While reading Reddit, someone replied to a comment with a link to http://www.d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y.com/, a site whose purpose is limited only to inform of the correct spelling of definitely. I understand that "good grammar" is important for communication (although it's important to keep in mind there are many varieties/dialects of English, and essentially, anyway that people can communicate effectively with one another could be considered good grammar). The key to communication is knowing your audience. That's usually more easily done with verbal communication.

Written language, however, is very different. It's not natural to write. Writing is a tool to convey and represent language. Language itself, is something that is spoken, signed, and gestured. Writing, in that sense, is very limiting. I will admit that is why it's important to use punctuation as best you can (to indicate pauses and imitate how a sentence would be read outloud). Spelling isn't all that relevant. It's important only because it helps identify the word you want to use. As long as the word is understood, that should be good enough. Definitely. Definately. Same word, really. One is spelled "incorrectly," yes, but they both do just as good of a job representing that particular (verbal) word because most people would understand.

The next time you're online and you see someone who spells badly, ignore it. It doesn't mean that person is stupid. Writing just isn't natural or instinctive- we're taught language by hearing it and verbalizing it (along with all the signs and gestures that go along with it- including sign language). Writing is just a tool to help language be used in different manners.

I walk into the classroom, with some equations on the board. No, they aren't equations. They're words. It's some kind of little quiz. I write down the words, but then cross them all off and write "What the hell?" next to all of them in big letters. The teacher tries to explain, but I don't understand. When I woke up from that dream, I interpreted the teacher's efforts to trying to convert language into math. Language isn't math. Math might be a kind of language (used broadly), but the converse would end up with a lot of numbers that are incomprehensible to either.

It did get me thinking this morning, however. I won't be designing a language based off of math or try to mathematically design words (morphemes). Instead, I got thinking about a enw aspect of my language: emotion. In my last attempt at a language, I didn't really get into emotion yet. Now I'm wondering how to describe and represent emotion in my language. Where do all the emotional words come from? Should I take the list of moods available from Livejournal and translate them? That'd be one way of creating emotion words... if I wanted to copy how English uses emotion. I certainly don't want to do that (not that there's anything wrong with the emotional use and expression... bah). One of the main reasons for conlanging (constructing languages), for me, is to explore new ideas and to see the world differently through to use of interpreting it differently. English certainly has one way to describe certain emotions, but surely there have to be others. It seems like in English, there are a few "basics"- words that are vague, but can often encompass a whole range of emotions (happy and sad), but there are also slightly more specific words (nostalgic, terrified). So what other ways would you go about describing feelings you have (I don't mean music, paintings, and other art), since there are likely other ways to interpret our own emotions? Hmm... Oh, I have no answer yet. It's just something I'm beginning to contemplate and had to ramble on a bit about so hopefully I can get back to sleep.

There is one good thing about living on-campus: you get to keep up with whatever happens on-campus, such as when the marching band gives a concert. Onward to something else.

Have you ever thought about how the top of the page for most maps is (assumed) north? I was thinking about this the other day. Sadly, I think I've forgotten most of those thoughts. It just seems interesting that we associate "north" and "up." Even when speaking about travelling north someplace, more than likely you (okay, I--- I admit I say this. I think I do, anyway) would say you're going up to Alaska- not going north to Alaska (the song that is now stuck in my head because I didn't realize I was setting myself up for that one)... but "up" to Alaska. Alaska isn't above me. That'd be very scary, actually. Alaska is farther north than I am, however. Just one of those weird things where geography and linguistics mix.

I was looking through the consonants section at Wikipedia, particularly the Trills when I found this: Bronx Cheer (aka- the raspberry [Yes, just like in Spaceballs when Dark Helmet says, "Nobody gives me the raspberry!"]). Imagine how much fun that'd be in my language! It'd practically fit in. I'm thinking I'll be using [r] (coronal trill- basically a trilled "r") and [ʙ] (bilabial trill- trilled "r" with the "b" sound) already... so another trill would fit right in. Then again, how many people would want fart noises in their language? Bwahaha. Am I in that evil of a mood today? You will find out soon. My phonology stuff is due tomorrow for my independent study. I will reveal then what my phonology is.

WORLD NEWS:
CLINTON DEPLOYS VOWELS TO BOSNIA

( Story )

Yeah, I know it's old... but amusing. (it originally was printed in The Onion).

Before I get to the Icelandic Survial Guide (found on my Nói albínói CD), actually, this isn't very important. It is neat, though. For any X-Files fans, you'll be happy to know DVD sets are coming down in price. At Best Buy, the price (at least for the first few seasons) were about $40. Also, they've been repackaged. They're the same season discs, but the packaging is slightly different. Insteady of having the clunky fold out box, the discs have been put into the slim DVD cases- much like how Wonderfalls is packaged.

Since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, I thought I'd refer back to last year's post. I really don't have any problems with V-Day, though. I really don't pay much attention or am too apathetic to really care.

Finally--- the point of this post.

( Icelandic Survival Guide )

Poll #669734 Cot-Caught
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14

Do you pronounce "Cot" and "Caught":

Do you pronounce "Don" and "Dawn":

( Why did I ask that? )

I had an interesting conversation with my dad. He was watching football on tv and the announcer said something about Christmas Eve. He wanted to correct the announcer and have him say "the day before Christmas" and that Christmas Eve isn't until tonight. He further explained how "Eve" is short for Evening was using the phrase more literally to mean the evening before Christmas. I then tried to explain that "Christmas Eve" has evolved to apply to the entire day before Christmas... and also that if you really want to get technically, "Christmas eve" should apply to the evening of Christmas- ie, tomorrow night. Isn't linguistics fun?

So... Christmas Eve:
-the evening of Christmas
-the evening before Christmas
-the entire day before Christmas.

When I was visiting with Placement and Career Services the other day, I was shown a book that had various professional organizations (apart of that "networking" idea). One organization really made my day: The American Society for Geolinguistics.

Geolinguistics? It didn't really occur to me that such a subject could exist. I haven't found too many good sources explaining what is involved in geolinguistics, but I'm going to take a guess at what it is. Geolinguistics examines the spatial distribution of linguistcs - ie, where do languages occur? (Err... language exists everywhere humans do, but I mean specific languages... ie, why do Bostonians talk differently than New Yorkers or Californians? Why does some language exist one side of a mountain but not on the other? What is the pattern of a language's distribution? Or possibly- why did a language evolve the way it did? This might be closely related, but may or may not be apart of geolinguistics) There might be more to geolinguistics than just distribution of linguistics/languages...

Whatever geolinguistics really is, I think I'm really going to have to look into it (if I can actually find some helpful sources and/or contacts). It's especially useful to me- being a geography major with a linguistics minor.

"Whether people find you 'hot or not' could depend on the sound of your name, suggests a new study." *

Apparently, men's names are found more attractive or sexier by women if they use front vowels (as opposed to back vowels)**. The opposite is true of women's names being found sexier by men. This is, supposedly, because front vowels are perceived as "smaller" vowels. Going from that, the article suggests that women tend to be looking for more gentle, sensative men (which, I guess, is associated with being small)--- as opposed to big, rugged, masculine men.

My name, Scott, has a back vowel. I guess I just appear not-quite-as-sexy as if my name were "Bob," or "Gabe."

* Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6271

**Front vowels are made in the front of the mouth- by the opening, and back vowels are made... well, further back.

Edit: What was I thinking? Bob isn't a sexy name. The "o" in Bob is a back vowel, just like in Scott. Wowsers. What a mistake. Bob? A sexy name? [Sorry if I offended anyone named Bob. It's not that you aren't sexy (well, maybe you are and maybe you aren't- I don't know you), it's just that your name isn't... errr... at least, that'd be the case if I was a woman, according to this study.

I was going through my archived entries (which is actually very fun to do- it's interesting to see how I've changed in thought and ideas) and I came across this entry, where I admit I've been "stalking" people- in the sense that I was looking up people on LiveJournal in my area and reading their journal.

I know am thinking- what is the definition of stalking? Is there a clear definition- or is it one of those "fuzzy gray area" things? Purposely following someone home would probably be considered stalking, partifularly if it put the person being followed in some kind of danger or unwanted (romantic) situation. I think the keyword is "unwanted." Obviously, if it's a friend following someone home... well... that doesn't sound much better. I suppose intent is also part of it. Well, if a true friend- not necessarily someone with weird, alternative motives- was to follow a person home, would that be stalking? Perhaps in the definition of the word, but in a legal/worrisome manner, it'd probably be overlooked because of the "friend" aspect. Hmm...

Cam a person be stalked online? What would this entail, though? Would it include searching a person's name in an online directory or network site- Facebook or MySpace, for instance? Is finding someone's number in a phone book stalking? I suppose it goes back to intent. If I looked up s0rr0w online, it probably wouldn't be considered stalking since we're friends (and she is the mother of Alex, a genderless child that... well, nevermind... that adds complications to things).

With the amount of information on the internet, defining "stalking" becomes more difficult. Looking up someone's name and even contact information in some directory or networking site might be considered stalking- but then again, they exist for that very reason--- so you can put out that information... so that others can find you.

There are three primary words that English-speaking Americans use to describe a soft drink:

Soda, preferred in California, Arizona and the Northeast [and eastern Wisconsin]

Pop, preferred in the northern US- from Washington to western NY, Minnesota to Kansas

Coke, preferred in the South (including New Mexico, apparently).

Map of data
Pop v Soda .com
Another page of linguistical differences.

Today, a friend (mtails) and I were discussing gender-neutral pronouns (instead of "he" or "she") that can be used in English. It's something I had thought about in the past, especially when I write essays [and find it awkward to avoid writing "he or she"]. It didn't occur to me, however, until today what some ways to achieve this are. I thought about creating my own gender-neutral pronoun (GNP), but our conversation today helped with that.

( Gender-Neutral Pronouns )

( Soylent Green is my kind of people. )
'nuff said.

So I knew Teddy was gay. His metrosexuality just kept throwing off my possibly-existing gaydar... but certainly my paranoid observations of attractive guys...errr.. if that made sense. Since that didn't, here are some interesting words I learned from WordSpy:

Metrosexual: (met.roh.SEK.shoo.ul) n. An urban male with a strong aesthetic sense who spends a great deal of time and money on his appearance and lifestyle.
—metrosexuality n.

Pomosexual: (poh.moh.SEK.shoo.ul) n. A person who shuns labels such as heterosexual and homosexual that define individuals by their sexual preferences. Also: PoMoSexual. —adj.

( More Terminology )