"What does psychology study?" Idiomatic. yea or na

[fluffyhamster]

Riveting stuff! (I mean the quotes, not your "posts" LOL).

[metal56]

Riveting stuff! (I mean the quotes, not your "posts" LOL).

When you begin to rivet, I'll throw a party.

[fluffyhamster]

...kind of ties into SJ's 'a certain reluctance' (among arguably "better" writers at least, to use the "dodgy" forms).

Hmm, if I'd said just 'form' there, it would've created a nice ambiguity - are the forms that metal's presenting dodgy, or are writers who avoid the economy on offer not better in a very meaningful sense (that is, "better" writer= dodgy use of the term "better")?

[metal56]

...kind of ties into SJ's 'a certain reluctance' (among arguably "better" writers at least, to use the "dodgy" forms).

Hmm, if I'd said just 'form' there, it would've created a nice ambiguity - are the forms that metal's presenting dodgy, or are writers who avoid the economy on offer not better in a very meaningful sense (that is, "better" writer= dodgy use of the term "better")?

Party on down!

PSYCHOLOGY RECOGNIZES

PSYCHOLOGY TRIES

PSYCHOLOGY USES

PSYCHOLOGY TAKES

PSYCHOLOGY CAN

PSYCHOLOGY COULD

PSYCHOLOGY DEFINES

PSYCHOLOGY INVESTIGATES

PSYCHOLOGY IGNORES

PSYCHOLOGY PRESENTS

PSYCHOLOGY PROVIDES

PSYCHOLOGY PRODUCES

PSYCHOLOGY RETAINS

PSYCHOLOGY SEEMS

PSYCHOLOGY SETS

PSYCHOLOGY TENDS

PSYCHOLOGY UNDERPLAYS

PSYCHOLOGY SHOWS

PSYCHOLOGY SEES

PSYCHOLOGY RUNS

PSYCHOLOGY REVALUES

PSYCHOLOGY REPEATS

PSYCHOLOGY REMINDS

PSYCHOLOGY REFORMULATES

PSYCHOLOGY PUTS

PSYCHOLOGY PRODUCED

PSYCHOLOGY POINTS

PSYCHOLOGY OPERATES

PSYCHOLOGY NEGLECTS

PSYCHOLOGY JUDGES

PSYCHOLOGY DECLARES

PSYCHOLOGY DEALS

PSYCHOLOGY GIVES

PSYCHOLOGY GETS

PSYCHOLOGY GAINS

PSYCHOLOGY FAVOURS

From the BNC.

[fluffyhamster]

When you begin to rivet, I'll throw a party.

And when you cease to distract, I'll get on with typing up that Widdowson stuff for Metamorfose!

New research project for metal56: frequency of verb 'rivet' with non-literal meaning, versus frequency of predicative adjective 'riveting'.

[fluffyhamster]

Another research item: how many of those verbs following psychology might in fact be nouns?!

[metal56]

When you begin to rivet, I'll throw a party.

And when you cease to distract, I'll get on with typing up that Widdowson stuff for Metamorfose!

New research project for metal56: frequency of verb 'rivet' with non-literal meaning, versus frequency of predicative adjective 'riveting'.

I'll send you the stuff for the new course on playing with words and enjoying your language at the same time.

It comes with a free packet of shirt destuffener.

[CEJ]

Wow, this was a bit bitter, but perhaps worthy of a revival.

I would say there is nothing wrong with the uses cited. Psychology, sociology, economics, etc. simply become terms that mean collectively psychologist, sociologists, economists, etc.

A worse semantic confusion in academics is when academics forget that there should be a distinction between their formal field that studies something and the thing itself. For example, let's look at the area of applied linguistics, where this becomes almost a form of blindness.
So take a field like 'phonology' where everyone assumes that phonology only has a reality within the academic discourse about the thing itself. On the contrary, often that discourse is far from the reality. The phonology we want to understand as language teachers is the phonology our students acquire and build up as they acquire a FL. It's time to give the formal study of things back to those who need them.