Perpetual Epicentral Density Sphere
The Perpetual Epicentral Density Sphere is a unpublished model of cognition that I began developing in the late ninety’s and early years of 2000 as a result of my training in linguistics and… Read More
Category Archive: Relativism
Why I Care About Ontology
In a broad sense of the term, any particular ontology serves as a framework against which we interpret information; think of it like an organized perspective that we use as a lens to… Read More
Primitive Modals in Child Language (Hafta, Wanna, Gonna) As Functionally Equivalent to Auxiliary Modals
Modals represent a perspective of force in relation to the participatory elements of a construction. In fact, they represent an encoding of force in the relation between subject, verb, and object. Children acquire… Read More
Intention Directing, Self-Reporting, and the Transitive Constructions in Early Childhood Grammar (preschool, 2-5 years old)
Since constructions are learned through usage, constructions are accumulated as individual entities that begin to form collections and these collections of constructions begin to exhibit type frequency. I think that this type frequency… Read More
Inherent Narratives in Ad Hoc Collections
Part of my portfolio includes this project called Weaving Narratives: Possessions = Autobiographies, it is an exploration into how any ad hoc grouping of objects has some kind of inherent narrative, albeit a… Read More
Reflexivity and Recursion in Soulwax’s “Part of the Weekend Never Dies”
Since I am posting a lot about Soulwax this month, I thought I should include this clarifying snippet about the differences between the various acts which the Dewaele brothers lead. In “Part of the… Read More
What does Soulwax’s website, DJing, & Construction Grammar have in common?
Soulwax’s website extends an invitation for viewers to participate in DJing as they explore the website. From my first exposure this has been an amazing experience. The intuitive guided navigation doubles as a… Read More
Why I Believe in Cut & Paste as a Design Strategy
Cut & Paste is not just a keyboard function. In fact, R.G. Collingwood coined the term in the mid 1940′s in his book The Idea of History, but being a more formal speaker… Read More
Weaving Narratives: Possessions = Autobiographies
I recently created a short interview about my art project “Weaving Narratives” where I describe the process of reading objects that people own. I hope you check it out and let me know… Read More
Your Language Constrains How You Can Think & Speak
When a specialist tries to talk about their specialist view of the world with a non-specialist it rarely ever goes smoothly. In fact, usually, the specialist either talks at too specific a level… Read More
Overcoming Self-Consciousness Around Linguists
[NB: I have told this story before, but this time I have a better understanding that I think is worth sharing.] I had an experience a few years ago, a woman stood in… Read More
On the Second Law of Thermodynamics: a quote from one of my favorite books
“Sometimes initial conditions can exert such an all-pervasive influence that they create the impression that a new type of law is acting. The most familiar case is that of the so-called “second law… Read More
SWEET! My paper made a Top Ten Download List!
I checked my email this morning and received a message telling me that my recently distributed paper “Figure-Ground Organization in Attention and Construal” made it on a top ten list for downloads yesterday… Read More
Post-Colonial Thought in Literature, Ethics, and Project Design
I wanted to let you know about an online ejournal about Post-Colonial Literature and Culture, here it is: Post-Colonial Studies in Literature & Culture eJournal Having formerly worked in two former colonies (one… Read More
A Brief Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Summary…
A reasonable summary of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in its tractable form is that different cultures interpret the same world differently and this has an impact on how they both think and construct meaning… Read More
MUST: Polysemous Network for a Closed Class Lexical Item
Here is another network diagram…double click to enlarge…the diagram is an interpretation of the sense variation for the semantics of the modal auxiliary “Must”. [NB: I included a few obsolete usages that are… Read More
Cognitive Mindfulness #15
Ronald Langacker is considered one of the founding fathers of the Cognitive Linguistics enterprise, his seminal work in Cognitive Grammar has influenced pretty much everyone who does anything at all in Cognitive Linguistics.… Read More
Overcome Writer’s Block With Semiotics [Free Download]
I just posted a free download of an excerpt of my semiotics project which will be available as a paperback in September. I encourage you to check it out and let me know… Read More
Cognitive Mindfulness #7
Take this advice from Jack London: “When a man journeys into a far country, he must be prepared to forget many of the things he has learned, and to acquire such customs as… Read More
Apparent Classical Categories In A Cognitive Textbook!
I feel like I have a good vantage point for recognizing problems with cognitive linguistics, especially since I have a descriptive linguistics background and I know a lot of generative linguistics. I know… Read More
