London Language

'Feeling the meaning' presentation

 

 

Lesley Jeffries visited today and gave an excellent talk on syntactic iconicity. She has agreed that we can make her presentation available here:

Download — Making the reader feel - Middlesex

Post a comment below if you have any thoughts or questions about the talk.

Billy

 

 

Feeling the Meaning

Change of time for Monday's 'Talk About Language'. It's now at 1.30 rather than 5.30:

Feeling the Meaning: Poetry, Syntax and the Reader

I've had a sneak preview of the materials and I know it'll be as good as I had expected.

Billy

 

'Are you human garbage in God's eyes?'

We've had excellent talks so far this term. The last one was Judith Broadbent on the 'Amn't gap' (she argued that there isn't one):

Judith Broadbent - The Amn't Gap Revisited

All of our speakers have enjoyed the experience and the discussion has been friendly and engaged.

On Monday, Stephen Pihlaja will talk on metaphor and antagonism in YouTube discourse:

Are you 'human garbage' in God'e eyes? Investigating Metaphor and antagonism in YouTube discourse

Summary:

My research looks at interactions between Christians and atheists on the popular video-sharing site YouTube, especially the role of metaphor in describing and categorising users on the site. Using elements of discourse-centred online ethnography and a discourse-dynamics approach to metaphor, I will discuss how the term 'human garbage' emerged in one interaction between an atheist and a Christian and how different users justified, interpreted, and re-interpreted the term depending on their worldview and affiliation with other users.

More info here

I'm really looking forward to it,

Billy

 

Pinker on pragmatics

Here's a recent RSA Animate video based on a lecture by Steven Pinker lecture on 'Language as a window into human nature' Pragmatists are using this in classes around the world as we speak. We've had some interesting discussions based on this in several classes at Middlesex recently.

I think this way of presenting the lectures is excellent, although at least one friend of mine is so fascinated by the drawing that he finds it hard to focus on the content of the talk.

Reactions from non-linguist friends has provided more evidence for my long-hel hypothesis that everyone is fascinated by questions about language and meaning.

Billy

student bloggers

We have fantastic students at Middlesex. Our classes are always lively, students are always keen to join in discussion, and they are (of course) fascinated by language and linguistics.

We also have some excellent student writers so I thought I'd mention two here.

First, there's the excellent Verbum Sapienti which focuses on language, communication and advertising. Lots of great examples and discussion there.

Second, From a girl who loves the Gunners which is, unsurprisingly, about one person's devotion to Arsenal FC. Sian recently, and very deservedly. won the Best Young Blogger award at the Not 100% Accurate awards

Billy

 

 

 

Billy on the radio

I had a great time in PEI last year at the APLA conference. A highlight was my first radio appearance discussing academic work. Karen Mair interviewed me for Mainstreet PEI She was an excellent host and I really enjoyed the experience. Here's the sound file if you want to listen to it:

billyonmainstreet_cbc_121111.MP3

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