I am a Linguist just out of college. I wish to meet other people who share my interests
Are you cunning, too?
Oh I kill myself, really I do.
"I am a Linguist" aswell.
My emphases are media discourse (CDA, FP) and computer linguistics.
what are yours, >>1?
>FP
You're a First Post studies graduate??
>>5
FP stands for functional pragmatics, a paradigm in linguistics invented by K. Ehlich and J. Rehbein, which is primarily employed in the field of discourse analysis within specific domains.
Now I understand bubu's need for verbose crazy talk!
PS: I am studying German literature & language with a focus on semiotics.
>>7
My verbosity is a classic result of contrastive language acquirement: I've been taught that it's rude in english to not be extremely wordy (in polar opposition to my first language), and with the right amount of drill, that becomes a deeply ingrained habit, fast.
As for the crazy talk however...mea maxima culpa! Languages: Best toys ever!
_ ∩
( ﾟ∀ﾟ)彡 Semiotics! Semiotics!
⊂彡
i have been studying German and am doing some interpritation in germany 4 the US millitary but now i am studying Japanese...my gole is to become an interpriter for the UN
I'm a college student inbetween my freshmen and sophmore year and I'm thinking about majoring in Linguistics... But unlike you guys, I don't know anything yet, so I can't really talk about it. Actually, I've taken a single basic "Intro to Linguistics" class, and though I really enjoyed it and I've always been into languages and language learning, the fact that I have no real in-depth understanding right now and that I don't have a good sense of what sub-fields I like better than others kind of makes me worry that I might be moving in the wrong direction. Yet there's nothing else that really strikes my fancy in terms of majors than linguistics. Oh well. College!
well...you can start in collage what i started whene i was 10. start turning your fasanation with language into usabul knowledge. the way i did this i read and reserched everything i cold about language...not only how to speek the language(eventhough this is very important) but about the diferant kinds of language, how they work, and how modern languages came into being. this is only a start however, you need to learn everything you can about language.
here's a mailing list with a lot of people interested in linguistics...
http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/conlang.html
I don't have time for mailing lists.
Please post everything that is interesting in here!
>>12
First of all, you need to accept the fact, that Linguistics has little to nothing to do with Translation Science. It also has little to nothing to do with Literature Science. It is also not about trying to out-mezzofanti everyone and learn as many languages as possible. The EU gives us - for once - a nice definition: "Linguistic Science aims at the analysis of language and the derivation of theories, which may serve to solve current issues in language use, forming the basics for, but not incorporating other disciplines, such as Psychology, Translatorics or Literature Science."
Secondly, Linguistics require a certain command of other Languages than English, because many texts are simply not available in English. If you decide to go for synchronous linguistics, wielding a reasonable command of English, Latin, German and French or Russian will over time be almost inevitable. If you decide to go for diachronous linguistics, Latin, Old Greek, Sanskrit and Arabic will haunt you to the grave and beyond.
That said, I thought I'd compile you a little list of introductory books and classics that may serve as a starter; after browsing some of them you'll quickly see whether Linguistics is for you or not.
Radford, Andrew, et. al.: Linguistics. An introduction.
A very cheap and easy to read introduction, that mainly concentrates on (generative) grammar theory.
Saussure, Ferdinand de: Cours de linguistique générale.
In this book, de Saussure's basics of structuralism and maybe modern Linguistics itself were recorded after his death by his students. A must.
Ladefoged, Peter: A course in phonetics.
This book is one of the standard works on phonetics. Very easy to grasp, yet quite thorough. Absolutely recommended; if you decide to go for Linguistics, this book can save you tons of headache.
Bloomfield, Leonard: Language.
Bloomfield was the founding father of american structuralism. This book, although outdated (1930s), represents the roots of american structuralism.
Levinson, Stephen C.: Pragmatics.
One of the better starters in Pragmatics, it gives a nice vista of the scientific approach to natural language use within specific contexts.
Bühler, Karl: Sprachtheorie.
His approaches to lingopsychology and language philosophy continue to have an impact on science up to the current day.
Volli, Ugo: Semiotics.
Definitely a better way to start out than with the less scientific (albeit more entertaining) Frutiger, Volli concentrates on explaining the basic terms of semiotics.
Roberts, Ian: Comparative Syntax.
This book is the bomb. Never again will you find such a comprehensive approach to the basics of syntax so understandably written.
Matthews, Peter H.: Linguistics. A very short introduction.
As the title suggests, this is very short. It's a very light read, but also not very comprehensive.
Fodor, Jerry, A.: The Modularity of Mind.
A brief, and entertaining introduction to nowadays' cognitive theory, albeit at times stark raving mad.
even still... many organazations are looking for people who have good knowledge in several languages for obious reasons. for example, a linguist(in the defanition of the us goverment)is basicly an interpriter, however in general i would not say this is all a linguist would do.I do feel however content with the job of interpratation ( because of the fact that i love to do it and it dose pay very well)
>>16
Thanks! I'll hit the library for some of those.
P.S. Out of curiosity, what exactly are translation science and translatorics, and how do they (or how don't they) relate to linguistics? Even google wasn't able to provide me with a straight answer to that one. In fact, translatorics only gets about 15 hits on there...
>>19
translation science is used as a collective term for
These three branches each require a very distinct training, so instead of summing them up as either "translation" or "interpretation" (which would lead to some unrest), the terms "translatorics" or "translation science" were coined.
They relate to linguistics, in that linguistics, by exploring the "inner works" of language aswell as its impact on its environment, seeks to analyse (and possibly improve on) the underlying structures of translatory work.
For example, the applied linguistics branch may offer improved learning strategies for foreign languages - diachronous linguistics can contribute to language learning by offering a contrastive view of languages - etc.