http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2012/01/how-many-languages-can-one-person-speak.html
Claire Kramsch, a linguist at the University of California, Berkeley, tells him the question should not be "How many languages do you know?" but rather "In how many languages do you live?" Understanding the cultural nuances of a language requires extensive ongoing contact with its speakers, and for that reason Kramsch doubts that anyone could ever live in more than four or five languages.
Fair enough, but what about the less nuanced yet still astonishing feats of memory and computation that people display when they pick up a new language, or eight? Erard points out that, for no good reason, this question has been neglected by science. After all, we study extraordinary aptitude in mathematics and music; why not hyperpolyglots?
Erard tracks down Mezzofanti's papers, speaks to many fascinating language experts and even learns that some bilingual people experience mental illness in one language but not another. Most interestingly, he surveys a group of modern hyperpolyglots. Memory, motivation and practice are all important, they say, but so is pragmatism. Those who claimed to speak 11 languages did not much care about sounding like a native. Unlike Mezzofanti, their goal was not to dazzle but to do - see the world, read the local paper and not get lost.
--------------
D - kinda the basis for my idea of learning natural languages.
Just learn the parts that are regular.
For example, don't bother learning any Spanish irregular verbs.
Or English irregular plurals. Mooses. Gooses. Octopuses. Mitvots. And so on.
You'll be understood - and corrected. But so what.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
de Valla. grammaticist detects huge RC fraud
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenzo_VallaExposing historical hoaxes
Valla's originality, critical acumen, and knowledge of classical Latin style were put to good use in an essay he wrote between 1439 and 1440, De falso credita et ementita Constantini Donatione declamatio. In this he demonstrated that the document known as the Constitutum Constantini (or "donatio Constantini" as he refers to it in his writings), or the Donation of Constantine, could not possibly have been written in the historical era of Constantine I (4th Century), as its vernacular style dated conclusively to a later era (8th Century). One of Valla's reasons was that the document contained the word satrap which he believed Romans such as Constantine I would not have used.[1] The document, though met with great criticism at its introduction, was accepted as legitimate, in part owing to the beneficial nature of the document for the western church. The Donation of Constantine suggests that Constantine I "donated" the whole of the Western Roman Empire to the Roman Catholic Church as an act of gratitude for having been miraculously cured of leprosy by Pope Sylvester I. This would have obviously discounted Pepin the Short's own Donation of Pepin, which gave the Lombards land to the north of Rome.
Valla was motivated to reveal the Donation of Constantine as a fraud by his employer of the time, Alfonso of Aragon, who was involved in a territorial conflict with the Papal States, then under Pope Eugene IV.[citation needed] The Donation of Constantine had often been cited to support the temporal power of the Papacy, since at least the 11th century.
The essay began circulating in 1440, but was heavily rejected by the Church. It was not formally published until 1517. It became popular among Protestants. An English translation was published for Thomas Cromwell in 1534. Valla's case was so convincingly argued that it still stands today, and the illegitimacy of the Donation of Constantine is generally conceded.
plus:
In 1433 Valla made his way to Naples, to the court of Alfonso V of Aragon, who made Valla his private Latin secretary and defended him against the attacks on account of his public statements about theology, including one in which he denied that the Apostles' Creed was composed in succession by each of the twelve Apostles. These charges were eventually dropped.
-----------------
Donation of Constantine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the forged imperial decree. For the painting by students of Raphael inspired by the decree, see The Donation of Constantine (painting).
-------------
The Donation of Constantine (Latin, Donatio Constantini)[1] is a forged Roman imperial decree by which the emperor Constantine I supposedly transferred authority over Rome and the western part of the Roman Empire to the pope. During the Middle Ages, the document was often cited in support of the Roman Church's claims to spiritual and earthly authority. Italian Catholic priest and humanist Lorenzo Valla is credited with first exposing the forgery with solid philological arguments,[2] although doubts on the document's authenticity had already been cast by this time. Scholars have since dated the forgery between the eighth and ninth centuries.
He appears, however, as a vain, jealous and quarrelsome man, but he combined the qualities of an elegant humanist, an acute critic and a venomous writer, who had committed himself to a violent polemic against the temporal power of Rome. In him posterity honors not so much the scholar and the stylist as the man who initiated a bold method of criticism, which he applied alike to language, to historical documents and to ethical opinions. Luther had a very high opinion of Valla and of his writings, and Cardinal Bellarmine calls him praecursor Lutheri, while Sir Richard Jebb says that his De Elegantiis "marked the highest level that had yet been reached in the critical study of Latin." Erasmus stated in his De ratione studii that for Latin Grammar, there was "no better guide than Lorenzo Valla.
--------------
D - as always, a whole lotta power play politics behind the thin veneer of doctrinal points and canon.
Valla's originality, critical acumen, and knowledge of classical Latin style were put to good use in an essay he wrote between 1439 and 1440, De falso credita et ementita Constantini Donatione declamatio. In this he demonstrated that the document known as the Constitutum Constantini (or "donatio Constantini" as he refers to it in his writings), or the Donation of Constantine, could not possibly have been written in the historical era of Constantine I (4th Century), as its vernacular style dated conclusively to a later era (8th Century). One of Valla's reasons was that the document contained the word satrap which he believed Romans such as Constantine I would not have used.[1] The document, though met with great criticism at its introduction, was accepted as legitimate, in part owing to the beneficial nature of the document for the western church. The Donation of Constantine suggests that Constantine I "donated" the whole of the Western Roman Empire to the Roman Catholic Church as an act of gratitude for having been miraculously cured of leprosy by Pope Sylvester I. This would have obviously discounted Pepin the Short's own Donation of Pepin, which gave the Lombards land to the north of Rome.
Valla was motivated to reveal the Donation of Constantine as a fraud by his employer of the time, Alfonso of Aragon, who was involved in a territorial conflict with the Papal States, then under Pope Eugene IV.[citation needed] The Donation of Constantine had often been cited to support the temporal power of the Papacy, since at least the 11th century.
The essay began circulating in 1440, but was heavily rejected by the Church. It was not formally published until 1517. It became popular among Protestants. An English translation was published for Thomas Cromwell in 1534. Valla's case was so convincingly argued that it still stands today, and the illegitimacy of the Donation of Constantine is generally conceded.
plus:
In 1433 Valla made his way to Naples, to the court of Alfonso V of Aragon, who made Valla his private Latin secretary and defended him against the attacks on account of his public statements about theology, including one in which he denied that the Apostles' Creed was composed in succession by each of the twelve Apostles. These charges were eventually dropped.
-----------------
Donation of Constantine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the forged imperial decree. For the painting by students of Raphael inspired by the decree, see The Donation of Constantine (painting).
-------------
The Donation of Constantine (Latin, Donatio Constantini)[1] is a forged Roman imperial decree by which the emperor Constantine I supposedly transferred authority over Rome and the western part of the Roman Empire to the pope. During the Middle Ages, the document was often cited in support of the Roman Church's claims to spiritual and earthly authority. Italian Catholic priest and humanist Lorenzo Valla is credited with first exposing the forgery with solid philological arguments,[2] although doubts on the document's authenticity had already been cast by this time. Scholars have since dated the forgery between the eighth and ninth centuries.
He appears, however, as a vain, jealous and quarrelsome man, but he combined the qualities of an elegant humanist, an acute critic and a venomous writer, who had committed himself to a violent polemic against the temporal power of Rome. In him posterity honors not so much the scholar and the stylist as the man who initiated a bold method of criticism, which he applied alike to language, to historical documents and to ethical opinions. Luther had a very high opinion of Valla and of his writings, and Cardinal Bellarmine calls him praecursor Lutheri, while Sir Richard Jebb says that his De Elegantiis "marked the highest level that had yet been reached in the critical study of Latin." Erasmus stated in his De ratione studii that for Latin Grammar, there was "no better guide than Lorenzo Valla.
--------------
D - as always, a whole lotta power play politics behind the thin veneer of doctrinal points and canon.
silly bugger with #s: consumers
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/uocp-hd3011712.php
D - I locked myself out of my livejournal account.
Unless I can find the password.
It was linked to my old Hotmail account, which I shut down.
In the case of the cake, most people perceive "28 minutes" to be more precise and therefore more reliable than "half an hour," which sounds a bit like rounding and could presumably mean a few minutes more or less. This observation has important implications for how consumers interpret quantitative information.
"Consumers perceive products as more likely to deliver on their promises when the promise is described in fine-grained rather than coarse terms and choose accordingly," the authors conclude. For example, "one year" and "12 months" refer to the same amount of time, but leave different impressions.
In one study, participants chose between GPS units: one was described as lasting "up to two hours" and another, which was heavier and more expensive, "up to three hours." "When the units' battery life was described in hours, only 26 percent picked the 'up to two hours' unit—they were concerned it might run out of power prematurely," the authors write. "But when the battery was described as 'up to 120 minutes,' more than twice as many consumers (57 percent) were happy to pick the same unit."
D - I wonder if a naming convention that always derives from a single unit would affect this? I.e. 100 minutes maybe being a deca-minute instead of a 'metric hour'.
I have settled on days and years as the only truly natural time units for humans.
D - I locked myself out of my livejournal account.
Unless I can find the password.
It was linked to my old Hotmail account, which I shut down.
In the case of the cake, most people perceive "28 minutes" to be more precise and therefore more reliable than "half an hour," which sounds a bit like rounding and could presumably mean a few minutes more or less. This observation has important implications for how consumers interpret quantitative information.
"Consumers perceive products as more likely to deliver on their promises when the promise is described in fine-grained rather than coarse terms and choose accordingly," the authors conclude. For example, "one year" and "12 months" refer to the same amount of time, but leave different impressions.
In one study, participants chose between GPS units: one was described as lasting "up to two hours" and another, which was heavier and more expensive, "up to three hours." "When the units' battery life was described in hours, only 26 percent picked the 'up to two hours' unit—they were concerned it might run out of power prematurely," the authors write. "But when the battery was described as 'up to 120 minutes,' more than twice as many consumers (57 percent) were happy to pick the same unit."
D - I wonder if a naming convention that always derives from a single unit would affect this? I.e. 100 minutes maybe being a deca-minute instead of a 'metric hour'.
I have settled on days and years as the only truly natural time units for humans.
Monday, January 16, 2012
deaf read body language better
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120112142243.htm
The work suggests that deaf people may be especially adept at picking up on subtle visual traits in the actions of others, an ability that could be useful for some sensitive jobs, such as airport screening.
"There are a lot of anecdotes about deaf people being better able to pick up on body language, but this is the first evidence of that," said David Corina, professor in the UC Davis Department of Linguistics and Center for Mind and Brain.
This work is important because it suggests that the human ability for communication is modifiable and is not limited to speech, Corina said. Deaf people show us that language can be expressed by the hands and be perceived through the visual system. When this happens, deaf signers get the added benefit of being able to recognize non-language actions better than hearing people who do not know a sign language, Corina said.
The study supports the idea that sign language is based on a modification of the system that all humans use to recognize gestures and body language, rather than working through a completely different system, Corina said.
The work suggests that deaf people may be especially adept at picking up on subtle visual traits in the actions of others, an ability that could be useful for some sensitive jobs, such as airport screening.
"There are a lot of anecdotes about deaf people being better able to pick up on body language, but this is the first evidence of that," said David Corina, professor in the UC Davis Department of Linguistics and Center for Mind and Brain.
This work is important because it suggests that the human ability for communication is modifiable and is not limited to speech, Corina said. Deaf people show us that language can be expressed by the hands and be perceived through the visual system. When this happens, deaf signers get the added benefit of being able to recognize non-language actions better than hearing people who do not know a sign language, Corina said.
The study supports the idea that sign language is based on a modification of the system that all humans use to recognize gestures and body language, rather than working through a completely different system, Corina said.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
traduttore, traditore. New Testaments and Gays
http://www.otkenyer.hu/halsall/lgbh-cortim.html
I CORINTHIANS 6:9-10 and I TIMOTHY 1:10
by Bill Sklar <86730@LAWRENCE.BITNET>
"References on Homosexuality and the Bible"
I CORINTHIANS 6:9-10 reads:
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate [malakoi], nor homosexual offenders [arsenokoites], nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.
I placed two words in brackets. The first one, "malakoi", Scroggs (p. 14) says "literally means 'soft' and is no technical term for a homosexual." It apparently refers to young boys who would take the "recepient" position in anal sex, often for money. It's also translated in some Bibles as "morally weak".
"Aresenokoitai", on the other hand, is clearly a sexual term but, according to Scroggs:
Since... the New Testament occurrences are the earliest appearances of the word, it is not easy for us to be sure what it means. John Boswell in his recent study denies that it refers to a homosexual person in general but rather specifically to the male prostitute who could serve heterosexual or homosexual clients. At any rate, the sin is prostitution, not homosexuality in itself. (p. 14)
These words are the words used both in Corinthians and in I Timothy 1:10 which are commonly translated into modern bibles as "homosexual", "effeminate," and "self-indulgent." In these enlightened times, however,there is no indication that such terms are in any way connected to homosexuality in itself.
----------------
Mistranslated New Testament Words?
It is claimed that over 100 words are mistranslated in the New Testament from the Greek.[1] However, many of those mistranslations are due to the inadequacy of the Greek, as a powerful a language as it was, to express the novel ideas and concepts of Christianity. (wiki)
D - what Big J did talk about the most was (drum roll here) 'the kingdom of god'. Generally meaning god's LOVE.
And didn't say squat about gays.
I seem to recall a lot of concern about society's disenfranchised and needy. Charitable stuff.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8134797.stm
I'll end with a quote from the movie "Dogma".
Rufus: He still digs humanity, but it bothers Him to see the shit that gets carried out in His name - wars, bigotry, televangelism. But especially the factioning of all the religions. He said humanity took a good idea and, like always, built a belief structure on it.
Bethany: Having beliefs isn't good?
Rufus: I think it's better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier..
D - I've read Karen Armstrong. Joseph Campbell. Greta Vosper. The textbooks from A to Z on this. Almost all the main religious holy texts of the world. On living bibically. On evangelicalism.
But I will just focus on translation issues as a guy who likes language stuff for this site.
I CORINTHIANS 6:9-10 and I TIMOTHY 1:10
by Bill Sklar <86730@LAWRENCE.BITNET>
"References on Homosexuality and the Bible"
I CORINTHIANS 6:9-10 reads:
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate [malakoi], nor homosexual offenders [arsenokoites], nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.
I placed two words in brackets. The first one, "malakoi", Scroggs (p. 14) says "literally means 'soft' and is no technical term for a homosexual." It apparently refers to young boys who would take the "recepient" position in anal sex, often for money. It's also translated in some Bibles as "morally weak".
"Aresenokoitai", on the other hand, is clearly a sexual term but, according to Scroggs:
Since... the New Testament occurrences are the earliest appearances of the word, it is not easy for us to be sure what it means. John Boswell in his recent study denies that it refers to a homosexual person in general but rather specifically to the male prostitute who could serve heterosexual or homosexual clients. At any rate, the sin is prostitution, not homosexuality in itself. (p. 14)
These words are the words used both in Corinthians and in I Timothy 1:10 which are commonly translated into modern bibles as "homosexual", "effeminate," and "self-indulgent." In these enlightened times, however,there is no indication that such terms are in any way connected to homosexuality in itself.
----------------
Mistranslated New Testament Words?
It is claimed that over 100 words are mistranslated in the New Testament from the Greek.[1] However, many of those mistranslations are due to the inadequacy of the Greek, as a powerful a language as it was, to express the novel ideas and concepts of Christianity. (wiki)
D - what Big J did talk about the most was (drum roll here) 'the kingdom of god'. Generally meaning god's LOVE.
And didn't say squat about gays.
I seem to recall a lot of concern about society's disenfranchised and needy. Charitable stuff.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8134797.stm
I'll end with a quote from the movie "Dogma".
Rufus: He still digs humanity, but it bothers Him to see the shit that gets carried out in His name - wars, bigotry, televangelism. But especially the factioning of all the religions. He said humanity took a good idea and, like always, built a belief structure on it.
Bethany: Having beliefs isn't good?
Rufus: I think it's better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier..
D - I've read Karen Armstrong. Joseph Campbell. Greta Vosper. The textbooks from A to Z on this. Almost all the main religious holy texts of the world. On living bibically. On evangelicalism.
But I will just focus on translation issues as a guy who likes language stuff for this site.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
etymology of name of god, western 1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic_root
D - We mostly use 'Yahweh'. More obscurely, it is derived from a Semitic triliteral root plus one modifier for masculine and subject.
Semitic root
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or "radicals" (hence also the term consonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the formation of actual words by adding the vowels and non-root consonants (or "transfixes") which go with a particular morphological category around the root consonants, in an appropriate way, generally following specific patterns. It is a peculiarity of Semitic linguistics that a large majority of these consonantal roots are triliterals (although there are a number of quadriliterals, and in some languages also biliterals). (Wiki)
Etymology
Most scholars accept that YHWH is made up of Y, meaning "he", plus a form of HWY, the root of a group of words connected with "being" and "becoming".
It appears 6,823 times in the Jewish Bible, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia, and 6,828 times each in the Biblia Hebraica and Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia texts of the Hebrew Scriptures. This number in itself is quite remarkable considering the name compared with titles given to God, namely: God (2,605), Almighty (48), Lord (40), Maker (25), Creator (7), Father (7), Ancient of Days (3) and Grand Instructor (2).
D - some speculation follows. I don't have an opinion on it.
http://jesus-messiah.com/html/yaho-meaning.html
Yaho (Heb.). Furst shows this to be the same as the Greek Iao. Yaho is an old Semitic and very mystic name of the supreme deity, while Yah (q.v.) is a later abbreviation which, from containing an abstract ideal, became finally applied to, and connected with, a phallic symbol -- the lingham of creation. Both Yah and Yaho were Hebrew "mystery names" derived from Iao, but the Chaldeans had a Yaho named Ia or Ya(h) before the Jews adopted the name, and with them, as explained by some Gnostics and Neo-Platonists (Clement--Iao-ve, Origen--Iao, Epiphanius--Iave, Theodoret--Iabe, Jews--Ala: see Jehovah Ency Britannica Vol 12, Page 995, 1958 edtion); The true key of this mystery god was communicated to the Initiates only, was that the name of IAO was "triliteral (triune, trinity) and its nature secret", as explained by the Hierophants. The Phoenicians too had a supreme deity whose name was triliteral, triune, and trinity, and its meanings secret, this was also Iao; and Y-ha-ho was a sacred word in the Egyptian mysteries, which signified "the one eternal and concealed deity." Iah or Yah is also the Egyptian moon god.
D - another place we see this triliteral Semitic-style word is in old Arabic. Take the elative in the Islamic Takbir.
The Takbīr or Tekbir (تَكْبِير) is the Arabic term for the phrase Allāhu Akbar (الله أكبر). It is usually translated "God is [the] Greatest," or "God is Great". It is a common Islamic Arabic expression. It is used in various contexts by Muslims: in formal prayer, as an informal expression of faith, in times of distress, to express celebration or victory, and to express resolute determination or defiance (especially in politically-charged context).
The form Allāhu is the nominative of Allah "God". The form akbar is the elative of the adjective kabīr "great", from the root k-b-r. As used in the takbir it is usually translated as "greatest", but some authors prefer "greater".[1] The term takbīr itself is the stem II verbal noun (tafʿīlun) of the triliteral root k-b-r "great".
D - Then the 2 A's denote the elative form - kinda like a combo comparative and superlative. At any rate, regardless of translation into English, there is widespread consensus that the Big Guy is pretty darn swell.
D - Now here's where it gets interesting. Allah and Elohim (Old Testament - another name for deity) are both cognates from the same origin. In Uratic, I think.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elohim
Elohim (אֱלהִים) is a grammatically singular or plural noun for "god" or "gods" in both modern and ancient Hebrew language. When used with singular verbs and adjectives elohim is usually singular, "god" or especially, the God. When used with plural verbs and adjectives elohim is usually plural, "gods" or "powers".[1][2] It is generally thought that Elohim is a formation from eloah, the latter being an expanded form of the Northwest Semitic noun il (אֱל, ʾēl [3]). It is usually translated as "God" in the Hebrew Bible, referring with singular verbs both to the one God of Israel, and also in a few examples to other singular pagan deities. With plural verbs the word is also used as a true plural with the meaning "gods".[3] The related nouns eloah (אלוה) and el (אֱל) are used as proper names or as generics, in which case they are interchangeable with elohim.[3] (wiki)
Allah (English pronunciation: /ˈælə/ or /ˈɑːlə/; Arabic: الله Allāh, IPA: [ʔɑlˈlɑː] ( listen), [ʔalˤˈlˤɑː]) is a word for God used in the context of Islam and other monotheistic religions of Arabic-speaking communities.[1] In Arabic, the word means simply "the God".[2][3][4] It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and Sikhs.[5][6][7] It is related to ʼĔlāhā in Aramaic. (wiki)
The Aramaic alphabet is adapted from the Phoenician alphabet and became distinctive from it by the 8th century BCE. The letters all represent consonants, some of which are matres lectionis, which also indicate long vowels.
The Aramaic alphabet is historically significant, since virtually all modern Middle Eastern writing systems use a script that can be traced back to it, as well as numerous Altaic writing systems of Central and East Asia. This is primarily due to the widespread usage of the Aramaic language as both a lingua franca and the official language of the Neo-Assyrian, and its successor, the Achaemenid Empire. Among the scripts in modern use, the Hebrew alphabet bears the closest relation to the Imperial Aramaic script of the 5th century BCE, with an identical letter inventory and, for the most part, nearly identical letter shapes.
D - again, check out the origin of "alphabet" from Alef and Bet - and the original ox and house pictograms. (It sounded the same too. )
Interesting Facts About Aleph
Interestingly enough, our word Alphabet comes from the first two letters in the Hebrew Alphabet, Aleph and Bet: Aleph-Bet or AlphaBet. And other nice rat facts: the letter A, or Alpha in Greek is a derivative of an ox head turned upright. Also, coincidentally enough, the Hebrew letter Aleph means ox as well.
The letter itself (aleph) when scribed and superimposed on a drawing of an ox or cow with horns resembles the cow in stick figure. The two upper portions being the horns, and the lower two portions the legs.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1552829
And on Bet -
http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_One/Aleph-Bet/Bet/bet.html
Well there you have it folks. Happy Holidays!
Monday, January 2, 2012
most over-used words of 2011. AMAZING!!!
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/dont-let-these-words-occupy-your-vocabulary-in-2012/article2288710/
The inaugural list was born at a New Year's Eve party in 1975 when a college relations director bet that he could go home and write up five overused words and phrases. That list consists of timely gems such as "macho" ("seldom pronounced properly and therefore lacks meaningfulness") and "détente" ("invented by Henry Kissinger. Nobody else knows what it means, and now even Kissinger has forgotten").
Most of the words are synonymous with a driving force derived from pop culture. Look no further than the cult-like obsession with Beyoncé's pregnancy for the reasoning behind "baby bump," or the self-explanatory "occupy."
According to Time magazine, "amazing" came out on top with more than 1,500 nominations from anglophones worldwide. Many people complained that the word went stale after being overexposed through reality TV.
-------------
http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php
amazing, baby bump, shared sacrifice (only 1 gets on the altar!), occupy, blowback, mancave, the new normal, pet parent.
D - LOL I'm trying to get up to date on popular culture. I have not had cable TV in over a decade, and only read the Globe & Mail (which has included a 'report typo' option recently!). To try to stay in touch with my society more, I began to look at the top 10 search results in Google when I search for a single letter of the alphabet. It has been very illuminating. I know more about reality shows, rappers, hunky sporty men and adolescent female sex kittens than ever before! For example, I can now tell you about the Brit boy-band "One Direction" ... but won't.
There is ONE drawback to not following my own society's pop culture. I will never be able to write The Great Canadian Novel since I lack a sense of the zeitgeist of my time.
Zeitgeist (German pronunciation: [ˈtsaɪtɡaɪst] ( listen)) is "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age." [1] Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambiance, morals, sociocultural direction, and mood associated with an era.
The term is a loanword from German Zeit – "time" (cognate with English "tide" and "time") and Geist – "spirit" (cognate with English "ghost").
For example, take the Google results for the letter "A":
Adele, Apple, Angry Birds, Ashwarya Rai (& Baby), Angelina Joli, Amber Rose, Amber Heard. Of course, since the search is for images, the results are skewed toward attractive celebrity women. But that's OK. <:
The inaugural list was born at a New Year's Eve party in 1975 when a college relations director bet that he could go home and write up five overused words and phrases. That list consists of timely gems such as "macho" ("seldom pronounced properly and therefore lacks meaningfulness") and "détente" ("invented by Henry Kissinger. Nobody else knows what it means, and now even Kissinger has forgotten").
Most of the words are synonymous with a driving force derived from pop culture. Look no further than the cult-like obsession with Beyoncé's pregnancy for the reasoning behind "baby bump," or the self-explanatory "occupy."
According to Time magazine, "amazing" came out on top with more than 1,500 nominations from anglophones worldwide. Many people complained that the word went stale after being overexposed through reality TV.
-------------
http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php
amazing, baby bump, shared sacrifice (only 1 gets on the altar!), occupy, blowback, mancave, the new normal, pet parent.
D - LOL I'm trying to get up to date on popular culture. I have not had cable TV in over a decade, and only read the Globe & Mail (which has included a 'report typo' option recently!). To try to stay in touch with my society more, I began to look at the top 10 search results in Google when I search for a single letter of the alphabet. It has been very illuminating. I know more about reality shows, rappers, hunky sporty men and adolescent female sex kittens than ever before! For example, I can now tell you about the Brit boy-band "One Direction" ... but won't.
There is ONE drawback to not following my own society's pop culture. I will never be able to write The Great Canadian Novel since I lack a sense of the zeitgeist of my time.
Zeitgeist (German pronunciation: [ˈtsaɪtɡaɪst] ( listen)) is "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age." [1] Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambiance, morals, sociocultural direction, and mood associated with an era.
The term is a loanword from German Zeit – "time" (cognate with English "tide" and "time") and Geist – "spirit" (cognate with English "ghost").
For example, take the Google results for the letter "A":
Adele, Apple, Angry Birds, Ashwarya Rai (& Baby), Angelina Joli, Amber Rose, Amber Heard. Of course, since the search is for images, the results are skewed toward attractive celebrity women. But that's OK. <:
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