User:Dmh

Number 15

Background

• B.S. in math/computer science
• Some graduate work in English literature
• Have lived in

• US: Kansas, Michigan, South Dakota, LA, Silicon Valley and North Carolina
• Europe: Holland and London with extended visits to Lombardy and Geneva

• Native speaker of American English, enough to get into trouble in

• Dutch
• Spanish
• German
• Italian
• French

• Maybe a phrase or two of

• Hebrew
• Japanese
• Portugese
• Romanian
• Albanian
• Welsh

Oh yes. I take my tea white, no sugar. Coffee likewise, preferring latte to cappucino.

Interests

• Linguistics, philology, lexicography
• Cognitive science
• Mathematics, theoretical and practical computing
• Music theory and practice
• Literature
• Group work activities, including Wiki
• Evolution, market economics and other emergent phenomena (including Wiki)

Wiktionaria

A while ago I said

I'm currently jumping into whatever fray looks interesting at the moment. I tend to put most of my effort into:

• Tracking down actual usage, particularly in response to assertions about what's "correct" or "must be" the case as opposed to what's actually done.
• Poking holes in arguments that "X must be correct because ...". Not difficult, but it often leads to the previous item, which is usually more interesting.
• Trying to help debug the various Wiktionary processes (e.g., the RfV process). They've been improving steadily over time with or without my participation, but I'd like to help.
• Holding forth at excruciating length on this or that language-related topic.

My basic inclinations haven't changed greatly. I hope to continue supplying actual evidence in the face of bald assertions, only partly because I find bald assertions irksome. More importantly, the real picture is invariably richer and more interesting. The bald assertion is just a prod.

The Wiktionary process seems to have been improving steadily in my absence, which is great! I see more templates, more and better-developed policies, more cultural conventions, and new faces. All good. The CFI and RfV appear to be working well, which is especially nice.