Monday, 12 August 2019

what does your taste in music say about you? part two

Are you a Beatles fan?
Abbey Road: Beatles fans gather to recreate cover shot - BBC News

Here's another album:
Jay Doubleyou: it was fifty years ago

What does it say about who we are?
Jay Doubleyou: why music?

And about who you are?
Jay Doubleyou: what does your taste in music say about you?

Take a quiz:
What Does Your Favorite Music Say About You? Question 1 - Do you like to listen to music and kind of space out, just listen and chill?

Here's a list of personality traits:
Taste in Music and Personality

And an even better one:
What does your taste in music say about your personality? Take the quiz | The Independent

Based on this:
Short Test Of Music Preferences (STOMP) | Gosling

More Beatles:
Jay Doubleyou: a film about how to learn english with beatles songs - and meeting john lennon
Jay Doubleyou: story-telling with the beatles
Jay Doubleyou: The Queen Mun's favourite film apparently...

More other music:
Jay Doubleyou: Search results for music

More English-learning:
Jay Doubleyou: listening to song lyrics will help your pronunciation
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Friday, 9 August 2019

why are we so obsessed with murder?

We have been fascinated with death for some time now:
Fascination with death - Wikipedia

It could be quite a healthy thing:
Jay Doubleyou: optimism - our enemy
Jay Doubleyou: you can't get success and happiness through positive thinking

Here are some explanations of why we like 'true crime':
12 Reasons We Love True Crime, According to the Experts | Mental Floss
Why are people obsessed with true crime?—Hopes&Fears

And why we love murder fiction:
Why is Britain so Obsessed with Murder Mysteries?
Why Are We So Fascinated by Violence? | Psychology Today

Here's another suggestion why:
Social Conservatives’ Obsession with Crime | how to save the world

Finally, here's some context:
Jay Doubleyou: crime and punishment
Jay Doubleyou: crime statistics - and the perception of crime
Jay Doubleyou: a history of violence part two
Jay Doubleyou: a history of violence: another look at how violent we are
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Tuesday, 6 August 2019

word order

Stephen Fry likes to look at language - and he has a regular radio series:
BBC Radio 4 - Fry's English Delight

From ten minutes into the latest programme, we look at word order of adjectives:
BBC Radio 4 - Fry's English Delight, Series 10, Order!

Here's the order of the full programme:

Order!

Fry's English Delight Series 10

Order, Order! Settle down now, while the register is called. Abrahams? Atkins? Arnold? And reflect – why do we remember old classmates whose surnames occur at the beginning of the alphabet? According to a professor of economics at Colorado University, the initial of your surname (if you’re a man) may affect your life chances. The nearer A you are, the better. The professor’s surname is Zax.

The subject of order is by no means as easy as ABC. Alphabetical order as we know it occurs in languages used by 75% of humanity and is 5000 years old. This programme tries to discover why. And fails. Word order in sentences much simpler should be. Yet some rules - about, for example, the order in which adjectives occur in a sentence - are rather complicated. Why Jolly Green Giant and not Green Jolly Giant? And why ping pong, not pong ping?

All this enjoyable complexity comes before we even tackle the subject of orderliness. Writer David Sedaris, for example, is famous for pristine prose and a desire to have order in his daily surroundings. He goes to great length to achieve both, as Stephen finds out. But are they connected? Aren’t writers supposed to live disorderly lives?
The big question, which we leave till last in our running order, is how does language order thought? A psycho-linguist explains.

Oh yes, don’t forget the giving of orders, and the role of the exclamation mark. We meet a journalist and editor who told her staff not to use them for a month. It was harder than she imagined!

BBC Radio 4 - Fry's English Delight, Series 10, Order!

The YouTube channel Anglo-Link has some excellent videos on word order in sentences:
Word order in English statements - Sentence Structure - YouTube
Word Order / Sentence Structure - English Grammar Lesson (Part 1) - YouTube

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colloquial english

How many colloquial expressions can you hear in this:

(1) TWO RONNIES - SQUASH MATCH - YouTube

Here's a definition:

1, 2. Colloquial, conversational, informal refer to types of speech or to usages not on a formal level. Colloquial is often mistakenly used with a connotation of disapproval, as if it meant “vulgar” or “bad” or “incorrect” usage, whereas it is merely a familiar style used in speaking and writing.

Colloquial | Definition of Colloquial at Dictionary.com

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/colloquial

In other words, colloquial English is not 'slang' but just normal, everyday speech:

SLANG | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/slang

slang definition: 1. very informal language that is usually spoken rather than written, ... groups of people and which sometimes includes words that are not polite:.

The US President uses very colloquial language:
Jay Doubleyou: the language of donald trump
(1) How Donald Trump Answers A Question - YouTube

Here are some more videos - how much of the language can you record:

Meet the First Female to Travel to Every Country on Earth - YouTube

And from:
Fast and Fun English Shadowing: 4 Short Films to Watch, Listen and Repeat | FluentU English

Post-It® (short film) - YouTube

This is quite problematic, though:

(1) Mind Your Language Season 1 Episode 4 - YouTube
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Sunday, 4 August 2019

practical dictation > online texts and audio

Here's a list of dictation activities:
Jay Doubleyou: dictation can be fun

And here are some examples, some with audio:

DICTOGLOSS:
with audio:
Listen just the once and rebuild the text in pairs/groups:
Breaking News English Lessons: Easy English News Materials | Current Events | ESL Materials
For example:
TV News - ESL Lesson Plan - Breaking News English Lesson
And:
(1) Stories - YouTube

LOOP DICTATION:
with audio:
Listen again and again to the short piece until you get it right:
BBC Learning English - News Report
For example:
BBC Learning English - News Report / Superbug threat

GAPPED DICTATION:
Fill in the gaps:
PAST SIMPLE TENSE: FILLING IN THE GAPS USING THE VERBS IN THE PAST SIMPLE worksheet - Free ESL printable worksheets made by teachers
with audio:
Fill in your own ideas:
(1) Gapped dictation - YouTube
Students create their own gapped dictation:
English ESL text worksheets - Most downloaded (300 Results)

COLLOCATION DICTATION:
Pre-teach some chunks - or get the students to put them together first; this is how:
Teaching Tips - Cambridge > https://www.cambridge.es/.../Teaching%2BTips_Read_05_CollocationDictation.pdf
Collocation is key!
Fun ways to teach English collocations | British Council

WRONG DICTATION:
Read out a text with students' typical mistakes:
Find and Correct Mistakes (A Recount Text)

STUDENTS DOING THE DICTATION:
with audio:
Take dictation from other students - and practising pronunciation:
dictation | ELF Pronunciation
For example:
“A Very Short Story” — Ernest Hemingway – Biblioklept

COOPERATIVE OPEN DICTATION:
Read out half a text to your partner; then swap:
English Short Stories – Simple and Illustrated

MIXED UP BITS OF A STORY:
Read out your line of the story to the others and put it all together
200 Free ESL Easy Short Stories (3) – Exercises, Audio

RUNNING DICTATIONS:
Run backwards and forwards to a text pinned up on a wall:
100 Word Story

SHOUTING DICTATIONS:
Sit at least three meters away from your partner:
50-Word Stories | Brand new bite-sized fiction every weekday!

CONTINUE THE STORY:
Hear only the beginning of a story then finish:
100 Short Story (or Novel) Writing Prompts | HobbyLark
with audio:
Do the first part of the story as a Dictogloss, then finish in pairs:
(1) Finish the story - YouTube
with video:
Use the visual prompts plus text: then finish the story:
5-Minute Film Festival: 7 Video Writing Prompts for Young Authors | Edutopia
(1) Denise Cassano Presents: Crossroads Video Writing Prompt by Denise M. Cassano - YouTube

QUICK DICTATIONS:
Appointments
Flight Schedule
Money
Names
Numbers and Symbols
Telephone Numbers
Teaching with Dictation | TEFL.net

SHADOWING IS DICTATION:
Because reading out-loud is a VERY DANGEROUS THING TO DO!!
(1) Will reading out loud improve your pronunciation & speaking skills? - YouTube
So, we need to LISTEN first and only much later, when we understand every word, should we MIMIC EXACTLY what we hear:
all with audio:
This is how it works:
shadowing english - Google Search
How to speak in English well? Use the shadowing technique to improve..
Here are some audio books:
(1) simplified readers esl - YouTube
Here are some fun stories: how much of the dialogue can you get? Write it down and then read it aloud WITH the audio:
Fast and Fun English Shadowing: 4 Short Films to Watch, Listen and Repeat | FluentU English
And some great speeches:
The 30 Greatest Movie Speeches Ever - AskMen
Back to the BBC:
BBC Learning English - Course: News Review / Unit 1
BBC Learning English - Lingohack
BBC Learning English - Words in the News
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making your own desert island discs

Can you tell your life through your favourite and most significant songs?

There's a very popular and long-running radio programme which does this with famous people and personalities, for example:

John Cooper Clarke first achieved fame with his poetry during the punk rock era of the late 1970s. Born in Salford in 1949 to Hilda and George, he suffered from tuberculosis as a child and was sent to recuperate with a relative in Wales. He failed his 11 plus exam and was educated at a secondary modern school which he hated. However the one “rose in a garden of weeds” was his English teacher, Mr Malone, who instilled a love of poetry in John and his classmates.

John had various odd jobs after leaving school at 15 and by his mid-20s, he was reciting his poetry in clubs around Manchester. His entry into the punk scene was helped, he says, by “already looking like a punk”, and despite some initially hostile receptions from audiences waiting for the Sex Pistols or the Buzzcocks, he acquired a cult status, going on to release five albums of his poetry set to music by former Joy Division producer Martin Hannett.

By early 1980s, he was also in the grip of a heroin addiction which would see him write very little for over a decade. He cleaned up in the early 90s after marrying his second wife, Evie, and having a daughter, Stella. His star began to rise again in 2007 when one of his poems was used in an episode of The Sopranos and others were included on the GCSE syllabus, which led to collaborations with artists like Plan B and Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys.

Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters

A Quiet Place
- CRY BABY.
- COLLECTABLES.
Jerry Lee Lewis

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
- THE EP COLLECTION.
- LONDON RECORDS.
- 2.
Dion & The Belmonts

I Wonder Why
- THE WANDERER.
- 3C RECORDS.
- 18.
Ella Fitzgerald

Skylark
- THE SONGBOOKS.
- VERVE.
- 11.
Nico

I'll Keep It With Mine
- CHELSEA GIRL.
- VERVE.
- 7.
Frank Sinatra

Moonlight In Vermont
- COME FLY WITH ME.
- CAPITOL RECORDS.
- 4.
Doris Day

The Black Hills Of Dakota
- THE MAGIC OF DORIS DAY.
- SONY.
- 12.
Elvis Presley

How Great Thou Art
- THE GOSPEL COLLECTION.
- RCA.
- 7.

BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, John Cooper Clarke, poet

See:
Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters A Quiet Place - Bing

And for a little of the man's poetry:
(1) John Cooper Clarke reads his poem, Smooth Operetta - YouTube

And more:
(1) JOHN COOPER CLARKE PERFORMS 'I WANNA BE YOURS' AT DR. MARTENS AW14 LAUNCH - YouTube
(1) I Wanna Be Yours - John Cooper Clarke - YouTube

Go to:
BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs

For another example:
BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, David Beckham
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Friday, 2 August 2019

learning theory: the poverty of the stimulus

How do we learn our mother tongue - especially its grammar?

Since the 1960s, Chomsky has maintained that much of this knowledge is innate, implying that children need only learn certain parochial features of their native languages.^[77] The innate body of linguistic knowledge is often termed universal grammar. From Chomsky's perspective, the strongest evidence for the existence of Universal Grammar is simply the fact that children successfully acquire their native languages in so little time.

Furthermore, he argues that there is an enormous gap between the linguistic stimuli to which children are exposed and the rich linguistic knowledge they attain (the "poverty of the stimulus" argument). The knowledge of Universal Grammar would serve to bridge that gap.

Jay Doubleyou: chomsky and language acquisition

And:

He created or co-created the universal grammar theory, the generative grammar theory, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the minimalist program. Chomsky also played a pivotal role in the decline of behaviorism, and was particularly critical of the work of B. F. Skinner.

Noam Chomsky - Wikipedia

Here's the complete entry from Wikipedia:

Poverty of the stimulus (POS) is the argument from linguistics that children are not exposed to rich enough data within their linguistic environments to acquire every feature of their language. This is considered evidence contrary to the empiricist idea that language is learned solely through experience. The claim is that the sentences children hear while learning a language do not contain the information needed to home in on the grammar of the language.^[1]

The POS is often used as evidence for universal grammar. This is the idea that all languages conform to the same structural principles, which define the space of possible languages.

Both poverty of the stimulus and universal grammar are terms that can be credited to Noam Chomsky. Chomsky coined the term "poverty of the stimulus" in 1980, however he had argued for the idea since his 1959 review of B.F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior. The POS is also related to Nelson Goodman's new riddle of induction.

The form of the argument[edit]

An argument from the poverty of the stimulus generally takes the following structure:^[2]^[3]^[4]

The speech that children are exposed to is consistent with numerous possible grammars.
It is possible to define data, D, that would distinguish the target grammar from all other grammars that are consistent with the input.
D is missing from speech to children.
Children nonetheless acquire the target grammar.
Therefore, the right grammatical structure arises due to some (possibly linguistic) property of the child.

Background and history[edit]

Chomsky coined the term "poverty of the stimulus" in 1980. This idea is closely related to what Chomsky calls "Plato's Problem". He outlined this philosophicalapproach in the first chapter of the Knowledge of Language in 1986.^[5] Plato's Problem traces back to Meno, a Socratic dialogue. In Meno, Socrates unearths knowledge of geometry concepts from a servant who was never explicitly taught them.^[6] Plato's Problem directly parallels the idea of the innateness of language, universal grammar, and more specifically the poverty of the stimulus argument because it reveals that people's knowledge is richer than what they are exposed to. Chomsky illustrates that humans are not exposed to all structures of their language, yet they fully achieve knowledge of these structures.

Linguistic nativism is the theory that humans are born with some knowledge of language. One acquires a language not entirely through experience. According to Noam Chomsky,^[7] "The speed and precision of vocabulary acquisition leaves no real alternative to the conclusion that the child somehow has the concepts available before experience with language and is basically learning labels for concepts that are already a part of his or her conceptual apparatus." Chomsky's view that the humans possess an innate faculty of language is shared by Steven Pinker. One of the most significant arguments generative grammarians have for linguistic nativism is the poverty of the stimulus argument.^[8]^[9]^[10]

Pullum and Scholz frame the poverty of the stimulus argument by examining all of the ways that the input is insufficient for language acquisition.^[2] First, children are exposed only to positive evidence. They do not receive explicit correction or instruction about what is not possible in the language.^[2]^[11] Second, the input that children receive is degenerate in terms of scope and quality.^[12] Degeneracy of scope means that the input does not contain information about the full extent of any grammatical rules. Degeneracy of quality means that children are exposed to speech errors, utterances by nonnative speakers, and false starts, potentially obscuring the grammatical structure of the language. Furthermore, the linguistic data each child is exposed to is different and so the basis for learning is idiosyncratic. However, despite these insufficiencies, children eventually acquire the grammar of the language they are exposed to. Further, other organisms in the same environment do not.^[13] From the nativists' point of view, the insufficiency of the input leads to the conclusion that humans are hard-wired with a UG and thus support the innateness hypothesis.

However, the argument that the poverty of stimulus supports the innateness hypothesis remains controversial.^[14] For example, Fiona Cowie claims that the Poverty of Stimulus argument fails "on both empirical and conceptual grounds to support nativism".^[15]

Examples[edit]

An overarching theme in examples provided as evidence for the poverty of the stimulus is that children acquire grammatical rules based on evidence that is consistent with multiple generalizations. And since children are not instructed in the grammar of their language, the gap must be filled in by properties of the learner.

Syntax[edit]

Binding theory – Principle C[edit]

While he was dancing, the Ninja Turtle ate pizza.
He ate pizza while the Ninja Turtle was dancing.

In general, pronouns can refer to any prominent individual in the discourse context. However, a pronoun cannot find its antecedent in certain structural positions, as defined by the Binding Theory. For example, the pronoun "he" can refer to the Ninja Turtle in (1) but not (2), above. Given that speech to children does not indicate what interpretations are impossible, the input is equally consistent with a grammar that allows coreference between "he" and "the Ninja Turtle" in (2) and one that does not. But, since all speakers of English recognize that (2) does not allow this coreference, this aspect of the grammar must come from some property internal to the learner.^[12]

Passives[edit]

I believe the dog to be hungry
The dog is believed to be hungry
I believe the dog's owner to be hungry.
The dog's owner is believed to be hungry.
* The dog is believed's owner to be hungry.

The sentences in (1) and (2) illustrate the active-passive alternation in English. The Noun Phrase after the verb in the active (1) is the subject in the passive (2). Data like (2) would be compatible with a passive rule stated in terms of linear order (move the 1st NP after the verb) or syntactic structure (move the highest NP after the verb). The data in (3-5) illustrate that the actual rule is formulated in terms of structure. If it were stated in terms of linear order, then (4) would be ungrammatical and (5) would be grammatical. But the opposite is true. However, children may not be exposed to sentences like (3-5) as evidence in favor of the correct grammar. Thus, the fact that all adult speakers agree that (4) is grammatical and (5) is not suggests that the linear rule was never even considered and that children are predisposed to a structure based grammatical system.^[12]

Anaphoric "one"[edit]

The English word "one" can refer back to a previously mentioned property in the discourse. For example in (1), "one" can mean "ball".

I like this ball and you like that one.
I like this red ball and you like that one.

In (2), one is interpreted as "red ball." However, even if a speaker intends (2) in this way, it would be difficult to distinguish that interpretation from one in which "one" simply meant "ball". This is because when a speaker refers to a red ball, they are also referring to a ball since the set of red balls is a subset of balls in general. 18-month-olds, like adults, show that they believe 'one' refers to 'red ball' and not 'ball'.^[16] The evidence available to children is systematically ambiguous between a grammar in which "one" refers back to Nouns and one in which "one" refers back to noun phrases. Despite this ambiguity, children learn the more narrow interpretation, suggesting that some property other than the input is responsible for their interpretations.

Island effects[edit]

In Wh-questions, the Wh-word at the beginning of the sentence (the filler) is related to a position later in the sentence (the gap). This relation can hold over an unbounded distance, as in (1). However, there are restrictions on the gap positions that a filler can be related to. These restrictions are called syntactic islands (2). Because questions with islands are ungrammatical, they are not included in the speech that children hear—but neither are grammatical Wh-questions that span multiple clauses. Because the speech children are exposed to is consistent with grammars which have island constraints and grammars which don't, something internal to the child must contribute this knowledge.

What did you claim that Jack bought _ ?
*What did you make the claim that Jack bought _ ? (Complex Noun Phrase Island)

Phonology[edit]

Learning stress systems[edit]

Bergelson & Idsardi (2009) presented adults with words drawn from an artificial language.^[17] The words contained 3 CV syllables. If the last vowel was long, then it bore stress. Otherwise, stress fell on the first syllable. This pattern is consistent with two grammars. In one grammar, a long vowel bears stress if it is the last segment in the word. This is a rule based on absolute finality. In the other grammar, a long vowel bears stress only if it is the last vowel in the word (i.e., even if it is not the last segment of the word). This is a rule based on relative finality. In natural languages stress rules make reference to relative finality but not to absolute finality. After being exposed to these words, participants were then tested to see whether they thought that a word with a long vowel in a closed syllable (CVVC) would bear stress. If it did, then that would be consistent with the relative-final grammar, but not with the absolute-final grammar. English-speaking adults (tested through computer software) were more likely to accept the words from the relative-final grammar than from the absolute-final grammar. Since the data they were exposed to was equally consistent with both grammars, and since neither rule is a rule of English, the source of this decision must have come from the participants, not from any aspect of their experience. In addition, eighth-month-old children (tested via the Headturn Preference Procedure) were found to have the same preference as adults. Given that this preference could not have come from their exposure to either the artificial language or to their native language, the researchers concluded that human language acquisition mechanisms are "hardwired" to lead infants towards certain generalizations, consistent with the argument for the poverty of the stimulus.

English plural marker[edit]

Halle (1978)^[18] argues that the morphophonological rule governing the English plural produces forms that are consistent with two grammars. In one grammar, the plural is pronounced as [s] if it follows one of the sounds [p, t, k, f, 𝝷]; otherwise it is pronounced as [z]. In the other grammar, the plural is pronounced as [s] if it follows a voiceless consonant. These rules are exactly equal in their coverage of English since the set of consonants that triggers the [s] pronunciation is identical in the two cases. However, Halle also observes that English speakers consistently pluralize the German name Bach (pronounced /bax/) as /baxs/, despite not having any experience with the /x/ sound, which is nonexistent in English. Since there is "no indication" that speakers could have acquired this knowledge, Halle argues that the tendency to build rules in terms of natural classes comes from a factor internal to the child and not from their experience.^[18]

Semantics[edit]

Word learning[edit]

The poverty of the stimulus also applies in the domain of word learning. When learning a new word, children are exposed to examples of the word's referent, but not to the full extent of the category. For example, in learning the word "dog", a child might see a German Shepherd, a Great Dane and a Poodle. How do they know to extend this category to include Dachshunds and Bulldogs? The situations in which the word is used cannot provide the relevant information. Thus, something internal to learners must shape the way that they generalize. This problem is closely related to Quine's gavagai problem.

Attitude verbs[edit]

In other cases, words refer to aspects of the world that cannot be observed directly. For example Lila Gleitman poses a POS argument with respect to verbs that label mental states. She observes that a learner cannot see inside another person's mind, and so an utterance of "Kim thinks that it is raining" is likely to occur in the same kinds of contexts as "Kim wonders if it is raining" or even "Kim wants it to rain". If no aspect of the context can determine whether a mental state verb refers to thinkings, wanting or wonderings, then some aspect of children's minds must direct their attention to other cues. Thus, our ability to learn these word meanings must be shaped by factors internal to the child and not simply from the conditions of their use.^[19]

Alternative viewpoints[edit]

Some researchers argue that the poverty of the stimulus argument, which supports nativist theorizing, does not disprove the hypothesis that language is learned entirely from external sources.^[2]^:10–50 Some argue that nativist views reflect a failure to imagine how the input could support specific grammatical conclusions in the absence of innate structure.^[20] Other areas of criticism range from discussions about whether the poverty of the stimulus can be solved not through innate linguistic knowledge, but from other capacities like social cognition or statistical learning.

The empiricist views suggest that language can be learned with mental processes originally meant for other modes of cognition, and that there need not be a concept of innateness in order to account for the difference between the input a child receives versus the language they develop. Natural languages display statistical cues that children are able to learn from. Some argue that the ability to learn by statistical pattern matching can solve problems that nativists argue require innate knowledge.

Some researchers also argue that the POS problem can be overcome through implicit negative evidence or indirect negative evidence.

Monday, 12 August 2019

Friday, 9 August 2019

Tuesday, 6 August 2019

Order!

Sunday, 4 August 2019

Music Played

Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters

Jerry Lee Lewis

Dion & The Belmonts

Ella Fitzgerald

Nico

Frank Sinatra

Doris Day

Elvis Presley