Couch Anxieties

My first totally must-less weekend in months. Meaning, this was the first weekend since maybe August that there wasn't some work I must do, or some place I must go, or some chore at home I must do. Sure, there was plenty that I could do. Plenty that I probably should do. But nothing that was a must. No client was expecting me to deliver files over the weekend. No meetings over the weekend to go to. No required tasks. It was the first weekend in months where I could do absolutely nothing and would suffer no major consequences.

My initial thought was that this was great. No stress. No pressure. No schedule. No direction. No clue. Ugh.

I didn't HAVE to accomplish anything all weekend. And that's practically what I did. Sure, I went to Blowoff (dance event) Friday night. But it was at a new venue with a weird energy and people were acting strange. I left after only a short while there. I kinda hated the new venue. Sure, Saturday I went over to a friend's for dinner and movies while he helped me extract data from an old harddrive. But the data was about all I did. Though I did get to play with his dog who is one of my favorite dogs in the whole world. Sure I went out drinking Sunday night for beer blast at Rockbar. But the place was pretty empty and I only stayed an hour and a half. Instead of bar hopping or going to the Eagle where most people probably were located, I just pooped out and came home to a bowl of ice cream. Well, orange sherbet and vanilla ice cream. Mmmmmm.

I have had so many weekends for so long when I had so much I HAD to do, that not being bound by a list of Musts was so odd for me. My brain couldn't accept it and I kept havign this feeling that I was supposed to be doing something, but I wasn't, and I was going to remember later and be totally screwed for forgetting. Nope. Didn't forget anything. Just paranoia.

I had a weekend completely free of responsibilities. And yet I was still stressed out the whole time. Figures.

Sunday Drool

HANDE YENER - HİPNOZ

Overheard Thursday - Polite Gets Old

On the subway morning rush. A woman with a soft, high-pitched, almost childlike quiet voice.

Woman: Sorry miss. I didn’t mean to bump you. That was an accident. Sorry miss, I didn’t mean to- Oh, sorry sir, I- Oh excuse me- Oh sorry….. Wow, this is a lot of people.

Tuesday Tongues - Just Answer The Statement

Statements and questions. Sentences can be a statement, or a question. Binary. Simple. Or is it?

We all know about the question words that appear in all languages. There is a slightly different number in various languages. But they’re there. But all languages have a way of converting a statement into a question without using a question word. But that method varies. (We’ll ignore simple shifts in intonation for the sake of this entry.)

ENGLISH
Native speakers don’t really think much about it, but it is a little odd. You have to add an entirely new word and then change the word order for the whole sentence.

ST: You bought the book.
QU: Did you buy the book?

[1]An auxiliary verb has to be added (to do), [2] the subject moves to after that auxiliary verb, and [3] the Inflection (tense and agreement) shifts from the semantic verb to the new auxiliary verb.

You – bought - the - book.

[1] You – do – bought – the – book

[2] Do - you - bought – the – book

[3] Did[past] – you – buy – the – book


******
But let’s go back to English for second. Isn’t there a much easier way? Sure. Just add right?. For example:

ENGLISH [add “right”]

ST: You bought the book.
QU: You bought the book, right?

Well, that’s more in America.

BRITISH ENGLISH [add “yeah”]

QU: You bought the book, yeah?

CANADIAN ENGLISH [add “eh”]

QU: You bought the book, eh?

SPANISH [add “no”]

ST: Compraste el libro.
QU: Compraste el libro, no?

FRENCH [add “no”]

ST: Vous avez acheté le livre.
QU: Vous avez acheté le livre, non?

GERMAN [add “or”]

ST: Du kauftest das Buch.
QU: Du kauftest das Buch, oder?

Add oder which means “or“, as in “or am I?”

CHINESE [add question particle /ma/ 嗎 ]

ST: 您購買本書。
QU: 您購買本書嗎?

JAPANESE [add /ka/ か]

ST: この本を購入した
QU: この本を購入したか?

Okay, it can get much more complicated than that by using other particles like /no/ の or /wa/ は to add information about the speaker’s mood or personal interest in the topic.

IRISH GAELIC [add a question particle]

ST: Cheannaigh tú an leabhar.
QU: Raibh tú a cheannach ar an leabhar?
*this particle also affects the form of the verb.

Add a question particle to the beginning of the sentence in front of the verb. Use an for affirmative sentences, except ar in past tense verbs. Oh, and if the sentence is negative, use nach, or nar in the past tense.

RUSSIAN [add a question enclitic]

ST: Вы купили книгу.
QU: Купили ли вы книгу?

GREENLANDIC [conjugate the verb in the Interrogative form]

AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE [add raised eyebrows during the statement]

But some languages add nothing other than tone or intonation.

OROHA [add rising intonation]

ST: 'E horia.
QU: 'E horia?

*******
While there are many ways to convert a statement in to a yes/no question, languages typically seem to have simplified that syntactic feature. Probably because it needs to be so versatile while possibly being used with great frequency.

But then, you already figured that out, right?

Sunday Drool

Vive la Fête - Nuit Blanche