Reblog Or Like If You're A Studyblr/bookblr! I Just Came Back From A Year Long Hiatus And Many I Followed

For my linguistsics degree, I did a project on why I'm seeing more people saying "on accident" instead of "by accident." I looked at almost a million pieces of writing pulled from news sites, blogs, academic articles and television transcripts. I found almost three hundred cases of "on accident" being used. It was a surprisingly even spread across sources. Even more interesting, I organized the hits by date and tracked an upward swing in use as time goes on. This means that the use of "on accident" is increasing over time, and may eventually supplant and drive out the classic usage of "by accident." I like to call this prepositional shift.

Now, looking at my data and looking at the age ranges of the writers or speakers, the majority of them were under the age of thirty. So I interviewed a panel of people, choosing twenty with a spread of about half above thirty, and half below. Those older than thirty years of age felt "strongly" or "very strongly" that "on accident" was wrong in all cases, and that "by accident" was the only correct phrase. However, those younger than thirty were much less rigorous, with more than half feeling "ambivalent" or "less strongly" about which was correct. This demonstrates a generational link in preposition usage.

When presented with options for the definitions of "by" and "on," we also get some interesting data. For by, there are two main definitions according to the Oxford English Dictionary: 1. Identifying the agent performing an action. Or 2. Indicating the means of achieving something. Whereas "on" has many more definitions, the pertinent ones being 1. To indicate the manner of doing something or 2. To indicate active involvement in a condition or status. By the above definitions, either "by accident" or "on accident" is a correct usage of the term. However, native speakers of English could not successfully define either preposition, instead just choosing one, the other, or both as "sounding correct."

The only evidence for a rule-based shift that I could find was a correlation with the paired phrase for the opposite condition "on purpose." While the younger interviewees were ambivalent about the correctness of "on accident," they uniformly rejected the correctness of the suggested phrase "by purpose." So the shift can only be in one direction according the the native ear, towards the preposition "on."

Whether this means that the particular usage of "by" is becoming archaic or the definition of "on" is expanding is a possible subject of further study using a wider range of phrases. But I found the wider acceptance of "on accident" versus "by accident" to be a fascinating look at how prepositions can shift meaning and usage over time.

So now I'm curious, five years from my initial study (and itching to try the Tumblr poll feature):

people who are like “please stop using incomprehensible words like ‘ontological’ and ‘epistemology’ and ‘teleological’ in the social sciences”..... okay but.... counterpoint..... you could consider, god forbid, learning something

Western Zodiac Signs in MANDARIN CHINESE:

Aries:  白羊座 (báiyángzuò)

Taurus:  金牛座 (jīnniúzuò)

Gemini:  雙子座 (shuāngzǐzuò)

Cancer:  巨蟹座 (jùxièzuò)

Leo:  獅子座 (shīzǐzuò)

Virgo:  室女座 (shìnǚzuò)

Libra:  天秤座  (tiānchèngzuò)

Scorpio:  天蝎座 (tiānxiēzuò)

Sagittarius:  射手座 (shèshǒuzuò)

Capricorn:  摩羯座 (mójiézuò)

Aquarius:  水瓶座 (shuǐpíngzuò)

Pisces:  雙魚座 (shuāngyúzuò)

Sources: x  x

ig: emandtheterrazzo

I love you phonetics I love you descriptivism I love you minority languages I love you dialects I love you accents I love you suffixes and prefixes I love you fossil words I love you outdated letters and pronouns I love you etymology I love you preservation of endangered languages I love you visible remnants of the way a language used to be I love you linguistics

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.

Albert Einstein

Hey, y'all! I got several questions on one of my posts, asking how I study for the LSAT. One of the best questions came from @procrastinatingculture. I won't purport to be an expert, but I have studied the LSAT for a few months now. I get consistently good scores with the following method. Of course, this is just my opinion. There is no single way to learn it best.

Familarize yourself with the sections, especially if you haven't seen the test before. Learn what each section demands from you and what skill set it is trying to test. For this task, I recommend Mike Kim's The LSAT Trainer. The book is really good for getting inside the mind of the test maker. It is my favorite prep book, but not the only one I have. It is notoriously weak about teaching logic games, which I'll talk about in a sec.

Take a practice test cold. Before you dive into hardcore studying, get your hands on a practice exam and take it. Keep yourself to the standard time limits, and don't worry if you can't answer all the questions on time. The LSAT is tricky to time, and learning to complete it is part of the journey. After the test, grade yourself. Note any sections that gave you trouble. Also note any question types that you struggled with.

Study logic games. Once you complete your practice test, you will probably find that you have aptitude for most parts of it. Often times, people who think they would be a good lawyer are correct about where their strengths lie. This is not the case with the logic games. The games are the least intuitive part of the test. They require a type of thinking (formal logic) that we do not employ in regular life or school work. Be prepared to dedicate a significant portion of time to logic games. To study logic games, I use Khan Academy's free LSAT prep course and Kaplan's Logic Games Unlocked. Kaplan is pretty controversial, but it works for me. Of course, there are plenty of books for different types of learners.

Practice and assess. Once you have the practice book of your choice, follow the drills there in. Once again, I recommend Mike Kim's book. It is particularly good for self-motivated students, who aren't seeking in person instruction. You should practice several hours per week for at least a month. Assess yourself periodically with a full practice test. You can purchase individual practice tests from Kaplan. I would recommend having at least 3. It is fine to reuse them.

Practice with the time. One of the toughest parts of the LSAT is the timing. Except for the very beginning of your studies, always time yourself. For individual practice questions, you can go over time. However, make sure you are always getting faster. Another reason I like Kim's book is the time suggestions it has.

Perfect practice makes perfect. After each practice, note your strengths and weaknesses. You will not improve quickly without self-evaluation. The Kim book and several others have self-evaluations throughout. Do not skip over them. You will get better through thoughtful practice, not through the raw amount of your practice.

Anyway, that's all I have to say. As I mentioned, this is just what worked for me. There's no perfect way to go about it, but I hope this helped someone.

my dad, trying to explain the concept of money to me: say you have a sandwich, and i need your sandwich. but i don't have anything to give you. you're not just gonna give it to me.

me: i would just give it to you.

my dad: