Monday, October 18, 2010

Oh my God, you are acting like such a JAp, if you didn't want to get your 10,000 dollar purse dirty, you should not have used it as a backpack!

JAp is considered to have multiple processes because it is an acronym, Jewish American princess, and is a derivation when it gains the suffix “-ish” to become Japish. The etymology of this word is that it is a derogatory term which was attested in the last 1970's. When used, it usually refers to a Jewish woman who is pampered and take the material advantages she has for granted. I grew up in an environment in which this word was used quite often. I went to Jewish private schools where the girls in my school were mostly Jap's, these girls differed from the average jewish girls in the school, because they seemed to flaunt the wealth that they had excessively and act very stuck up. The regular Jewish girls, however, were not called Jap's, because even though some did have a fair amount of money, they were very down to earth and did not flaunt their wealth like the Japish girls did, always complaining about how they were not able to get the newest louie voutton bag until the day after it was released or the fact they were not capable of holding a conversation in which they did not name drop or gush about their lavish life. However, when I came to LaGuardia, I became quickly aware that not everyone is familiar with this definition of JAp . Most of the people I came into contact believed it was a derogatory term towards Japanese people. In fact, in the first week of going out with my boyfriend I mentioned how one girl I knew acted like a total Jap. My boyfriend was immediately astonished and said, “WHAT?! You don't like Japanese people?!”. I of course was completely confused and said no this girl was not even Japanese. He then was relieved that I was not a racist Japanese hating girlfriend and we are still together to this day.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Option #3 "Dr. Jerskey Has a Bad Day"

Dr. Jerskey Has a Bad Day
In the lobby of the C building
(Jonathan rushes to get to class and hits Dr. Jerskey waiting for the elevator)
Jonathan: Sorry Dr. Jerskey!
Dr. Jerskey: It's fine Jonathan...why are you in such a hurry? Class does not start for 10 minutes.
Jonathan:Oh really? (checks watch) No, I don't think so...My watch says its 1:10...(Shows Watch)
Dr. Jerskey: Well (laughs) I guess its a little late because my watch says (looks at watch)...12:30...My watch must have stopped! Oh no, I hope everyone is still upstairs!
Jonathan: Yeah I think s...(school guard interrupts)
School Guard: I'm sorry ladies and gentlemen but we have an elevator malfunction so please use the stairs until we can get them fixed.
Dr. Jerskey: Oh well, this is just great!
Jonathan: Ohhh it's not so bad, we usually walk up the stairs anyway!
Dr. Jerskey: (sighs) Sure, you're right, lets go upstairs.
(walking up the first floor)
Dr. Jerskey: So Jonathan, what did you think of Cosette's presentation?
Jonathan: Oh...I really liked it, I thought it was really interesting! Her book, The Language Instinct, seems to have a really interesting theory.
Dr. Jerskey: (laughs) Oh, really?
Jonathan: Yeah....I agree with it. I mean I think learning a language is pretty hard, you know? It's hard for anyone of any age to learn a language, their must be something in our brains that help babies along to learn it, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense.
Dr. Jerskey: (stops walking) Don't be silly Jonathan, don't believe blindly believe his theory, you honestly think there is this secret part of our brain that helps us understand language and help us create it? If there was, why hasn't anyone found it yet?!
Jonathan: Well, I don't know Dr. Jerskey they are finding more and more about the brain everyday, but their seems to be a lot of evidence to back that pinker guy's theory up.
Dr. Jerskey: What evidence?! You call his little stories evidence?
Jonathan: Well, hes a doctor and a very established linguist, I don't think he would just make stuff up without any merit. A lot of research went into his theory and he is not the only one who follows it, that Chomsky guy does too.
Dr. Jerskey: Just because he is a doctor does not make him smart Jonathan...
Jonathan: You're a doctor though, Dr. Jerskey.
Dr. Jerskey: That's beside the point! What real concrete evidence does he show that a direct link between this “instinct” and language exists!? That it is not just the child's ability to learn language through their normal thinking and comprehension? I think because he does not understand how babies could learn language that he made up this theory. Maybe he is just underestimating the power of the brain at that age.
Jonathan: But what about the children who speak creole when their parents spoke pidgin? How were they able to manage that if not for a born instinct, because if they just learned the language their parents spoke with no instinct, how were they able to speak creole?
Dr. Jerskey: Well, maybe they learned it from the public outside, who spoke the language perfectly?
Jonathan: But what about those deaf children? Who were only exposed to their parents pidgin sign language yet able to produce way more grammatical and correct sign language?
Dr. Jerskey: But...!
Jonathan: How are you able to explain how children, only exposed to motherese, are able to fit enough language knowledge to fit as much information as our own college linguistic textbook?
Dr. Jerskey: Well...!
Jonathan: And how would you explain language impairment diseases, how those people have perfect IQ in everything but language, but fail to understand how to make a plural. Or how some people can not even function in everyday society, yet they can speak beautiful language. How is any of that possible without their being some concrete entity in our brain that is responsible for our language abilities?
Dr. Jerskey:....I..(Carlos, Eric, and Carolina walk down the stairs along with the rest of the class)
Carlos: Dr. Jerskey?! We thought you were sick today, we waited all class for you!
Dr. Jerskey: Sorry guys...I'll make it up to you next class!
(everyone disperses besides Jonathan)
Jonathan: Well, its been nice talking to you, see you next class!
(Dr. Jerskey turns and starts walking up the next flight and stops)
Dr. Jerskey: Jonathan?
Jonathan: Yes
Dr. Jerskey: I'm still marking you late.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

A, highly, caffeine induced and sleep deprived summary.

This 2/5 of the book describes basically the mechanics of sentence structure and I will do my best to try to summarize the key concepts discussed. First, there are two kinds of phrases, a noun phrase and a verb phrase. A noun phrase consists of an optional, "determinator", otherwise known as an article, like "the" or "a", any number of adjectives and then a noun. An example of a noun phrase would be, "The sad boy". A verb phrase is a verb followed by the noun phrase, like "Eats sour candy". What makes these phrases turn into sentences is when a noun phrase is followed by a verb phrase, like "The sad boy eats sour candy." A sentence can consist of the word either, followed by a sentence, followed by the word or, followed by another sentence. Also, a sentence can consist of the word if, followed by a sentence, followed by the word then, followed by another sentence. A noun is not what you have previously believed, it is not just the name of any thing, it can also be an action, a path, a quality, a measurement in space, a measurement in time, a category, an event, an abstract concept or even have no meaning at all. This goes the same for verbs, verbs can be more than just words for things being done, but they can also be mental states, like know or like, possession, like own or have, and abstract relations among ideas, like falsify or prove. To get more in depth, the noun phrase is very intricate. The noun in a noun phrase is considered the "head", where everything else in that sentence, is filed with that word in memory pertaining to that word, like "the fish in the ditch". This same principle can be applied to the verb phrase, like "crying before the monster kills him". Another principle, known as "role-players" or arguments, that allow the phrases to refer not just to one thing or action, but to sets of players that interact with each other, each with their own role, like "Bethany(the giver) gave the police man(the receiver) a cookie(the gift), so he would not tell her parole officer she broke her parole." The third is the ingredient to a phrase is one or more modifiers, usually called "adjuncts", these modifiers are like as ons to the role-players, a little extra information about it, like Bethany, ave the police man a cookie, so he would not tell her parole officer she broke her parole, at the precinct".

Monday, October 4, 2010

How to say Cosette

I have come to the point in which I have given up telling people my name. To me it sounds simple to say but whenever I meet someone new, they without fail, no matter where they are from, mispronounce it. They do not mispronounce it once, however, they actually never really learn to say my name and even some,like Dr. Jerskey, misspell my name. Some even continue to mispronounce and misspell my name after knowing me over 10 years. There has even been instances in which I would go to a Jamba Juice, state my order, usually something with raspberries, and then have to state my name for the order, only to receive my order moments later by being called Jose. So, I hope with my explanation both the people of Nagaland, my fellow classmates and my linguist professor will be able to properly pronounce and spell my name. To a linguist I would describe my name by saying the first syllable of Cosette is has the onset of a voiceless, velar stop, with a rhyme of a mid, back vowel, "co". The next syllables onset is a voiceless, alveolar fricative, with a rhyme of a mid, front vowel, "se". The last syllable is the consonant that is a voiceless, alveolar stop. [kosɛt]. For a non-linguist, I would say for them to stop their air stream briefly then let it go, while making a k sound while having the back part of your tongue in the mid position, "o" sound, which when both these sounds are said together, they should sound like the first syllable of coke. Then for them to say the next part of my name "se" they would have to put the front part of their tongue right behind the above upper teeth, on the bony ridge of the tongue, to say the "s" sound then for them to say an "eh" sound using the back part of their tongue in the mid position, which should sound like the first syllable of said. Finally, to finish pronouncing my name, one should again put their tongue behind and above their upper front teeth on the bony ridge, to make a "t" sound, like the last syllable of set.