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6 votes
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The Anger of Achilles
6 votes -
How British Sign Language developed its own dialects
4 votes -
Aline Frazão - Manazinha (2018)
3 votes -
Learn German with an interactive fantasy adventure story
3 votes -
Oi! We’re not lazy yarners, so let’s kill the cringe and love our Aussie accent(s).
5 votes -
Human sound systems are shaped by post-Neolithic changes in bite configuration
4 votes -
Fallacy of "Just because _ doesn't mean _"
I see this a lot on the internet these days. The phrase "just because [some agreed-upon statement], it doesn't mean that [contested statement]." That's fine when used correctly, but I've seen a...
I see this a lot on the internet these days. The phrase "just because [some agreed-upon statement], it doesn't mean that [contested statement]."
That's fine when used correctly, but I've seen a lot of cases where it's used in a questionable way and people just jump on board with the phrase anyway.
I saw it again today in a conversation about video games, and one game in particular that everybody loves to hate. Someone said "I enjoy this game though," and someone else said "Just because you enjoy a game doesn't mean it's good."
Now, the impulse is to agree with the second statement because agreeing that there might be hidden subtlety in a matter is almost always safe, and nearly everyone involved in the conversation upvoted/reacted positively to that statement.
But the statement was really used to say "your opinion is wrong because there might be hidden subtleties that make me right," which seems like a fallacious position to me, or at least a pretty meaningless one. And when you stop to think about what was said, you realize that in fact, enjoying a video game might indeed be the most important, if not the only, metric in assessing its quality.
But the inclination to agree with anyone using the "just because, doesn't mean" format is definitely there I think. I'm not sure if that falls under the category of some other identifiable fallacy or not, but I thought I'd see what others thought.
8 votes -
Programmer migration patterns
9 votes -
Are you a purist or evolutionist? What your language 'pet peeve' reveals about you
6 votes -
The art of biblical translation, part two: Modern translators and their tin-ear to the literature of the Hebrew Bible
8 votes -
Trying to switch from Literature to Linguistics: similar experience and/or advices?
Hi! I've recently graduated as a BA of Italian philology. But I am interested in pursuing my further studies and academical career in linguistics, studying language contact and linguistic strata...
Hi! I've recently graduated as a BA of Italian philology. But I am interested in pursuing my further studies and academical career in linguistics, studying language contact and linguistic strata in particular. I was wondering if anybody took a similar path and am interested in advice from such folks and also any other humanists here. I'm studying some online material and will try to partecipate in some local university's linguistics BA as a visiting student (I guess it's called a freemover in English) if I can find an affordable option. Also I have found out recommended reading material from local universities I'm interested in and some papers about my field. Do you know of any useful resources for making the transition smoother? What has been you experience if you've taken a similar path to your studies? Thanks in advance!
6 votes -
The art of biblical translation, part one: On the eloquence of the King James Version
5 votes -
Why 'ji32k7au4a83' is a remarkably common password
57 votes -
Hearing hate speech primes your brain for hateful actions
11 votes -
Brain-imaging modern people making Stone Age tools hints at evolution of human intelligence
6 votes -
Oh or zero? When the evolution of language clashes with linguistic purism
5 votes -
How Spanish got its ñ - the story behind that "n with a tilde"
5 votes -
Wikipedia editors have been fighting over corn for at least a decade
20 votes -
Modern Arabic Mathematical Notation
15 votes -
Tildes folks, are you learning another language or multilingual?
pretty straightforward ask. i have some basic, rusty Spanish (on and off learning) and a bit of Esperanto to my name (currently learning) but not much else eventually i want to speak French...
pretty straightforward ask. i have some basic, rusty Spanish (on and off learning) and a bit of Esperanto to my name (currently learning) but not much else
eventually i want to speak French conversationally since my boyfriend can and i think it'd be neat to converse with him in more than English, but that's a long term goal.
33 votes -
Our increasingly fascist public discourse
24 votes -
When it comes to learning a foreign language, we tend to think that children are the most adept. But that may not be the case – and there are added benefits to starting as an adult.
9 votes -
Emoji are showing up in court cases exponentially, and courts aren’t prepared
24 votes -
Confusion over medicine names threatens lives
5 votes -
What are some good Spanish books?
I'm learning Spanish and feel like reading is really helping me get to the next level. I've read 1984 and one part of Harry Potter in Spanish but now I'm thinking of trying some original,...
I'm learning Spanish and feel like reading is really helping me get to the next level. I've read 1984 and one part of Harry Potter in Spanish but now I'm thinking of trying some original, non-translated literature.
What Spanish-language books would you recommend (that are not too difficult to read)?
6 votes -
What is the difference between translation and interpreting?
6 votes -
Why White people don't use White emoji: Does shame explain the disparity in the lesser use of light-skin-tone symbols in the US?
18 votes -
Better Language Models and Their Implications
12 votes -
Chimpanzees’ gestural communication follows same laws as human language
3 votes -
Emoji don't mean what they used to - The pictorial language has moved away from ideography and toward illustration
23 votes -
Is ‘Huh?’ a universal word?
17 votes -
Meet the guardian of grammar who wants to help you be a better writer
4 votes -
Words as feelings. A special class of vivid, textural words defy linguistic theory: could ‘ideophones’ unlock the secrets of humans’ first utterances?
11 votes -
The rise of the swear nerds
13 votes -
Language and identity: Lessons from a unique Afrikaans community in Patagonia
7 votes -
Toadbollock, Dustiberd and Lytillskyll: historian on what names can tell us about everyday medieval life
3 votes -
Advice for learning a language?
@Khromier, @Soulmaster and I are trying to learn Russian. It's the first time we've (I've?) properly tried learning a language. I was wondering if any of you had advice to offer for learning a new...
@Khromier, @Soulmaster and I are trying to learn Russian. It's the first time we've (I've?) properly tried learning a language.
I was wondering if any of you had advice to offer for learning a new language, even if it isn't necessarily specific to Russian.
We've been using https://russianlessons.net so far, but other resources would be interesting.Спасибо!
21 votes -
Why West Africa’s pidgins deserve full recognition as official languages
3 votes -
Wriggly, giggle, puffball: What makes some words funny?
3 votes -
Lets get rid of the apostrophe
15 votes -
‘Kindly adjust’ to our English
8 votes -
Model paves way for faster, more efficient translations of more languages
7 votes -
Feliĉan zamenhofan tagon - Why Esperanto is an interesting language
8 votes -
Explainer: the largest language spoken exclusively in Australia – Kriol
4 votes -
The HU - Yuve Yuve Yu (How Strange) (2018)
3 votes -
Banda Magda, "Tam Tam" | NPR Music (Night Owl S2 • E4)
2 votes -
How millennials are breathing fresh life into the ancient Irish language
9 votes -
Muslim Magomayev - Azərbaycan (Azerbaijan)
5 votes -
How to learn a language: Input
8 votes