F2F Class Notes (Raph)[R]

Vocabulary

Identical (adj): 1- exactly the same, or very similar.
E.g.: I’ve got three identical blue suits.

Subtle (adj): 1- not loud, bright, noticeable, or obvious in any way. 2- small but important.
E.g.: The room was painted a subtle shade of pink.
E.g.: There is a subtle difference between these two plans.

Groundbreaking (adj): 1-  If something is groundbreaking, it is very new and a big change from other things of its type:
E.g.: His latest movie is interesting, but not groundbreaking.

Respondent (n): 1- a person who answers a request for information.
E.g.: In a recent opinion poll, a majority of respondents were against nuclear weapons.

Obstruction something that blocks a road, passage, entrance, etc. so that nothing can go along it, or the act of blocking something in this way. 2- behavior or actions that prevent something from happening or working correctly
E.g.: There’s some kind of obstruction on the railway tracks.
E.g.: They were charged with obstruction of justice (= preventing the courts from doing their jobs).

Impeachment (n): 1- the action of formally accusing a public official of a serious offense in connection with their job:
E.g.: A resolution to be filed in the House of Representatives will call for his impeachment.

Terminology (n): 1- the system of terms belonging or peculiar to a science, art, or specialized subject; nomenclature
E.g.: He used some very complicated terminology, so I couldn’t understand his paper.

Caveat (n): 1- a warning to consider something before taking any more action, or a statement that limits a more general statement.
E.g.: He agreed to the interview, with the caveat that he could approve the final article.

Emerge (v): 1- to appear by coming out of something or out from behind something. to become known, especially as a result of examining something or asking questions about it.
E.g.: She emerged from the sea, blue with cold.
E.g.: The facts behind the scandal are sure to emerge eventually.

Scope (n): 1- the range of a subject covered by a book, program, discussion, class, etc.
E.g.: I’m afraid that problem is beyond/outside the scope of my lecture.

Array (n): 1- a large group of things or people, especially one that is attractive or causes admiration or has been positioned in a particular way.
E.g.: There was a splendid array of food on the table.

Congress (n): 1- 国会

Pronunciation

Admirable: /ˈæd.mə.rə.bəl/

Berlin: /bɝːˈlɪn/

Grammatically: /ɡrəˈmæt̬.ɪ.kəl.i/

Reference: /ˈref.ɚ.əns/

Caveat: /ˈkæv.i.æt/

Reading

The surprising pattern behind color names around the world
Why so many languages invented words for colors in the same order.

In 1969, two Berkeley researchers, Paul Kay and Brent Berlin, published a book on a pretty groundbreaking idea: Every culture in history invented words for colors in the exact same order.

They reached their conclusion based on a simple color identification test, where 20 respondents identified 330 colored chips by name. If a language had six words, they were always black, white, red, green, yellow, and blue. If it had four terms, they were always black, white, red, and then either green or yellow. If it had only three, they were always black, white, and red, and so on.

The theory was revolutionary, and it shaped our understanding of how color terminologies emerge. But the idea comes with a few caveats, since all languages do not treat colors the same way grammatically as English does.

In the Yele language of Papua New Guinea, for example, their five “basic color words” only cover shades of red, white, and black. Those words are reduplications of words that reference objects — so mtyemtye (red) literally translates as “parrot-parrot.” But the language also includes a broad array of non-reduplicated words for things like ash, bananas, and the sky that are used to describe color. Those kinds of words aren’t always acknowledged as “basic color words,” but leaving them out ignores the true scope of the language.

(Source: www.vox.com/videos/2017/5/16/15646500/color-pattern-language Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMqZR3pqMjg)