val-systems.blogspot.com
Val Systems: June 2013
http://val-systems.blogspot.com/2013_06_01_archive.html
Thursday, June 20, 2013. The relationship between Kanye, Rap and African American English. This started out as an update to my post on Kanye West's song "I am a God,". But wound up being nearly as long as the post itself, so I'm separating it out. But look over that first, or maybe keep it open in a separate tab. But as a linguist I know better than to draw similar equivalencies. As a lyrical and musical form, rap has its own conventions which aren't the same as AAE grammar. This must. That's where the p...
val-systems.blogspot.com
Val Systems: Baby Naming Trends: Now With More Linguistics!
http://val-systems.blogspot.com/2014/04/baby-naming-trends-now-with-more.html
Sunday, April 13, 2014. Baby Naming Trends: Now With More Linguistics! This animated graph about the rise in boys names ending in n has been making the rounds lately. It comes from this blog post. So he spelled his name Josef , and pronounced the initial sound like y , which in the IPA is /j/. When naming me, my parents had a whole bunch of options. Would the pronounce my name like my grandfather did, or like most English speakers would? And how would they spell it? So, I decided to look at a bit more at...
val-systems.blogspot.com
Val Systems: Grammar-phobia -or- judging a book by its cover.
http://val-systems.blogspot.com/2011/01/grammar-phobia-or-judging-book-by-its.html
Wednesday, January 12, 2011. Grammar-phobia -or- judging a book by its cover. I was walking through the University bookstore today to pick up beginning of the semester office supplies, when this book caught my eye:. Grammar Sucks: What to Do to Make Your Writing Much More Better. Right off the bat, the cover art is goofy. I am highly incredulous that there is a native speaker of English that does not know the comparative form of good. And if there were some speakers who regularly said or wrote gooder.
val-systems.blogspot.com
Val Systems: Gender in the Wasteland
http://val-systems.blogspot.com/2015/08/gender-in-wasteland.html
Wednesday, August 5, 2015. Gender in the Wasteland. One thing I do with the bit of leisure time I have is play video games. I feel like I need to be a bit self defensive about it, given my age and place in life, but according to surveys the average age of gamers is somewhere between 30 and 37. Another common problem games have is their portrayal of gender (the topic of this post), and on that topic, you should obviously go watch Tropes vs Women in Video Games. I've recently been playing Fallout Shelter.
val-systems.blogspot.com
Val Systems: May 2013
http://val-systems.blogspot.com/2013_05_01_archive.html
Wednesday, May 22, 2013. Socioeconomic Status and College Enrollment. There was an interesting post over at Sociological Images. About the relationship between socioeconomic status and high school students likelihood of even applying to highly selective colleges. The research cited there by Alexandria Radford. Focused on high school valedictorians. Which I think is a pretty cool way to isolate the effect of socioeconomic class. Sociological Images posted this figure from the paper (abstract? I can only s...
val-systems.blogspot.com
Val Systems: The relationship between Kanye, Rap and African American English
http://val-systems.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-relationship-between-kanye-rap-and.html
Thursday, June 20, 2013. The relationship between Kanye, Rap and African American English. This started out as an update to my post on Kanye West's song "I am a God,". But wound up being nearly as long as the post itself, so I'm separating it out. But look over that first, or maybe keep it open in a separate tab. But as a linguist I know better than to draw similar equivalencies. As a lyrical and musical form, rap has its own conventions which aren't the same as AAE grammar. This must. That's where the p...
val-systems.blogspot.com
Val Systems: October 2014
http://val-systems.blogspot.com/2014_10_01_archive.html
Wednesday, October 1, 2014. America's Ugliest Accent: Something's ugly alright. I should really blog more often, instead of just when I feel compelled to slap down some nonsense, because the general tone of Val Systems turns towards scolding and away from my genuine positive passion for linguistics. That said, guess what I'm doing in this post! If our names as researchers are attached onto them in some way. It's like half my facebook friends list in there! But what's the harm? Anticipating some reactions...
val-systems.blogspot.com
Val Systems: Kanye's Codas and Vowels
http://val-systems.blogspot.com/2013/06/kanyes-codas-and-vowels.html
Thursday, June 20, 2013. Kanye's Codas and Vowels. This is just a quicky about Kanye's new song I am a God. Which he collaborated on with God. The opening lyrics are:. I am a God. I am a God. I am a God. Hurry up with my damn massage. Hurry up with my damn ménage. Get the Porsche out the damn garage. I am a God. Even though I'm a man of God. My whole life in the hands of God. So y'all better quit playing with God. But, Joel Wallenberg asked me an interesting question on Twitter. And here are the last 4 G...
val-systems.blogspot.com
Val Systems: August 2015
http://val-systems.blogspot.com/2015_08_01_archive.html
Wednesday, August 5, 2015. Gender in the Wasteland. One thing I do with the bit of leisure time I have is play video games. I feel like I need to be a bit self defensive about it, given my age and place in life, but according to surveys the average age of gamers is somewhere between 30 and 37. Another common problem games have is their portrayal of gender (the topic of this post), and on that topic, you should obviously go watch Tropes vs Women in Video Games. I've recently been playing Fallout Shelter.
val-systems.blogspot.com
Val Systems: The new iOS Health app is disappointing
http://val-systems.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-new-ios-health-app-is-disappointing.html
Thursday, September 25, 2014. The new iOS Health app is disappointing. However, the Health app itself is really disappointing all on its own. It is not a success of data reporting or visualization. For example, here is what the record of the number of steps I've taken each day for the past month looks like. So, riddle me this: How many steps did I take yesterday? What was the date that I took the most steps? What day of the week was that weird dip? But let's talk about how Apple really failed to meet bas...
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