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linguistics

The Neurolinguistic Paradigm Shift

As is the case in the physical sciences, I believe that linguistics proceeds in a pattern of punctuated equilibrium, those punctuations being paradigm shifts whereby the foundations of accepted theory are rewritten. In this way old mysteries become puzzles, explanations become more elegant, and new technological advances are enabled. Here I will briefly sketch the idea that generative linguistics should be reformulated in terms of quantitative neuroscience, and that such a reformulation will be immensely fruitful.

Some Questions about Syntax

This week I have been reading up on syntax. I started with Baker's The Atoms of Language, continued with Chomsky's Syntactic Structures, and have just finished the syntax chapter of the textbook Contemporary Linguistics (3rd edition). I have learned a great deal thus far, but the more I read the more questions I have. I write these notes into the margins of my books, but I now feel the need to post the more salient questions for later reference, lest they get buried when I continue my linguistic inquiry.

The Lomb Method

In a previous post I made some recommendations from among the established commercial language learning methods such as Berlitz, Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone, and a few course books. Over the past year I have branched out to experiment with the methods of various on-line linguaphile gurus, the likes of Piotr Wozniak, Tim Ferris, Mike Campbell, Prof Arguelles, and Katzumoto --- all of whom are worth checking out. But just today I stumbled across the method of polyglot and simultaneous interpreter Kató Lomb, as explained in her book How I Learn Languages. I found Lomb's book absolutely captivating. She makes a number of excellent points. Although her book is by no means a one-stop-shop for polyglottery, it is definitely worth a read for those aspiring to learn one or a few L2s.

A Meta-Etymological Dict

Aspiring polyglots face the huge challenge of massive vocabulary acquisition. Even in closely related languages, it is easy to miss cognates because of sound changes and different orthographies. I have found that using etymological information from dictionary look-ups has boosted my recall for learning from a single language -- but I conjecture that this boost will carry over to other languages of interest if the dictionary would provide related words in every language of interest when they exist. However, in present form, this procedure requires searching through possibly 12 different books! I believe an electronic version would be a huge boon to the modern polyglot community.

The Genetic and Lexical Stacks

Many complex phenomena may be decomposed using a stack. For example, one might decompose contemporary scientific theory into a stack as follows: physics -- chemistry -- biology -- psychology -- sociology.

Optimizing HSK Study with MaxRank

Short Version

I've put together a PDF containing the revised HSK vocab for levels 1--6, sorted in such a way to maximize word learning rate. The list was sourced from Lingomi, with sorting applied using the MaxRank method. I have found this particular presentation of the list to be especially useful; so I put it here in hopes that others can also benefit.