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I got a Google from Washington DC!!! I wonder if it's Maryland or the White House. >_> Regardless, decent progress. No, it sounds fun though.

It's fine. I don't think theoretical linguistics is pointless at all if that's what you were getting (I wouldn't apply if that were the case) and I agree that small evidence bit by bit can point us in the right direction. Psycholinguistic evidence can rationally be used as evidence for and against certain theoretical standpoints. Though we still basically have no idea if we're really right about our theoretical fundamentals, that's fine: they are challenged in science all the time (like when Newton's laws were replaced). The work we might be doing now is probably based on the wrong theory, and it might even all be wrong in the long run, but that's how science works.

I feel like we can't really get psycholinguistic evidence for theories in the Minimalist Program and formal semantics. For example, suppose we want evidence for the covert movement account of interpreting sentences against the type-shifting account of interpreting sentences. Suppose we give evidence on that based on processing speed that favors the covert movement account. But how do we ever know that the covert movement account is the right way to go even though we have evidence that favors it instead of the type-shifting account? How do we know type theory is the right tool for interpreting sentences? How do we know internal merge and external merge are used to form sentences in the head? We just can't look in the head and see what's going on. Though we may have evidence for the covert movement account of interpreting stuff, that's not very strong evidence for the covert movement account as a whole. I find it pretty hopeless for this reason. It seems like the fundamentals of theoretical syntax and semantics nowadays could very easily be wrong. That's why I find it so interesting though.

The prospects of that are unfortunately kind of dim.

That's a really good point. And this person got an email from a POI so it seems pretty informal. Bolded part: probably everyone here!! Do your hobbies that have nothing to do with linguistics and education and stuff. Watch TV series or whatever. Video games are the best for stress (at least for me).

Welcome to hell.

Lol it's ok, I was kidding. My stress levels just tripled though.

Oh no.... T_T. Why the hell did you need to tell me this?!?! I'm not going to get accepted anywhere. >___<

I got an email from the UChicago Humanities division saying they were impressed by my strong application and they invited me to apply to some fellowship called FLAS. I don't think it means anything though, still haven't heard anything from linguists.

Thank you. Probably a longshot, but I wonder if they go by alphabetical order or something. My last name's towards the end of the alphabet so that could be why? Probably not.

I applied to UPenn, but no one looked at my Academia profile. :<

It comes and goes. I spend most of my free time playing video games or watching anime, so that helps. I was supposed to study modality (Kratzer got me into it) but I can't even look at a linguistics book without getting stressed out tbh, let alone open it. Thanks. >_<

I sure hope so. T_T Successful applicants from previous years, do you remember the date you got contacted for the first time?

Anyone hear anything from admissions people yet?

This is correct.

LOL, that's so cute. I don't know why people say grad school is so stressful and stuff. The courses I took weren't hard at all, and I took them at a top university for my field. Unless there's some other reason for it being stressful. I hate lots of popular things: celebrities, capitalism, spending money on things like luxury cars and summer homes, ketchup, boiled eggs, and so on.

Hooray!

Crap, Amherst is too far away from Maryland. I can't go there :< They don't cover costs... do they?

I found the ApplyYourself ID number. When I saw a preview of my application before submitting, I saw a 7-digit number under my name on my materials! You also see it right as you pay the fee, but right before you submit.

That explains it. I think you might be very likely to get accepted. I'll tell you tomorrow once I apply, if that's ok.

I don't think you're supposed to be contacted by people so early in most cases, so I wouldn't worry about it. And I think initiating contact is obnoxious, but that might just be me. Anyway, I've been slacking off on my applications. Too busy completing my Pokedex :<. Gotta get those finished in the next couple days!

I already said I trimmed, so I'm not sure why you feel the need to say this. That's why I brought it up in the first place, just in case I seemed unfocused.

Erm, I have a lot more research interests in linguistics?

The forum glitched and didn't accept my edited post. I've trimmed it down to 6 (2 from other departments and 1 from linguistics). It's more of a "could work" rather than "will work" though. I've specified 3 people in particular who I want to work with.

You could make a thread in the applications forum, I'm sure there's others applying there. I'm applying there as well but I can't yet, so I can't be of help.