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Making assumptions to make progress
I’ve recently been reading Anna Basso’s Aphasia and Its Therapy. I found this passage interesting where she states that it is sometimes necessary to make assumptions, whether or not one believes them to be true or can prove them to be true, in order to progress: The use of pathological data for the study of…
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Language review 2013 – bitcoin, sharknado, selfie
The virtual linguist has posted a link to the 2013 language review on the Oxford Dictionaries website. To everyone who made fun of me at SBL for not knowing what a “bitcoin” was, cut me some slack. It seems relatively new since it just made it in to this year’s language review. Also, making an…
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Still think elf on the shelf won’t throttle you in your sleep?
From Here. Sorry, couldn’t make it any bigger without it getting grainy, though.
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How much programming knowledge do I need?
Last week I posted some of my experience doing continuing ed in Python programming with the O’reilly School of Technology. Before entering in on learning programming some people want to know just how far they need to go with it in order for it to be useful. In many ways, I’m sure the answer is…
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When the experts disagree – Information structure edition
I’m catching up with my blog reading from last week. Kris Lyle brings up an interesting case in which two experts on New Testament discourse disagree with one another from John 15.7. I have no particular interest here in whether Levisohn or Runge is correct about the information structure of the verse, but what I…
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Alcohol and Pragmatic Inference – Avett Brothers’ “When I Drink”
I’ve been meaning to post this for a while. My wife and I recently went to see the Avett Brothers. It was a great show. It was a small crowd on a Sunday night, but you could tell they just really loved to play music. I’d highly recommend going to see them if they’re ever…
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Bandicoot Cabbagepatch
Did you know clicking the link that this post was going to be about Benedict Cumberbatch? Gretchen McCulloch, a graduate student in linguistics at McGill University and blogger at All Things Linguistic, explains the Benedict Cumberbatch name generator here and here and why some of the names generated work and some don’t. I admit some…
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What does Joel have against Charles Wesley?
Joel is posting music for Advent and he has left out Charles Wesley’s “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.” I mean, I know there was the whole Whitefield thing, but he was still John’s brother.
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Most conversations with David Witthoff
David‘s unbridled sense of optimism about the world is often balanced by my realism. Makes for a good Hebrew team.
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Happy Holy Days
Dear angry people of the internet, This is just your annual reminder that the word “holidays” as in “happy holidays” has religious origins in the words “holy days.” As a Catholic, we still have “holy days” that correspond to what some people call “holidays.” Perhaps the religious origins are less overtly obvious than “Christmas,” but…