Category Archives: Language

The Washington Post has a very odd definition of “understandability.”

Posted on May 15, 2013 by nkrishna

Tū, mewom klneudhi! So pūr tosmōi senei manei dō. Negwrias kwṛmis apo bhergod deukdhi, tod mātrei dō. Ne askoisu spyeudhi! That’s a pseudo-Proto-Indo-European version of what the WaPo claims is a sentence that could be understood across 150 centuries. Did … Continue reading →

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Fiction and the Language of Conspiracy

Posted on May 1, 2013 by nkrishna

Maybe it’s getting worse, maybe we’re just hearing about it more. In the wake of the recent bombings at the Boston Marathon and the ensuing manhunt, the weird part of the Internet has been more excitable than usual. In a … Continue reading →

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Research update #3: RESULTS!!!!!11!…?

Posted on March 25, 2013 by nkrishna

I scienced all last weekend. Except for a few hours when my fiancée and I watched The Hobbit on DVD, I scienced almost nonstop, and I actually have something to show for it.

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Research update #2 and the Softest Hard Science

Posted on February 24, 2013 by nkrishna

I’m writing an annotation specification. If that sounds really tedious and science-y, it probably is, but I think that when most people think “linguistics,” the first free-association word isn’t “science.” But depending on how you look at it, linguistics is … Continue reading →

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Holy crap, I want to work on this!

Posted on February 14, 2013 by nkrishna

UC Berkley is welding two of my linguistic loves: large amounts of data and dead languages. I have to try and bring this kind of thing to Brandeis. We love large amounts of properly formatted data. I’ve always had a … Continue reading →

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Sexist pronouns

Posted on February 3, 2013 by nkrishna

There’s a problem with English.  Okay, there are lots of problems with English, from a spelling system that hasn’t been made sense since the 15th century to an undue love of Latin grammatical standards in a language that wasn’t made … Continue reading →

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