time for finals

alright, so next week is finals week, and i have a shitload of work to do before then. actually, my finals have already started in a sense, since my phonology class only has a problem set to do (which is due tomorrow by 2pm). i'm mostly done with the analysis, just need to touch it up a bit here and there. it's on complex codas in Lebanese Arabic, and it's a whole lot of fun! the "correctness" of having two consonants in the coda is determined by how sonorant the consonant is (sonority is pretty much the loudness of the sound, with vowels being obviously louder than consonants). it's pretty much that the second consonant has to be less sonorous than the first consonant in a coda. for instance, [n] is more sonorous than [t], so in English there is [nt], as in "bunt". sonority rules for languages, from what i understand, are pretty similar, but there are slight variations here and there and there are lot finer gradations in this sonority hierarchy, but you probably get the general idea. so back to the Lebanese Arabic consonants, the whole problem is about explaining these "finer gradations". and like i said, it's fun (at least to me)!

another thing i have to do is study for a final. one of my finals is actually going to be this saturday instead of the following saturday because it is more convenient for certain people in the class. so i have to read and review all the structure and vocabulary of Zapotec i have learned thus far. it's not going to be the funnest thing i've ever done, but i'm in the mindset of doing the bare minimum (i'm taking the class pass/no pass, and i'm not going to study it further next quarter, so "major on the majors and minor on the minors").

on top of that studying, i have to write up a research proposal by tomorrow afternoon, which explains in layman's terms what my phonetics-phonology research is about. i had actually already written up the proposal, but i used way too much linguistics jargon for the intended audience (according to my faculty mentor, and i totally agree with her criticisms). therefore, this is good practice for me to clearly express abstract ideas in simple terms without being too vague.

another item on my to-do list is to finish up reading for my two finals monday and tuesday, 1st and 2nd Language Learning: From Childhood to Adolescence and Language of Politics & Advertising, respectively. i have a lot to read for the one on tuesday, altho' the material is very engaging. for the one on monday, i only have about 20 pages to read, so no big whoop. anyway, that's all i really have to do before this weekend is over, and it will always be tough to struggle between what i need to do and what i want to do. best of luck to everyone who has finals, and to those of you who don't: punks!

[all posts in /]  [permanent link]