chronic.linguist

Seen in a building on campus:

This door is now LOCKED and ALARMED.

Note to self: avoid making loud noises that might startle said door.

Today’s Slashdot has a fascinating discussion of Google’s decision to use the term labels rather than tags to refer to user-defined categories for their digital content. One user opines:

It makes more sense to call them “labels” because the word “tag” generally refers to html/xml tags. Since you can use these tags (although you don’t have to) to create the label type of tags, it’s especially confusing.

In any case, it’s closer to plain English to call them labels. That’s what you’re doing. If I’m in GMail and I want to indicate that an email is work related it is closer to plain English to say that I labelled it work than to say that I tagged it work.

While others’ native speaker intuitions may disagree about whether label or tag is more natural or “plain English,” I happen to agree that using tag as a category for web content could easily cause confusion thanks to the term’s use in reference to the code that defines a web page.

Other comments revolve around the appropriateness of hierarchical categorization, as in today’s file systems—as opposed to the non-hierarchical notion of labels/tags. Some commenters feel that hierarchical structure allows for better organization; others point out problems:

Let’s say I make my folder as follows:
/pictures/trip/2006/Christmas/pic001.jpg

Why shouldn’t I be able to type in:
/trip/2006/Christmas/pictures/pic001.jpg

And get the same result?

Hierarchies are a horrible way to manage data, because no one “category” is always a subset of another. Pick the more general term here:

Pictures
2006
Christmas
Trip

You can’t. Or else it depends on a number of things….

In other words, we often use orthogonal categories for things; neither “Pictures” nor “2006″ is necessarily contained within the other like “cat” and “dog” would be subcategories of “animal.”

If I had to suggest a system, it would be a blend of the hierarchy and label models: allow for labels to be organized under other labels, and apply the most specific one(s) to a particular piece of information. Crucially, it should be possible to narrow searches to include only those items matching all labels in the search (or subcategories of these labels). To follow the above example, pic001.jpg could be labeled with:

• pictures, which in turn is labeled media and keepsakes
• 2006, which is labeled ’00s, which is labeled years
• Christmas, which is labeled holidays
• trip, which is labeled activities

This scheme would assert, e.g., that all pictures are also media and keepsakes. So pic001.jpg should be included in the results of a search which makes use of any of the bold labels above.

John Oliver “reports” on the use of scare quotes.

“Three-car train for Fremont in three minutes.”

A bit tongue-twistery…and (if you say it right) trochaic pentameter.

Glad to see that The Daily Show has a linguistic expert in residence:

Stewart: 3000 Iraqis died just this month! To argue over what to call it seems like semantic quibbling.

Oliver: “Semantic quibbling?” Well, I wouldn’t call it that.

One of my GSIs wrote of her hometown: “While reading the letters to the editor in the local paper, you flip to the front page to make sure you didn’t pick up The Onion by mistake.”

Now while I usually do my best to avoid a similar experience, I accidentally stumbled upon today’s editorial page in The Enquirer. While the whining about Democrats was no surprise, I couldn’t help but be taken aback by the last opinion, which uses the brilliant tactic of employing racist assumptions to prove that racism doesn’t exist—except against privileged groups in society:

Regarding the article “Census shows racial inequalities persist in pay, schooling, homes” (Nov. 14) discussed racial gaps in success. The implication was that the gaps were tied to racism.

That premise seems highly questionable since the two most successful ethnic groups in America are Jews and Asians. Both are minorities and both have been victims of terrible persecution. How is this possible? One major reason is superior intelligence coupled with cultural emphasis on education to develop that superior intelligence.…

There is no question racism exists in our society, including racial discrimination against white people and Asian people in education. But the critical factors in success and failure seem to be intelligence and making intelligent decisions. [emphasis added]

As much as I’m looking forward to going home for winter break, there are some aspects of Cincinnati that I will never miss.

The Daily Show takes on conceptual metaphors and obscure etymologies:

CNN’s Glenn Beck, to Muslim Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN): What I feel like saying is, sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies, and I don’t—I know you’re not, I’m not accusing you of being an enemy, but that’s the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way.

Stewart: Finally, a guy who says what people who aren’t thinking are thinking.

And it was written on the whiteboard outside my room:

Hail, Citizen:
And your mother spread her legs, and there was light.

Naturally, I felt compelled to translate this into Biblical Hebrew:

ותפתח אמך את-רגליה, ויהי-אור.

If I end up taking Biblical Hebrew next Fall, that will shed light on how accurate this translation is.

WE WON THE FREAKIN’ HOUSE! WE WON THE FREAKIN’ SENATE!

Maybe if I whisper this to myself every hour for the next week, it’ll start to feel like a reality.

Colbert gets hysterical:

Tomorrow, you’re all gonna wake up in a Brave New World, a world where the Constitution gets trampled by an army of terrorist clones, created in a stem cell research lab run by homosexual doctors, who sterilize their instruments over burning American flags. Where tax-and-spend Democrats take all your hard-earned money and use it to buy electric cars for National Public Radio, and teach evolution to illegal immigrants.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=prfNorGW4C0