philology and linguistics @mstudiesphilology - Tumblr Blog

this trend of shitting on peer-reviewed academic studies in favor of tweeting “we already knew this was happening” is so soul-crushing. not to be an elitist cunt, but we have got to open the schools again. people genuinely seem to have forgotten that their personal lived experience isn’t indicative of the larger population, AND IF IT IS…… then you need researchers to support these assertions from a relevant data pool instead of a blog post from 2013 💀

mrlully-bi

My fatal flaw is that I'm ok with a little "elitism" if said elitism means "I have standards."

how2dance

ℑ 𝔩𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔫𝔢𝔡 𝔱𝔬 𝔯𝔬𝔪𝔞𝔫𝔱𝔦𝔠𝔦𝔷𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔞𝔠𝔥𝔢 𝔬𝔣 𝔨𝔫𝔬𝔴𝔩𝔢𝔡𝔤𝔢, 𝔰𝔱𝔲𝔡𝔶𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔟𝔶 𝔠𝔞𝔫𝔡𝔩𝔢𝔩𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱 𝔞𝔰 𝔦𝔣 𝔲𝔫𝔡𝔢𝔯𝔰𝔱𝔞𝔫𝔡𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔦𝔱𝔰𝔢𝔩𝔣 𝔴𝔢𝔯𝔢 𝔞 𝔨𝔦𝔫𝔡 𝔬𝔣 𝔡𝔢𝔳𝔬𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫.

nyabnys

some spreads in my commonplace notebook 📒

commonplace journaling is a new hobbies that I have adopted to start my own personal academic archive.

akaessi

do I really want to get my doctorate or am I just chasing the next big thing in an attempt to finally make my parents proud of me?

undead-kennedys

Things that I think are very Punk Academia:

Being ahead on your studies so that you can watch movies in the back of class on Fridays

Pens. Pens. Pens. PENS.

Having very strong opinions on EVERYTHING

Not bringing a pencil to school and instead only bringing lead refills and using the ones you find in the hall

Annotating political theory with stuff like "Real shit" and "What the fuck"

Sneaking your friends copies of books that they aren't allowed to read

Tons of candy sprawled throughout your bag, gummy bear packets in every corner

Baking treats and bringing them into your class without any further notice

When questioned on this, you simply say "It's my birthday" which doesn't work as well the 6th time you pull it

Writing your initials on EVERYTHING

Whenever you're given a topic, you search for hours to find common misconceptions you can bring up during next days discussion

Buying everything in cash

Listening to non-western classical music

Listening to ALL music

Realizing how bigotry can be baked into seemingly harmless statements

Likewise, calling people out for their shit when they say these things

Buying electronics second hand

Big off-brand headphones that are a size too big

Sewing patches onto your clothes in the middle of class

Unisex fragrances

Conversely, fragrances that are the complete opposite of that expected for your gender

Spiky hair

Seemingly a slacker but having the highest grades of anyone in your class

In many bands, none of which sound like the others

akaessi

I see a lot of arguments nowadays about how translation as a field is easily replaceable/should be replaced by AI. Arguments like that are based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what actually goes into translation.

Believe it or not but: Translations are not a 1:1 correspondence into the target language. There are an infinite number of factors that go into producing a translation including, but not limited to; metaphors, nuance, meter and rhyming scheme, wordplay and puns, etc etc. These are core components of social and literary aspects of language that AI does not correctly model, replicate, or produce.

Furthermore, AI in the context of language reproduction (not modeling) cannot think for itself. The micro-decisions that you as a human being make in just your native language, it is incapable of doing. Thus, AI must rely on a set of previously established data, must be coded for particular factors, and must be trained in an agreeable lexicon. AI may be able to replicate common phrases in standard dialects of languages, but it will not understand nor be able to reproduce more complex language tasks.

Yes, languages can be considered as having their own set of rules (grammar, spelling, etc etc). However, the ways that human beings actually utilize language is infinitely more complex than the prescribed rules of that language--especially in dual or multi-language communication.

AI cannot translate from the unknown with any amount of accuracy. AI cannot explain the reasoning behind its translation choices. AI cannot process language the way human beings do.

Think of it this way: AI uses a finite set of predetermined flash cards from which it attempts to guess further patterns, with no guarantee of accuracy. This is often why GoogleTranslate has grammatical errors for rather complex sentences, it often infers patterns in sentence fragments and not in view of the whole--as a human being would.

Translators, whether they work with historical documents or in a more modern context, make incredibly important decisions when they work with languages. AI does not have the ability to make those decisions.

You make incredibly important decisions when you use your language(s). AI cannot replicate you.