Zompist Bboard Again

We don't need to assume a zero-derivation in order to say that a root has one meaning preferred over another. For that, we can simply turn to the concept of prototypes: the prototypical meaning of the word 'dog' is a noun, and among its noun usages, the most prototypical is its usage for canines, mo...

Yes, the concept of zero-derivation exists, but, AFAICT, it basically posits an invisible modification of the word. So I prefer the analysis of just saying there is a large degree of polysemy, that one word can mean multiple parts of speech.

There are other recipes with oats, like skirlie and leek crumble. But yeah, it won't necessarily happen overnight.

Re Sal on food exports and imports: Maybe there's diet rearrangement in order: oats classed as non-essential? yet staple crops likely includes wheat? They're both cereals, and oats is clearly the better one for for protein and fibre intake. Then again, I may be wrong in what is counted as staple cro...

I once saw someone wonder whether the presence of the Afro-Asiatic languages Berber, Punic and Coptic in North Africa might have been an influence in the widespread acquisition of Arabic after the early medieval Muslim conquests, in as much as there was a large proportion of the people that might h...

Most people of Latin American origin in America prefer to be known by their country of origin rather than 'Hispanic' or 'Latino' even though it was invented by people of the same origin under Nixon. In my expereience (living in NJ, one of the most Latino states in the country), whether one identifi...

Raphael wrote: ↑Sun Jul 21, 2019 5:27 pm Does anyone know when exactly the result of the Tory Leadership Contest will be announced? The most precise information I could find just said "June 23rd".

No, it's 23rd of July i.e. tomorrow. BBC and Wikipedia concur on this.

There were people calling themselves 'Spanish' in 20th century Texas (can't remember where I found that), but 'Spanish' and 'Hispanic' aren't the same thing. Most people of Latin American origin in America prefer to be known by their country of origin rather than 'Hispanic' or 'Latino' even though i...

I disagree because babies can hear from about 3 months in the womb, and can recognise the most common voices (generally the parents) before birth. That does not mean it is not universal - it just means the process of language acquisition begins prenatally. Sure, the process of language acquisition ...

Is it possible that baby talk doesn't mean how babies talk but rather how adults talk to babies? Naturally how babies learn language should be universal, so if the same phones are treated differently by babies learning two different languages implies that they are actually being treated differently...

Concerning your page on screen accents ('dialects'), I see that the vast majority of your comments concern misinterpretations. Two may however involve differing pronunciations between the time periods: other English accents do pronounce 'curb' with 4 phonèmes and I wouldn't be surprised that umwhile...

I noticed Wiktionary's mentioning of Danish and Swedish park and checked it up on the Swedish academy's dictionary website: https://www.saob.se/artikel/?unik=P_0211-0173.LO9K&pz=5 . They say that the Old Swedish word comes from the Old Danish, itself from the Middle High German, from the Middle ...

Yes, indeed, Germanic languages are known to have compressed all unstressed vowels. And French, as the most heavily Germanic-influenced language among the major Romance languages, has done much the same.

Indeed, I could collect information for publications on other topics within the next few years. I also hope to improve my language skills in the languages I am not yet fluent in but somewhat close, viz. Malagasy and Gaelic. Now that I think about it, my topic would be an opportunity for the latter, ...

I have contradictory feelings about the choice of my doctorate thesis topic. For the moment, it is a comparison between the diglossia situation in Réunion and Scotland. The topic is validated by my professors and fits perfectly well into the laboratory's main themes; I just need to rewrite my projec...

It seems it was because of those personal problems that the rules were changed. But people in tennis do criticise the rules: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/23/spor ... index.html. There are perhaps other ways to prevent derailing.

Triggered by this , Shirley vs. surely (I wouldn't have thought they could be homophones). JAL On the contrary, I was unaware there are dialects where they aren't homophones... I know they can be homophones due to Airplane myself, that I still have only seen extracts of. I pronounce them /ʃɘɹɫe/ an...

A possible point for re-read is that do-replacement can get at the inner [read the book] phrase: What did you re-do? . Of course it can also replace the whole phrase: What did you do? , and the answer to the first question probably can't omit the re- without sounding a little odd. From everything I...

Congratulations to both of you!

I disagree. A minister should run a department as is appropriate, and the appropriate way to run things does not always involve greater implication or funding.