we can see that a verb is indicated by a dot in the top right hand corner. the people words ("warrior", "bard", "you", "i/me") seem to all have a swoopy symbol that crosses the horizontal line, which is interesting. the only exception is "idiot", which might be because it's primarily functions as an adjective. locative nouns, including the cardinal directions, have a dot below the line. the only noun that includes a dot is “compass”, which might be a reflection of its connection to location? as in it contains locations, or navigates to locations? i’m uncertain. interestingly, the only non-person nouns that touch the horizontal line are “monster” and “greeting”, which might also be indicative of the senses of those words—if we recategorize “monster” with the people-words and “greeting” with the verbs, then we don’t have any outliers. however, this would include a word without a dot in the verb category. perhaps at some point in the evolution of the bard’s language, “greeting” lost its verb features? again, i’m unsure and possibly reading too far into it lmao.

this is our first OSV (object subject verb) language! ngl, i was annoyed by the way the game chose to translate the meaning into english—there are plenty of verb-final languages out there irl, no need to be so literal with the translation lol. amusingly, we see this being the most apparent when translating between the bards’ language (which is OSV and has plural marker suffixes) and the warriors’ language (which is SVO and has plural marker prefixes). absolutely none of the characters line up w each other lmao

(we can also see from this exchange that there’s no distinction between “go/pass” (i.e, from here to there) and “come” (from there to here), which is not something that i specifically noted before. interesting! again, i assume this is due to the capacity of these languages being limited.)

this is also our first possible (possible) indication of punctuation, with “question”. i’ve seen some people directly translate the “question” word as <¿?> (the punctuation marks), which i’m hesitant to do, especially considering that there’s no other evidence of punctuation in any of the languages. irl, japanese (and other languages) has a question word <か>, which indicates orally that something is a question—the bards’ language could easily have something similar.

we also see this mirrored in “not” in terms of grammatical structure, which probably indicates something about how auxiliary verbs are used/placed in this language (even tho “not” isn’t a verb—i’m sure there’s a linguistic category that includes the both of them but it escapes me rn). someone else on tumblr called this negative concord, and julia on an sss stream likened it to the french “ne pas”, and yes that is what this is, but it’s also… a little different?? my academic interest in linguistics when i was in school lay more in socio-cultural contexts than syntax so this is definitely NOT my area of expertise at all, so take what i say here with a large hunk of salt:

after some very brief research, it seems that negation can either take place at the sentence-level (e.g., through verbs like “can’t” or “won’t”) or through negative words (e.g., “nobody”, “nowhere”). so, a sentence like “i don’t go nowhere” (meaning “i don’t go anywhere”) achieves double negation through negating once at the sentence-level and once at the word-level. standard english doesn’t have negative concord, but some dialects do. different languages treat multiple negation differently; sometimes it conveys a slightly different meaning (from wikipedia: “you’re not unattractive” vs “you’re attractive”) and sometimes it intensifies the negation (also from wikipedia: “i haven’t never owed nothing to no one”).

the thing that i’m struggling with in the bard’s language is that the negation isn’t… attached to anything??? it’s not affixed to a verb or a noun, so really it’s not conveying negation of a particular thing, it’s negation of the whole sentence….???? which (in my mind) isn’t… really… negative concord. if that makes sense. like sure, there’s two symbols of it at both ends of the sentence, but it’s more indicative of the meaning of the sentence as a whole, rather than conveying smth abt a specific word. like it's not as if both of them mean "no" or each of them are adding meaning in a particular way. so. that’s why i’m more inclined to take it as a general grammatical feature of the language, along with “question”, and say that this is just how the language treats auxiliary/modal/whatever words??? it’s not as if we have other evidence. 😐

another option could be that negation w a noun takes places as a prefix (e.g., "not-warrior") and negation w a verb takes place as a suffix (e.g., "be-not"), so because of the OSV word order, you end up with something like ("not-warrior you be-not" or "a warrior, you're not").

HOWEVER. we do see some instances of the game's internal translation of some sentences conveying a slightly different meaning than a pure ('pure') negation, which makes figuring out the syntactic structure of this language kinda difficult.

if we take each of the "not" words as a negation, we'd end up with "not-hammer i carry-not", which is not "a hammer, i miss" lol. (to demonstrate w an english equivalent example: "i ain't no warrior" vs "i don't carry no hammer"). if you're a speaker of a negative concord language/dialect, pls pls feel free to correct me here; my intuition's going to be slightly off because i haven't studied any languages where this would be relevant. I think it could work, probably, but again, it's really difficult to say anything concrete without more examples. given its congruence with the "can you get a hammer" example, though, i really am inclined to say that this is just a grammar thing, not a negative concord thing (even tho negative concord IS a grammar thing—you get my drift).

questions that remain unanswered: - does the fact that "question" is two dots relate to the presence of dots in the verbs and locative nouns?

[superlinguo]

New Open Access Publication: Communicating about linguistics using lingcomm-driven evidence: Lingthusiasm podcast as a case study

Films have behind-the-scenes commentary tracks, Lingthusiasm now has a behind-the-scenes research article (a DOI rather than a DVD).

This new Open Access article in Language and Linguistics Compass is an introduction to a variety of evidence-based practice from linguistics, education, and psychology we have drawn upon and further developed in the first seven years of creating Lingthusiasm. We introduce you to a lot of the ways we think about framing, jargon, metaphor and putting feeling into our favourite linguistics topics. We argue that this is not just the basis of our work on the podcast, but a way of formalising the contribution that lingcomm (linguistics communication) can make to the larger field of scicomm (science communication). We also share some results from our 2022 listener survey that illustrate how our audience is receptive to the work we're doing.

We hope that it provides a bit of an insight into how we do what we do, but also inspires other linguists to communication their research - whether that's in a 3 minute thesis competition, a blog post for your institution, or "trying out [lingcomm] explanations during relevant, natural occasions in local communities" (i.e., chatting with friends and family, which is where we come up with some of our best episode ideas!).

Abstract

Communicating linguistics to broader audiences (lingcomm) can be achieved most effectively by drawing on insights from across the fields of linguistics, science communication (scicomm), pedagogy and psychology. In this article we provide an overview of work that examines lingcomm as a specific practice. We also give an overview of the Lingthusiasm podcast, and discuss four major ways that we incorporate effective communications methodologies from a range of literature in the production of episodes. First, we discuss how we frame topics and take a particular stance towards linguistic attitudes, second, we discuss how we introduce linguistic terminology and manage audience cognitive load, third, we discuss the role of metaphor in effective communication of abstract concepts, and fourth, we discuss the affective tools of humour and awe in connecting audiences with linguistic concepts. We also discuss a 2022 survey of Lingthusiasm listeners, which highlights how the audience responds to our design choices. In providing this summary, we also advocate for lingcomm as a theoretically-driven area of linguistic expertise, and a particularly effective forum for the application of linguistics.

Citation

Gawne, L., & McCulloch, G. (2023). ‘Communicating about linguistics using lingcomm-driven evidence: Lingthusiasm podcast as a case study’, Language and Linguistics Compass, 17/5: e12499. DOI: 10.1111/lnc3.12499 [OA publication]

See also:

The Lingthusiasm website

LingComm website

[yeyoung02]

Wassily Kandinsky’s statement, “to create a work of art is to create the world,” suggests that every piece of art has the power to manifest an entirely new reality. When an artist creates, they don’t merely reproduce or interpret what already exists; they forge a unique world that embodies their vision, emotions, and ideas. This world isn’t bound by the same laws or expectations of the physical world but instead follows the artist’s internal compass. Through colors, shapes, and textures, the artist brings forth a realm that can evoke new feelings, thoughts, and perspectives in the viewer.

Kandinsky, a pioneer of abstract art, deeply believed in the spiritual and transformative power of art. In his view, a painting wasn’t just a representation of external reality but a conduit to an inner one—a new world that resonates with the soul. He aimed to tap into a universal language of colors and forms, one that transcends cultural and linguistic barriers. By doing so, he believed an artist could touch something profoundly human and even spiritual, making the artwork a world of its own.

Creating art, in this sense, is like creating a world because it invites the viewer into a space crafted from the artist’s imagination and emotions. It’s a world born of dreams, passions, and personal experiences, providing an escape from the everyday and offering a glimpse into the unknown. Through this, Kandinsky might be expressing that art is not just about reproducing what we see but about expanding our understanding of the world by exploring and sharing something entirely new.

[anunkindncss]

🗺️ PERMANENT STARTER CALL 📚 for Milo Thatch (Kit Connor / Disney / Semi-Active) A study in: ancient languages, reluctant bravery, and the fire of quiet obsession.

By liking or commenting on this post, you’re giving me permission to:

➤ Tag you in starters — late-night translations, impromptu history lessons, or wild theories muttered over scattered scrolls and broken relics ➤ Send headcanons, linguistic rambles, half-mad scribbles from his journals, and metaphors pulled straight from Plato and the stars ➤ Build dynamics like: “I didn’t expect to like you,” academic rivalries turned camaraderie, the scholar and the skeptic, or “I never believed in magic until I met you” ➤ Tag you in things that feel like Milo: ink-stained fingertips, cracked glasses, book pages turned down at all the wrong (or right) places ➤ Explore themes of discovery, legacy, unspoken courage, and the cost of chasing what others call impossible ➤ Develop ships (romantic, platonic, beautifully complicated) that bloom slowly — in quiet moments between adventure and awe, truth and myth ➤ Let our muses dive into forgotten worlds, argue over ancient ethics, whisper secrets under foreign stars, or simply find meaning in the ruins

Milo Thatch won’t ever be the loudest voice in the room. But he will be the one still there when everyone else has given up — still searching, still hoping, still believing there's more to this world than we've dared to understand.

If your muse needs someone who listens, learns, and will follow the map even when it ends in blank space — he’s already packed the compass.

[fakerobotrealblog]

Exploring untranslatable words unveils the intricacies of linguistic diversity. Consider the Hawaiian term "Aloha," encompassing love, affection, peace, and compassion – a multifaceted concept difficult to distill into a single English equivalent. In Haitian Creole, "Kouzin" refers to an extended family-like relationship, going beyond mere cousinship.

The Japanese term “Komorebi,” which beautifully captures the interplay of sunlight filtering through leaves. In Spanish, there’s “Sobremesa,” embodying the leisurely time spent lingering at the table after a meal, a social ritual deeply ingrained in the culture.

Moving to German, “Waldeinsamkeit” conveys the feeling of being alone in the woods and the connectedness with nature, a sentiment not effortlessly translated. In Portuguese, “Saudade” encompasses a profound sense of longing, a complex emotional state that doesn���t have a direct equivalent in many languages.

In Russian, “Pochemuchka” describes a person with an insatiable curiosity, while the Swedish “Mångata” captures the shimmering reflection of the moon on water. These examples showcase the intricate relationship between language and culture, emphasizing how some concepts are so intricately woven into the fabric of one language that they resist easy translation.

Korean introduces "Han," representing a complex blend of sorrow, resentment, and enduring resilience. The Chinese term "Yùyī" expresses the profound beauty of a moment that is both fleeting and transient. In Tagalog, "Kilig" encapsulates the exhilarating feeling of being romantically thrilled.

Portuguese contributes "Desenrascanço," embodying the ability to improvise resourcefully in challenging situations. Italian introduces "Sprezzatura," an effortless and nonchalant display of skill and style. Zulu presents "Ubuntu," conveying interconnectedness and shared humanity.

Tongan offers "Faka'apa'apa," a deep respect and humility towards others. Afrikaans contributes "Geselligheid," reflecting a warm sense of togetherness and camaraderie. Navajo introduces "Hozhǫ́," symbolizing beauty, harmony, and balance. In Warlpiri, "Ngarrka-ngku" encapsulates the profound interconnectedness between family and the land.

These examples illustrate the richness of linguistic diversity, where each language crafts unique expressions reflecting the depth of cultural experiences. While it's challenging to cover every language, these glimpses showcase the beauty of untranslatable words across a variety of linguistic landscapes.