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Linguistics

Launched Q&A site for professional linguists and others with an interest in linguistic research and theory.

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22  
There is generally quite a bit of confusion over what linguistics is (and what linguists do). It might be helpful to add an explicit definition here, such as "the scientific study of naturally-occurring human languages" or something along those lines. – Alan Hogue Jun 28 '10 at 6:40
5  
That's just a list of the traditional subfields, not really a definition. – Alan Hogue Jun 28 '10 at 21:45
3  
Maybe it would be easier to have a list of potentially more definable non-linguistics topics. Language learning of a particular language, translation requests, style and rhetoric questions, etc. – MatthewMartin Jun 30 '10 at 18:16
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25
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4
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Should some discuss.a51.se questions be migrated to per-site metas when betas begin?

aug 10 '15 at 1:27 Community♦ 1
7
votes
3
answers

Time to reach out to the floundering Linguistics SE and suggest a merger?

jan 26 '14 at 13:25 Community♦ 1
14
votes
3
answers

How do we do what we committed to do? [closed]

nov 3 '11 at 11:50 Community♦ 1
-8
votes
2
answers

Encouraging use of real names [closed]

sep 29 '11 at 21:51 Community♦ 1
2
votes
1
answer

Definition/scope of what linguistics is (and/or is not)?

sep 7 '11 at 10:33 Community♦ 1

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33 Example Questions (8 closed)

active newest votes
up vote 24 down vote
Is [word] in [language A] related to [word] in [language B]?
added by David Grellscheid Jun 17 '10 at 22:19
link
The earlier "What does [word] mean in [language]?" seems off-topic to me, but what about this one? – David Grellscheid Jun 17 '10 at 22:21
Looks good to me. Potentially a little basic, but not off-topic. – JSBձոգչ Jun 18 '10 at 0:48
1  
But assuming that the content is obscure enough to be difficult to look up, then I think this question should be allowed, as it has to do with linguistics. – Sasha Jul 4 '10 at 23:13
1  
and even if it's not difficult to look up, putting it here will make it yet easier int he future to find again – warren Aug 20 '10 at 19:40
2  
“easy to look up”? Etymology? I’ve always had huge difficulty finding anything about etymology of any words in languages other than English. So I think this kind of question is perfect for this site. – Timwi Aug 21 '10 at 21:41
show 1 more improvement suggestion
up vote 23 down vote
What is the evidence for the relationship between the Turkic and Finno-Ugric language families?
added by JSBձոգչ Jun 17 '10 at 13:57
link
up vote 23 down vote
What languages are (almost) purely isolating, yet have no tones?
added by MatthewMartin Jun 20 '10 at 17:07
link
This is a great question, IMHO. – JSBձոգչ Jun 21 '10 at 20:30
up vote 22 down vote
What are some alternatives to Chomskian generative grammar?
added by JSBձոգչ Jun 17 '10 at 13:54
link
I really hope this group doesn't become yet another forum for debates about Chomsky... – Alan Hogue Jun 25 '10 at 19:03
up vote 20 down vote
What various methods exist for expressing IPA in ASCII?
added by MatthewMartin Jun 20 '10 at 19:23
link
up vote 13 down vote
What is a "phoneme"?
added by JSBձոգչ Jun 17 '10 at 13:54
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This is intended as an example lower bound for a simple on-topic question. – JSBձոգչ Jun 17 '10 at 13:54
7  
Again, this is a question that two seconds on wikipedia would answer. OK, it's on topic, but do we want to vote for this as an exemplary on-topic question? I don't think so. – Alan Hogue Jun 25 '10 at 19:08
I don't think it should be put forward as an exemplar. Agreed with @Alan – James Tauber Aug 7 '10 at 14:00
I agree. This is not a suitable question. – Mancuniensis Nov 10 '10 at 1:54
Not a suitable question for a site that targets specialists in the field; and, as Alan points out, it would take the questioner just a few seconds to find the answer on wikipedia.. – Mancuniensis Nov 10 '10 at 2:05
up vote 12 down vote
What languages provide good examples of root changes in response to the addition of affixes, and what patterns of change are exhibited?
added by Ophiuroid Jul 9 '10 at 21:20
link
up vote 12 down vote
Are there any languages where /d/ > /j/ intervocalically?
added by James Tauber Aug 6 '10 at 18:59
link
up vote 7 down vote
Where can I find quantitative cross-linguistic comparisons of vowel spaces?
added by Alan Hogue Jun 25 '10 at 19:19
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up vote 6 down vote
Are there any Kannada loans in current Hindi?
added by David Grellscheid Jun 17 '10 at 22:25
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This seems like something the poster could easily look up for him/herself. – Alan Hogue Jun 25 '10 at 19:06
6  
@Alan lots of questions on Q&A sites could be looked up but that doesn't make the site less useful. This seems like an on-topic example to me. It's especially useful if you don't have particular knowledge in a language area but still want input from people that do on some other issue you're researching. – James Tauber Aug 7 '10 at 13:59
up vote 6 down vote
Can "revived" Cornish be considered the same language as the original, extinct one?
added by David Grellscheid Jun 17 '10 at 22:28
link
2  
+1, but I suggest a rewording: "What are the differences, if any, between revived Cornish and the original extinct version"? – JSBձոգչ Jun 18 '10 at 13:32
As worded this question invites empty value judgments. – Alan Hogue Jun 25 '10 at 19:05
up vote 6 down vote
How come in some languages you say "there is X", in some "it gives X", and in others "it has X"? The usage even differs between related languages!
added by RegDwight Sep 1 '10 at 19:22
link
1  
I don't understand this question. Are you asking why we use different verbs? – CesarGon Oct 12 '10 at 12:08
1  
@CesarGon: I didn't have enough room for a better wording, the number of characters is limited. What I'm asking is why in English we say "there are two cars in the garage", in German "it gives two cars in the garage", in French "it has two cars in the garage", in Russian "in garage two cars", etc. The usage differs between closely related languages, and sometimes even between dialects of the same language. I am wondering what the mechanisms behind that are. – RegDwight Oct 12 '10 at 14:35
@RegDwight: I understand; thanks for clarifying. You can always add a comment to your own question to clarify it in cases like this. After all, real questions in a real Q&A site are supposed to have content as well as a title. – CesarGon Oct 15 '10 at 16:21
@CesarGon: yeah, good point; I should have done that right away. – RegDwight Oct 15 '10 at 20:38
up vote 5 down vote
19th century English texts occasionally use Germanic-style number words, such as "four-and-twenty". When did this fall out of use?
added by David Grellscheid, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Oct 30 '10 at 13:59
link
3  
A great question for English Language and Usage. – RegDwight Oct 7 '10 at 10:06
Done. :-) – David Grellscheid Oct 11 '10 at 12:06
up vote 5 down vote
What concordance software supports Hittite fonts and where can I get suitable corpora?
added by MatthewMartin Jun 21 '10 at 2:43
link
off-topic: belongs on superuser. it's a computer question. – Heath Hunnicutt Jul 13 '10 at 6:54
2  
I would be shocked if this got a answer on SuperUser better than what a random person could get by typing this question into google. Experts on graphics cards and linux file systems are unlike to have ever tried to type in Hittite. – MatthewMartin Jul 13 '10 at 14:11
1  
The corpora part of the question is unquestionably on-topic. – JSBձոգչ Jul 13 '10 at 15:38
1  
@Heath I doubt superuser users would even understand what "concordance" "corpora" or "Hittite" mean :-) – James Tauber Aug 6 '10 at 15:34
1  
@James: I have an account there, don't you? I admit I don't login there often. ;) – Heath Hunnicutt Aug 6 '10 at 18:27
show 3 more improvement suggestions
up vote 5 down vote
How did French develop a multi-word negation construction ne...pas uniquely among Romance languages?
added by Dusty Nov 26 '10 at 3:34
link
up vote 4 down vote
What software should I use for recording and analyzing spectrograms?
added by JSBձոգչ Jun 17 '10 at 14:00
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up vote 4 down vote
Have the proposed understandings of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson ("Metaphors We Live By") been evaluated in languages other than English?
added by Heath Hunnicutt Jul 13 '10 at 6:55
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Good question. I always found Lakoff's work so English-centred. – CesarGon Sep 29 '10 at 9:43
up vote 2 down vote
How can you calculate the functional load of a phoneme/syllable/etc.?
added by Alan Hogue Jun 25 '10 at 19:16
link
up vote 2 down vote
Is there any essential difference between feature unification (a la HPSG) and feature checking (a la minimalism)?
added by Alan Hogue Jun 25 '10 at 19:18
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up vote 2 down vote
What software is available for searching treebank corpora, and what are their strengths and weaknesses?
added by Alan Hogue Jun 25 '10 at 21:14
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up vote 2 down vote
A: "How was your holiday in the beach?" B: "It was so full!!!" What would be the LINGUISTIC (not the COMMUNICATIVE) analysis of B's reply?
added by Guijarro Jun 29 '10 at 15:57
link
up vote 2 down vote
Why do we have common words for thigh and calf, but not for their counterparts on the arm ("forearm" notwithstanding)? [closed]
added by Carl Manaster Aug 9 '10 at 14:39
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closed as off topic by Vincent McNabb, Icode4food, Ilari Kajaste, Cumbayah, keithjgrant Sep 22 '10 at 17:23

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

2  
Could be asked at english.stackexchange.com – Vincent McNabb Aug 10 '10 at 4:04
Well it can be starting sometime tomorrow. ;) – kitukwfyer Aug 12 '10 at 0:11
I think this is very interesting, because it addresses the isue of encodings. – CesarGon Oct 12 '10 at 12:09
I also think that could be interesting here, because it address an issue of etymology: Where does these words come from. – Mnementh Nov 15 '10 at 9:12
up vote 1 down vote
What is the hyoid bone and can its shape be used to determine when humans began to speak? [closed]
added by MatthewMartin, edited by Charles Stewart Sep 20 '10 at 12:47
link

closed as off topic by Ophiuroid, kitukwfyer, Willbill, warren, Ivan Cherevko Aug 17 '10 at 15:17

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

On topic, surely? It's asking about a phonological fact and what that says about a relevant question. It'd be a better question if the first part wasn't easy to look up: maybe better "Has the shape of the hyoid bone changed significantly in the last 7 million years, and does it tell us anything about the dawn of language?". – Charles Stewart Sep 20 '10 at 12:56
I wouldn't say this is off-topic, but I find it too borderline. – CesarGon Oct 3 '10 at 16:58
up vote 0 down vote
What does [word] mean in [language]? [closed]
added by JSBձոգչ Jun 17 '10 at 13:55
link

closed as off topic by David Grellscheid, Lee, MatthewMartin, Alan Hogue, Sasha Jul 4 '10 at 23:12

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

As stated, off topic, although could be reworded into a legitimate question – James Tauber Aug 7 '10 at 14:01
up vote 0 down vote
Does the comma go before "and" or can it be omitted in joining independent clauses? [closed]
added by MatthewMartin Jun 21 '10 at 2:39
link

closed as off topic by David Grellscheid, Christian, ascarb, Alan Hogue, Ophiuroid Jul 9 '10 at 21:13

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

I can't vote on my own question, but I can comment that this is a question of stylistic conventions and is a classic example of something not in the domain of linguistics. – MatthewMartin Jun 21 '10 at 2:41
Right, this belongs on the English language site. – Mark C Sep 18 '10 at 5:15
up vote 0 down vote
Is there a straightforward pattern to the conjugations in Sindarin? [closed]
added by Beska Jun 26 '10 at 1:29
link

closed as off topic by David Grellscheid, MatthewMartin, Heath Hunnicutt, kitukwfyer, ParanoiaPuppy Jul 28 '10 at 0:40

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

3  
Pidgins and creoles are not at all the same thing as made-up languages. – Alan Hogue Jun 27 '10 at 3:40
4  
I feel pretty strongly that languages invented for fiction or personal use should be off-topic for this site. Constructed languages that have real speaker communities (like Esperanto) can be on-topic, but only insofar as they show features of linguistic interest--this is not a site to answer questions about Esperanto grammar any more than its a site to answer questions about French grammar. And pidgins and creoles are not constructed languages in the usual sense, so they're as on-topic as any other natural language. – JSBձոգչ Jun 27 '10 at 23:16
1  
What Bangs said. The fact that a few people speak Sindarin to each other doesn't make it comparable to a pidgin or creole or any other naturally occurring language. I don't think something like Esperanto need be off limits necessarily, but it's certainly of marginal interest as far as the scientific study of naturally occurring human language is concerned. – Alan Hogue Jun 28 '10 at 6:02
1  
I think a priori it is hard to say if a question involving conlanguages is scientific or answerable. I concur, how to conjugate Sindarian is just as off topic as conjugating French. Fake languages are being used by real linguists in experimental settings to answer questions like, does grammatical gender bleed over into peoples semantic perception of words. I would be just as happy with a separate site for conlangs, but it is too early to tell if SO will be founding 1000s of sites or 10s. – MatthewMartin Jun 28 '10 at 11:43
1  
I have created a planned language SE proposal. bit.ly/cxe2mw and added this question to it. May they both catch on, I for one would use both. – MatthewMartin Jul 9 '10 at 21:58
show 6 more improvement suggestions
up vote 0 down vote
What features do sign languages generally have in common (e.g., iconic signs, way of using pronouns, level of dependence on spoken language, etc.)?
added by Kosmonaut Dec 13 '10 at 20:56
link
up vote 0 down vote
Could you translate this text for me?
added by Eldros Dec 17 '10 at 12:29
link
An obvious off-topic example. – Eldros Dec 17 '10 at 12:30
up vote 0 down vote
What's the best software out there for artificial language development?
added by Jon Purdy Dec 29 '10 at 0:53
link
up vote -1 down vote
Is there software to estimate your vocabulary level quizzing you from a frequency dictionary, asking you less common words when you answer correctly? [closed]
added by D W Oct 8 '10 at 5:43
link

closed as off topic by Antal S-Z, K L, Eldros, warren, ShreevatsaR Dec 27 '10 at 19:14

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

up vote -2 down vote
What languages do you hate and why? [closed]
added by RegDwight Sep 12 '10 at 17:21
link

closed as off topic by JSBձոգչ, Charles Stewart, keithjgrant, CesarGon, anno Oct 21 '10 at 10:11

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

2  
Obviously, an off-topic candidate. We don't want to have discussions along the lines of "Russian/Tagalog/Esperanto/Chinese is so stupid, Bulgarian/Saaroa/Volapük/Limbu is so much better". – RegDwight Sep 12 '10 at 17:24
up vote -3 down vote
Where can I find a good introduction to game theory for linguists?
added by Alan Hogue Jun 25 '10 at 19:25
link
Why has this been voted as "not a good example?" – Vincent McNabb Aug 10 '10 at 4:01
@Vincent McNabb - I could see this as "off-topic", but not "nage" – warren Dec 8 '10 at 17:33
up vote -5 down vote
Who got that Stanford job? [closed]
added by JoFrhwld Jul 22 '10 at 21:52
link

closed as off topic by JSBձոգչ, MatthewMartin, Charlie, James Tauber, kitukwfyer Aug 12 '10 at 0:11

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

As a grad student, we spend a lot of time talking about stuff like this, but I think it should be off topic. – JoFrhwld Jul 22 '10 at 21:53
1  
I don't think this does anything to help define the boundaries of a linguistics forum. – K L Nov 24 '10 at 18:38
1  
Is this an insider joke or something? I don't get it... (Not voting "not a good example", but rather abstaining completely, since I have no idea what this could possibly mean.) – RegDwight Nov 24 '10 at 19:37
1  
voting "not a good example" if only precisely because I don't know what it means -- perhaps if it was more explicit, it would get my vote as a good off-topic example? – lindes Dec 11 '10 at 21:15

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