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Category: Linguistics
What are the purposes of doing a research study on how dialects impact gender?
As Joe Devney said, depends on the study, but I have a fair guess. That would be gender, presumably, as in grammatical gender, in those languages that have them. The wording would then presumably be something more like how does assignment of entities to particular genders vary from one dialect to another within the same […]
What is the Ancient Greek translation of ‘Stachys’, and what are the modern Greek translations of ‘Hydrobius’, ‘Kornephoros’, and ‘Protrygater’?
They’re all Ancient Greek, really, and they’re all Greek star names from Nick Nicholas’ answer to What are all the Greek star names? α Virginis: Stachys is “Ear of Wheat”. It’s Aratus’ name, and the established name Spica is its Latin translation. ζ Hydrae: Hydrobius (whatever the name’s provenance) is “living in water” (or in […]
Do words have intrinsic meaning? Does it make sense to argue over the definition of a word?
Do words have intrinsic meaning? No. The meaning of words is negotiated constantly (and mostly unconsciously) within a community. That’s why meanings change. Meaning inheres not in the word but in the community, because language as a code inheres in the community. Where by code, I mean a mapping of forms to meanings, which enables […]
How does the linguistic concept of “time depth” compare to the intuition of “language age”?
Not very well. Linguists have an understanding of some languages being more conservative in certain aspects than others. Informed by history, they also have a notion of how far back two languages branched apart. Linguists are quite reluctant to make the further claim that one language is overall more archaic than another, compared to their […]
In your country, what are high-prestige and low-prestige languages for L2 speakers?
Thirty years ago, the most popular languages to learn at school in Australia were those that have inherited prestige from Britain: French, with German a somewhat distant second. They are being overtaken now by Spanish and Chinese and Japanese, but they remain entrenched, particularly in elite schools. The French lecturers I use to hang out […]
trice
A doctor has suggested me Combiflam trice a day for five days for a liquid problem discharge in my breast. Is it fine? What are some amazing pictures one has to see trice to understand? If the value of each letter in the alphabet series is made trice of its serial number then L-H+O=? … […]
In “whosoever looks upon a woman to lust after her,” might that ‘to’ indicate a purpose clause?
To corroborate John Simpson’s answer to In “whosoever looks upon a woman to lust after her,” might that ‘to’ indicate a purpose clause?: The Greek literally says Ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι πᾶς ὁ βλέπων γυναῖκα πρὸς τὸ ἐπιθυμῆσαι αὐτῆς, ἤδη ἐμοίχευσεν αὐτὴν ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὑτοῦ, “towards the desiring of her”. That “towards” is […]
Are “humility” and “humiliate” related?
Yes. Using tools from Online Etymology Dictionary: Humilis is Latin for humble. Humble is Old French humble < *humle < *humile < humilis. Humility is from Latin humilitas “humbleness”, which comes from humilis. Humiliate is to make someone feel like crap: you’re humbling them, you’re making them feel low (which is actually what humilis originally […]
How did the world’s major countries all conform to using first and last names from an early era?
Surname – Wikipedia Surnames seems to have been invented independentishly in Europe at a similar time: they were reintroduced after the Roman three-way names fell out of use in the West. From Wikipedia, I see it’s a messy web of transmission. Wikipedia suggests (not very loudly) that the Modern Western notion of surnames was transmitted […]
puerile
Not that recondite a word, but any soupçon from the Magister is welcome here: https://necrologue.quora.com/201… I just want to say, publicly, and despite the possibility of offending some friends, that I thought the fake death gag puerile and unhelpful. puerile 1. Immature, especially in being silly or trivial; childish. 2. Archaic Belonging to childhood; juvenile. […]