The closest I've gotten to the trivia experience is the "did u know that X language has [no word/75 words] for Y??" Or my personal favourites: people telling me Chinese has no grammar or Z language (often Japanese, I speak that too) has no swear words. Swear words are one of my favourite linguistic topics. From the fucking-infix to the fact that every known human language seems to have developed words that can get you into a fight to the different subject matter all the swear words originate in and the context that brings about cultural mores and taboos (e.g., English's worst swear words are all sexually toned or relate to bodily functions, Québécois French swears are mostly religious imagery). This is a rant I sometimes kick off when someone tells me lies about swearing, because education is important and I gotta do my part somewhere. ;)
Hahaha historical is bound to bore me as a syntactician because those guys are all phonologists and I am emphatically not. I do think it's some kind of magic that any work can get done on sound change when all you have to work with is writing samples but it's not my cup of tea.
I've had two historical classes; one was "the sociopolitical history of the French language" (taught in French, I needed French credits) and was okay because it was a history class. The other was a 3rd year historical class and the prof did the Germanic ones. I was the only syntax fan in a class of like 15 and we had to do a term paper/presentation. I was on my own for picking a topic because the prof was like "lol idk about sentences" but I ended up doing one on negation cycles in English and Old Frisian that was some of my best work, honestly. I had to keep my presentation super basic so people could follow what I was saying (hilarious) and I got a super high mark on the paper... hard to say if the prof was like "I don't understand this but it seems legit". Ah, undergrad.
Re: my online ling engagement basically starts and ends at Speculative Grammarian
Date: 2017-08-01 06:44 pm (UTC)Hahaha historical is bound to bore me as a syntactician because those guys are all phonologists and I am emphatically not. I do think it's some kind of magic that any work can get done on sound change when all you have to work with is writing samples but it's not my cup of tea.
I've had two historical classes; one was "the sociopolitical history of the French language" (taught in French, I needed French credits) and was okay because it was a history class. The other was a 3rd year historical class and the prof did the Germanic ones. I was the only syntax fan in a class of like 15 and we had to do a term paper/presentation. I was on my own for picking a topic because the prof was like "lol idk about sentences" but I ended up doing one on negation cycles in English and Old Frisian that was some of my best work, honestly. I had to keep my presentation super basic so people could follow what I was saying (hilarious) and I got a super high mark on the paper... hard to say if the prof was like "I don't understand this but it seems legit". Ah, undergrad.