What's on George's bookshelf?

Having previously had fun with Mensa menus, I used the same methodology on the list of book titles to be found in my office. My research profile gives some indication of what to expect, and textgenrnn did not disappoint. Here are some of its plausible offerings:

Historical language change

The prose of the English phrase

A dictionary of complementation

Usage and context and syntax in dialect

English texts in English syntax

A dictionary of German linguistics

Syntax and the second language

The book of morphosyntactic finites

The beginning of English

Word order and comparative clauses in the English language

French accent in the Netherlands 1999

Germanische Grammatik

Old English phonologicalization

Of course it didn't get everything right:

Langenschrosy: a modision of complemanish

Historical languages verolant, II: Simpler Saga

Negation and the history of der Verbman of English language

Prose and a compronigonal comparative linguistics

The seastion of the Sprachwisch Strong Edenisher, I: Canbity 2001

Deutsche Sprachgeschichte III: Slaut-Proto-Germanic und a historical linguistic variation

Deutsches Sprachwisspecticalization

The and language productivity: a comparative linguistic comparation

The Bitcher of English attornal and what are theory case of index of syntax

Zis Grammatistics

Dialectologynical linguistics

Pissictional linguistics: a dictionary of the English language clause of the English

Cancelled to Prose Germanic Fellectoon

Historicle and the builds of proon on the history of English

And in some instances I would totally buy the book. Or maybe even write it.

Berk's Simpler English language

The strut of linguistic change

Fruits and the laws of the English structure in Middle English language

Word order and the history of the Endlands of English syntax

Syntax is the best century in the English vocabulary, I: a history of the English language clauses

A history of the English vocabulary, I: Old Old English
A dill of linguistics
The east of linguistic sociolinguistics

Der Saga des Urgermanische Sociolings

syntax on the syntax: a syntax of the English language

The grammar of linguistic cocainers: a comparative place in order and the history of English

Handwood: a syntax of linguistics

Once again, hat tip to aiweirdness.com, whose idea I've basically stolen here.

What's for lunch at the University of Konstanz?

A fun post for my 34th birthday. Inspired by aiweirdness.com, I trained a text-generating neural network, textgenrnn, on a dataset of meals served at the Mensa (cafeteria) of the University of Konstanz. Some of their offerings are on the creative side anyway: Banane-Lauchsauce, for instance. So I thought the university might be able to save a bit of money by firing the people who design the menus and replacing them with a bot. Long live full automation!

It's a pretty small dataset, so the network struggles to learn what a German word is supposed to look like:

Gemuserauce "Joghurt" Joghurt (olikenkartocild) mit Vollgessauce

Brackarkuschsteet Ketchup | Kase-Artiatiraten | Paprika-Sauce

Kedablacher | Bokentomanela

Frollogghw | Blatter-Fractese | Blattsalat | Blattsalat-Balassauce | Blattsalat

Very often it settles on things that look at least like actual words, but which don't refer to anything (as far as I know):

Frucken | Kaperniger Wurst | Bratkartoffeln | Bratensauce
Gorgarbonn | Kartoffeln | Bratensauce | Romanescogressing | Asia-Quard | Pomulasus | Spatzle
Blattsalat-Balsamicodressing | Kot | Kartoffeln | Salat-Cordmendrondrick
Rindfleischstreinten | Paprika | Petersilienestreifen in Banane
Spatzle Burger | Put-Honig-Senf-Honig-Secktafartoffeln

Cannische Ripslauch | Kartoffeln, Zitronenecke | Brot

Frikaaghurt mit Rahmspinat | Salat-Balsamicodressing | Brot

It also doesn't have much concept of what combinations of flavours work best:

Kartoffel-Gemusesauce | Pudding mit Hahnchenfleisch | Brot
Milchreis | Kartoffeln | Karotten | Bohnen

Pasta | Gemuse | Karotten | Orangen | Bratensauce | Blattsalat-Balsa-Kase-Sauce

Hahnchengeschnetzeltes mit Kirschen

But there are also several dishes that are more than conceivable:

Kartoffelpfanne "Asia" | Brot

Currywurst | Paprika-Dressing | Kartoffelpuree | Brot

Hahnchenbrustschnitzel | Kartoffeln | Bananenjoghurt

Pasta | Schinkenberge | Basmatireis

Schweineschnitzel | Zuckerschoten | Basmatireis

And more that are not outside the realms of possibility at our Mensa:

Tomatenschnitzel

Orientalische Frischkasesauce

Pasta | Apfelmus

Kartoffel-Apfelmus

Chili con Banane-Tomatensauce | Basmatireis

Kartoffelpfanne "Chili mit Kartoffel"

Fruchtige Bratwurst | Pommes frites | Ketchup | Krauterbutter | Brokkolisch | Batailin | Brot

Chili con Carne | Kabeljoghurt mit geriebener Bratwurst | Basmatireis

Lasagne "Cock" | Hahnchenbruststreifen in Bauernwurst | Blattsalat-Balsamicodressing | Salat-Balsamicodressing

One thing's for sure, though: this bot is Swabian born and bre(a)d.

Spatzle | Spatzle | Spatzle | Brot