cool academic lecture on angels live right now (12/12/2023, 7 EST). i am really enjoying it, currently talking about nephilim and the "sons of God" in the book of Genesis.
@superheroine@religion@religiousstudies
The AI:angel connection. I'm seeing it materially as complex information systems (albeit different substrates). I would say that in both cases, as you say, there is also a 'created to serve' dimension, and also 'subverted for ill' -fallen angels /aingels .
Probably not made sufficiently explicit in that post (I'm taking note for future) is the idea that sometimes 'angel' seems to refer to corporised entities made of humans (see chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation, for example).
Charlie Stross's 'slow ai' remark was really helpful to me in affirming that it wasn't 'just me' seeing it.
I've been thinking that maybe the next post should be to unpack the Revelation 2 & 3 thing a bit...
Language, Thought and Reality
Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf
The pioneering linguist Benjamin Whorf (1897–1941) grasped the relationship between human language and human thinking: how language can shape our innermost thoughts. His basic thesis is that our perception of the world and our ways of thinking about it are deeply influenced by the structure of the languages we speak.
@LupinoArts@mapto@jk@appassionato@linguistics
But wouldn't the fact that language categorisations might tend to 'prime' perceptions and interactions be the point.?
I don't 'buy' strong linguistic determinism, but the priming effect of language would surely be exactly what you'd expect if a weaker linguistic influence was a reality. The question then becomes what kind of effects and influence ...
@linguistics while (re)reading Pratchett I have developed the strong feeling that when one of the characters says "our Nellie" or "our Jason", the effect is similar to Northern Italian "la Agnese" o "il Gianni" - that is, a colloquialism when referring to a common acquaintance, not necessarily a family member.
Can somebody who speaks both confirm or deny this?
@pgcd@linguistics
I wondered in the past whether it meant that Pratchett was an English Northerner, but it turns out he was a southerner. So is the 'our' thing more widespread or did he just use it to give a particular 'flavour' to the character?
@pgcd@linguistics@anathema_device Hard to prove a negative, of course. I've not come across it being extended beyond family, but in a context where someone might be considered to be 'like family' ... seems possible. And from there it could catch on and the domain could extend. Eg a member of our gang, team ...
@pgcd@linguistics@anathema_device
I don't know Brassic, so can't comment. I initially wondered if the Milanese 'il' or 'la' would be like the French and Spanish usage: a way to give real or sarcastic honour to the person referred to?
@alischinsky@pgcd@linguistics@anathema_device
The Spanish cases I was thinking of, now I think further, are of def.art + surname. Probably the same in French now I come to think of it. So not actually to the point -apologies. Though an interesting side-bar.
@alischinsky@eleder@pgcd@linguistics@anathema_device
It's interesting semantically, too, a proper noun is often understood as already definite and so evades use with a def.art. -or is that a misleading analysis? Is it that, when def.art. is used, the speaker is showing an awareness of other (possible) Nellies or Shanes and making sure we all know it's our acquantance? Ditto with "our" Nellie?
I asked people which one was their favourite vowel phoneme (from the list of 5 basic vowel phonemes). The ranking was: a > e > i > o > u. Do with that information what you want 💁♂️ @linguistics@linguisticsmemes#polls#phonology#linguistics
@DrLinguo@linguistics@linguisticsmemes
just wondering whether this might relate to that phenomenon of words with high unrounded front vowels seeming to be preferred to refer to small objects while back rounded vowels preferred to refer to large objects ...
But at the moment I can't make it work ...