#sociol

[max1461]

Is linguistics a science? What do linguists do on the daily?

Oof, this is a hard one!

Linguistics is a very diverse field. What I'd say is that some parts of it are science, some parts are humanities, and some parts are somewhere in between. I would say, uh, the mean scienceness of linguistics is about the same as the mean scienceness of economics, but the variance is way higher.

If you do research in e.g. speech production or neurolinguistics, you're unambiguously doing science. You're running experiments, you probably work in a lab, you're thinking about, you know, brain regions and the anatomy of the vocal tract. It's pretty human biology flavored, from what I can tell.

If you're doing research on child language acquisition or speech perception or the like, you're still doing science, but your methodology is going to look more like e.g. psychology than neuroscience. Psychology is also a really high variance field, there's some solid research and some total bullshit. Probably the same applies for these areas of linguistics—although I do have reasons to think (hope) they are a bit better than psych over all, which I'll get to in a minute.

Then there's phonology and syntax, the "core" of linguistics. These are... weirdly difficult to classify. See, human language, at its core, is a set of interlocking formal systems. It is rules-based. And by "rules", I don't mean the "grammar rules" you were taught in school. I mean the linguistic patterns you subconsciously internalized as a baby, which let you learn to speak your native language without anyone actually teaching you. These rules govern the pronunciation of sounds in a given language (phonology) and the order of words in a given language (syntax). The fields of phonology and syntax involve studying these formal systems on a language-by-language basis, trying to understand how these formal systems are structured across languages.

The actual methodology here is something like this: imagine you were given a bunch of math symbols that you've never seen before, and a list of anywhere from fifty to several thousand equations using those symbols. And someone said "all these equations are true, but I'm not gonna tell you what the symbols mean. Just look at all the equations and put together a consistent theory for how all the symbols behave". Ok, that's syntax and phonology. In syntax, the "symbols" are words in a language and the "equations" are valid sentences. In phonology, the "symbols" are sounds and the "equations" are words. And you do an analysis, and you produce a theory of the symbols which accounts for all the equations that you see.

So, anyway, it's kind of weird. It's kind of its own thing. It's definitely empirical, like a science. And it's far too formal and math-flavored and puzzle-solving-y for me to call it a humanity. But you're not running experiments, exactly, you're not doing a lot of the typical science things. It's all done with pen and paper, like math. So it's kind of its own thing. This is one of the things I like about it, by the way. It's puzzle solving about language. It's neat.

Anyway, then there's historical linguistics, the study of how language changes over time. Historical linguistics involves the comparative method, which relies on the neogrammarian hypothesis. Basically, it involves the same kind of puzzle solving methodology as phonology and syntax, but with a lot of engagement with historical texts, evidence from archeology, and so on, at the same time. It's got a lot of the best parts of the more methodologically rigorous humanities (history), but with a much more STEMish flavor to actually do. All of linguistics has a STEMish flavor, pretty much. It's pretty cool. Historical linguistics is the subfield I'm principally interested in.

All this readily-observable formal structure in language is why I have hope for the psychology-adjacent fields of linguistics, by the way. The formalism constrains what kind of questions are meaningful, it gives us a more precise language to talk about what's going on. In essence, we know that language is the kind of thing which has formalizable patterns in it, whereas IMO we don't have strong evidence that human emotion or (non-linguistic) human social behavior have this same kind of defined symbolic structure. So it feels that people who study speech perception are maybe getting at something a little more concrete and specific than the people who put together the DSM. But, you know, that's just me—I'm not a psychologist, so I don't want to make claims about the field too confidently.

At the least sciency end, you've got things like sociolinguistics, which is methodologically similar to sociology. Difficult to place is linguistic fieldwork, which involves methodologies from all of the above, plus a healthy dose of human interpersonal skill, and involves going out into the world and documenting the way language is spoken directly. Sometimes this involves studying small or endangered languages, etc. There are a couple of people in my grad program who do fieldwork in the Amazon, and they often tell stories about encounters with terrifyingly large spiders. Surely the most adventuresome subfield. And there's formal semantics, the youngest field of linguistics, which is sort of in the syntax/phonology realm of studying language as a formal system. It basically involves trying to understand the logical structure of languages, and has significant overlaps with CS, formal logic, and (analytic) philosophy. Actually, all the fields of formal linguistics have significant CS overlap—computational linguistics is the most popular subfield right now by far.

The thing that makes linguistics hard to classify is that there really is a lot of cross-pollination and sharing of ideas between these fields, they aren't siloed off from each other. So, what do linguists do? A lot of different stuff! Is it a science? Sort of kind of. But it's pretty cool either way.

[royaltrios]

i think ryuu’s from kyushu (kumamoto) and i think he speaks kumamoto-ben/ hakata-ben (picked it up from traveling to fukuoka a lot when he was young and having friends from there, its comfortable for him) when he gets to uni though he generalizes his speech to tokyo japanese because hes scared of standing out. one time though he gets caught up in the excitement of something and lets a yoka!! slip and kazuma is like. huh? and for the rest of their schooldays will not leave him alone about it. he thinks its so charming to hear ryuu speak in the dialect and asks him to teach him. ryuu is Very embarrassed but also loves how kazuma looks at him as if hes special for it (not to mention... its nice to have a handle on something that kazuma Doesnt know how to do. kazumas such a tokyoite big city important samurai lineage guy and hearing him try to wrap his speech around kumamoto-ben is so cute to ryuu). so it becomes a little secret between them. i can imagine ryuu in the middle of teaching him one day says that if he really wants to learn it he should stay in the area for a bit at least and thats how kazuma slyly invites himself over to meet ryuu’s family one summer vacation :)

[kaftan]

to be new yorker linguist is to be cursed with the knowledge that there is no such thing as a “[borough] accent” and that the divide between sub-accents lies along socioeconomic lines, not geographic ones

[cravny]

I have simply achieve master manipulation where people think they want to be around me but im actually the worst person on earth

[bbyboybucket]

I get to write a whole essay about my favorite movie so it feels like it’s for funsies instead of an assignment 💅✨

[eggplant436]

I don't understand politics and I'm tired of pretending I do

[isa-renee]

spent an hour and a half in a spanish class today despite not speaking a word of spanish so that was a fun time aslgkskgkdk

[lakecoded]

historical ling is SO interesting i wish the prof for ur didn't suck :((((

[skylerskyhigh]

I have a crack crossover idea

Tcf but with the plot of Romantic Killer.

Basically, Kim Rok Soo, is a shut in who doesn't sociolize and spends most of his time reading novels, eating sweets, and working. Or school, whichever time setting this will be in.

Then, one day, a weird being appears and tells him that he is picked to be part of a program that will match him up with a love interest and follows romance tropes. Like the kabedon, stuck together in a storm, giving each other lunch boxes, etc.

To ensure that he won't be "distracted" from his love interest, his other interests (books, sweets, and work/school) will be taken from him.

Rok Soo absolutely hates it. He does whatever it takes to NOT fall in love. But he keeps ending up with so many love interests.

The love interests:

Choi Han- the sporty and diligent type of person who is extremely loyal. He is from a long line of martial artists and his family owns a dojo. He is also Rok Soo's "childhood friend".

Alberu- rich CEO/heir to a company and the star student/employee. Has a glib tongue and finds Rok Soo amusing.

Cale Henituse- trash rich heir to a company but secretly kind and soft hearted.

Paseton- Shy but honest person. He is a smart person who is related to a rich family.

Witira- Paseton's sister and a very dedicated and strong woman. She is next in line to inherit the family's company.

Rosalyn- intelligent and talented, she is well known to be an heir who turned down her position so she could study and get her masters/doctorate. (In what? Unsure yet)

(More along the way but I can't think of possible love interests right now)

Rok Sok tries his best to avoid being in romantic situations with these people, using his knowledge in romance tropes to help him, but he fails. It's not all bad when he finds a family and a strong circle of friends around him.

[wolfy1298]

Hum for the art request, do Farore from LoZ (however you imagine her), planting flowers/any plants using a skull (human or not) as a pot inspire you ?

Just in case you think I'm creepy for suggesting that I swea' I didn't mean to T^T. It's just idea symbolize the cycle of Life and Death T^T

Well you don't like it, then here is a question to sociolize :D ! I really love your animation, how do you come up with idea for them ?

I probably won’t have time to do the drawing request but it’s definitely a neat idea, so if anyone else is interested, here ya go!

As for my animation, I’m assuming you mean the animatics I’ve made? I don’t know which specific one you’re referring to so I’ll just answer it for all of them.

Ravio Singing about the LU bois: I had that song on repeat for who knows how long and went “ya know, this could be funny”

The AI one: I watch to much Vocaloid/Megaman/Digimon and technology tends to die at my hands so I figured why not combine all of it to explain my curse. I initially came up with the characters back in high school and I’ve just fleshed it out over the years for portfolio pieces. …..I realize that I never posted this? I don’t think???? My bad but here’s art for the characters

The Witch and Cat one: This was for my Storyboard class and we had the prompt “a pet owner drops some food, their pet eats it, and it becomes a monster”. I didn’t want to make my pet a scary monster and I had been researching Grimm’s Fairytales and German architecture for a different class at the same time so I kinda just used what I had and went with a story of a magic potion going wrong.

The Robot one: like the Cat one, this was also for school and based off a (more complex) prompt. Thankfully for me (and unfortunately for all you poor souls thinking that it would be happy), it was based off of one of my favorite tropes so I had a strong idea of what I wanted to do right off the bat. Something about robots discovering human emotions and not being able to handle it or embracing them despite it resulting in their break down always seems to get to me. And I was handed that on a silver platter mwahahaha. I also love ballet and music so I kinda just combined everything for a nice sucker punch right in the heart.

[isupportzaynxliamxziam]

Saturday, 13 May 2017 (part I)

Liam's in Southern California to attend Wango Tango, where Niall will be performing.

credits: Liam's Instagram

When he arrives, he poses like a pro

credits: lovingliam's Tumblr

credits: liamupdates' Tumblr

credits: thepaynegifs' Tumblr

credits to lovingliam / liamupdates / thepaynegifs x MaximoTV's YouTube channel

In the backstage he has a little chat with KISSFM

credits: KISSFM's YouTube channel

credits: owner of the photos

During the event Liam of course watches Niall's performance and the two of them also sociolize in the backstage

credits: Niall's Instagram

[royaltrios]

im not even a ling major anymore i literally only care about japanese at this point

[kaftan]

trans linguists save me save me trans linguists etc

[sanekiii]

Sorry If I'm too weirdo I try to reconnect with people after a long time of no sociolizing.

[hoghtastic]

Translation of Johanne Milland's interview for Femina.dk

( Note: Translation of the available excerpt online. If the rest of the interview is released in the future, the respective translation will be added. )

JOHANNE MILLAND BURNED HER CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS

❝ I've gotten better at being ordinary ❞

Johanne Milland has burned too much, loved too much and not known her limits. Four years ago, it culminated in early burnout, stress and anxiety — a tough period that taught her something about balance.

When Johanne Milland stepped out of her front door this morning, there was a man lying on the ground in front of her. At first she thought it was a homeless person who had gone to sleep, because people just walked past him. Until he looked at her and asked, "Can you help me?" — I started to get him on his feet and looked appealingly at the people who passed by, as in: "Would you like to lend a hand here?" No one responded. Not even if the man was bleeding from the face - he had clearly fallen. This kind of thing just makes me so furious! says Johanne and clenches her hands tightly on the table. The man said he belonged to a care center in Sundby, so Johanne called them and asked if they could do something. They knew him, yes, but said she could call the sociolance (social ambulance) or a taxi, there was no help to be had there. The man would prefer a taxi, so Johanne got him into it and sent him home. She talks about the episode in response to my question about what can get her out of her chair. — In situations like this, I get a wild inner fire. I get so angry and upset when people are treated unfairly that I have a really hard time controlling myself. It is the inner fire that has made Johanne Milland one of the new great talents on both the film and musical scene in record time, but also the one that burned her up almost four years ago. So today she reins it in, the fire. She doses it. — The "old" Johanne was very melancholic in the way that I often lost myself in pictures of my life that I created myself. My inner emotional life and imagination have always been very strong and I used it as an invisible friend. I have lost that a little because I have become more balanced and less "up and down" in my emotional life. I've gotten better at staying… ordinary. Does it make you feel good? To be more ordinary. Hmm, there are some things about the old Johanne that I would have liked to have kept, but you go crazy always driving out there at 180 km per hour. I haven't responded to my limits, and when you don't do it for a long time, your body tells you to listen, otherwise things go haywire. But I've always been quite a pushover, and I've liked it. There was something safe in the fact that something hurt. Why, do you think? Oh, I've spent a lot of thought trying to figure that out! Maybe because there is a sense of security in remaining upset, if you have been [like that]. If you become happy again, you have something to lose. It's just easier… A slightly reversed logic. Yes, but there is also something in this way of living that I think has made me a good actor. Living a lot in a "state". I got burned out early on, but it also gave me a lot because I threw myself headlong into everything and worked really hard in everything I did. It has been both good and my biggest challenge, but that's how I am as a person: I run really fast or I don't run at all. I really love a lot, otherwise I don't love at all. It has cost me something, but these are the blows you take.

A LITTLE ABOUT JOHANNE 28 years old, born and raised in the small Funen town of Frørup outside Nyborg. Graduated from Den Danske Scenekunstskole - Musicalakademiet in 2019, moved to Copenhagen soon after, where she immediately got roles in major musicals, e.g. "The Bald Barber", "She Loves You" and "Atlantis".

In 2022, she played the lead role of Liv in the film "The Venus Effect", and was nominated for both a Bodil and a Robert for her performance. Since then, she has recorded the TV series "Graverne" and "Kald mig far" — the latter with Alex Høgh, with whom she is now a couple.

From March 7, people can see Johanne in the lead role of Ella/Cinderella in the musical interpretation of the old fairy tale in Tivoli Concert hall. Rasmus Seebach provides the music, Line Knutzon has written the script, and designer Søren Le Schmidt is responsible for the show's dresses and costumes.

Control and gaslighting

It is not because Johanne Milland had a traumatic childhood or great sorrows that she had to run away from. On the contrary, she was rounded off by a safe upbringing in the small village of Frørup outside Nyborg, with a mother who stood in the kitchen and baked buns, and a father sitting on the sofa watching football. — I was "the red-haired child", the sprightly, temperamental one, where my sister was more shy, I was the outgoing one, the one with gunpowder in her ass. I've always had a show gene, I wanted to show off, be looked at, have recognition. I also wanted to be the one to decide, and because I was this rider of justice, I was also busy telling people how to behave. Johanne pestered her parents for years about joining Nyborg Voldspil, and at the age of 15 she finally got ➤

permission. She quickly became part of the large amateur theater community in Funen, and from there things went well with big roles and many tours. — I really got some blows for being such a decisive ass there, so I shut down that part of myself and became a pleaser — I wanted to be part of the community. In continuation of that, I met my first boyfriend at HF (Higher Preparatory Examination) in Odense, where I went, and got into a relationship which was very unhealthy. Although I was really a strong-willed girl, I didn't know my limits when it came to love and I totally lost myself. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how unhealthy it was until it was too late, says Johanne. Only several years later does she discover that she has been under control and gaslighting in the relationship. — We didn't understand how to be lovers and look after each other, as you do in a relationship. I have learned that now. That you are a team in a relationship. He wouldn't be with me or talk to me in public even though we lived together and I was really in love with him so it was very, very difficult. Because I didn't feel okay as just me. He controlled me by, for example, deciding what I should and shouldn't wear, what movies we should watch — little things. The relationship lasted only a year and a half, but it allowed to define who Johanne was for several years afterwards. —  I entered the Danske Scenekunstskole in Fredericia and moved to Fredericia, and when I was in my second year, I told him it was over. I just couldn't take it anymore. We both got other partners, but he still haunted my life. He was a drug, I was addicted to him. Addicted to what he didn't give me. And it wasn't because he was a bad person, because he didn't even realize what he was doing. He didn't understand. How did you break free from him? — At that time it had been on and off so much, that I could finally see that it was not healthy for me. And I just wanted to be happy — I was so tired of being sad. Tired of being a victim. Tired of putting myself in that situation time and time again. One of my girl friends told me she couldn't recognize me. That I wasn't myself. You can't see that when you're sitting in it, and since then I've understood that it can actually make things worse when someone close to you says that to you. The mechanism is that if you are told that "you must leave him, he is not good for you, you have changed", then you will want to stay even more. It strengthens the bond with the person who is not necessarily good for you. She continues: — That's what happened to me. And I have learned that if you have to have that conversation with someone who is subjected to control and gaslighting, you have to turn it around and ask if that person is okay, if there is anything you can do. I myself am very careful about how I talk about it if I meet someone in similar situations.

❝ There are some things about the old Johanne that I would like to have kept, but you go crazy always driving out there at 180 km per hour. ❞

❝ Even though I was really a strong-willed girl, I didn't know my limits when it came to love, and I lost myself completely. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how unhealthy it was until it was too late. ❞

The anxiety Johanne had moved to Copenhagen and was sitting on the toilet in her small apartment in Valby when the anxiety attacks started. — I remember that out of the blue I thought a really bad thing about myself. Like: "You can't do anything, you're not good for anything." I had never done that before. Suddenly my whole body froze and I sat like that for a long time, completely in a panic. I had to say to myself, "Now move one foot, travel, go outside. You must get some fresh air. It will probably get better." Johanne had to fight outside in the fresh air, where things went completely wrong. — I called my mother and said that something was very wrong. I immediately made an appointment with a coach because I thought that this just needed to be talked through and it would go away. But it didn't. From there it went downhill with Johanne. Anxiety pounded around her body, and the stress symptoms ➤

appeared as palpitations, sleeping arms and legs, flickering eyes. —  I got so bad that I had to move home with my parents, and for at least three months I couldn't go outside the door without holding my mother or father's hand. They were really good at getting me out and at least getting some exercise so we did a lot of bike rides. But I would totally panic if I couldn't see them all the time. And if I walked alone on the road, I was afraid I would walk out in front of a car. I still have obsessive thoughts as a result of it, it's really uncomfortable. What obsessive thoughts are these? It could be anything. That I die from my work. I know none of that is true, so I have to say, "Well, that was the thought" when it comes. I got hold of the book "Your Self Healing Mind" and it and the best psychologist in the world simply saved my life and changed my view of anxiety. What my journey has taught me so far is that when you suffer from stress and anxiety, your brain is your biggest enemy, and the more you fight it, the worse it gets. I'm still practicing not taking the fight, because I can't win. My thoughts always win.

It was during that period that the film "The Venus Effect" — Johannes' first major film role — was filmed. She had agreed with her mother that if she couldn't, then she couldn't, and then it was just too bad. She had to take it one day at a time and see how it went. — I called the caster and told her I had stress and anxiety and she grabbed me right away, it was so amazing. They might as well have said, "Well, we'll find someone else," but they were so top notch and understood what I was going through. They let me stay in Funen when I didn't dare take the train, and they made sure I got some body treatments, which helped a lot. We talked about trying to use that in the film, because at that time I really needed to feel the ground beneath me, the trees and the grass, so I really WAS my role, Liv. In that way, it actually ended up being a huge gift, says Johanne, who noted the big difference between making a film and making a musical: — On a film set there can be long breaks between takes and it is very normal for the players to "zone out" during their breaks. In the same way, there is no time for that in musicals. The rehearsal period is more compressed and we have to achieve a huge amount during the rehearsals. It's also very social, so you're very intense for months at a time. It's enormous fun and demanding in a different way, but I had difficulty finding a breathing space because I didn't use my breaks to relax, even though I needed to, she says.

❝ I have so many wounds from past relationships that I can only process with another human being. And Alex is really good at healing my wounds. ❞

[liminal-energy]

Ty for the tag, this was a fun one 😌 !! @woodsy-hoe

Creating a playlist based on my username 🎶

L - lonely by lee minhyuk

I - impatient by jeremih

M - muddy feet by miley cyrus

I - is this love by bob marley

N - no questions asked by fleetwood mac

A - a year without rain by selena gomez

L - love sosa by chief keef

-

E - eleven by khalid

N - nuclear season by charli xcx

E - enola gay by orchestral manoeuvres in the dark

R - roll dice by roddy ricch

G - gimme! gimme! gimme! by ABBA

Y - you & i by dabeull

I tag @konukind @akeleegirl @inloveforevr @komplikacije @phir-se @tiredandangrymuse @liliaenbaggins @pandulcefanclub @harukimuracallme @vntage07 @sociol @dolldizzydame @grlsiren @almondcroissantgirl1