Mark Rosenfelder, over at Zompist’s E-Z Rant Page, has just posted a very interesting review indeed. I’m glad to see him talking about this; Chomsky’s approach to data has been offending me for a while now, and Rosenfelder is one of my earliest linguistical influences, though essentially a lay one. Check it out; I’m gonna …
One can in fact view construction-based theories of syntax as upholding standards of grammar coverage that the original proponents of generative grammar abandoned, as they sought to reduce the theory’s dependence on linguistic facts. Chomsky (1995: 435) describes this shift in the goals of grammarians as follows: “A look at the earliest work from the …
I need to get back in the baking habit; it’s hard when weekends are the only time available for it, and it’s a two-day process. But beyond that, I want to make pickles, ginger beer, and cheese. My forays into each have been small. I’m hoping to give some cooking lessons to a few friends …
I have many ways to switch between active work areas: ctrl-a, n when using screen; ctrl-arrow when using Spaces; cmd-tab when using normal OS X application switching; ctrl-tab when using my Windows VM. These can get confusing, and I spend a certain amount of time swapping between applications and desktops and virtual terminals fruitlessly. I …
At the end of the driveway: a field full of fireflies, with lightning flashing over the next ridge. Finally, the rain that’s been threatening all day arrives, and it pours, and it pours, and it is still pouring.
Too much good in today to encapsulate it here, but suffice to say that I feel like life is happening again, things are moving forward, and I saw a fox this evening, thus confirming, by the hand of Nature, that today was, unambiguously, good. Also, does anyone in the Philly area want some kittens, at …
It’s a wonderful thing. I stood the other night up to my knees in water, with Allie, for a good long while talking as the sun set. We saw a shiba-inu. If I ever were to get a dog, that’d be the breed. Also, Princeton is a pretty great town, and I miss it. Tonight, …
I write this in the Denver airport; I am flying east, to be there for a week. I hope to see folks. Also, I finished Dracula last night. Quite good, though the entire role and character of Quincey Morris is underexplored and underexplained. I would love to see some sort of speculative backstory for him, …
So, I went to another board game party with coworkers, this time at Aaron’s. It was great fun, there was Settlers, beer, guitar, geeking out. The best bit came, however, at the end: it was THUNDERING by the time we all left, so Theban drove all of us as far as he could manage (except …
I just met R.M.W. Dixon! That’s the dude who wrote Ergativity, which I keep in an honored position at my bedside. I kinda can’t deal with the awesome. The worst part? He’s been in Boulder all summer so far and is leaving tomorrow.