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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So to speak

You use so to speak to draw attention to the fact that you are describing or referring to something in a way that may be amusing or unusual rather than completely accurate.
I ought not to tell you but I will, since you’re in the family, so to speak.

so to speak

A phrase used to indicate that what one has just said is an uncommon, metaphorical, or original way of saying something. Similar to the phrases “if you will” and “in a manner of speaking.” He was a fixer, so to speak—a man who could get things done. This arrangement will allow us to eliminate our debt and get back to solid ground, so to speak.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

Used after sentences to express that there is a metaphor in it. It can be generally interchanged with like-clause: 

It is X, so to speak. 
It is like X.

I love this jacket. I always wear it when I go to work. It is a uniform for me, so to speak.

by terb kund April 28, 2009

UrbanDictionary.com

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Hebrew: The Metric System of Languages

Tetragrammaton by Francisco Goya: "The Name of God", YHWH in triangle, detail from fresco Adoration of the Name of God, 1772

Guest Post by Bob Canter

Created roughly a century apart, the advent of modern Hebrew and the creation of the Metric System bear several striking similarities.

Hebrew exhibits some of the same logical features as does the Metric System. The primary logical structure of Hebrew is the three-letter root system which forms the building blocks of most Hebrew words. Understanding these many roots is not only a fascinating exercise in linguistic exploration, but is a key step in building a Hebrew vocabulary.

For example, the three-letter root samech-fay-resh (ס פ ר) means “to recount,” or “telling,” as in the sense of telling a story. From this root Hebrew derives a delightful group of words:

ס פ ר = Book
ס ו פ ר = Author/writer/scribe
ס פ ר ו ת = Literature
ס פ ר י ה = Library
ס פ ר ן = Librarian
ס פ ר ו ן= Booklet/pamphlet
ח נ ו ת ס פ ר י ם = Bookstore
בּ י ת ס פ ר = School (lit., “House of [the] Book”
ס פ ו ר = Story
ל ס פ ר = To tell

Tetragrammaton
Tetragrammaton

And like the Metric System, Hebrew employs a series of prefixes that are attached to the words they modify:

ה for “The” “This” or “That”
ו for “And”/”And the”
ל for “To/”To the”
בּ for “In/”In the”/”At”
מ or מִן for “From”/”From the”

The logic of Hebrew is that if you can recognize the root in Hebrew, and learn its meaning, then even when you see a word with that three-letter root that you do not know, you can figure that it must have some logical relationship to the base meaning of that root; in the above case any Hebrew word with the three-letter root samech-fay-resh (ס פ ר) will have some relationship to “recounting” or “telling.”

Read the full article and learn Hebrew at https://blogs.transparent.com/hebrew/hebrew-the-metric-system-of-languages/

 

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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.

Read List Construction as a Task and Resource