Quotes: Computational Approaches to Functional Elements

[Kilian]

Anas: Are you calling my features cheap?

[Kilian]

Detmar: In the morning you talk, in the afternoon we type.

[Kilian]

Holger (über die a/an distinction): Janina vertritt die Meinung von Turner&Charniak (2007): It's a trivial postprocessing task.
Detmar (zu Janina): Du kannst gerne deine Note von der Anzahl der Prozentpunkte abhängig machen, die die accuracy deines Programms von 100 entfernt ist.
Janina: Wenn ich dann freikrieg, um daran zu arbeiten...
Detmar (zu Holger): Die sind ganz schön gewieft heutzutage. Man merkt, unser Studium ist berufsqualifizierend.

[Kilian]

Anas: The law of diminishing returns is one of the greatest things God has given this world.

Detmar: So what you should learn from this is that this is not the Alps or the Himalaya, but rather the Hannoveranische Plattland.

[Kilian]

Holger (trying to switch off the projector): I think I shrunk.

[Kilian]

Anas: I'm considered way too verbose even in Syria.

[Kilian]

And now for the ultimate running gag:

Detmar: Let's devote 10 minutes at the beginning of the next session to this.

[Kilian]

Holger: What you're saying is exactly closely related to the point.

[Kilian]

Holger: I want to make clear that I don't really want to make it clear.

[Kilian]

Detmar: But whe're not really interested in native text, we're interested in why the Russians sometimes leave out articles in English.
Anas: It's a communist plot.
Detmar: Right, it's a communist plot to flood the capitalist brains with additional processing.

Detmar: The trouble ist that most sentences don't just contain one error. Language learners don't isolate it for you.

Detmar: Articles are sexy, prepositions are more complicated, they're a bit baroque.

Detmar: That topic wouldn't be very sexy. I mean, it wouldn't be intellectually very stimulating.

(Anas is talking, Holger and Detmar interrupt him simultaneously, then simultaneously say "go ahead" to each other. After two seconds of confused silence, Anas continues to talk.)

[Kilian]

Holger (looking for a bug): Das sieht doch eigentlich gut aus...
Janina: Ich find's au hübsch.

[Kilian]

Detmar: This course is not about Schein, it's about substance.