Category: Language

Language is based in threes. Sender, message, receiver. Subject verb object. A language involves a semantic system, a phonological system, and a syntactic system. Phonetics study the sounds of languages from three basic points of view.

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List-Construction as a Task and Resource

The occurrence of lists in natural conversation is examined to reveal some of the interactional relevances of such list productions.

The presence of three-part lists are first noted. Speakers and hearers orient to their three-part nature. The complete list can then constitute a turn at talk and the hearer can monitor the third component as a sign of turn completion.  List can thereby be a conversational sequential source.

By virtue of the three-part structure of some lists, members can orient to such matters as a “weak”, “absent”, or “missing” third part. Third items can be used to accomplish particular interactional work, such as topic-shifting and offense avoidance.

This report is a preliminary examination of lists occurring in natural conversation.

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3,700-year-old Babylonian tablet rewrites the history of maths – and shows the Greeks did not develop trigonometry

By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor

plimpton 322 tablet
plimpton 322 tablet

3,700-year-old clay tablet has proven that the Babylonians developed trigonometry 1,500 years before the Greeks and were using a sophisticated method of mathematics which could change how we calculate today.

The tablet, known as Plimpton 332, was discovered in the early 1900s in Southern Iraq by the American archaeologist and diplomat Edgar Banks, who was the inspiration for Indiana Jones.

The true meaning of the tablet has eluded experts until now but new research by the University of New South Wales, Australia, has shown it is the world’s oldest and most accurate trigonometric table, which was probably used by ancient architects to construct temples, palaces and canals. Continue reading 3,700-year-old Babylonian tablet rewrites the history of maths – and shows the Greeks did not develop trigonometry

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Why Do We Have Middle Names?

BY THE MAG ,BY SEAN HUTCHINSON

AUGUST 26, 2014

Forename, middle name, surname. 

Middle names
Middle names

The phrase “middle name” first appeared in an 1835 Harvard University periodical called Harvardiana, but the practice dates back much further.

In ancient Rome, having multiple names was an honor usually bestowed upon the most important people—like Gaius Julius Caesar. The fad died out only to pick back up again in Western cultures in the 1700s, when aristocrats started giving their children lavishly long names to indicate their place in society. Similarly, lengthy Spanish and Arabic names adopt paternal or maternal names from previous generations to trace the individual’s family tree. (In other cultures, like Chinese, there are traditionally no middle names.)
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Trader Joe’s – three bells

Trader Joe's There’s a reason they ring the bell.

You may hear two rings, three rings, another two rings, and then just one.

One ring opens up another register, two means there’s a question at checkout, and three rings requests a manger.
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Enneagram

Enneagram
Enneagram

The enneagram figure is usually composed of three parts; a circle, an inner triangle (connecting 3-6-9) and an irregular hexagonal “periodic figure” (connecting 1-4-2-8-5-7). According to esoteric spiritual traditions, the circle symbolizes unity, the inner triangle symbolizes the “law of three” and the hexagon represents the “law of seven” (because 1-4-2-8-5-7-1 is the repeating decimal created by dividing one by seven in base 10 arithmetic). These three elements constitute the usual enneagram figure.
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Oxford comma

Why an extra comma matters

Comma
Comma
For those in need of a grammar refresh, the Oxford (or serial) comma is a comma placed between the last two items in a series of three or more. For instance, “I like cake, pizza, and ice cream.”

Proponents of the Oxford comma argue it’s necessary to avoid potential ambiguity.
In the example sentence, it’s clear I like three types of food in and of themselves. Remove it and the sentence reads, “I like cake, pizza and ice cream” — leading to the potential to read the last two items as one combination item. I no longer like pizza and ice cream on their own, one could argue; I like pizza and ice cream only when they’re together. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
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Number 3 in American Culture

Three American Flags by Jasper Johns

THE NUMBER THREE IN AMERICAN CULTURE

By the late Professor Alan Dundes of the University of California at Berkeley

Allan Dundes

Professor Allan Dundes

Students undertaking professional training in anthropology are rarely, if ever, required to formally study their own cultures. They must demonstrate competence in various topics and areas, but these do not normally include materials from their own cultures. They may be told that the identification and careful delineation of native categories may be crucial to a fuller understanding of that culture which they investigate, but their own native categories, the identification of which is equally important for an understanding of another culture, may not be considered at all. With our present knowledge of the cultural relativity of perception and cognition, it seems clear that students of anthropology should be encouraged to analyze their own native categories with the same care and methodological rigor that is demanded of them in their fieldwork in other cultures. If the reduction of ethnocentric bias is truly an ideal of anthropological scholarship, then anthropologists should go into the field with as comprehensive an understanding of the nature of their own culture as possible.

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Asterism 

noun1. ASTRONOMY

a prominent pattern or group of stars, typically having a popular name but smaller than a constellation.

2. a group of three asterisks (⁂) drawing attention to following text.

Also used as Therefore in mathematics. 

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Rhetorical Devices — Rule of Three

The rule of three describes triads of all types — any collection of three related elements. Two more specific triad variants are hendiatris and tricolon.

Hendiatris

A hendiatris is a figure of speech where three successive words are used to express a central idea.

Examples of hendiatris include:

  • “Veni, vidi, vici.” [Julius Caesar]
  • “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité“ [French motto]
  • “Citius, Altius, Fortius” [Olympic motto]
  • “Wine, women, and song” [Anonymous]

Tricolon

A tricolon is a series of three parallel elements (words or phrases). In a strict tricolon, the elements have the same length but this condition is often put aside.

Examples of tricola include:

  • “Veni, vidi, vici.” [Julius Caesar]
  • “Be sincere, be brief, be seated.” [Advice for speakers from Franklin D. Roosevelt]
  • “Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation – not because of [1] the height of our skyscrapers, or [2] the power of our military, or [3] the size of our economy.” [Barack Obama, Keynote speech to Democratic National Convention, July 2004]
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3 Simple Phrases Great Leaders Always Use

leadership

July 23, 2016 • 311 Likes • 20

leadership
leadership

“By habitually using these 3 phrases, you will strengthen your ability to effortlessly lead others in the direction that you want them to go. And that simply will make your role as a leader much more powerful and meaningful – something we all want when leading other people.”

They are:

  1. “And here’s why…”
  2. “Would you mind…”
  3. “Does this make sense?”

An often-cited but frequently misunderstood communication study completed by UCLA researcher Albert Mehrabian found that  93% of communication comes from something other than the words used.

Translation – only 7% comes from the actual words themselves.
Sounds pretty straightforward, right?

So why is this nugget of useful information so commonly misunderstood? Because in reality, the study doesn’t really relate to understanding the literal meaning of the words that are communicated.

It really relates to the impact of the words or the impression the person has of the communicator.

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Having said that

Question
What does it mean when people start a sentence with “Having said that….” ?
Answer

“Having said that” is a transitional phrase that has become more and more common in spoken language. When people say, “Having said that” it is a signal that they are going to say something which will contrast or disagree with what they said a moment ago. Take, for example, this quote from a man talking about his father’s death:

  • “He was 93 years old, so it was the natural way of things. Having said that, it’s still a shock when it actually happens, when your parent dies.”

Continue reading Having said that

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Limerick – anapestic trimeter

anapestic
anapestic
anapestic

Limericks are short poems of five lines having rhyme structure AABBA. It is officially described as a form of ‘anapestic trimeter’. The ‘anapest’ is a foot of poetic verse consisting of three syllables, the third longer (or accentuated to a greater degree) than the first two: da-da-DA.

Definition of Anapest

Anapest is a poetic device defined as a metrical foot in a line of a poem that contains three syllables wherein the first two syllables are short and unstressed followed by a third syllable that is long and stressed as given in this line “I must finish my journey alone.” Here the anapestic foot is marked in bold.

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