Re: CHAT: _Describing Morphosyntax_

On Mon, Aug 30, 2004 at 10:01:56PM +0300, Isaac A. Penzev wrote:
> Amanda Babcock jazdy:
>
> > Well, that depends on one's learning style, really.  I personally
> > can't take one of his examples into my brain unless I slow down and
> > actually pronounce it.  Otherwise my eyes just tend to skip over
> > all the pretty symbols in their mad rush to read further.
>
> Hehe. So do I - while reading some exotic stuff in examples/illustrations in
> any linguistic book I try to pronounce the string at least in the way I
> understand the symbols are usually/stereotypicly pronounced, even if it can
> be not very precise. Anyway, most data are written in IPA or a similar
> conventional system, so I don't think I say gibberish by doing so.
I find it impossible to read a word without pronouncing it in my head,
whether it's a fictional name, or a sample in a linguistics text, or
whatever.  Even made-up names - I keep running across people with online
avatar names that they don't themselves know how to pronounce!
I don't understand that at all.  It drives me nuts, and I still make up a
pronunciation myself to use in my head.

-Marcos