Sunday21 Posted July 30, 2017 Report Posted July 30, 2017 On 2017-07-29 at 2:54 AM, askandanswer said: A long time ago, first year uni, I took linguistics as a subject in the belief that mastering linguistics would then make it easier to learn different languages. I didn't find it easy and it took me a lot of work to get a reasonable grade. I planned on continuing with it in second year, but during the Summer break I went to the Philippines and got married and arrived back at uni about a week late. By then all the interesting linguistics courses were fully enrolled so I ended up dropping it. I loathed linguistics and I could not analyse phonetically to save my life!
Sunday21 Posted July 30, 2017 Report Posted July 30, 2017 15 hours ago, Armin said: Imagine mankind would contact an extraterrestrial civilisation or visitors. (it reminds me of Poul Anderson's SF novel "The Byworlder" from 1971, German issue: "Der Außenweltler" from 1973). How would their language be like, would there be any understanding, would there help any linguistic knowledge? It's said that mathematics is the basic or some kind of universal language, but, anyhow, I'm not convinced. What if they didn't know mathematics...? http://www.sfreviews.net/byworlder.html Have you seen 'Arrival'? A linguistics expert meets aliens.
askandanswer Posted July 30, 2017 Report Posted July 30, 2017 6 hours ago, Sunday21 said: I loathed linguistics and I could not analyse phonetically to save my life! I certainly didn't enjoy it either although I would have been willing to continue if the right classes had been available. Once upon a time I could analyse phonetically, but that ability disappeared pretty soon after I dropped the subject. Sunday21 1
Grunt Posted July 30, 2017 Report Posted July 30, 2017 I DID see someone drinking a Coke in service today. Well, not exactly drinking it, but carrying it around half empty. Sunday21, seashmore and Flying Saint 3
Guest Posted July 31, 2017 Report Posted July 31, 2017 (edited) On 7/28/2017 at 5:27 PM, MormonGator said: The poem is incredibly complex and multi layered. To fully understand it you need to understand what was going on in England at the time. Milton was extremely political, by far the most political poet in English history. No question. Not even Chaucer (who worked for the government and was deeply connected to the high ups in the country) was as political as Milton. So if you don't understand the basics of the English Civil War (and Milton was a radical, staunch Parliamentarian though he wavered when he saw Cromwell refusing to advance English liberty and acting more like a monarch) you have no chance of understanding the poem. Would you please stop showing off your English degree?? Edited July 31, 2017 by Guest
Guest Posted July 31, 2017 Report Posted July 31, 2017 On 7/28/2017 at 8:09 PM, MormonGator said: I name drop Dostoyevsky to sound intelligent and witty but I find his works incredibly complex, more so than Tolstoy! Way too deep for my feeble mind. Exactly.
eddified Posted July 31, 2017 Report Posted July 31, 2017 On 7/29/2017 at 2:39 PM, Vort said: Don't know. But the idea that the entire alien civilization would not understand mathematics belies the premise that we are somehow communicating with them, which seems to me to imply a powerful communication network and/or physical interstellar travel. I don't see how either of those is possible without understanding mathematics. Though I freely admit that their conception and execution of mathematics might be so foreign to us, and ours to them, that communication of those fundamental ideas becomes next to impossible. We've sent out plaques on spacecraft that attempt to communicate ideas to extra-terrestrials that may happen upon them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_plaque WARNING: the link contains nudity of drawn human figures, male and female. I do not consider it pornographic, (or else I wouldn't have linked it), but YMMV.
zil Posted July 31, 2017 Report Posted July 31, 2017 10 minutes ago, eddified said: We've sent out plaques on spacecraft Did you hear about the dentist who was so popular his peers gave him a little plaque...? eddified, Sunday21 and askandanswer 3
askandanswer Posted July 31, 2017 Report Posted July 31, 2017 1 hour ago, zil said: Did you hear about the dentist who was so popular his peers gave him a little plaque...? No I didn't. Can you please tell me the story? I offered my dentist candy once. He declined. zil and Sunday21 2
Vort Posted July 31, 2017 Report Posted July 31, 2017 1 hour ago, askandanswer said: No I didn't. Can you please tell me the story? I offered my dentist candy once. He declined. It's pulp fiction. zil 1
askandanswer Posted August 1, 2017 Report Posted August 1, 2017 This story is full of holes. I suspect there is not an element of tuth in it. zil 1
zil Posted August 1, 2017 Report Posted August 1, 2017 5 minutes ago, askandanswer said: This story is full of holes. I suspect there is not an element of tuth in it. Well, you know what they say - the tuth can be painful... askandanswer 1
askandanswer Posted August 1, 2017 Report Posted August 1, 2017 Its also said that the tuth will come out in the end zil 1
artista Posted August 1, 2017 Report Posted August 1, 2017 This is a very interesting topic. I'd have to admit though, I'm guilty. In my case it was because I didn't feel secure with myself. Everything that I was doing was wrong and it reflected on others. In no way am I past this, but I am doing a lot better. Just giving a different perspective on why people might be creating this culture for themselves cause they don't truly understand who they are and the simple principles of the gospel.
pam Posted August 2, 2017 Report Posted August 2, 2017 I believe this thread has run its course. I'm going to close it.
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