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Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona

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Re: Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona

#121

Post by foldr »

red75prime wrote: post #120
foldr wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linguistic theory has not "moved on" to HPSG. HPSG originated in the early 90s and remains a minority pursuit. The term "statistical approaches" could mean almost anything. There have always been people who are more interested in building, say, practical machine translation systems than in figuring out how kids acquire grammatical knowledge. But again, the field has not "moved on". There are just different groups of…

I heard that the Universal Grammar reached the peak of simplicity and generality by recursively applying "join-a-word" action. Are those rumors exaggerated?

I'm not sure what you're referring to, sorry.

Re: Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona

#122

Post by indubitably »

foldr wrote: post #45
BjoernKW wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HPSG or statistical approaches in computational linguistics, for instance. Now, of course one can argue - as Chomsky himself has done - that statistical approaches are not as elegant as rule-based ones but as human language faculty quite likely behaves statistically to some degree, statistical methods for describing language do have some merit.

Linguistic theory has not "moved on" to HPSG. HPSG originated in the early 90s and remains a minority pursuit. The term "statistical approaches" could mean almost anything. There have always been people who are more interested in building, say, practical machine translation systems than in figuring out how kids acquire grammatical knowledge. But again, the field has not "moved on". There are just different groups of…

Could mean almost anything but what generativist linguistics (or whatever the latest label for the Chomskyan school) does, which continues to promote the notion that language is essentially algebraic, that "grammaticality" is binary, and so forth. It's simply not the case that Chomsky is "okay" with approaches to the study of language which are not in accord wiht his own. He repeatedly dismisses whole subdisciplines as "uninteresting," but in context those complaints don't mean "uninteresting to me," they mean "worthless."

Re: Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona

#123

Post by mempko »

microcolonel wrote: post #118
otalp wrote: post #2

He's 88, still mentally very sharp and probably moved there for the weather(aside from the great department filled with old students). His work ethic is incredible, he spends 5 hours a day responding to emails from the public- I've received a detailed response every time I've sent one. The amount of time he spends engaging with even terribly misinformed(but well meaning) people is truly astounding, and unparalleled a…

I don't know how mentally sharp you get to be called after endorsing Hugo Chavez despite a history of similar politicians with similar policies plunging otherwise strong countries into eternal, unhealing chaos. I know he has lots of clout, and tremendous work ethic, but I really wouldn't say he's very sharp . If he is sharp, he doesn't seem all that wise; and if he is wise, he would be very cruel.

Ideology much?

Re: Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona

#124

Post by valuearb »

huac wrote: post #113
eighthnate wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are more socialist than capitalist. Besides, there is no pure socialist or capitalist society on earth. Using that logic, the US isn't a capitalist nation and venezuela isn't a socialist nation. And the guy's assertion that venezuela is suffereing because of state socialism is pointless. China and venezuela are both socialist countries. You can't just decide to accept one because it fits into your worldview and…

"the US isn't a capitalist nation" - ok buddy

In 2017, 36% of the US GDP is government spending, including federal, state and local governments. Of the remainder, most is highly regulated giving government specific controls over how companies can speak, hire, employ, operate, manufacture, and how their ownership is determined and profits distributed.

At what level of government control over the economy do you draw the line between socialism and capitalism? It can't be 100%, that's called communism. If you draw it at 50% for socialism, a very good argument exists that we are there right now, just establish that the government controls anywhere near 20% of the decisions private businesses make.

Re: Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona

#125

Post by abiox »

rhaps0dy wrote: post #55
chrisbennet wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

work eth·ic, noun, the principle that hard work is intrinsically virtuous or worthy of reward. (I didn't down vote you)

I see. That's not quite the definition I was using in my head. According to that, if the emails are very well thought-out and written, it _is_ still hard work... I assumed that, for a work ethic, it had to be as useful as possible too. Oh well, thanks for correcting my mistake.

> I assumed that, for a work ethic, it had to be as useful as possible too.

do you mean to suggest that chomsky replying to these sorts of emails isn't all that useful?

Re: Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona

#126

Post by valuearb »

throw_awayfwerq wrote: post #91
galacticpony2 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Define "massive Western intervention" first. Socialist policy at one point in history ruled half the world's economy. You'd think at that size, if those policies made any sense, it should be able to do fine even without the West.

A significant expenditure for us, an overwhelming one for the other side, of money, arms, and conflict to destroy a region's viability therefore ensuring that any (including capitalism) economic system will fail. The aim is force people to either capitulate to us in the hope we will bring in re-construction money, or terrorize others into falling in line. Read Chomsky, he'll give you references (from the likes of the…

So defending South Korea from being brutally over-run by an unwarranted North Korean attack is intervention into North Korea? Somehow 60 years of direct access to the massive chines market and North Korea's economy is still a fraction of South Koreas.

How did we intervene in the USSR, the largest county in the world, to destabilize it. And how could we, given socialism is so efficient and they had all the massive resources they'd ever need, right?

Re: Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona

#127

Post by aaron_m04 »

jordigh wrote: post #57
otalp wrote: post #2

He's 88, still mentally very sharp and probably moved there for the weather(aside from the great department filled with old students). His work ethic is incredible, he spends 5 hours a day responding to emails from the public- I've received a detailed response every time I've sent one. The amount of time he spends engaging with even terribly misinformed(but well meaning) people is truly astounding, and unparalleled a…

> he spends 5 hours a day responding to emails from the public rms, another MIT "affiliate", is like this too, although many of his replies are brief. Whenever you see him cracking open his laptop while he's sitting on a panel waiting for his turn to speak, he's almost surely answering email. Here are pictures of him answering email around the world: https://rms.sexy/ I call this one, "The Birth of Emacs": http://sta…

His cursor blink is so fast. It's like a console for hummingbirds.

Re: Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona

#128

Post by avip »

psyc wrote: post #110
avip wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[EDITed to leave only the point I'm confident about] a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy

This seems to be the theory of multiple intelligences + g-factor denialism + credentialism taken to an absurd extreme. I see this idea used so often in arguments, I think it ought to be a formal fallacy. I'll call it Silo Fallacy for now. The idea that Einstein was as capable of making an argument outside his lane as the person on the street is ridiculous enough, but Chomsky identifies as a "public intellectual" - th…

I'm not very proficient with the "theories" you've mentioned. I'm more into facts. The quote is not offensive and is not about Chomsky. Personally, I find it empirically true. YMMV

Re: Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona

#129

Post by clumsysmurf »

swaggyBoatswain wrote: post #66
otalp wrote: post #2

He's 88, still mentally very sharp and probably moved there for the weather(aside from the great department filled with old students). His work ethic is incredible, he spends 5 hours a day responding to emails from the public- I've received a detailed response every time I've sent one. The amount of time he spends engaging with even terribly misinformed(but well meaning) people is truly astounding, and unparalleled a…

I think this reddit comment in here sums up my thoughts on reading that random kid post "Dear mr. chomsky i realize you've been an MIT professor for 60 years. you've made significant contributions to many fields of studies including linguistics, history, computer science, and philosophy and you've debated with towering figures such as Michel Foucault, Hannah Arendt, Jean Piaget, etc... now can you please allow me to…

For anyone interested to read on the subject of "misguided intellectual egalitarianism":

"The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters" https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MYCDVHH

Of course, there are some older well known books touching on this like Hofstadter, etc.

Re: Noam Chomsky Joins Faculty at University of Arizona

#130

Post by jose_zap »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #119
jose_zap wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worse in what way?

Poverty rate, wealth inequality, corruption, violent unrest. Admittedly, 2015 is the last year data seems available for, and pre-Chavez years get very little coverage online. Either way, you can't just point at the problems and say socialism is to blame.

Clearly, you haven't lived in Venezuela. The current crisis cannot be compared to anything in the last 60 years.

I was born in the middle of a crisis, but never lacked anything important. Nowadays I can say with certainty that my family is poorer than when I was a kid.

Chavez left a country with a deeply broken economy before he died.

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