Finally! Been trying to get organised for ages, but life/work has always got in the way. Didn't get the funding I applied for :( but have decided to go part time at work. So, no money for a while, but hey, who needs money, right?

Anyone else here in Linguistics? Been lurking here for a while and I've seen a few, but most of you seem to be Science people.

good for you, barnaby! i hope you get a good start and enjoy the whole thing. it's exciting, isn't it!

i'm not in linguistics but not in science either

Yes, it's very exciting. Bit daunting, but exciting.

What's your subject then?

Hiya - Congratulations on getting started on the PhD! I'm in linguistics and I know that funding is scarce, but that's quite the norm in humanities, as far as I know! What aspect of linguistics are you doing?

SLA - specifically pronunciation. What about you?

SLA too, - the expression of verbal morphology/semantics

I need to work on how I describe my topic area. What kind of expression do people have when you tell them what you're studying?

That's a good question. I usually start then quickly discover that I wish I hadn't! I too need to discover an efficient way, but I sometimes tell them it's about grammar, which soon stops them asking questions! Ha ha!

I'm in linguistics too - doesn't really provide the best social chit chat lines does it!

No, I meant yours sounds suitably academic Apostrophe! I need to work at getting mine to be a bit more of a converstaion stoppper! 'The expression of verbal morphology/semantics'? Ace.

What's your area Krashty?

Ah, I see what you mean. Most non-linguists are confused from the beginning, which is good I supppose, because then the questions stop. As for pronunciation, maybe you could layer it in jargon, along the lines of: acquisitonal prosody or something! Ha ha. Which language(s) are you doing in SLA?

How many times have you been asked how many languages you speak??

An elderly family friend was once introduced to a distant cousin of mine. When he asked the cousin about himself, the cousin replied "I'm a linguist". "Good for you, lad", the EFF replied. "I'm a Catholic meself".

Quite a few times, which must be annoying for those who don't.