Posted: Aug 30, 2017 10:54 am
1.Thresholds of Peace. German prisoners and the People of Britain. 1944-1948 - Matthew Sullivan
2. Escape from Germany - Aidan Crawley
3. Applying Cognitive Linguistics to Second Language Learning and Teaching - Jeanette Littlemore
4. Food in History - Reay Tannahill
5. The Cyclist Who Went Out In the Cold - Tim Moore
6. Cognitive English Grammar - Günther Radden & René Dirven
7. The Marches: A Borderland Journey Between England and Scotland - Rory Stewart
8. Lingo: A Language Spotter's Guide to Europe - Gaston Dorren
9. The Blitz: The British Under Attack - Juliet Gardiner
10. Melmoth the Wanderer - Charles Maturin
11. Seeds of Earth - Michael Cobley
12. An Iron Wind: Europe Under Hitler - Peter Fritzsche
13. Speaking our Minds: Why Human communication is Different, and How Language Evolved to make it Special - Thom Scott-Phillips
14. In the Land of Giants: A journey through the Dark Ages - Max Adams
15. Conversational Repair and Human Understanding - Makoto Hayashi, Geoffrey Raymond & Jack Sidnell (Eds.)
16. Indirect Reports and Pragmatics: Interdisciplinary Studies (Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology) - Alessandro Capone (Ed.) (Re-read)
17. Becoming Fluent: How Cognitive Science Can help Adults Learn a Foreign Language - Richard Robers and Roger Kreuz
18. Fecal Matters in Early Modern Literature and Art: Studies in Scatology - Jeff Persels and Russell Ganim (Eds.)
19. Books that Changed the World - Robert B Downs.
20. Um el Madayan: An Islamic City through the Ages - Abderrahman Ayoub, Jamila Binous and Abderrazak Gragueb (Re-read)
21. English Grammar: Your questions answered - Michael McCarthy
22. Look to Windward - Iain M Banks (re-read)
23. War against War - Ernst Friedrich
24. The Story of the Human Body - Daniel Lieberman
25. The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu - Dan Jurafsky
26. Grammars of Space: Explorations in Cognitive Diversity
27. An Utterly Exasperated History of Modern Britain, or...60 Years of making the same mistakes as always - John O'Farrel
28. The Kings of Albion - Julian Rathbone (re-read)
29. The Story of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang
30. The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End - Robert Gerwath
31. Soldier Spy - Tom Marcus
32. Direct and Indirect Speech (Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs) - Florian Coulmas (Ed.)
33. Rethinking Linguistic Relativity (Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language) = John Gumperz & Steven Levinson (Eds.)
34. Is that a Fish in your Ear? The Amazing Adventure of Translation - David Bellos
No. 34 was a well put together book containing all manner of hidden gems and interesting insights. One thing I liked was the chapter on machine translation and how we are still struggling to get a machine to work reliably and consistently. The author explained how Google Translate works.
Rather than having some kind of database of lexical matches between the source and target, akin to a bilingual dictionary, and a slot-and-filler grammar type algorithm (which is how I thought GT worked), the underlying concept is that whatever the phrase or sentence is in the source language, it is probably not unique, and somewhere out there it has been translated before. The google thingamajig just looks at all the available translations from source L. to target L. and looks to find how the looked-for item has been translated before and gives the most frequent occurrence as the translation, with lesser occurrences listed beneath and an option for the user to suggest a better translation.
This undermines one of the basic assumptions of the whole generative linguistics tradition, which is that infinite variety is created from a finite set of 'words and rules'. In actual fact, it seems that people pretty much say the same things again and again...and translate the same things again and again.
The new semester is starting here shortly and I have my long commute to spend with my nose in a book...I'm looking forward to getting back to some extensive reading sessions.
2. Escape from Germany - Aidan Crawley
3. Applying Cognitive Linguistics to Second Language Learning and Teaching - Jeanette Littlemore
4. Food in History - Reay Tannahill
5. The Cyclist Who Went Out In the Cold - Tim Moore
6. Cognitive English Grammar - Günther Radden & René Dirven
7. The Marches: A Borderland Journey Between England and Scotland - Rory Stewart
8. Lingo: A Language Spotter's Guide to Europe - Gaston Dorren
9. The Blitz: The British Under Attack - Juliet Gardiner
10. Melmoth the Wanderer - Charles Maturin
11. Seeds of Earth - Michael Cobley
12. An Iron Wind: Europe Under Hitler - Peter Fritzsche
13. Speaking our Minds: Why Human communication is Different, and How Language Evolved to make it Special - Thom Scott-Phillips
14. In the Land of Giants: A journey through the Dark Ages - Max Adams
15. Conversational Repair and Human Understanding - Makoto Hayashi, Geoffrey Raymond & Jack Sidnell (Eds.)
16. Indirect Reports and Pragmatics: Interdisciplinary Studies (Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology) - Alessandro Capone (Ed.) (Re-read)
17. Becoming Fluent: How Cognitive Science Can help Adults Learn a Foreign Language - Richard Robers and Roger Kreuz
18. Fecal Matters in Early Modern Literature and Art: Studies in Scatology - Jeff Persels and Russell Ganim (Eds.)
19. Books that Changed the World - Robert B Downs.
20. Um el Madayan: An Islamic City through the Ages - Abderrahman Ayoub, Jamila Binous and Abderrazak Gragueb (Re-read)
21. English Grammar: Your questions answered - Michael McCarthy
22. Look to Windward - Iain M Banks (re-read)
23. War against War - Ernst Friedrich
24. The Story of the Human Body - Daniel Lieberman
25. The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu - Dan Jurafsky
26. Grammars of Space: Explorations in Cognitive Diversity
27. An Utterly Exasperated History of Modern Britain, or...60 Years of making the same mistakes as always - John O'Farrel
28. The Kings of Albion - Julian Rathbone (re-read)
29. The Story of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang
30. The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End - Robert Gerwath
31. Soldier Spy - Tom Marcus
32. Direct and Indirect Speech (Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs) - Florian Coulmas (Ed.)
33. Rethinking Linguistic Relativity (Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language) = John Gumperz & Steven Levinson (Eds.)
34. Is that a Fish in your Ear? The Amazing Adventure of Translation - David Bellos
No. 34 was a well put together book containing all manner of hidden gems and interesting insights. One thing I liked was the chapter on machine translation and how we are still struggling to get a machine to work reliably and consistently. The author explained how Google Translate works.
Rather than having some kind of database of lexical matches between the source and target, akin to a bilingual dictionary, and a slot-and-filler grammar type algorithm (which is how I thought GT worked), the underlying concept is that whatever the phrase or sentence is in the source language, it is probably not unique, and somewhere out there it has been translated before. The google thingamajig just looks at all the available translations from source L. to target L. and looks to find how the looked-for item has been translated before and gives the most frequent occurrence as the translation, with lesser occurrences listed beneath and an option for the user to suggest a better translation.
This undermines one of the basic assumptions of the whole generative linguistics tradition, which is that infinite variety is created from a finite set of 'words and rules'. In actual fact, it seems that people pretty much say the same things again and again...and translate the same things again and again.
The new semester is starting here shortly and I have my long commute to spend with my nose in a book...I'm looking forward to getting back to some extensive reading sessions.