I suppose it was a mistake listening to Alanis in the first place but in absence of my computer (Sony texted me today saying it should be with me tomorrow or on Monday), I've been listening to my iPod on shuffle and Head Over Feet (acoustic) cropped up yesterday (along with, coincidentally, a certain drive-time special by The Eagles).
As a linguist it pains me to listen to a certain line of the song as it violates a basic syntactic principle, namely that it fails the coordination test of constituency. Only constituents (the basic unit of X-bar syntax) can be coordinated and yet:
You held [your breath] and [the door for me]
The door for me is clearly not a constituent as it cannot stand alone (What did you hold? *The door for me), it can't be fronted without sounding like Yoda (*the door for me, you held) or clefted (*It was the door for me you held). Never mind that to hold one's breath is an idiom and shouldn't be coordinated with a separate clause that is trying to share the predicate.
Alanis obviously isn't a Chomsky fan (not that I am, I suppose, so fair enough).
26 July 2007
18 July 2007
Black as Hell, Strong as Death and Sweet as Love
A friend who knows me all too well sent me this link to an article in Monday's Times all about the author's downward spiral into caffeine addiction (mmm, what a deliciously jittery and productive slippery slope it is).
I can sympathise. I used to hate coffee and all other hot beverages but then a few 12-hour shifts at the Sandwich Shop of Dreams, where the hours were long, the work was hard, the customers were Oxford students and the cappuccini flowed freely soon had me addicted, although I still didn't like the stuff. Somewhere along the way (possibly around the time I got my first cappuccino maker, circa 2002), I actually started to like it and then, for a while, I would even order a decaf espresso to round off a good meal.
Now, I am so convinced my addiction is psychosomatic, I don't even need to drink decaf. In the morning, as soon as I wake up and smell the coffee, I instantly feel more alert. I know this because some mornings, I am so tired when I wake up that I become trรจs scatty and make the cappuccino and then forget to drink it (thankfully, foam is a good insulator and I usually remember while the drink is not yet too tepid) and yet still feel more awake. Equally, I can drink coffee within an hour of going to bed and because I am not concentrating on its magical arousing powers, I fall asleep within about 2 minutes (according to assorted bedfellows).
So, what's wrong with with getting all wired up on it, all fired up on it? Sometimes, I do go a bit far and get even more hyperactive than usual, with my brain wanting to do 17 different things at once instead of the usual 7 and yes, sometimes I do get the jitters and the shakes and become very, very manic, but that's all part of the fun.
The only flipside is what happens when there is no coffee. When I moved into my current house back in November, I didn't have a cappuccino machine for over a month and survived on (shock horror!) instant (propped up by a lunchtime trip to Nero or Costa). The worst was on a three-week trip to Cuba where most places did actually do espresso but the machines were often broken (and the water very often dodgy) and (worse) they used robusta not arabica. Fatal caffeine error. But I lived to tell the tale... Just don't go offering me any of that tea stuff. Tea is for lightweights and caffeine is for people who actually like to GTD!
I can sympathise. I used to hate coffee and all other hot beverages but then a few 12-hour shifts at the Sandwich Shop of Dreams, where the hours were long, the work was hard, the customers were Oxford students and the cappuccini flowed freely soon had me addicted, although I still didn't like the stuff. Somewhere along the way (possibly around the time I got my first cappuccino maker, circa 2002), I actually started to like it and then, for a while, I would even order a decaf espresso to round off a good meal.
Now, I am so convinced my addiction is psychosomatic, I don't even need to drink decaf. In the morning, as soon as I wake up and smell the coffee, I instantly feel more alert. I know this because some mornings, I am so tired when I wake up that I become trรจs scatty and make the cappuccino and then forget to drink it (thankfully, foam is a good insulator and I usually remember while the drink is not yet too tepid) and yet still feel more awake. Equally, I can drink coffee within an hour of going to bed and because I am not concentrating on its magical arousing powers, I fall asleep within about 2 minutes (according to assorted bedfellows).
So, what's wrong with with getting all wired up on it, all fired up on it? Sometimes, I do go a bit far and get even more hyperactive than usual, with my brain wanting to do 17 different things at once instead of the usual 7 and yes, sometimes I do get the jitters and the shakes and become very, very manic, but that's all part of the fun.
The only flipside is what happens when there is no coffee. When I moved into my current house back in November, I didn't have a cappuccino machine for over a month and survived on (shock horror!) instant (propped up by a lunchtime trip to Nero or Costa). The worst was on a three-week trip to Cuba where most places did actually do espresso but the machines were often broken (and the water very often dodgy) and (worse) they used robusta not arabica. Fatal caffeine error. But I lived to tell the tale... Just don't go offering me any of that tea stuff. Tea is for lightweights and caffeine is for people who actually like to GTD!
16 July 2007
Steve's New Book
If I haven't been forced to sell my car and my laptop just to pay for food by then, I have now put 27th September into my calendar (along with 2nd September (Keanu's birthday) and 21st September (my Indian summer holiday)) because Steve Pinker's new book, Stuff of Thought: Language as Window into Human Nature is published then.
I am a big Pinker fan and I devoured all of his books and as many of his papers as I could get my hands on during my undergraduate years but now that my Athens account has been dead for almost a year, I have been forced to re-read The Language Instinct (yet again!) and How the Mind Works. The Amazon synopsis is as follows:
The Stuff of Thought is an exhilarating work of non-fiction. Surprising, thought-provoking and incredibly enjoyable, there is no other book like it - Steven Pinker will revolutionise the way you think about language. He analyses what words actually mean and how we use them, and he reveals what this can tell us about ourselves. He shows how we use space and motion as metaphors for more abstract ideas, and uncovers the deeper structures of human thought that have been shaped by evolutionary history. He also explores the emotional impact of language, from names to swear words, and shows us the full power that it can have over us. And, with this book, he also shows just how stimulating and entertaining language can be.
Basically, it sounds like an extension of The Language Instinct but given that is one of the best written and most popular linguistics books ever, who says you can have too much of a good thing?