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Scylla Rhiadra

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Everything posted by Scylla Rhiadra

  1. Scylla Rhiadra
    Maddy tried to glue her hand to one of my pics at an opening in January. I don't remember what she was protesting. Probably me.
  2. Scylla Rhiadra
    And there ain't no such things. "Alpha" and "Beta" are ways in which we designate stages in the production of software, not how we describe complex humans.
  3. Scylla Rhiadra
    🍆
  4. Scylla Rhiadra
    "If you are an adult avatar, engaging in adult activity as an adult avatar with another adult avatar not role playing as a child, the new policy will have no effect on your activities." This is a manufactured crisis. Have fun with it
  5. Scylla Rhiadra
    I'm sorry, but surely Rowan answered the OP, and addressed literally everything that has been said, in the third post in this thread.
  6. Scylla Rhiadra
    Peeve: That we are apparently so lacking in imagination or breadth of interest that we can't find a new topic to get all hot and bothered about. Can there really be anything about this subject that hasn't already been said a dozen times???? We need a new outrage, damn it. This one is soooooo boring!
  7. Scylla Rhiadra
    No, if I have an expertise in terms of language history, it's in Early Modern English (say 1500-1700 roughly), because that's the historical field in which I mostly work. I also found the idea that this is a borrowing from Irish and/or Scottish really interesting, because it seems a bit counterintuitive. I am wondering -- and I'm too busy right now to investigate further -- whether that's because African American communities in the northern states were "segregated" in ways that brought them into close contact with Scottish, and especially Irish immigrants, who were were (like African Americans) generally considered "undesirables" and segregated from more established neighbourhoods and communities. In fact, African Americans and Irish immigrants, although initially in a somewhat parallel position with regard to be considered "inferiors," became intense and sometimes bitter rivals in the 19th century, as they competed for the same low-paying jobs, etc. So a borrowing from Irish English by AAE is both in some sense understandable -- these were two communities that often interacted -- but also ironic, in that they were fierce rivals, both scrambling for whatever crumbs the dominant culture had to offer, and seeking more recognition and equality. But that's just speculation on my part. Interesting though! ETA: Found a paper (apparently I do have some time!) that briefly discusses the "borrowing" by AAE (or AAVE, as some term it) of some verb forms from Irish -- notably, use of the infinitive form "be," as in "I be happy!" I am sure that this is an enormously complex subject, however, and also a really contentious one that relates to the "status" of African American Ebonics (or "African American Vernacular English" -- the politics are evident in one's choice of term): is it a "language," or a "dialect"? The ideological implications of locating a feature's origin in a European language vs. African languages should also be pretty evident. Waaaay above my pay grade however!
  8. Scylla Rhiadra
    Scylla definitely was not! While I have some background in the history of the language (ask me about the 15th century beginning of the Great Vowel Shift, or as a language historian friend of mine once wittily termed it, "The Great Vowel Movement"), but it's not an area of specialization, and I certainly know very little about the evolution of AAE. Neologism and change by analogy though is a pretty common thing, so it's unsurprising. Very cool to learn something new!
  9. Scylla Rhiadra
    Brilliance.
  10. Scylla Rhiadra
  11. Scylla Rhiadra
    Well, of course there's no reason to be embarrassed about learning something new! (But I know you know that, as does Ayashe.) I don't think I knew that either about "mines." I once took a seminar course in the history of the English language, much of which detailed the inheritance of the modern language from Old English (i.e., Saxon and, to a lesser degree, Norse). I remember the prof telling us that the original past participle of the verb "got" is "gotten" (which is OE) but that outside of North America "got" has become the most usual form. And my response (in front of the whole seminar group) was an overly loud and incredulous "People actually say 'gotten'"??? It just sounded so odd and uncouth on its own! Which was of course swiftly followed by the revelation that I, in fact, say "gotten" far more often than I say "got." I squirmed visibly every time I caught myself saying it subsequently in that course. I did a lot of squirming that year.
  12. Scylla Rhiadra
    SEE! SEE!!!! 👆 THIS IS WHAT CANADIANS HAVE TO PUT UP WITH! Every. Frickin'. Day.
  13. Scylla Rhiadra
    Once in a blue moon I'll accidentally type three "k"s (yes, I am one of those heinous people who uses "kk"). Almost always, I'll catch it before I hit "submit," but VERY rarely I'll have actually said "kkk" in chat. Which generally results in my serious descent into panic mode.
  14. Scylla Rhiadra
    Really??? Possibly because you're an American? I think it's pretty common, certainly, outside of the States. (Waits patiently for someone to argue that I'm using "American" incorrectly, because it should apply to anyone in North or South America.)
  15. Scylla Rhiadra
    lol Citation definitely needed.
  16. Scylla Rhiadra
    Yeah, sorry, see my correction above. I was talking about OK, not the ampersand. Everyone knows the Russians invented the ampersand . . . 😉
  17. Scylla Rhiadra
    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-word-ok-was-invented-175-years-ago-180953258/
  18. Scylla Rhiadra
    It's an Americanism!! ETA: Sorry, "Ok" is an Americanism. The ampersand is continental European, and actually has its roots even in some ancient writings.
  19. Scylla Rhiadra
    You do know that "OK" itself is only about 150 years old, and derived from a joking abbreviation for "Oll Korrect," itself a deliberate misspelling of "all correct"?
  20. Scylla Rhiadra
    Hear hear! Can we also ban the ampersand "&" while we're at it? It's a barbaric innovation introduced by those damned Woke Renaissance Humanists, and I'll have NONE OF IT! The Latin "et" was good enough for my great great great great great great great great great great great grandmother, and it's good enough for me!
  21. Scylla Rhiadra
    I love this pic.
  22. Scylla Rhiadra
    Interesting sort of historical overview! I've probably run across the kind earlier, "artistic" form of trolling that you mention, but I can't recall an example offhand. Most of the examples of older trolling I know were very self-involved. They might well work at trying to manipulate or push someone's argument over the edge, but it was seldom if ever because the troll actually cared: it was all about self-display. "Look how clever I am!" I think you're correct about the way trolling has become weaponized in a way that it wasn't before. Some of the older trolls I've known were definitely highly toxic, but they weren't wielding the tools of the trade in the service of a particular perspective. I feel as though, sometime about 10 years ago, the same kinds of people who calculated that algorithms could be manipulated using bots to push disinformation also realized that the approaches used by the troll could be pressed into service, often to "ratio" someone on Twitter or elsewhere. So, yeah. I feel trolling now (and this includes these forums) is less about the troll than about the agenda, whatever that is. It's less an "art form" (if you want to call it that) than a corporate, institutional, or ideological tool. I don't know that that makes it more toxic or even hateful, but it certainly means that the stakes are higher.
  23. Scylla Rhiadra
    Fair enough. "Trolling" is an activity in which, in theory, anyone can occasionally indulge. Again, though, I'd be hard pressed to really name an incessant "troll" here. That was not always the case in these forums.
  24. Scylla Rhiadra
    That would be my guess.
  25. Scylla Rhiadra
    You know, "troll" is a word we throw around a lot -- and I get that people will define it differently too. But in my view, we actually have very few trolls here -- if you define "trolling" (as I do) as posting to provoke a response, rather than because one has something of substance to communicate. We certainly have people with whom I vehemently disagree. That's fine, and maybe even good: I wouldn't want the forum to be an echo chamber. And we have people whose rhetorical style I find belligerent or even a bit obnoxious. But I can only think of one relatively frequent poster here whom I'd classify as a "troll." And even that person is generally trying to make a point, even if that's not the primary purpose of the posts.
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