Errh - update 2?

Hi there!

(note: the post contains various topics; feel free to skim through paragraphs, but don’t take huge leaps as you might miss my wanderings around campus or the discussion on budget kilts)

Thank you very much for all your comments; I enjoyed reading all of them! And I imagine it's time for another update. So, I've been living here for over a week, and am still not done shopping; however, I now am the proud owner of three pairs of shoes and a supplementary conditioner to my shampoo (for which I had to walk through half of Edinburgh to find). Ranking all alone at the top of my wish list: bed linen (and duvet). I have a blanket, mind you; it's not as if I'm freezing in bed. The opposite actually, not only is the heating always on (there's a choice between hot and very-hot) but the blanket is 100% synthetic.

The warmth is needed, though, as the temperature is balancing near the freezing point. However, it's still very pleasant; mostly dry and when the sun shines it truly is beautiful. As I was walking back from Princess Street (shopping street) I saw the city with on the background some hills and a beautiful sky; truly, I will probably never love a city as I do Edinburgh. Leiden pales in comparison, even though it has a charm of its own as well. Edinburgh, however, breathes history, is covered in mystery, and invites you to love it.

Suffice it to say that I like being here. Now, this has been partly due to the fact that I have struck up a friendship with a group of international students from Europe (Sweden, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, and the Netherlands) and Puerto Rico:


We go out for dinner, drinks, trips, and more. Below a picture of Anna, a sweet Swedish girl, who studies Biology (at Uppsala University):


Also, particularly interesting to the lovers of Mother Nature, I went to Loch Lomond. Loch Lomond is the largest body of inland water in Britain; it is one of the longest Scottish lochs and also one of the deepest. Arguably, it has been deemed the most beautiful of Scottish lochs. You will certainly agree that this sounds quite interesting. However, reality was a bit of a disappointment: we could only walk around a small fraction of the lake and though it wasn’t raining it was quite foggy and we couldn’t see much. It was a nice walk, though!




As to my study programme: I have had class from [insert drum roll here] Heinz Giegerich! (A name which I hope is familiar to all students of English.) Additionally, I have signed up for another course: Maturational Constraints on Language Acquisition (MCLA), which deals with the critical period of learning: basically, there’s this idea that certain aspects of language can only be learned within a particular limited period of time: outside of this ‘window of opportunity’ learning will not be fully successful, thus accounting for the fact that second language learners are unable to achieve native-like proficiency; mind you, this is a mightily simplified picture, I might write more later (or in a separate post).

By now I’ve had classes for a week here and although they are generally very similar to Leiden (especially the English department) there are some interesting differences between Edinburgh and Leiden. First off, linguistics is popular here, and I mean really popular: courses have over 80 students! Imagine a room stuffed with native speakers, it’s quite intimidating to tell you the truth…
Another difference is the fact that the reading lists are of a different nature: in the Netherlands (or anywhere else as far as I know) you usually receive a list of books and/or articles, which you have to read, and that’s it. Here, however, you receive a list, which is, say, thrice as long as a ‘normal’ reading list; you shouldn’t read all of it but it is a recommendation, rather, in the sense that you can use these books in the case you have trouble with the material or if you want to know more. Although theoretically it’s not a particularly difficult concept to grasp it is another matter when you are faced with it; however, I think it’s a great way to learn how to perform actual research, as well as acquiring skills to see what material is relevant for you, content-wise as well as quality-wise. As a bonus, you end up with a comprehensive reference list. :)

On a slightly related point, I hope to make some of you happy again… I got lost inside of a university building this time (notably, after I’d found the room the day before successfully), entering the correct building (Adam Ferguson Building) but ending up in an entirely different one (David Hume Tower) by some underground tunnels. Additionally, I was not able to find the library (which is truly incredible, both in quality and in size); I had to check at a map inside of one of the buildings, but I didn’t really want to look like a visiting student so I tried to walk slowly past to the map in a very inconspicuous way; naturally it didn’t work out and I had to go back and look carefully at it, only to find out that it was the building next-door a mere 10 metres away.

Browsing the internet, I also found this interesting piece of information on the phonotactics of English: Originally the word blue was pronounced with a vowel which was identical to the vowel of cue, approximately [iw]. In most dialects of English, [iw] shifted to [ju:]. Theoretically, this would produce **[blju:]. The cluster [blj], however, infringes the constraint for three-consonantal onsets in English. Therefore, the pronunciation has been reduced to [blu:] by elision of the [j]. I vaguely recall a discussion on this particular subject – isn't that right, Tessa?

Well, I guess you’re waiting for pictures of my room – you’re not going to get to see any until I buy a duvet (and possibly a poster or some pictures on the wall), because right now it looks quite awful. However, I do have pictures of the view from my flat!



Finally, there’s a huge discussion going on about Lidl kilts, which are going to be sold from the 21st of January (just before Burns night, a celebration of the life and poetry of the national poet of Scotland: Robert Burns, who was born on 25 January 1759, and wrote, among other things, the poem Auld Lang Syne ‘long long ago’ or literally ‘old long since’). In any case, Lidl is going to sell budget kilts for a mere £25 (a kilt usually costs over £100); but there is some controversy whether this is a good idea or not. I do not want to deprive you of this discussion, so if you have an opinion on this: let me know!

Next time: I’ll see whether I am allowed to take pictures in the library (if so, I will), and I have a trip to Glasgow planned for next week; hopefully some pictures of my room, and if -for some unfathomable reason- I can’t find any topic I’ll tell you about breakfast or about the strange tables they use here in class or the different brands of beer.

Again, I thank you very much for reading & your comments; responses to the ‘derivations’ can be found on the page they were posted (I’m going to ponder over how to respond to the comments/derivations in a better way, but this will have to do for now). A final piece of wisdom concerning the Scottish culture: a sporran is a pouch which is worn hanging from the belt over the front of the kilt.

Sorry again with regard to the length of the update (I’m quite sure it’s even longer than the previous one); however, you should relish these posts. They take up quite some time, and I cannot promise to keep up this posting rate.

Cheers,
Beata


“This is secret phonological knowledge which has been passed on to generations for years” – Lecturer at Edinburgh University

Blog update 1

Hi there!

As fate saw it fit to bless me with a cold, I arrived in Edinburgh with a sore throat and running nose. I don't really know where to start, but let's try for the fact that it was snowing when I arrived at the airport, and from the taxi it looked really nice and had a Christmassy feeling to it. Unfortunately, it was also quite slippery the next morning. It didn't end up in a full contact situation between Figure (me) and Ground, but a couple of times it was rather close. However, the weather has been very nice (barely any rain, very cold but in a good way; will take pictures soon), and I must admit that was the least of my worries on Friday (2nd day).

Since I had no room (please don't ask for the details, suffice it to say that though it was the first it will also be the last time that I arrange anything 'a-bit-earlier-than-last-minute'), I had to be at Accommodations at 10am. My hotel was mostly chosen because it was conveniently close: a mere 15 minute walk if not less. I had printed my google map, and everything was fine. Except for the fact that I had not foreseen the power of my poor sense of direction. Not only did it take me almost 1.5 hour to get to the place, I asked no less than 7 people for directions! Edinburghians are very friendly and helpful, though.
To demonstrate how poor it was: At a certain point I was told that it was really easy to get where I wanted and I was instructed to simply walk straight ahead, one straight line (shown in black); my valiant attempt to carry it out was rather less successful (red line).


Or maybe it was Providence because my mistake brought me much closer to my actual target (which was Holyrood Park Road rather than Holyrood Road).
Below you see a reconstruction of how I walked from my hotel (A) to the Accommodations Centre (B); incidentally, C denotes my room, D university buildings where I have classes (including Library).


Having arrived at my destination, I found out that nothing had been done and that the first appointment(!) could be made at Tuesday. But, again, everybody was helpful and I got to view a room immediately, and could move in from Saturday onwards. The room is terribly expensive, not very big, and I have to share with three other students (two of which are American: Texas, Ohio; and one who I haven't met with yet. They are also obsessed with turning off the light (a commendable stand but one can overdo it) and fire.
Notably, the room has internet access -- sort of. I got it because I killed the phone (inspired by Jos Pacilly's 'how to build a microphone when all you have is a speaker'). In any case, I have internet access!

Friday after viewing the room and before I could move in I had an appointment with Patrick Honeybone (director of studies, coordinator Erasmus programme, and most interestingly, phonologist). Edinburgh is amazing with regard to talking phonology (or linguistics)! There are weekly meetings on various topics, ranging from 'developmental phonology' to 'Language evolution and computation'.
As to the courses I'm taking:
- Historical Phonology
- English Word-Formation (i.e. morphology)
(others are still being discussed/mulled over/etc.)

One important thing that needs to be told: I went into a little second-hand bookshop, and discovered a gem among all those books: Segmental Phonology in Optimality Theory (Lombardi)!! It really made my day! I even bought an additional sociolinguistics book (no clue why, but at least it's about different Englishes) and a compilation of short stories called "New Scottish Writing".

Finally, Scots are NOT ugly. To say that I'm in heaven would be exaggerating quite a bit, but there's nothing wrong with them :D.

Now, I think I have covered most of what I've done. As for the near future: tomorrow 11am International Students' Meeting; Monday classes start! Oh, did I mention I only have to walk a mere 7-10 minutes from my room to university?

My apologies for the length of this post, next time I'll try to keep it shorter.

Good luck with your papers, bikes, jobs, lovelife, and more!

Cheers for now,
Beata


"Snow on Christmas Day is the icing on the cake, really" - Edinburgh Airport Taxi Driver