John Gordon Ross

Almost everyone uses language, so inevitably almost everyone thinks they are an expert in it. I don’t consider myself an expert, though most of my work requires at least language competence and sometimes actual skill, and I’m certainly not a linguist, but I do look at the blogs featured on this feeds page (too often if the truth be told).

(If you are wondering where the translation-related feeds have all gone, I have put them on their own page.)

Most of the blogs represented here are in English, most of the time, but don’t be surprised to find other languages used. Go with the flow – I occasionally find myself pleasantly surprised at how much I can grasp in languages I have never seen before.

Language On the Net

languagehat.com » THE BOOKSHELF: GOETHE.

Wednesday 21 July 20:35:53 CDT 2010

I recently got Brief Lives: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe , by Andrew Piper, as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program, and I thought I'd add my review here in case anyone wants to talk about Goethe, Felicia Hemans (pronounced HEMM-unz), or anything else. This book satisfies the basic requirement of a hundred-page "Brief Life": it gives you the facts of … [Link]

Words at Work » Check the Calendar

Wednesday 21 July 12:31:00 CDT 2010

Oh, sorry, bad link because it goes to a story behind a paywall. Anyway, this story is about a politician and former firefighter who is collecting a big disability pension while still running marathons and Triathlons. Here's the link if you can get to it: Kind of hard to have spent "several months" on Ground Zero cleanup dutyif he retired … [Link]

You Don't Say » Plug in; keep up

Wednesday 21 July 11:00:19 CDT 2010

I know that it occupies a lot of your attention and energy to keep up with the Kardashians and other vital matters, but if you can spare a few moments, here are some things that you might find informative and useful: New rules and old rules being retired in the forthcoming sixteenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, thanks … [Link]

You Don't Say » Back in the day

Wednesday 21 July 10:13:46 CDT 2010

In Remembering Mr. Shawn’s New Yorker: The Invisible Art of Editing, Ved Mehta describes the editing routine over which William Shawn presided: The routine of submissions for long fact pieces was as tedious as it was formidable. Whereas manuscripts that were developed from ideas discussed with Mr. Shawn went directly to him, unsolicited manuscripts were culled for him by readers, … [Link]

Language Log » "Context is everything"

Wednesday 21 July 9:29:30 CDT 2010

That's the first sentence of Andrew Breitbart's explosive recent article, "Video Proof: The NAACP Awards Racism–2010", posted on his web site biggovernment.com. Breitbart is a sort of new-journalism entrepreneur who developed the Huffington Post for Adriana Huffington, but is better known as the current proprietor of various popular right-wing web sites, and the promoter of last year's controversial ACORN undercover … [Link]

Wordorigins.org » Chicago Words

Wednesday 21 July 8:30:00 CDT 2010

Chicago Magazine has compiled a list of forty words that the city of Chicago has, supposedly, contributed to the lexicon and that capture the spirit of the city in some way. Some of the the connections to Chicago are tenuous, such as a first citation in the OED from a Chicago newspaper, but it’s an interesting list of words. Plus, … [Link]

Language Log » More passive complaints — misidentifying 5 passives out of 5

Wednesday 21 July 6:44:18 CDT 2010

A stunning case of public grammatical incompetence from blogger Brad DeLong (pointed out to Language Log by Paul Postal). DeLong quotes a passage by Wolfgang Mommsen (about whether Max Weber was prepared for the start of World War I), in English translation, and comments: It is never clear to me to what extent the fact that faithful translations from the … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » a crapella

Wednesday 21 July 2:00:00 CDT 2010

Singing out loud while listening to music with your headphones on. Whereas the singer gets the benefit of the music, those unfortunate to be standing nearby are subjected to an unaccompanied (and invariably crappy) rendition of the song. "I wish that guy would turn his iPod off – his a crapella version of Bohemian Rhapsody is killing me" … [Link]

You Don't Say » The Rules of Disparagement

Wednesday 21 July 0:06:15 CDT 2010

I suggested yesterday in the “Word snobbery” post that the term grammar Nazi merits an unfavorable look. I think it is objectionable both as an exaggeration and as a violation of the contemporary Rules of Disparagement. Those rules are not legislated, but they have grown from a more powerful force than law: public opinion. The basic principle, briefly stated, is … [Link]

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