Oh my, summer does something to my brain that makes it just want to sleep all the time instead of thinking about syntax (which is very sad, this is why I hate summer). I've been listening to Mirah all day and writing writing to try to make my syntax paper come together in my brain. Went out to dinner with some people from the department last night, in honor of Friday and the Visiting Syntactician (yes, I told him that syntacticians are like magicians, but with more magic) and during the conversations around the table I realized I really want my syntax paper, on the classifications of sound emission verbs, to come more from a syntactic perspective (structure) than from a semantic perspective (meaning). This makes some things easier, because so much has already been said on them from a semantic perspective and I don't want to just repeat what other people have said, but it also makes things harder, because even though I don't want it to my brain is all drawn to semantics. I like syntax and I'm just trying to get my brain to stop thinking about things in silly semantic terms. I guess I have attached a prestige to syntax that I am somehow trying to acquire. I mean, there are a lot of great semanticians out there, but they are regarded by those more on the syntactic side of things as, well, kind of crazy. Those crazy semanticians, just makin' up stuff as they go along. Glad we have things in black and white, here in syntax, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.
But sound emission verbs are rocking awesome, I mean, I am studying words like "boom" and "zing" and "crackle". It's like rice crispies syntax paper!
Posted by linnea at April 14, 2007 5:22 PM