Russian TK Constructions

First, I’ve only seen this syntax referred to as “TK constructions” in one place and it seems that it’s not really referred to that way elsewhere.

What’s so interesting about this construction?

It’s this: in English we can say “We were talking about what you wanted.” But in Russian, you can’t glue the phrases together that readily. “what” must be in the prepositional case (о том ) for the sake of the first clause, but it also has to function as a direct object of хотела . Since it can’t exist in two cases at one, we have to glue it together somehow. That’s what this construction does.

The way we do that is like this: Мы говорили о том, что ты хотела.

Many prepositions will require this type of construction. For example:

Наше решение зависит от того, что он хочет. (“Our decision depends on what he wants.”)

These constructions can get quite complicated with two prepositions in two different clauses referring to the same thing appearing in two different cases. For example:

Мы думали о том, на чём вы вчера настаивали. (“We were thinking about what you were insisting on yesterday.”)

Creating year and month groups in DEVONthink Pro Office using AppleScript

In DEVONthink Pro Office I often organize certain content by year and month. To do that, I created a simple AppleScript to build year and month groups in the following format:

DEVONthink year+month

To use the script, you select the parent group in which the year will reside.

--
-- Created by: Alan Duncan
-- Created on: 2018-12-14
--
-- Copyright (c) 2018 Ojisan Seiuchi
-- All Rights Reserved
--

use AppleScript version "2.4" -- Yosemite (10.10) or later
use scripting additions

set theMonths to {"Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec"}

tell application id "DNtp"
   try
      set theSelection to selection
      if theSelection is {} then error "Please select some contents."
      set theYear to display name editor "Year:"
      set theYearGroup to create record with {name:theYear, type:group} in current group
      repeat with i from 1 to 12
         set theMonth to item i of theMonths

         set theMonth to (my add_leading_zeros(i, 1)) & " - " & theMonth
         set theMonthGroup to create record with {name:theMonth, type:group} in theYearGroup
      end repeat
   on error
      display dialog "Error"
   end try
end tell

on add_leading_zeros(this_number, max_leading_zeros)
   set the threshold_number to (10 ^ max_leading_zeros) as integer
   if this_number is less than the threshold_number then
      set the leading_zeros to ""
      set the digit_count to the length of ((this_number div 1) as string)
      set the character_count to (max_leading_zeros + 1) - digit_count
      repeat character_count times
         set the leading_zeros to (the leading_zeros & "0") as string
      end repeat
      return (leading_zeros & (this_number as text)) as string
   else
      return this_number as text
   end if
end add_leading_zeros

Duncan’s Law

A proposed rule of thumb: extravagant claims of personal superiority often invite skepticism about the quality being claimed.

Monday, October 9, 2018

Kurt Vonnegut’s appeal for kindness, followed by a critique of statistical comparisons in commentary on false sexual-assault allegations.

Friday, October 5, 2018

Reflections on Christopher Browning’s analysis of democratic decline, Republican polarization, and the Kavanaugh confirmation debate.