People write text messages in different ways just like people speak in different ways. While all these different communication styles tend to work equally well, they function differently and the way any given person does something has a purpose. There are of course patterns and even “text dialects” because everyone learns how to communicate from…
Tag: Language
And sometimes i
Most English speakers know the vowels as “a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y”. The reason for y’s ambivalent status is because it is often used as a consonant, as in “yes”, “you”, “kayak”, and “player”. It can also be used as a vowel, as in “sky”, “psychology”, “byte”, and “city”. Less often considered…
What does “include” mean? (2nd in a series on sovereign citizens)
They say nothing is certain but death and taxes, but some people think they can avoid at least one of these. This post is about the people who call themselves sovereignty advocates, state nationals, private men and women, etc., and whom others may call sovereign citizens, tax protestors, tax scammers, etc. In my post The…
Which side of the quotation mark does it go on?
I’m not a prescriptivist, I swear. As someone who is math-oriented (and maybe has some neurodivergent features), I like formal rules. I enjoy treating English grammar like a math problem; and, due to the circumstances of my upbringing, I am highly proficient at “standard” English. When I was younger I understood this to be a…
The conspiracy theory that revolves around wordplay
So-called “sovereign citizens” make up a collection of people with vaguely similar beliefs about government and the law. I say so-called not to deride people for calling themselves that, but rather because they often do not call themselves that. Instead, it has become a label that people in the mainstream use to describe individuals with…
Stories in the history of written language (part 7)
The origins of literature To define narrative formally is to accept, perhaps dangerously, the idea or the feeling that the origins of narrative are self-evident, that nothing is more natural than to tell a story or to arrange a group of actions into a myth, a short story, an epic, a novel. (Genette and Levonas…
Stories of math notation (part 2): The worst notation in mathematics
Sometimes notation is confusing. One way this can happen is when the same notation is used for multiple different concepts. Usually, if the same notation is used for different things, they occur in different contexts which allows them to be distinguished. In at least one case, the same notation is used for different things in…
Words don’t have meanings
There is an argument I have heard. It goes like this: “Words have meanings.” The implication is that one cannot just use words to mean whatever they want, the words have defined meanings and these definitions are the only things those words can mean. I have seen this argument used a variety of contexts, from…
Stories in the history of written language (Part 1)
Homo sapiens is the only species known to have developed language. Many other animals have the ability to communicate, especially through vocalization but also through visual displays, pheromones, etc. Human language is thought to have originated from more basic vocalizations. However, no animal aside from humans uses anything quite like written language. Like most technology,…
thoughts on mind 