Michael Israel
@subcontrarian.bsky.social
1.6K followers 2.5K following 770 posts
Linguist trying to understand logic, emotion, identity and human cognition. Semantics, pragmatics, syntax; Cognitive Grammar; English history and sociolinguistics. Berkeley -> San Diego -> Leipzig -> Silver Spring, Maryland
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subcontrarian.bsky.social
The problem with this idea is that the present moment is literally only thing we have that is not fictional. Except that, of course, we don't have it until it's already gone
subcontrarian.bsky.social
It looked antipassive in that it seemed to demote a direct object to an oblique, but I think now it just elides the object: e.g. [X get (Y) rid of Z]. Which makes it look most like the causative GET as in "i got it fixed" or "she got me fired" (*she got fired of me).
subcontrarian.bsky.social
Literally breath-taking thuggishness
hpsc24.bsky.social
Zero Regard for Safety, ICE Escalation in Chicago Leaves Baby in Harm’s Way🇺🇸
subcontrarian.bsky.social
but, in any case, that would seem to make this not a "get" passive, but rather a "get" anti-passive, i think
subcontrarian.bsky.social
i have no idea why i didn't think of that immediately. morphology is a most mysterious thing.
subcontrarian.bsky.social
What's happening in Portland is genuinely terrifying.
oregonian.com
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson calls Sunday's naked bike ride in protest of the Portland ICE facility and and Trump troop deployment "the most threatening thing I’ve seen yet"

www.oregonlive.com/portland/202...
subcontrarian.bsky.social
A lot of the basic ideas of psychoanalysis (like the idea that people can be deeply unconscious of their own feelings) are now just commonsense.
subcontrarian.bsky.social
People have been obsessed by the Chinese room, and in particular by the idea that they could talk their way out of one. There were whole usenet groups devoted to the topic in the 90s. I don't recall there ever being any comparable fuss about felicity conditions or direction of fit.
Reposted by Michael Israel
thetnholler.bsky.social
It’s amazing how all the reporting is just memory-holing this part
subcontrarian.bsky.social
Alex Jones appears to understand just how unserious he is. Or is it that he is seriously opposed to being funny?
normative.bsky.social
Possibly the funniest thing in here is Jones’ lawyers describing The Onion as his “ideological nemesis.”
meetthepress.com
The conspiracy theorist had asked the justices to immediately intervene, warning that the ownership of his Infowars website could be transferred to the satirical news site The Onion.
subcontrarian.bsky.social
not unless "rid" (which I take to be the root in "riddance") is a passive participle of a strong verb, like "ride"? But intransitive GET takes both AdjP and PP complements, so "rid" could just as easily be one of those.
subcontrarian.bsky.social
Searle deserves all the credit for building the Chinese Room. But it was Austin who gave us the problem of Speech Acts, which Searle then repackaged, put his name on, and claimed to have solved.
subcontrarian.bsky.social
But we are in the realm of myth and symbol here, not historical truth. He's not being clever here; more Edgelord, claiming to be the true revolutionary, reversing the fascist accusation back at us. It's all theater, gaslighting, and DARVO.
Reposted by Michael Israel
pardoguerra.bsky.social
This is a sign of immense weakness. It’s like a mobster asking others if they’d be interested in a shakedown because their first targets didn’t cooperate.
Reposted by Michael Israel
petersterne.com
"(Officers) refuse to recognize local or court authority. A judge says you can’t arrest journalists. Watch us. A judge says we have to wear badges. No. State law says we can’t drive around in unmarked vans? Too bad. Elected officials who want to see what is going on should prepare to be arrested."
Purge, Merge, and Surge
Trump is creating a omniforce of armed loyalists to establish his police state
donmoynihan.substack.com
subcontrarian.bsky.social
Also worth reiterating:
mikeblack114.bsky.social
The executive is usurping a core Article I function, this should be treated with the same amount of alarm as if he declared he's disbanding Congress, because that's functionally what he's doing/done
subcontrarian.bsky.social
Bears repeating. This is where the battle lines of the Culture War divide us.
rajakorman.bsky.social
The combined takeaway from this is that America is bitterly divided between people who hate College and people who hate the Electoral College.
subcontrarian.bsky.social
Huge shout-out to Oakland, CA, where, as here, there is no there there!
marcelias.bsky.social
The is literally nothing more American and patriotic than declaring: No Kings.
Reposted by Michael Israel
vtobin.bsky.social
this is EXCEPTIONALLY accurate
rufustsuperfly.bsky.social
Sean Penn looks like Wile E. Coyote after a TNT mishap
subcontrarian.bsky.social
"relevant" not "relative" (if that wasn't obvious). also obviously, i'm imagining a context that makes this relevant, so i could be wrong, of course.
subcontrarian.bsky.social
This utterance strikes me as entirely cooperative, relative and coherent. I'm sure this child has a tiny Grice inside her.
subcontrarian.bsky.social
But of course, maybe it's just me, and my prejudice that norms of usage are intrinsic to "Language", even if there's no such thing as a norm in an LLM's vector space.
subcontrarian.bsky.social
Then where does it come from, and what is anyone supposed to do with it? It all sounds very not usage-based (a concept Weatherby might want to look into, along with "sociolinguistics").