Author Archives: tamsinb123

In 1762, Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau published his treatise entitled The Social Contract, originally On the Social Contract; or Principles of Political Right / Du contrat social; ou Principes du droit politique. Rousseau’s progressive ideas would streamline Enlightenment-era Europe for political reform and revolution, helping people move on from stifling absolutist monarchical governance which hadContinue reading “Buzz-Concepts & the Social Contract”

Ancient Greek thinkers pioneered the form of logical reasoning upon which Western achievement has revolved for the millennia since their time. They were obsessed with their own minds, and relished the capacity to explore their internal worlds that advanced civilisation afforded them. As the world has progressed beyond man’s ability to fathom, their legacy continuesContinue reading “Different Ancient Greek words for l<3ve”

In his pivotal treatise on the development of Latin into Italian De vulgari eloquentia “on vernacular eloquence”, composed circa 1302-05, medieval Italian poet and key figure in the history of the language Dante Alighieri divided the emerging Romance languages -which all descended from Vulgar Latin- according to their words for “yes”: Nam alii oc, aliiContinue reading “The alignment of the Romance languages”

“I often thought that if I had had to live in the trunk of a dead tree, with nothing to do but look up at the sky flowing overhead, little by little I would have gotten used to it.” – L’Étranger, Albert Camus My mother always shared with me the importance of looking to otherContinue reading “🌸”

The past couple of decades have seen China’s rise to global economic dominance at the expense, notably, of the integrity of the Western perspective on the other side. To the rest of the world, China presents itself very firmly as a superpower offering the world an alternative option to the tedious Western orthodoxy. They haveContinue reading “🐉🐲 The Linguistics of China’s Power 🧨⁉️”

… Native American philology … Get it? A p❤ssion for… (Amerindian philology/linguistics… because the institution of language is pretty much totally abstract and fluid to Native Americans, yet it never ends thanks to the Buzz-Concept infinity) The very nature of the concept of language varies wildly across the world, between language families. This means thatContinue reading “A passion for…”

The way we see flowers is coded for by the very name we assign them. According to Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, the “connection between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary.” He asserted that there is no logical or intrinsic relationship between the nature or form of a linguistic “sign”, i.e. component of languageContinue reading “Flowers.”

I have put forth partly in jest a new name suggestion for the African continent, since the original Roman-derived name is technically offensive to them: read more here. The name I have suggested is Radikya, derived from the adjective “radical”, which has its etymological roots in the Latin word radix, itself meaning “root”. Moreover, theContinue reading “The Radikyial view of African linguistics”