2010年10月26日星期二
So is he ready to play for the country? We don't know!
Prof Geoffrey K. Pullum has this sense of humour which tickles and amuses to an amazing satire effect, be it in his lectures, speeches or writings. And I discovered 2 weeks ago that he was actually part of a rock band before he went to university for his degrees. No wonder his Linguistics students adore him to the core. Here's another witty entry about language use. http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2725 In my view, I think Wenger simply wasn't sure, hence he chose to use negations to avoid outright commitements in his statements and left us confused.
As I Learn About the Rhotic and Non-Rhotic /r/ in English......
As I sat in the library writing out revision notes for the Phonology test, I made a discovery of this site, courtesy to a Library IS Guide which was left on the study desk by the previous occupier.
Aptly, the first entry shall be about Phonology. It's a link to a interesting application of what I have just read . http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2737
Aptly, the first entry shall be about Phonology. It's a link to a interesting application of what I have just read . http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2737
2010年10月22日星期五
A bit of Africa in Edinburgh
I have to admit I have almost no knowledge about African history and the images of Africa in my mind remains pretty much of the stereotype.
1. News about war, hunger, illness and poverty.
2. The soccer nations and the teams in World Cup every 4 years.
3. Documentary films about African tribes and tribal culture.
4. The wildlife on African lands on the cable channels.
It was an unknown world to me. So it was really out of curiosity and a keen interest in world cinematography that lured me to buy 6 tickets at the Edinburgh African Film Festival.
If last night's premiere movie gave the audience a light-hearted insight into the struggles of a 3-generation African immigrant family in France, and how they learn to deal, as a family, with similar issues which would also arise in any Western or Asia society, then tonight's screening of the 1992 documentary, Africa, I Will Fleece You, is essentially a guide to African's violent history and postcolonialism problems. The film was based on Cameroon's history and according to the director, who hosted a Q&A session after the disturbing film, 18 years on, many issues raised in the film still remains. Interestingly, CIA's World Factbook stated that "Cameroon has generally enjoyed stability", which was definitely not the impression one leaves with after watching the film, which featured precious interviews with elders who had been through the pre-independence days. Perhaps, it was a statement made in comparison to the other African nations?
The most enlightening part of the documentary for me was when the narrative brought the audience back to school to hear the story of the Cameroon writing system. A visionary king from the pre-colonial days had envisioned that for his people to progress further, their oral tradition has to be aided by a writing system. Hence, King Njoya went through several stages to invent a writing system for their language in the beginning of 20th century and started educating his people in their own writing system. (And I've learnt that it's definitely a misconception that the African traditions is a purely oral one.) But history has it that things are not to be. Today, the Cameroon land speaks French and one of the director's lament would be on the lost of the native language(and writing), culture and identity.
The film has definitely opened up a new world of knowledge awaiting my exploration. And, it adds another dimension to my understanding of my Prof lectures on language and identity.
1. News about war, hunger, illness and poverty.
2. The soccer nations and the teams in World Cup every 4 years.
3. Documentary films about African tribes and tribal culture.
4. The wildlife on African lands on the cable channels.
It was an unknown world to me. So it was really out of curiosity and a keen interest in world cinematography that lured me to buy 6 tickets at the Edinburgh African Film Festival.
If last night's premiere movie gave the audience a light-hearted insight into the struggles of a 3-generation African immigrant family in France, and how they learn to deal, as a family, with similar issues which would also arise in any Western or Asia society, then tonight's screening of the 1992 documentary, Africa, I Will Fleece You, is essentially a guide to African's violent history and postcolonialism problems. The film was based on Cameroon's history and according to the director, who hosted a Q&A session after the disturbing film, 18 years on, many issues raised in the film still remains. Interestingly, CIA's World Factbook stated that "Cameroon has generally enjoyed stability", which was definitely not the impression one leaves with after watching the film, which featured precious interviews with elders who had been through the pre-independence days. Perhaps, it was a statement made in comparison to the other African nations?
The most enlightening part of the documentary for me was when the narrative brought the audience back to school to hear the story of the Cameroon writing system. A visionary king from the pre-colonial days had envisioned that for his people to progress further, their oral tradition has to be aided by a writing system. Hence, King Njoya went through several stages to invent a writing system for their language in the beginning of 20th century and started educating his people in their own writing system. (And I've learnt that it's definitely a misconception that the African traditions is a purely oral one.) But history has it that things are not to be. Today, the Cameroon land speaks French and one of the director's lament would be on the lost of the native language(and writing), culture and identity.
The film has definitely opened up a new world of knowledge awaiting my exploration. And, it adds another dimension to my understanding of my Prof lectures on language and identity.
2010年10月18日星期一
What impact does the writing system has on the concept of what constitutes a language?
I read the following content from one of my Prof's book with keen interest.
" Much to the chagrin of modern linguistics, which treats only the spoken as real language and writing as a secondary indication of speech, the fact is that cultures generally recognise themselves as having 'the same language' so long as they share the same written language, regardless of how much variation there may be in how they speak." - John E.Joseph, Language and Politics, 2006,Pg 28
Joseph states the example of the Arabic speaking world, where Muslims and Christians Arabic mother tongue speakers view the classical written language as the original and correct Arabic, the difference only being Muslims view the written Arabic language with an addition perspective, that of the sacred authority of Koran. Then he continues exemplifying his notion with the example of "the family of Chinese languages".
" More dramatic however is the effect of a non-alphabetic writing system, and particularly the Chinese system of character writing. Chinese characters are logographs, which is to say that each character represents a word. Some characters are basic and cannot be broken down... ... However, despite the inclusion of phonetic elements, the characters do not analyse each word into its component sounds the way alphabetic writing does. The result is that a character such as 然 corresponds to the spoken Mandarin word ran, the Cantonese jin, and the Wu zφ, each pronounced with a different tone in addition to the consonant and vowel differences. Yet speakers of Mandarin, Cantonese and Wu, while fully aware of the divergences and of the fact that they cannot understand one another's speech, are entirely certain that there is one single Chinese word 然 that they are each saying in their particular dialectal way. When asked why they believe this, the proof they cite is usually the existence of the written character, which is the word as far as they are concerned. " (Joseph, 2006)
He contrasts this example with the English 'yes' and German 'ja' and concluded that
"whether different writing systems caused the different ways of thinking about words,or vice versa, is a chicken-and-egg question... ...the Chinese system, by allowing so much more latitude in the visual-sound link, enables belief in a single Chinese language much more robustly than an alphabet does, even for a pair of languages as closely related as English and German. Yet neither determines the cultural beliefs in question......"
He was actually talking about the relationship between language, politics and national identities. He concluded the paragraph citing the case of Taiwan maintaining the traditional writing form as a choice with "political motivations and ramifications", using it as a potent way of performing a distinct national identity.
And to end this off, I found an interesting link about the Vietnamese language.
" Much to the chagrin of modern linguistics, which treats only the spoken as real language and writing as a secondary indication of speech, the fact is that cultures generally recognise themselves as having 'the same language' so long as they share the same written language, regardless of how much variation there may be in how they speak." - John E.Joseph, Language and Politics, 2006,Pg 28
Joseph states the example of the Arabic speaking world, where Muslims and Christians Arabic mother tongue speakers view the classical written language as the original and correct Arabic, the difference only being Muslims view the written Arabic language with an addition perspective, that of the sacred authority of Koran. Then he continues exemplifying his notion with the example of "the family of Chinese languages".
" More dramatic however is the effect of a non-alphabetic writing system, and particularly the Chinese system of character writing. Chinese characters are logographs, which is to say that each character represents a word. Some characters are basic and cannot be broken down... ... However, despite the inclusion of phonetic elements, the characters do not analyse each word into its component sounds the way alphabetic writing does. The result is that a character such as 然 corresponds to the spoken Mandarin word ran, the Cantonese jin, and the Wu zφ, each pronounced with a different tone in addition to the consonant and vowel differences. Yet speakers of Mandarin, Cantonese and Wu, while fully aware of the divergences and of the fact that they cannot understand one another's speech, are entirely certain that there is one single Chinese word 然 that they are each saying in their particular dialectal way. When asked why they believe this, the proof they cite is usually the existence of the written character, which is the word as far as they are concerned. " (Joseph, 2006)
He contrasts this example with the English 'yes' and German 'ja' and concluded that
"whether different writing systems caused the different ways of thinking about words,or vice versa, is a chicken-and-egg question... ...the Chinese system, by allowing so much more latitude in the visual-sound link, enables belief in a single Chinese language much more robustly than an alphabet does, even for a pair of languages as closely related as English and German. Yet neither determines the cultural beliefs in question......"
He was actually talking about the relationship between language, politics and national identities. He concluded the paragraph citing the case of Taiwan maintaining the traditional writing form as a choice with "political motivations and ramifications", using it as a potent way of performing a distinct national identity.
This isn't any new conclusion for me. What interest me is the contrasts shown in my perception of Chinese as a language and the way modern linguists define a language. This was a point of contention at the beginning of term, as a seminar room of Chinese speaking students had to clarify what constitutes a language in the study of linguistics. By virtue of the way I learn the language in school, and by virtue of various experiences where I was able to clarify my reception of speech with dialect speaking elders or differentiate allophones in the language through the written forms, I had, as exemplified in the text above, view the basis of my language as the written form of the words themselves.
In fact, I had tried to explain to my Kazakh friend that the Chinese language is a totally differnt world and since unification of the written form took place way in B.C times, the modern linguists classification of what constitutes a distinct language may not work well for analysing the Chinese language. The question about "What's the Chinese language like?" was posed by my Kazakh friend as she explained that with the establishment of the new nation, their people work hard to establish the standardised Kazakh language. I didn't really understood what it really meant then, since I reckoned that the Kazakh language has been around for a long time. I had thought that it only meant efforts to revitalise and enhance the vitality of the language, as the Russian language had been widely used during the Soviet years. That was in Week 1 of school. Finally, as term progresses, I realised that things aren't that simple. What intrigues me even more is the choice of representation for this language, as it has been represented by the Latin, Arabic and presently the Cyrillic form. Pardon my poor knowledge in the Philology of world languages but this was definitely unraveling for me.
In retrospect, the most intriguing question in my mind now is, then how important is the writing system in the Chinese language? To me, the writing system for the Chinese language probably has a higher weightage than its counterparts in other languages. This is all too familiar as I recall students who can speak Chinese but can't really write asking the teacher innocently " 为什么'中间'的‘中’means 'middle',可是zhongdian 的'zhong; means 'the end'? As some foreign modern linguistics continue to fret over the fact that Chinese is not going to be abandon its "complicated" writing system and romanise the language anytime soon, enthused Chinese foreign language learners would probably get an introduction to the Chinese written language that looks like this. Now my question is, by teaching students only the spoken form and the typed-input form of the language, how will this change the way we cognize the language?
And to end this off, I found an interesting link about the Vietnamese language.
2010年10月17日星期日
我在爱城看的第一部电影！
来爱城的第一周，我和同学饭后随处乱逛的时候，发现了爱丁堡的一颗宝石——独立电影院Filmhouse. 精彩的节目表让我想到了北大东门外那个平房里那一间卖很多独立电影影碟的“镇宇”小店。
这周，终于在爱城的第一部电影——Made In Dagenham （达格南制造）。这部BBC Film注资拍摄的英国本土电影讲述的是60年代的一次历史事件。故事虽然是经改编的，不过却真实地反映了女性在社会中的不平等待遇。一群工厂女工为了争取工资平等待遇，间接推动了英国甚至是世界工业国家实施平等工资法令。故事虽然把这群女工的罢工和宣导行动所带来的效应给夸大了，但是看到电影结局时，我不禁想到了刚过世的柯玉芝女士在争取岛国女性拥有平等待遇中作出的贡献。而昨天，刚好和表姐在脸书上稍微讨论了这个问题。今天，我们好不容易争取到男女平等工资（其实，认真想想，这也不尽然），但是我们的社会在公平对待职业女性，尤其是拥有家庭的职业妇女时，不一定是公平的。一个家庭，当小孩儿需要照顾时，我们的男士普遍上还是认为作出牺牲的应该是女性，尽管女方可能在职业中有更好的发展。
其实，我不是什么女权注意者。我出世的时候已经视这些为理所当然的。不过，身旁的例子，甚至是西方社会报章的报道都显示，40年后的今天，我们的进步其实也就只有那么多。法令通过了，但是老板不一定买法令的账。有些老板，认定职业妇女是无法同时百分百地投入家庭和事业的。岛国近日不断讨论雇主无故解雇怀孕妇女的问题，我原以为这类问题早已经获得解决了，但是显然的，在经济低靡时，公司相竞节约开支的时候，还是有不少雇主把怀孕妇女的产假看作是一种奢侈的。虽然这不是惟一的原因，但是也难怪我们的出生率这么低。
Made In Dagenham 的影评就提到了现实中，男女工资还是大有差别的。其中的原因当然非常复杂。不过，影片中有个角色非常有意思。那名剑桥历史系毕业的一等荣誉生Lisa，因为看到女工Rita带领的工潮新闻而大为震撼， 不禁跑去平民小区找Rita，鼓励她一定要继续为女性们奋斗到底。她义愤填膺地告诉Rita," 你知道我是谁吗？我是剑桥历史系最优秀的学生。但是我的丈夫把我当作白痴！”( 这只是我大约的翻译。电影中有一场戏很有技巧地透露了这一点。）我又想到，其实我们要的不只是工资平等，我们要的更是尊重。世界各地的文化不尽相同，但是各地职业女性在兼顾事业和家庭时，往往是先作出职业牺牲的那一方。但是在“退居幕后”的同时，最终要的那一份尊重，而不是一种“理所当然”的忽视。
这周，终于在爱城的第一部电影——Made In Dagenham （达格南制造）。这部BBC Film注资拍摄的英国本土电影讲述的是60年代的一次历史事件。故事虽然是经改编的，不过却真实地反映了女性在社会中的不平等待遇。一群工厂女工为了争取工资平等待遇，间接推动了英国甚至是世界工业国家实施平等工资法令。故事虽然把这群女工的罢工和宣导行动所带来的效应给夸大了，但是看到电影结局时，我不禁想到了刚过世的柯玉芝女士在争取岛国女性拥有平等待遇中作出的贡献。而昨天，刚好和表姐在脸书上稍微讨论了这个问题。今天，我们好不容易争取到男女平等工资（其实，认真想想，这也不尽然），但是我们的社会在公平对待职业女性，尤其是拥有家庭的职业妇女时，不一定是公平的。一个家庭，当小孩儿需要照顾时，我们的男士普遍上还是认为作出牺牲的应该是女性，尽管女方可能在职业中有更好的发展。
其实，我不是什么女权注意者。我出世的时候已经视这些为理所当然的。不过，身旁的例子，甚至是西方社会报章的报道都显示，40年后的今天，我们的进步其实也就只有那么多。法令通过了，但是老板不一定买法令的账。有些老板，认定职业妇女是无法同时百分百地投入家庭和事业的。岛国近日不断讨论雇主无故解雇怀孕妇女的问题，我原以为这类问题早已经获得解决了，但是显然的，在经济低靡时，公司相竞节约开支的时候，还是有不少雇主把怀孕妇女的产假看作是一种奢侈的。虽然这不是惟一的原因，但是也难怪我们的出生率这么低。
Made In Dagenham 的影评就提到了现实中，男女工资还是大有差别的。其中的原因当然非常复杂。不过，影片中有个角色非常有意思。那名剑桥历史系毕业的一等荣誉生Lisa，因为看到女工Rita带领的工潮新闻而大为震撼， 不禁跑去平民小区找Rita，鼓励她一定要继续为女性们奋斗到底。她义愤填膺地告诉Rita," 你知道我是谁吗？我是剑桥历史系最优秀的学生。但是我的丈夫把我当作白痴！”( 这只是我大约的翻译。电影中有一场戏很有技巧地透露了这一点。）我又想到，其实我们要的不只是工资平等，我们要的更是尊重。世界各地的文化不尽相同，但是各地职业女性在兼顾事业和家庭时，往往是先作出职业牺牲的那一方。但是在“退居幕后”的同时，最终要的那一份尊重，而不是一种“理所当然”的忽视。
The Lure of Learning
This place is cool. There's always new discoveries and new things to learn about. I read with excitement this news. New languages are being discovered (or uncoverered) by the linguists. Could I say that a year is defnitely not enough ?
2010年10月16日星期六
The Scots and their Capital!
As I listen to the live debate on BBC Radio Scotland, where the panel speculate and debate about the possible recommendations in the upcoming government spending review and lay out their views on UK's biggest budget cuts since Thatcher's days, I shall pen an entry on this beautiful city they call Edinburgh.
It's been a month since I arrived in this place which they still call "a small town". So, besides the weather, the castles and the proud Scots, what are some of the other little things which spell Edinburgh?
1. The Coffee Places
With J.K Rowling claiming her fame from writing the Harry Potter series in the cafes in Edinburgh, one simply couldn't miss out on the numerous coffee places in this city.
It is always great to have a good cup of cappuccino and watch time pass by. It's just that I have not had the luxury to do the latter yet.
2. The Green Recycling Drive
This city is big on recycling. We have to sort food wastes from the reclyable materials, just as people do in Japan. Besides making it convenient for people to dump their recylable wastes into the various colour bins, supermarkets play their part by producing strong and big recycled plastic bags. One just need to spend 9p on the first big bag and you are on your way to a lifetime of free big bag, as you could exchange the old one for a new one when it gets completely worn out.
I wouldn't say that all Edinburgh dwellers are catching on this big bag idea but it has definitely changed my shopping habits at supermarkets. I have packed one in each of my handbags here and given my roommate one too, so that our flat won't be flooded with plastic bags from grocery shopping. I thought the bag exchange idea is really a cool idea to try, since we are producing far too many non-woven bags on our little island (I thought we are practically drowning in these bags) and making people pay that extra 10 cents or giving that 10 cents rebate on our island's BYOB days doesn't seem to have any long term habit changing effect. 
And as glass recyling is a little different, so this bottle is still sitting on the window ledge in my apartment. I will bring it to the school's recyling bin soon. Needless to say, I could never understand why the recyle bin at my void deck back home was designed in that manner, where everything goes into the same big bin.
3. The Clobbered Streets and the Steps
My feet have been doing a lot of work. This is a walking city and some of the clobbered paths from the 17th century could well be the cure to my suspected heel spurs and plantar fasciitis-If only they worked like reflexology stones. In the span of 4 weeks, I have already worn out 3 sets of foam heel cups, which I got for 1.99 each at PoundStretchers. They work much better than the expensive sillicon gel heel cups from Scholls but are currently sold out. I am banking on the new stocks coming in soon so that I may carry on clobbing on the streets.
4. The Traffic Lights
Something which many of us have not figured out are the traffic lights in Edinburgh. One has a hard time trying to anticipate when it will turn green. It probably works on a 3-way-turn, instead of the usual 2-way-turn back home. (Not sure how should I describe it but it is probably due to the right turns or left turns having their own timings in the whole traffic light system, so it gets some time getting used to.) One thing we are quite sure though is the rate of changing is too slow even for the locals, such that people are always prone to jaywalking. And as the saying goes, "When in Rome, Do as the Romans Do", hence we are starting to behave like a true local.
5. The Patient Drivers
Luckily for us, the drivers in Edinburgh are as patient as one can get. Or perhaps, we are simply too impatient and fast-paced back home? The friendliness of the drivers never fail to surprise me.
6. The TheatresThe city of Edinburgh is peppered with many theatres which offer a wide range of theatre activities. I pass by one, the Bedlam Theatre, everyday on my way to class.
I watched my first performance, Havana Rakatan in the Festive Theatre last friday. Theatre culture seems so different here. We were allowed to bring in wine glasses and cocktails, so the theatre floor felt like a party dance floor when the lights were on at intermission, as the well-dressed audience got on their feet and swayed to the music. I might have exaggerated a little but theatre culture was one of a truly festive mood.
7. The Accessibility
Accessibility in this sense, is not about the bus services and transport. I picked up this programme booklet at the Festive Theatre before the show, thinking that it listed performances across the Scottish land. I wasn't really wrong. The booklet did list most of this season's performances across Scotland . Nonetheless, it was meant for a different purpose, ie, Accessibility! The second page read like this: 
The whole booklet was arranged to allow people with accessibility needs to figure out when and where is the best time for them to catch a performance. Parking information, transport information, lift information, information about position of the special seats, heaviness of doors at the entrance are some of the information provided. If there's any culture shock for me, it has to be this! Accessibility is definitely not only about infrastructure. The software has to be in place too!
2010年10月3日星期日
The Proud Scottish
In case someone mistook the meaning of this header, it wasn't meant to be read as "The Snobbish x". Having been here for a mere 3 weeks, I would definitely not risk my life by saying that. Not that I have met anyone who could be labelled as snobbish. Absolutely no one. Nonetheless, the header was meant to be taken literally, in the sense of "People who are Proud of their Heritage and Country."
I went on one of the daily guided tours of the Scottish Parliament on the 5th day I arrived in Edinburgh and I was truly won over by the parliament tour guide who gave a detailed insight into the workings of the Scottish Parliament. One could literally see her eyes brimming with pride as she brought us walk on the daily routes taken by the MPs while explaining the structure of the parliament and how the people could play a part in bringing up issues which concerns them. There is even a regular update available online for concerned Scottish to keep track on how their MPs have voted for the issues discussed in the parliament.
I regret to say that I have not visited my own parliament house before, so I decided to blog about this enriching visit only after finding out if my country's parliament house if open for visits. And the answer is ....Yes! However, it seems that it is easier to get access to the tours if one is a student. Actually, I was pretty surprised that the Scottish Parliament is a tourist spot. However, given the complicated history of Scotland, one could easily guess the significance of letting more people from around the world to know about the existence and works of the Scottish Parliament.
Other than the realisation that I should find out more about my own country, the gem of the tour that day was actually the availability of multi-lingual visitor brochures.
Do take special notice of the last photo, which has a line which says “若您想要此文件的中文繁体字版本，请联络我们。我们欢迎任何语言的来信。”
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