#english language and linguistics

[danandfuckingjonlmao]

idk how many of you have taken a linguistics class but this is literally what it is. teacher goes “make this sound” and for the next hour it’s just a bunch of people having existential crises about their own mouth sounds.

simply put, linguistics 101 is making the most unattractive noises humanly possible for extended period of times and then being amazed and surprised by it.

[smallsinger5901]

The summer work for linguistics for my new 6th-form keeps asking me to annotate extracts for 'language features' and I. don't know what that means. 'Language features' could be literally anything I have no idea what it's referring to I'm going to scrEAM

[victusinveritas]

[littlemizzlinguistics]

Studying linguistics is actually so wonderful because when you explain youth slang to older professors, instead of complaining about how "your generation can't speak right/ you're butchering the language" they light up and go “really? That’s so wonderful! What an innovative construction! Isn't language wonderful?"

[yeoldenews]

I came across the word "swaggereth" in a book from 1622 last night and felt like it should be shared with the world.

"Hee swaggereth, as though the whole Towne were his owne."

(source: Adagia in Latine and English, Erasmus, 1622.)

[ly0nstea]

Gotta start treating english like monolinguistic english speakers treat other languages

Did you know English doesn't have a word for the Irish word 'mar'? Instead they have to say 'is the cause' of or 'because' for short

[prokopetz]

The reason the English language's rules for constructing compound words don't seem to make sense to speakers of more reasonable languages is because, in this respect, English obeys Roger Rabbit logic: in, for example, German, you can construct extemporaneous compound words whenever you like, but in English, you can only do so when it's funny.

[cashthecomposer]

Tell me where you're from in the tags, if you want.

Reblog for sample size!

[glueeater]

a24 should just say “hey amazingphil. make a movie about anything. go wild.” and i think we would get an absolute masterpiece

[pocket-size-cthulhu]

I'm so fascinated by languages with different levels of formality built in because it immediately introduces such complex social dynamics. The social distance between people is palpable when it's built right into the language, in a way it's not really palpable in English.

So for example. I speak Spanish, and i was taught to address everyone formally unless specifically invited otherwise. People explained to me that "usted" was formal, for use with strangers, bosses, and other people you respect or are distant from, while "tú" is used most often between family and good friends.

That's pretty straightforward, but it gets interesting when you see people using "tú" as a form of address for flirting with strangers, or for picking a fight or intimidating someone. In other languages I've sometimes heard people switch to formal address with partners, friends or family to show when they are upset. That's just so interesting! You're indicating social and emotional space and hierarchy just in the words you choose to address the other person as "you"!!

Not to mention the "what form of address should I use for you...?" conversation which, idk how other people feel about it, but to me it always felt awkward as heck, like a DTR but with someone you're only just becoming comfortable with. "You can use tú with me" always felt... Weirdly intimate? Like, i am comfortable around you, i consider you a friend. Like what a vulnerable thing to say to a person. (That's probably also just a function of how i was strictly told to use formal address when i was learning. Maybe others don't feel so weird about it?)

And if you aren't going to have a conversation about it and you're just going to switch, how do you know when? If you switch too soon it might feel overly familiar and pushy but if you don't switch soon enough you might seem cold??? It's so interesting.

Anyway. As an English-speaking American (even if i can speak a bit of Spanish), i feel like i just don't have a sense for social distance and hierarchy, really, simply because there isn't really language for it in my mother tongue. The fact that others can be keenly aware of that all the time just because they have words to describe it blows my mind!

[typhlonectes]

[madlori]

[victusinveritas]

The sea is filled with jerks.

[eizneckam]

I'm so tired of the "English is a dumb bad language because it has no rules" take. It actually has quite a lot of rules, all of which make sense. You're just so lazy that you think the fact that not every function is uniform means that you shouldn't bother. It could be worse, you know. You could be dealing with agglutination. How does a three-line sentence that's only a single word sound to you? What about having to remember seven different words for "the"? We don't even have grammatical gender (which has nothing to do with human sex, like at all. Go check Irish's list of feminine and masculine words and prepare to be very confused). No declensions, barely any grammatical cases, no tones, no formal registers, and you're out here complaining that English is too hard because you keep forgetting that the past tense of "break" isn't "breaked". Sorry for that, but that's on you, not the language.

[incognitopolls]

Vote before looking in the comments as I'm sure people will have things to say that could influence your vote.

–

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.